Chapter 14 - The Other Daughter
The vote was suspended.
Within minutes, the capital filled with competing claims.
Arthur’s supporters declared Aurelia an impostor.
Council loyalists declared Arthur illegitimate.
Religious leaders demanded genetic testing.
Crowds surrounded the cathedral.
The army divided again.
Clara left Parliament through an underground passage with Arthur, Helena, Evelyn, and a small guard unit.
No one spoke until they reached a secure room beneath the Ministry of Archives.
Arthur locked the door.
“Is she real?”
Evelyn sank into a chair.
“I do not know.”
“You carried a child,” Clara said. “Was it me?”
“Yes.”
“Were you pregnant naturally?”
Evelyn’s lips trembled.
“I believed I was.”
“Believed?”
“The Calder clinic handled the treatment. I had undergone several procedures. When I became pregnant, the doctor told me the final attempt had succeeded using your father’s and my genetic material.”
Clara felt dizzy.
“Was there a test?”
“Not then.”
Helena spread the recovered files across a table.
“Voss may have exchanged the embryos.”
Arthur looked at Clara.
“Or exchanged the children.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
“No.”
Clara remembered Mrs. Bell’s missing daughter.
A woman employed at the Calder clinic.
“What was Mrs. Bell’s daughter’s name?”
Evelyn looked up.
“Mara.”
Helena searched the files.
“Mara Bell appears here as a maternity nurse.”
Clara leaned over the page.
Mara had signed the newborn transfer record.
The receiving parent section was blank.
Arthur said, “Mrs. Bell believed her daughter disappeared.”
“What if she took the royal child?” Clara asked.
“Then who are you?” Helena said.
No one answered.
Arthur stepped toward Clara.
“Whatever the result, it changes nothing about your right to choose your life.”
“It changes everything.”
“No.”
“You were ready to burn the evidence when you thought we were related.”
“I was wrong.”
“You were afraid.”
“Yes.”
“And now?”
Arthur looked at her for a long moment.
“Now I am afraid of what hope will make me believe.”
Clara understood.
If Aurelia was truly his sister, then Clara might not be.
The forbidden wall between them might disappear.
That possibility was more dangerous than grief.
A secure telephone rang.
Helena answered.
She listened, then handed it to Clara.
“It is Damian.”
Clara placed the call on speaker.
“Where are you?” she asked.
“In a room with no windows and terrible coffee.”
“You deserve worse.”
“Probably.”
Arthur stood beside her.
Damian continued, “Voss intends to crown Aurelia at midnight.”
“She cannot be crowned without the cathedral council.”
“He has the archbishop.”
“Willingly?”
“No.”
“What does Voss gain?”
“Control of a queen who has spent her life in isolation.”
Clara looked at the photograph of Project Aurelia.
“Where was she kept?”
“Calder medical facilities. Then a private estate in the east.”
“Did your family know?”
“My father did.”
“Did you?”
“Not until three years ago.”
“And you said nothing.”
“I was told she was unstable.”
“Is she?”
Damian hesitated.
“She believes everything Voss tells her.”
Arthur leaned toward the phone.
“How do we enter the cathedral?”
Damian laughed softly.
“So His Majesty does know how to ask for help.”
Arthur’s voice became cold.
“How?”
“There is a burial tunnel beneath the western crypt. My family used it to meet church officials privately.”
“Send the plans.”
“I want immunity.”
“No.”
“I can also identify the Circle members inside your guard.”
Arthur looked toward the door.
“Names first.”
“One name.”
“Speak.”
Damian said, “Your lead guard.”
Arthur went still.
The same man who had announced him at the wedding.
The same man who stood outside the secure room.
A shadow moved beneath the door.
Arthur drew his pistol.
The door exploded inward.
The lead guard entered firing.
Helena overturned the table.
Clara dropped beside Evelyn.
Arthur returned fire.
The traitor retreated into the corridor.
Alarms sounded.
Damian’s voice continued through the fallen telephone.
“He has orders to kill Clara.”
Arthur grabbed the phone.
“Why her?”
“Because Voss does not know which daughter is real.”
The line went dead.
Smoke filled the archive room.
Evelyn pressed the Project Aurelia photograph into Clara’s hand.
“Look at the bracelet.”
Clara stared at the silver band marked E.W.
“What about it?”
“It was not mine.”
“But the initials.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled with fear.
“They stood for Elara Wren.”
Arthur heard.
“Princess Elara used the name Wren after exile.”
Helena lifted her weapon.
“So the woman holding the baby was Clara’s biological mother.”
A section of the wall burst inward.
The lead guard charged through.
Arthur fired.
The traitor fell.
Behind him, flames spread through the archives.
Documents curled in the heat.
Arthur pulled Clara toward the exit.
She held the photograph tightly.
On the back, beneath the words Project Aurelia, heat revealed writing previously hidden in invisible ink.
Two infant names appeared.
May you like
Aurelia.
And Clara.
