Chapter 13 - The Brother Who Chose the Girl
The broadcast ended after twenty seconds.
No location appeared.
Lucien had escaped during transport when two police vehicles blocked the mountain road. Four officers were missing. Commissioner Hale claimed the attack had been organized by the Royal Guard.
Adrian watched the recording again.
The girl beside Lucien looked terrified, though she tried to remain still.
“Who is she?” Lily asked.
Elena examined the image.
“I do not know.”
“She looks like us,” Adrian said.
Celeste remained beside the investigators.
“My father never mentioned another child.”
Miriam moved closer to the screen.
“Pause there.”
Theo stopped the recording.
The girl wore a thin chain around her neck.
A royal signet hung from it.
Miriam recognized the symbol.
“That belonged to Prince Nicholas.”
Adrian stared at her.
Their older brother had died in the palace fire at age fourteen.
“His body was identified,” Adrian said.
“So was Queen Amara’s,” Miriam replied.
Elena looked at the girl again.
“If Nicholas survived and later had a daughter, she could have a stronger claim than Lily.”
“That is what Lucien wants,” Adrian said. “Competing heirs.”
“Why?”
“Because people divided between two children will ask a council to choose.”
Celeste understood.
“And the council will be controlled by the Regent.”
Adrian’s phone rang.
The chairman of Ashbourne Global appeared on the screen.
“Adrian, the board will restore your position if you make a public statement.”
“What statement?”
“That Elena fabricated the archive evidence and manipulated Lily.”
Elena looked at him.
The chairman continued.
“The company has lost nine billion dollars in market value since last night. Governments are reviewing our contracts. Banks are freezing credit lines.”
“And if I refuse?”
“The board will permanently remove you. Your voting rights will be challenged using the royal trust agreement.”
Adrian looked through the ballroom windows.
Reporters filled the street below.
For years, his empire had been the one thing no one could take from him. It had replaced his family, his title, and the palace he refused to remember.
Now the board expected him to sacrifice Elena again to keep it.
“What happens to Lily?” he asked.
“The company has no position regarding the child.”
“That is the problem.”
“Adrian, think carefully.”
“I already did that eight years ago. I chose the company.”
He ended the call.
Elena watched him.
“You built Ashbourne Global from what remained after the monarchy fell.”
“I can build something else.”
“You may lose everything.”
“I almost did.”
He looked at Lily.
“This time I know what everything means.”
Adrian walked onto the ballroom platform.
Theo opened the doors to the press.
Cameras and reporters rushed inside.
Adrian waited until the room became silent.
“My name is Adrian Ashbourne. Eight years ago, I told the public that my sister Elena had betrayed our family and stolen from the Royal Heritage Foundation.”
Elena stood with Lily near the platform.
“I was wrong.”
Questions erupted.
Adrian raised one hand.
“I accepted evidence without questioning the people who created it. I allowed fear, pride, and business interests to matter more than my sister’s voice.”
Celeste looked down.
“Last night, that same group attempted to frame an eight-year-old child. They failed because Lily Vale possessed evidence her mother had protected for years.”
Adrian displayed the underground archive records.
“Effective immediately, I am transferring my personal controlling shares in the Royal Heritage Foundation into an independent victims’ trust. Every dollar recovered from the stolen accounts will return to the communities it was intended to serve.”
A reporter called out.
“Are you resigning from Ashbourne Global?”
“The board has already removed me.”
“Will you challenge them?”
“No.”
Elena looked surprised.
Adrian continued.
“I will not spend years fighting for a chair while children wait for money that was stolen in my family’s name.”
Another reporter shouted.
“Is Lily Vale the heir to the Varelian throne?”
Adrian looked at Lily.
“She is a child who found her family. Any question about her future will be answered by Lily and her mother, not a secret council.”
The press conference spread live across the world.
Within an hour, public support shifted.
Foundation employees released internal documents confirming Celeste’s orders.
Former police officers described pressure from Lucien.
Three board members resigned.
Two banks agreed to unfreeze the charity accounts under independent supervision.
Adrian had lost control of his empire.
But Lucien had lost control of the story.
Theo approached the platform.
“We traced the broadcast.”
“Where?”
“Varelia.”
Elena’s face hardened.
“Of course.”
“The signal came from the old royal railway station beneath the capital.”
Adrian looked at the Crown Ledger.
One name appeared repeatedly beside secret transfers to the station.
Duchess Sofia Marek.
Celeste saw it.
“My mother.”
Adrian turned toward her.
“You told the public your mother died when you were a child.”
“That is what my father told me.”
“When did she die?”
Celeste’s face became pale.
“The same night as Queen Amara.”
The final message inside the seventh hairpin slowly became visible under Theo’s scanner.
It did not contain one name.
It contained two.
SOFIA MAREK.
AMARA ASHBOURNE.
May you like
One of those women was the Regent.
The other had been trying to stop her.
