Page 14 of A True King

Clearing his throat, Max looks me in the eye. “She knows.”

Marilyn pulls her hand away from Max. “What? How?”

We all stare at Max and wait. He takes a long deep breath. “My mother was working in the palace. She was a maid in the guest wing. Anyhow, my father took a fancy to her, and she ended up pregnant with me. My father was already with Agatha. He didn’t want to leave my mother. He offered to care for her and…for me. But my mother didn’t want me known as the king’s bastard child, so she left and moved in with her best friend, my aunt, Jane. They had met as girls in school and then Jane came here to London to study, while my mother took a job to care for her sick father. He passed away a month before she left, two weeks before she found out she was pregnant with me. Anyhow, Jane and my mom told everyone that she had been married to a businessman who died in a car accident.” He pauses and looks around. “I didn’t even know until I was an adult. I found a letter from King Ivan in my mom’s drawer. Apparently, he had written to her and asked her to come back to him. She didn’t. And then a few years ago, Mia found out.”

“How?” Anna asks.

Max looks down at the table and then back up at me. “Someone had found out and told her.”

“What? Who?” I demand.

He shrugs. “She said it was some man that had followed her one day and told her. She didn’t believe him. She said he wanted to blackmail her or something, but she explained she wasn’t a princess, and he was confused. He gave her a document that showed some sort of DNA testing. Anyhow, she brought it to me and demanded to know the truth.”

“What about this man? Did she see him again?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “She assured me it was a journalist who wanted a story. When he didn’t get anything from her, he gave up on it.”

Anna looks over at me and I know she’s thinking the same thing as me. A journalist never gives up on a story and especially not when he has DNA evidence.

“Did Mia give you the paper with the DNA evidence?” Anna asks.

Max nods.

“Do you still have it?”

Max nods again and gets up, walking out of the room. He returns a moment later, holding a folded piece of paper.

Anna takes it from him and examines it. “May I keep this?”

He nods once again. “She’s in danger, isn’t she?”

Anna bites her lip before she speaks. “I’m not certain.” She looks over at me. “But we are going to find her. I promise.”

Marilyn’s eyes glaze over. “We shouldn’t have let her go, Max.”

He puts his hand on her shoulder. “We didn’t know, Marilyn. We didn’t know all of this was…you’re right.” He looks out the window. “I should have never let her work for a royal. It was always too dangerous.”

I grimace at his words. He’s right. I can’t deny that he’s correct. Being part of my world is dangerous. It always was and always will be. I can’t help wondering what else is going through his head. Was he really this ignorant? Did he think no one would find out about his bloodline?

“I’ll be in touch,” I say to them as I stand. “And, if you hear anything else from her—”

“We’ll let you know, right away,” Marilyn interjects.

I hand Max my card. “Day or night. I want to know. And I’m sending a security person to…make sure you’re safe here.”

I look to Cain, and he whips out his phone to set up security as we get back in the waiting car.

“He’s not telling us everything,” Anna states with a huff as she leans back in the leather car seat. “And she is most definitely not in the Bahamas.”

The car starts moving and I watch as the Edgewaters’ cottage gets smaller on the horizon. There are two other cottages nearby. We pass them as we make our way back to the main street that goes through their small village.

“I agree. She’s definitely not there,” I mutter. I’m frustrated and angry and confused. It’s like there are a million scattered puzzle pieces that I have to put together in order to find Mia. It shouldn’t be like this. She should be back here with me.

I glance over at my sister. She’s already back on her phone. Her fingers flying over the screen. I don’t know why that’s comforting to me, but it is. It’s as though one single thing is right in the world.

“Stop the car,” Anna says as her fingers pause.

The car comes to a screeching halt on the narrow lane.

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