Page 42 of A Valiant Prince

“Eddie, my boy, I think you need to go get some rest and clear your mind,” Pops says, stopping his diatribe about some bird he’s seen in the garden.

“Sorry, I just have a lot on my mind,” I admit.

“Well, like I said, I’m here when you need to talk,” he reiterates.

“Thanks, Pops,” I say to him. Anna comes out carrying a bag full of leftover-filled Tupperware.

“Ready?” she asks.

“Yeah, let me just grab that one box,” I say as I head back up to get the box of documents we had begun to go through earlier. We pack up the car and bid my grandparents farewell before heading back to the house.

Chapter Thirteen

Ilook through the box again. The contents are spilled out across the bedroom floor with Anna at one end of them and me at the other.

“Who’s that?” I ask, pointing to a man in an article I found tucked inside another article.

She reaches across the pile of papers and slowly brings it up to her face. She squints and cocks her head to one side.

“I…am not sure,” she says with a frown as she surveys the article which is about e-commerce, or the infancy of e-commerce in her country. The article names two of the men in the photo but the third, who is in the background, is not named.

“We can’t wait on this,” I say to her. “We have to start figuring this out.” I feel an obsession coming on, a need to spend every waking moment analyzing the situation until the puzzle pieces come together.

“Eddie, we can’t figure it all out this second, or at least I don’t think we can,” she slows her speech and frowns.

“What?” I ask her.

“Did you and your father speak about why your parents separated?” she asks me.

I recall the conversation with my father at the summer palace.

“Logan, you must understand, it was a dangerous time, especially for a journalist like your mother. The anti-monarchists were gaining power and connections in our parliament. There had already been several assassination attempts. I couldn’t keep you safe, either of you. So, I did the only thing I thought I could do,” my father tried to explain.

“Abandon us?” I say in mocking tone.

“No,” he says, and he gives me a look that is both sad and angry. “I sent you away, so you both would be safe. Your mother said if she left, she wouldn’t come back. I didn’t want to make that decision, but she left me no choice. At the end of the day, I would have rather you both lived than risked losing everything I loved.”

“Not really. He said it wasn’t safe for a journalist like her at that time because of the anti-monarchists,” I explain.

Anna hands me an article written by my mother. I read it. It’s about my father and his family, and it paints them in a very good light. One might even say it’s a bit of royal propaganda. I look at the publication date and see that it is about six months before my birth.

“Do you think someone would have wanted to cause her harm because she was clearly not supporting the anti-monarchist movement?” I ask Anna. She shrugs.

“I don’t know, but it might be worth investigating further,” she notes as she picks up more articles written by my mom and a picture of my dad’s secretary, Gregor, who I met briefly when we were at the palace.

“We should probably get some sleep,” I say as I set a pile of papers back in the box.

“Probably,” Anna says, reading over something without looking up at me. “Just let me check in on things first.”

She stands and walks over to her laptop. I hear the click-clack of her fingers on the keyboard. It’s fast becoming a sound that I associate with her.

“It’s strange,” she says.

“What is?” I ask, standing and walking over to her.

“M hasn’t popped back up since the explosion at the palace,” she says. I look down at her arm. She’s taken off her brace, and I want to yell at her about it. I start to say something about it, but she frowns.

“What?” I ask, placing a hand on her shoulder.

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