Page 79 of Royal Caleva: Luis

“I’m so proud of you, sweetheart,” Eve choked out. “You’ll do great things.”

Then she couldn’t stop the tears, which made Grace cry too. They simply held each other for a long moment before Grace sat back, her mascara smudged, her face glistening with tear tracks. Without thinking, Eve looked around and found Luis leaning forward, a tooled leather box of tissues in his hand.

Not a handkerchief this time.

Grace yanked a couple tissues out of the box and handed one to Eve.

Eve mopped her face and then grabbed another tissue to clean up Grace’s smudged mascara. Her daughter smiled as Eve dabbed at the black streaks.

Eve balled up the soggy paper in her fist and snuck a glance at Luis. He sat on the edge of his chair, his face taut with concern.

He had gotten what he wanted. She had known he would the minute she’d realized who he was back in the lawyer’s office in Ames. He could offer Grace an entire country. Her daughter would be crazy to turn it down.

“I would give you more time to digest this, but we have further decisions to make.” His voice was gentle.

“I’m fine,” Grace said. “What else do we need to talk about?”

His lips thinned to a grim line before he said, “Bruno will schedule a press conference as soon as I tell him when, but we need to decide on what we will say about your background, hija mía.”

“You mean about Odette Fontaine,” Grace said.

“I do not want your introduction to Caleva to be tarnished by Odette’s ugliness,” Luis said, his voice low.

“I don’t see how we get around that,” Grace said. “All our friends in Ames know I’m adopted, so we can’t say that Mom is my birth mother.”

“Not to mention that there’s adoption paperwork on record,” Eve pointed out.

“No, we cannot use that subterfuge,” Luis said, “but we might be able to arrange another one. We will say that your birth mother is deceased and that we will not reveal her name to protect her family’s privacy.” He grimaced. “Of course, there are certain members of the media who feel that no one is entitled to privacy, so they will go digging. We will need to mislead them. Mikel can find a deceased Calevan woman who fits the parameters, and Quinn can lay a false electronic trail that connects her to your adoption records.”

“That’s real spy stuff.” Grace sounded impressed.

“But what about Odette? What would stop her from insisting that she’s Grace’s birth mother?” Eve asked. “Won’t the DNA in that databank be a problem?”

“That DNA record has been permanently erased,” Luis said. “We would say that Odette’s claim is that of a criminal convicted of kidnapping and attempted murder. With our false trail, her claim should not receive much credence.”

“But she could still stir up that ugliness you were trying to avoid,” Eve said, dreading that for her daughter.

“I’ll talk to her,” Grace said, sitting up straight. “I can persuade her.”

“No!” Luis’s voice was sharp. “I don’t want her to feel she has any power over you.”

“I’m not afraid of her,” Grace said. “Which means that she has no power.”

“Ay, mi cielito, you do not know her,” Luis said, gentling his tone. “She does not think like a normal person.”

Eve wanted to agree with Luis in order to protect their daughter from a monster, but she knew Grace better than that.

“I need to meet her,” Grace said, her chin lifted. “Maybe I can solve our problem at the same time.”

Luis turned to Eve with a plea in his eyes, but she shook her head. Before she had adopted Grace, Eve had read as much as she could on how an adopted child felt. She had learned that no matter how loving the adoptive mother was, a child still carried the wound of abandonment deep inside. Grace had the chance to confront the woman who had chosen to give her away. It was important to let her do it.

“I want to go with you to the prison,” Eve said, putting her arm around Grace and feeling the tension in her shoulders. “I’ll wait outside while you meet Odette, but I’ll be there when you are done.”

Maybe she was a coward, but she did not want to watch Grace face the monster who was her biological mother while being powerless to help her daughter through the ordeal.

“Of course,” Luis said. “I will accompany you as well.”

Grace took a deep breath. “Okay, how soon can we do it?”

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