Chapter Twelve

Zar strode toward hisgrandmother’s suite, happy to have a plan in place to deal with the terrorists and their attacks. Though there was some danger involved, no one could think of a safer way to trap whoever had decided to try to kill him.

His mother had wanted to put their military on alert, screen everyone coming into the country, and investigate anyone with a criminal history.

Zar had argued vehemently against those measures, they were just the sort of responses the terrorists wanted. His sisters backed him up.

His mother relented, for now, but if his plan didn’t work, some of those extreme measures might be enacted.

The worst part was knowing someone close to the royal family had to be part of the terrorist group or feeding them information. It was a betrayal that cut deep.

He reached the door and knocked on it.

“Come in,” his grandmother’s voice called out.

Zar walked in and shut the door behind himself. The two women were seated close together on the loveseat facing the door with teacups on the table in front of them. They were holding hands and...

“Have you been crying?”

Both women looked at him, then each other, then started laughing.

What scheme was his grandmother up to?

“Zar, come have a look at these pictures,” his grandmother said, waving at him. “Tell me if you recognize anyone.”

He approached the table and took the scrapbook his grandmother held out. The photos dated to the second world war and were all black and white. He’d probably seen them in the past, but he couldn’t recall exactly when.

He recognized his grandmother when she was young and the woman next to her...looked like...Anna?

He compared the picture to Anna’s face a few times. “She looks like you.”

“I think it’s the other way around,” Anna said, her cheeks red with a blush. “I look like her. That’s my grandmother, Cosette.”

He looked at the picture of the two girls again, then said to his grandmother, “You knew her?”

“She was my best friend and a distant cousin. The Lyon Castle is her family’s seat.”

“Truly?” Shock had his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth, and he couldn’t stop comparing Anna’s face to that of her grandmother. “Amazing.”

“What’s amazing?” Brigette asked as she and Gabby came into the room.

“We found Anna’s grandmother,” Zar said, holding up the scrapbook.

His sisters all but ripped the book out of his hands, but he didn’t care. Anna was from a noble Lerasian family everyone thought died out when their only daughter went missing and was presumed dead during the war.

Anna was from a noble Lerasian family.

Suddenly, the impossible had become possible.

He grinned.

Anna blinked. “What’s that grin doing on your face?” she asked him, her voice full of wary suspicion.

“What grin?” he said, stepping around his exclaiming sisters and coming to a stop next to Anna.

“That one,” she said, pointing at him. “The smug, satisfied grin that’s on your face.”

His grin grew wider. He couldn’t help it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”