Page 56 of Royally Romanov
He swallowed. “Yes, Father. I do.”
Maxim wouldn’t have been surprised if lightning came out of the sky and struck him dead. According to what he’d read in Finley’s book, the Russian Orthodox Church considered the Romanovs martyrs. A few sects had even canonized them as saints. Was he speaking some strange sort of blasphemy?
To Maxim’s great relief, and even greater confusion, Father Kozlov’s reaction wasn’t at all what he’d expected. He didn’t kick them out of his office or slam his fist down in righteous indignation.
He simply shrugged and said, “It’s a possibility.”
Maxim was speechless for a second or two.It’s a possibility?This man knew nothing about him. “You think so?”
“I know so.” He nodded. “Your grandmother’s name was Nadia Laurent, yes?”
Maxim’s blood froze in his veins. “You knew my grandmother?”
The priest nodded. “She was the old friend I spoke of earlier. Your grandmother and I were quite close. She used to come to mass here on the high holy days. Did you know that?”
Maxim swallowed. “No, I didn’t.”
What was going on?
Finley had insisted she’d known why he’d come to the cathedral. Had she known about his grandmother’s history with the church, too? Was he the only one who didn’t understand what was happening?
He turned his gaze on her. “You knew about this?”
“No.” She shook her head. “I thought you’d come here about the DNA.”
“The DNA?” Memory problems aside, none of this conversation was making sense. “You mean the DNA from the tests that proved Anastasia died in 1918?”
“Yes, that DNA.” She took a deep breath. “The Russian Orthodox Church believes it didn’t belong to Anastasia.”
“What?Is this true?” Maxim glanced at Father Kozlov for confirmation.
The older man responded with a slow nod. “The Russian Orthodox Church is the only institution that refused to accept the results of the DNA tests that identified the remains found in Ekaterinburg as those of Anastasia and her brother, Alexei.”
He drummed his gnarled fingers on his desk and sighed. “Our position has been ridiculed for years. Scientists, history scholars, journalists, politicians... they all mocked us as being out of touch with modern technology. They called our church an archaic institution. They said we were clinging to the past. Some even compared us to Rasputin.”
Maxim thought back to all the times he and Finley had discussed the DNA evidence. From day one, she’d insisted that Anastasia had been executed with the rest of her family nearly a century ago. She wasn’t the only one. Every book, every article, every website that Maxim had pored over said the exact same thing. Maxim knew the drill by now. No one needed to repeat it.
At the start of the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik zealots forced Nicholas II to abdicate the throne. He and his family were forced into exile in Siberia. But a year later, anti-Bolshevik forces moved closer and closer to the location where the Romanovs were being held. Fearing a rescue mission, local authorities ordered the Romanovs to be executed.
Nicholas II, Alexandra, and all five of their children were awakened in the middle of the night and taken to a basement. Their captors told them they would be posing for a photograph to be used as proof that the royal family was still alive. Instead, they were gunned down by at least a dozen men. Then those men stabbed anyone who was still breathing after twenty excruciating minutes of constant gunfire.
The executioners tried to burn the remains, then poured acid on the bodies and buried them in an abandoned mine shaft, where they wouldn’t be discovered until 1991. Scientists used the DNA of Britain’s Prince Philip, whose grandmother was Tsarina Alexandra’s sister, to identify the bodies as members of the Romanov royal family.
But two of the bodies weren’t there with the others. Alexei’s and, of course, Anastasia’s.
In 2007, archaeologists found a second grave nearby. Bone fragments from the site were identified as belonging to the two missing children.
Maxim could’ve recited the facts in his sleep. He might not remember his own past, but he’d spent enough time studying the Romanovs in the past few weeks to know what had happened to them.
Finley turned toward him. “Genetic experts studied the remains for two solid years. They used mitochondrial DNA from the tiny bits of bone they were able to recover. The results didn’t show just a strong correlation, but a perfect match.”
If she was trying to explain why she’d never mentioned the church didn’t accept the DNA findings, she didn’t need to. A perfect match was a perfect match.
Since the day Maxim had walked out of the hospital, he’d immersed himself in Russian history. In between his encounters with Finley, he’d read everything he could get his hands on about the Romanovs. Not one article had mentioned the church’s opinion on the DNA testing.
“It’s okay, Finley,” he said quietly.
He didn’t blame her. Why would she mention it? He still wasn’t sure he sided with the church himself. Father Kozlov had yet to provide any kind of explanation for refuting the evidence.
