Chapter 15 - The Baby's Blood Test Opened Another Door
Six weeks later, Bellmont changed.
Marcus Vane was charged with kidnapping, attempted murder, conspiracy against the state, illegal detention, medical abuse, falsification of succession documents, and dozens of crimes connected to St. Catherine's.
Three members of the Council of Nine were arrested.
Two fled the country.
One was found dead before investigators reached him.
Two publicly denied the Council existed.
The ninth remained unidentified.
St. Catherine's records were placed under international investigation.
Families searched for missing children.
Governments opened sealed archives.
For the first time in generations, the Bellmont monarchy voluntarily released parts of its internal records to public prosecutors.
Beatrice addressed the nation.
She admitted that Evelyn had been unlawfully imprisoned on her orders.
She did not excuse herself.
She announced she would temporarily step away from royal duties while an independent court reviewed her actions.
Adrian had expected resistance.
Instead she said only one thing before leaving the palace.
"Protect your wife better than I protected my sister."
Helena moved into a private recovery home.
Gabriel visited every day.
Sometimes Evelyn went with him.
Sometimes she could not.
Thirty years of stolen family could not be repaired in six weeks.
But it could begin.
Nicholas entered a protected education program.
He refused every offer of a palace room.
"I've spent enough of my life being trained to become a prince," he told Adrian.
"What do you want to become?"
Nicholas thought.
"A mechanic."
Adrian smiled.
"Excellent choice."
King Julian remained the most complicated problem.
Legally alive.
Morally difficult.
Politically explosive.
He withdrew his succession challenge after the Council network was exposed.
Adrian did not forgive him.
Not yet.
But father and son began talking.
Sometimes that was all reconciliation could offer.
A beginning.
And then there was Alexander.
The final genetic test took forty-three days.
Adrian and Evelyn refused every private shortcut.
They wanted independent laboratories.
Three countries.
Five specialists.
No royal physicians.
On the morning the results arrived, rain covered Bellmont.
Evelyn stood beside the nursery window.
Alexander slept against her chest.
Adrian entered carrying the envelope.
"You opened it?" she asked.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because whatever it says, we read it together."
Evelyn looked down at Alexander.
"He is my son."
"Yes."
"I don't care what Marcus did."
"Neither do I."
She looked at Adrian.
"But you need to know."
"So do you."
They sat.
Adrian opened the envelope.
The first page confirmed Evelyn as Alexander's biological mother.
She exhaled.
Adrian squeezed her hand.
Then he turned the page.
PATERNAL RELATIONSHIP TO ADRIAN BELLMONT:
99.9987 PERCENT.
Evelyn covered her face.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Their son.
Their biological son.
Marcus had lied.
Or at least part of his story had been a lie.
Evelyn laughed through tears.
Adrian lifted Alexander from her arms.
"You caused a constitutional crisis before learning to sit up."
The baby yawned.
Evelyn leaned against Adrian.
For the first time since the cage, they allowed themselves to feel safe.
Marcus was imprisoned.
The children were free.
Helena was alive.
Alexander was theirs.
The Council had been exposed.
Adrian looked at his wife.
"We survived."
Evelyn smiled.
"We did."
A knock sounded.
Captain Rowan entered.
His expression ruined the moment.
"What happened?"
Rowan carried another envelope.
Black.
No seal.
No address.
"It was found inside the royal archive."
Adrian frowned.
"Who delivered it?"
"No one."
"What do you mean?"
"The archive was sealed overnight."
Evelyn looked uneasy.
Rowan placed the envelope on the table.
"Sir, there is something else."
"What?"
"The archivist is missing."
"Calder?"
"Yes."
Adrian opened the envelope.
Inside were three things.
A photograph.
A birth certificate.
A handwritten letter.
He examined the photograph first.
It showed two newborn babies.
Both photographed on the same day.
Both wearing Bellmont medical bracelets.
One bracelet read:
ALEXANDER.
The other:
ARTHUR.
Evelyn stared.
"Who is Arthur?"
Adrian opened the birth certificate.
His hands went cold.
The mother was listed as Evelyn Bellmont.
The father's name was Adrian Bellmont.
Two children.
Twin boys.
Born eleven minutes apart.
Evelyn shook her head.
"No."
"I only gave birth to one baby."
Adrian looked at the date.
It was the night of the cage.
His heart began pounding.
He opened the letter.
Prince Adrian,
Marcus told you one important truth.
Alexander was never the child the Council needed.
They needed the second boy.
Your wife carried twins until the seventh month.
One was removed before you returned.
The child is alive.
His name is Arthur.
And unlike Alexander, he was born with something no Bellmont heir has possessed for nearly two hundred years.
Ask your father what happened to King Edmund's first crown.
Then ask him why he never told you about the room beneath the throne.
Adrian stopped reading.
Evelyn looked terrified.
"There was another baby?"
Rowan whispered, "Sir..."
Adrian turned.
The captain held a tablet.
Security footage from the palace crypt played on the screen.
Timestamp: four minutes earlier.
A hooded figure walked between the royal tombs carrying a child.
The person stopped beneath King Edmund's monument.
Turned toward the hidden camera.
Then removed the hood.
Adrian stood so fast the chair crashed backward.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
The woman on the screen was Queen Beatrice.
She held a sleeping infant in her arms.
A boy approximately six weeks old.
Around the baby's neck hung a tiny golden crown.
Beatrice stared directly into the camera.
Then she spoke.
There was no audio.
But Adrian could read his mother's lips.
I found Arthur.
She looked behind her.
Fear crossed her face.
A shadow moved between the tombs.
Beatrice ran.
The video cut to black.
Adrian grabbed his coat.
Evelyn stood.
"I'm coming."
"No."
"That is my child."
"Stay with Alexander."
"Adrian."
He looked at her.
She had survived imprisonment.
Labor inside a cage.
Gunfire.
Abduction.
The destruction of St. Catherine's.
There was no frightened prisoner standing before him now.
There was a mother.
A princess.
A woman who had discovered that almost every person around her had lied about her identity.
She placed Alexander into Rowan's arms.
Then picked up Beatrice's discarded pistol from the locked security drawer.
"You are not searching for our son without me."
Adrian almost argued.
Then he saw her expression.
He nodded.
They reached the crypt in three minutes.
The doors were open.
Inside, candles burned along the stone walls.
No guards.
No Beatrice.
No baby.
At King Edmund's tomb, Adrian found blood.
Fresh.
Evelyn whispered, "Beatrice."
Adrian followed the droplets.
They led behind the monument.
There was a narrow staircase.
Exactly where the anonymous letter said it would be.
The room beneath the throne.
Adrian descended first.
At the bottom stood a circular stone chamber.
Nine chairs surrounded an ancient golden crown.
One chair was occupied.
Beatrice sat there.
Her wrists were bound.
Blood ran from her temple.
"Evelyn," she whispered.
"Where is Arthur?"
Beatrice began crying.
"I tried."
Adrian looked around.
"Who took him?"
Beatrice stared toward the darkness behind the throne.
A man stepped forward carrying the missing baby.
Adrian raised his gun.
"Put him down."
The man smiled.
He was perhaps sixty-five.
Silver hair.
Tall.
Elegant.
Adrian had seen his face before.
Not alive.
In portraits.
In history books.
On the walls of St. Catherine's.
Evelyn stared at him.
"Who are you?"
The stranger looked at Adrian.
Then at Arthur.
Finally, he smiled.
"Your family has spent thirty-two years pretending I died."
Adrian's blood turned cold.
The man removed a ring.
On its surface was the symbol of the Council of Nine.
But beneath the symbol was another crest.
A royal crest.
One Adrian recognized from the forbidden register.
The stranger spoke.
"Beatrice was never King Edmund's only secret."
He lifted Arthur gently.
"And your son is not the end of the Bellmont succession."
A door opened behind him.
Dozens of footsteps echoed from the darkness.
The stranger smiled.
May you like
"He is the beginning."
And for the second time since Evelyn escaped the iron cage, the ancient bell beneath Bellmont Palace began to ring.
