Chapter 5 - THE GRANDFATHER WHO WANTED HER GONE
Adrian refused to believe it.
“My father protected you.”
Evelyn looked at him across their apartment living room.
“No. You protected me.”
Claire sat between them, emotionally exhausted and furious at both.
Adrian paced near the windows.
“My father approved the escape.”
“After the attack failed.”
“He gave me military aircraft.”
“Because killing your pregnant fiancée had become too dangerous once you knew I was alive.”
Adrian stopped.
Claire stared at her mother.
“Start at the beginning.”
Evelyn nodded.
The old king, Nicholas III, had never accepted Adrian’s relationship with an American commoner.
Not because Evelyn lacked money.
Because she lacked political usefulness.
Valedria had been navigating a regional crisis.
Nicholas wanted Adrian married to Princess Elena of Monterra.
The marriage would have secured defense agreements, trade access, and political stability.
Adrian refused.
Then Evelyn became pregnant.
“The king summoned me privately,” Evelyn said.
Adrian turned sharply.
“You never told me that.”
“He threatened to remove you from succession if I didn’t disappear.”
“He could not legally do that.”
“He believed he could pressure parliament.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him to go to hell.”
Claire blinked.
Adrian almost smiled despite himself.
“That sounds like you.”
Evelyn continued.
Three days later, the Madrid attack occurred.
She could never prove Nicholas ordered it.
But hours before someone entered her apartment, an adviser from the royal household called Evelyn.
He warned her to leave immediately.
“What adviser?” Adrian asked.
Evelyn hesitated.
“Lord Stefan Vale.”
Adrian’s face changed.
Claire noticed.
“Who is that?”
“Former chief of the royal household.”
“Former?”
“He disappeared fourteen years ago.”
Claire stared.
“People around this family disappear a lot.”
No one disagreed.
Adrian sat down.
“My father loved the monarchy more than anything.”
Evelyn’s voice softened.
“That was the problem.”
Claire looked at him.
“He might have tried to kill me because I was inconvenient?”
Adrian’s eyes filled with pain.
“I don’t know.”
Claire stood.
“I need air.”
Evelyn reached for her.
“Claire.”
“No.”
She grabbed her jacket.
“I found out three days ago that my father is a king. Yesterday someone tried to run me over. Today I learned my school board chairman may have helped track my pregnant mother, and now my grandfather may have wanted me dead.”
Her voice cracked.
“I need thirty minutes where nobody reveals another monarchy-related trauma.”
She left.
A security officer followed from half a block away.
Claire pretended not to notice.
She walked toward the lake.
The cold wind helped.
At a small park, she sat on a bench facing dark water.
A few minutes later, someone approached.
Vanessa.
Claire stared.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Vanessa looked terrible.
Her eyes were swollen.
Her hair was pulled into a messy ponytail.
No makeup.
For once, she did not look like Blackwood royalty.
She looked seventeen.
“My dad got arrested.”
“I heard.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“You were there.”
“Yes.”
“Did your father do it?”
“No.”
“My dad says he did.”
“Your father says a lot.”
Vanessa flinched.
Claire immediately hated that she noticed.
Vanessa sat on the opposite end of the bench.
“My mom won’t answer my calls.”
Claire looked at her.
“I thought your mother lived in New York.”
“She does.”
“You have relatives.”
“They’re not answering either.”
Claire almost said something cruel.
After Friday, Vanessa deserved plenty.
But Claire remembered the empty chair.
She knew what it felt like when adults’ choices became a child’s humiliation.
“You shouldn’t be alone.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You hate me.”
“I don’t like you.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
Claire watched the water.
“I hated you Friday.”
Vanessa looked over.
“What changed?”
“I learned enough about my own family to realize parents can ruin things for their children.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled again.
“My dad isn’t a criminal.”
Claire said nothing.
“He isn’t.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Vanessa wiped her cheek angrily.
“Everyone at school thinks I knew.”
“Knew what?”
“Whatever he did.”
“Did you?”
“No!”
Claire looked at her.
“I believe you.”
Vanessa stared.
“Why?”
“Because you’re terrible at keeping secrets.”
Vanessa almost laughed.
Then her face crumpled.
Claire looked away to give her privacy.
After a moment, Vanessa whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Claire turned.
“For what?”
Vanessa looked ashamed.
“The chair.”
Claire remained silent.
“And what I said about your mom.”
Silence.
“And your dad.”
Claire raised an eyebrow.
“That part aged badly.”
A weak laugh escaped Vanessa.
“I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t need to know he was a king to know it was cruel.”
Vanessa nodded.
“I know.”
Claire studied her.
“Why did you hate me?”
Vanessa looked surprised.
“I didn’t.”
“You spent five years making my life miserable.”
“You always acted like you didn’t care.”
“That made you angry?”
“Yes.”
Claire stared.
“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I know.”
Vanessa wrapped her arms around herself.
“My dad compares me to you.”
Claire blinked.
“What?”
“Your grades. Your debate trophies. Your college essays.”
Claire nearly laughed.
“Richard Whitmore compares you to me?”
“All the time.”
Why?
Then she remembered.
Richard knew who Claire was.
Or suspected.
Maybe his obsession had nothing to do with academic achievement.
Maybe he had watched Claire for years.
Vanessa continued.
“He’d say, ‘Claire Bennett doesn’t need excuses.’ Or ‘Look what Claire accomplishes without advantages.’”
Claire felt sick.
“Vanessa, when did he start?”
“I don’t know. Freshman year?”
The same year Richard requested Claire’s emergency records.
Claire pulled out her phone.
She texted Tomas.
Come to the lake park. Now.
Vanessa frowned.
“What?”
“Your father wasn’t comparing us because he admired me.”
“What are you talking about?”
Claire stood.
“He was watching me.”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“Why?”
A black sedan approached.
Tomas stepped out.
Claire quickly explained.
He listened carefully.
Then he asked Vanessa, “Did your father ever ask you specific questions about Claire?”
Vanessa hesitated.
“Sometimes.”
“What kind?”
“Where she went after school. Who picked her up. Whether her mom came to events.”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Vanessa looked horrified.
“I thought he was checking scholarship rules.”
Tomas asked, “Did he ask about vacations?”
“Yes.”
“When she traveled?”
“Yes.”
“Medical issues?”
Vanessa went pale.
“Once.”
Claire whispered, “What once?”
“Last year when you missed school for three days.”
“I had the flu.”
“I know.”
“What did he ask?”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Whether you went to the hospital.”
Tomas looked at Claire.
“Blood sample.”
Claire’s skin turned cold.
If Richard had suspected she was Adrian’s daughter, a hospital blood sample could have confirmed it.
Tomas pulled out his phone.
“We need to go.”
Vanessa stood.
“Wait.”
Tomas looked at her.
“My dad keeps files.”
“What files?”
“In his home office.”
Claire stopped.
Vanessa continued.
“He has a safe behind the bookcase.”
“Do you know the combination?”
“No.”
Then Vanessa reached into her purse.
“But I know where he keeps the backup key.”
Tomas stared.
Claire said, “You want to break into your father’s safe?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“It’s my house too.”
“That legal argument needs work.”
Vanessa ignored her.
“If my dad used me to spy on you, I want to know.”
Tomas said firmly, “Absolutely not.”
Claire looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because we do not conduct amateur searches of a federal suspect’s home.”
Claire sighed.
“Unfortunately he’s right.”
Vanessa looked frustrated.
Then she remembered something.
“He has another office.”
“Where?” Claire asked.
“At an old Whitmore property in Highland Park.”
Tomas’s expression sharpened.
“What property?”
Vanessa gave him the address.
For the first time, Tomas looked genuinely alarmed.
“How long has your father owned it?”
“Years.”
Tomas immediately called Adrian.
Claire could hear only part of the conversation.
Then Tomas ended the call.
“What?”
He looked at Claire.
“That address belonged to Meridian Continental Development.”
The same company tied to Madrid.
Claire’s heart accelerated.
Vanessa whispered, “My dad told me it was storage.”
Tomas shook his head.
“Your father purchased that building seventeen years ago.”
The girls stared at each other.
Claire understood.
“Right after I was born.”
A security SUV arrived.
Tomas opened the door.
“We are going back.”
Claire climbed inside.
Vanessa hesitated.
Claire looked at her.
“Come with us.”
Vanessa blinked.
“Why?”
“Because someone tracked your car Friday night.”
Vanessa’s face drained.
“What?”
“And whoever did it may believe your father has something they want.”
Vanessa got in.
Thirty minutes later, federal agents searched the Highland Park property.
At 6:42 p.m., they opened a locked basement room.
Inside were seventeen years of files.
Photographs.
Bank transfers.
Maps.
Surveillance reports.
And a wall covered with pictures of Claire.
Claire at age two.
Age five.
Age eight.
Age twelve.
Sixteen.
The newest photograph had been taken less than forty-eight hours earlier.
Vanessa began crying.
Claire could not move.
On the center table lay a folder marked with a single word.
SUCCESSION.
Adrian opened it.
His face turned white.
Inside was a DNA report.
Claire Bennett.
Adrian Laurent.
Probability of biological paternity:
99.9997%.
Richard had known.
For at least three years.
Then Eleanor Price lifted another document.
“Your Majesty.”
Adrian looked.
It was a payment ledger.
One recent transaction had been highlighted.
Five hundred thousand dollars.
Sent three weeks earlier.
Recipient:
LORD STEFAN VALE.
Claire stared at Adrian.
“I thought you said Stefan disappeared fourteen years ago.”
Adrian looked toward Tomas.
Tomas’s face had become stone.
“So did we.”
At that moment, Claire’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
Everyone told her not to answer.
Claire did anyway.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
His voice was old and calm.
“Princess Claire.”
Her blood froze.
“Who is this?”
“You may call me Stefan.”
Adrian crossed the room.
Claire put the phone on speaker.
Stefan continued.
“I believe you have just discovered Richard’s little archive.”
No one moved.
Claire whispered, “What do you want?”
“To prevent your father from making the same mistake his father made.”
Adrian spoke.
“Stefan.”
Silence.
Then the man laughed softly.
“Adrian.”
“Where are you?”
“Closer than you think.”
Claire tightened her grip on the phone.
Stefan said, “The Legacy Gala is in eighteen days.”
Claire’s stomach twisted.
“How do you know that?”
“Because, Princess…”
His voice lowered.
May you like
“…that is where your family’s seventeen-year secret will finally end.”
The call disconnected.
