Page 85 of Royal Caleva: Luis

He held the chair while Grace seated herself. “Are you ready?”

Grace nodded without hesitation, but her knuckles were white where she held the chair arms.

He bent to kiss her. “Your courage will carry you through.”

That earned him a strained smile of gratitude. With reluctance, he left his daughter alone to face her monster of a birth mother.

In the adjoining room, Mikel had set up four monitors to display feeds from the four cameras in the warden’s office.

“We will be able to surveille Odette from multiple angles to ensure that she doesn’t have some hidden weapon or tool to unlock her restraints,” his security chief explained as Luis seated himself in front of the array of screens.

Mikel spoke into his cell phone. “Bring the prisoner into the warden’s office now.”

On the screens, Odette entered the room, looking slumped and hopeless as she shuffled between the two large guards.

Grace rose from her chair, watching as her birth mother sat and one guard fastened the chain to two clamps on the floor.

“Is that really necessary?” Grace asked, a note of distress in her voice.

“It is by order of el rey,” the guard said.

Luis blew out a breath of relief when Grace did not try to countermand his order.

Odette’s head had been bowed throughout the exchange, but when the guard refused to unchain her, she raised her gaze, and Luis saw the scorching anger in her eyes. Grace must have seen it, too, because she sat abruptly and pushed the chair back as though to put more distance between them.

The anger dissipated as swiftly as it appeared, and Odette surveyed Grace without concealing her examination. “So, Luis found you.”

“Yes,” Grace said, staring back at her birth mother with the same open curiosity.

“How do you like being a princess?” Odette asked. “Is it all you dreamed of?”

“I never dreamed of being a princess. I wanted to be a vet.”

“Ah, yes, helping our fellow creatures. A noble profession.” Odette’s voice held an undercurrent of mockery.

“Being a princess will allow me to help more of them,” Grace said.

“Even nobler.” Odette sat back in the chair with a rattle of chains.

Grace remained silent, refusing to engage. Luis admired his daughter’s toughness in the face of Odette’s derision. After a beat, his daughter said, “Why did you put me up for adoption?”

Luis heard the tension in Grace’s voice and braced himself for whatever twisted reason Odette would give.

Odette sighed. “I was young and stupid and angry with your father for rejecting me. In retrospect, I should have told him I was pregnant. I think he would have married me, and I would have been queen. Instead…” She lifted her chained hands with a shrug. Then the anger blazed again. “He didn’t deserve me. Or you.”

“Why didn’t you raise me yourself without telling Luis I was his?” Grace asked.

“I had plans, ambitious plans. A child would have gotten in the way of those. I wouldn’t have climbed to be CEO of Archambeau if I had been held back by worrying about you. Does that hurt your feelings?”

“You never knew me, so how could it hurt my feelings?” But Luis saw the pain in Grace’s stiff posture.

“Because you’ll always feel abandoned by your real mother,” Odette said, twisting the knife. “I’ve read the studies about adopted children.”

“I feel grateful that you gave me to my mother. She’s an amazing person,” Grace said. “And she has never ordered the kidnapping or mutilation of an innocent man.”

Luis wanted to stand and applaud his daughter’s refusal to be intimidated.

Odette, though, smiled at the attack. “You’re wondering if, deep down inside, you’re like me.”

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