Page 9 of A True King

“OK, so you already mentioned that Max went by another name. So what?”

Anna sighs as if I’m an idiot. She pulls up another document. This time I frown because it’s a record of birth for a royal. There are several micro-nations in Europe. Ours, Norddale, is one. Our neighbor nation, Montelandia, is another. And two countries away there is a small principality called Skogdal. It’s small in comparison to Norddale, a city really. Its royal family is from a long line of the House of Larsen. I’ve met a few of them over the years. King Ivan, their current king, is an elderly gentleman in his early nineties. He has one son, Gilbert, who is close to our father’s age. Gilbert is married but is rumored to not be the father of his son, Jasper. It has long been suspected that Gilbert’s wife, Elsa, had an affair with a famous actor and Jasper was the result of that. Some people believe it’s the main reason that Ivan hasn’t stepped down from the throne.

“Yeah, I know all of this. I don’t understand. What’s the issue?” I ask.

“Look at Maximus’s dad’s name.”

I look. “Ivan Eldegard.”

Anna sighs again. “Do you know nothing?”

I glare at my sister as I study the birth certificate. The mother is a woman named Paula Weber. That doesn’t ring a bell. “I don’t get what you think you are seeing.”

Anna changes the screen again and I see a royal family tree. It’s Skogdal’s royal family. She points to King Ivan and then above him to his parents. His mother was the queen. She was the only child of the king, and it was rumored to be quite the big deal when she took the throne. King Ivan’s father is lesser known, but his name was…I pause as I re-read it…Kristoff Eldegard. I frown.

“Did King Ivan take his mother’s family name?” I ask in confusion.

She nods. “But his legal last name…is Eldegard.”

It takes me a full twenty seconds to process what Anna is saying because the logic leads me to the most preposterous conclusion. It can’t be true, but the evidence before me seems irrefutable.

“Mia…is a princess,” I whisper, the words sounding even absurd when spoken.

Anna nods. “And based on a DNA test I…stumbled upon…she’s the rightful heir to Skogdal after Gilbert and of course her father. Jasper is not his son.”

“What?”

Anna smirks. “Looks like those movie star rumors are true.”

“Holy shit! Mia is a princess!” It’s as though the reality of it finally hits me all at once. My mind goes in a million different directions as I try to process this information.

“But…does she know?” I ask.

Anna frowns. “You mean, she never said anything to you?”

I shake my head as a hundred different conversations with Mia play through my memory. “Anna, I don’t think she knows. I only just found out.”

Anna studies me for a beat. “So, you didn’t know?”

“No. Things would have been…different had I.”

Holy fuck. The fact that Mia is missing just got a whole lot more complicated.

Chapter Four

Christian

I sit and stare at my sister as she does what she does best…search the dark web. To say that we were both shocked at her discovery about Mia is an understatement of epic proportions.

Anna’s fingers freeze and I look at her face. She’s in her zone, headphones on, music blaring, a large glass of water sits next to her monitor.

“What?” I ask.

She glances over at me. “Care to take a field trip with me?”

“Where?”

She pulls her headphones down to rest around her neck and presses a button, stopping the music. “I think we need to retrace Mia’s steps.”

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