“Is he actually dead this time?” Anabelle asked.
Her father shook his head. “There’s a lot of blood on the deck that we believe is his.”
“There was a lot in the house, too,” Kensington snapped.
With a sigh, her father leaned forward. “According to one of his top lieutenants, he’d been planning that for a long time. He wanted us to think he’d died so he stockpiled blood.”
Jacqueline Grace wanted to retch.
“I know it’s disgusting, but we’ve known for a while he wasn’t entirely sane. This time, though, there were oceanic whitetip sharks in the area. The WLRs team saw them and believe that if he fell overboard, we may never find his remains.”
“So still no actual closure.” Anabelle looked close to tears.
Her father shook his head. “Not at the moment.”
“But we’re sure he’s the biological father of all three girls?” Kensington’s hands clenched into fists.
“We believe so.” Benjamin gave the answer.
David leaned back in his chair. “Given what we know about the man, he had far more than three liaisons over the years. Does he have more children? They’re all close to the same age. Is there a reason for that? Are there more children out there?”
Benjamin shrugged. “There may be, and we’ll continue investigating. I know he had no compunction about taking advantage of women to some extent, though I’ve never heard allegations of actual force being used. There may be other children. Maybe, a few years ago, he wanted an heir as part of his take-over-everything plan. Instead, he got daughters.”
Her father took back over the conversation. “DNA tests are being done on the girls. David is being recalled to New Sargasso to answer for his disappearance. That leaves Mary without a legal guardian in San Majoria. For the time being, she will be living with Jacqueline Grace and Kiara, though we are hoping to keep that out of the news. If we determine their mothers are both deceased, she may adopt them.”
That wasn’t news to her. She’d already told her father it was going to happen. She hadn’t heard David was leaving, but it made sense. Even if there wouldn’t be a court martial, he still had people he needed to answer to.
The discussion about how they were going to deal with the fall out of the last few days continued. Isaiah’s boat was on its way to Islas del Sargasso where investigators from all four countries would go over it with a fine-toothed comb.
Jacqueline Grace let the details swirl around her, but she didn’t really absorb them. She just stared at her hands, ignoring David when he excused himself to go with his father.
She’d be left to pick up the pieces with a heartbroken little girl.
Would she be able to?
When her own heart had been shattered to pieces?
It would be one thing if they’d decided together things were too complicated, but instead, David didn’t think through the consequences of such a decision. She found some comfort in knowing he did love her, but the odds seemed to be insurmountable.
Another thought occurred to her as the meeting broke up.
Her father knew all along who David was. Would he have warned her against a relationship with him if the consequences were going to be as dire as they appeared? If one or both of them would eventually be exiled, wouldn’t he have said something?
Maybe things weren’t quite as hopeless as she’d suspected, but he was already gone.
She left the conference room alone. Harrison was with his Eyjanian counterparts. Her siblings were with their spouses. Her parents were together.
Which left Jacqueline Grace.
Alone.
Again.
Mary snuggled into his shoulder as David tried to find the words to explain.
“I have to go on a trip, sweet girl,” he finally said.
“I go, too?”
“Not this time.” He pressed a kiss to the side of her head. “I have to go home with my father and take care of some things. You’re going to stay here with Jacqueline Grace and Kiara.”
At least she’d be surrounded by people she already knew and loved. She wouldn’t be taken by social services and given to strangers.
“How long?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t have the heart to tell her he might never be back. Or that he’d never live with her as her father again. It was possible he’d get to see her for visits a couple of times a year, but unless things changed with Jacqueline Grace, his time as a father had come to an end.
He shifted her on his knee. “But we’ll talk on the phone and video chat, okay? Remember how we did that?”
Mary nodded.
“We’ll do that, but we won’t be able to as often as we’d like. My home is on the other side of the world.” He’d shown her on a globe one time. “When you’re waking up here, I’m going to bed. It won’t be easy, but we’ll find time.”
Given enough time Jacqueline Grace and the girls would move on. She’d find someone else. She was too wonderful not to. She had far too much love to give. Eventually, the girls would have a new father who would love them as much as he did - and far more than their biological donor was capable of.
He sat with Mary until a throat cleared behind him. “I have to go, sweetheart. I’ll call you as soon as I can. We’re fair dinkum, remember?” The two of them were as real a family as any other.
She nodded, her tears were silent as she let him go. It almost broke his heart more than it would have if she’d clung to him, refusing to turn loose.
It made him think she’d been planning to say goodbye all along.
As he walked along the corridor, he ran into the one person he wanted to see - and didn’t want to see at the same time.
Jacqueline Grace stopped several feet away from him, her arms wrapped around herself. “I thought you’d already left.”
“I had to talk to Mary first.”
“How’d she take it?”
David tried to relax. “Better than I hoped which I don’t think is good. I think she half-expected me to leave all along. I’m sorry you’re going to have to pick up the pieces.”
“I’m glad I’ll be able to instead of strangers.”
“Agreed.” Another thought floated through his mind. “She is a Quatremaine. Maybe they’d take care of her.”
“I don’t think they’d turn her away if she had nowhere else to go, but my gut tells me they’d rather not have Isaiah’s dirty laundry become public.”
His hands clenched into fists. “I hate that’s how they’d be seen.”
“Me, too. But since there’s no reason for their parentage to be public knowledge, there’s no reason for anyone to think they have anything to do with Isaiah. Especially since Mary and Kiara have always been San Majorian as far as we know.”
“I promised her we’d video chat whenever we could.”
She hugged her waist tighter. “I’ll make sure she’s available when you are as much as possible.”
David knew his escort was waiting behind him, but he didn’t care. “I’m sorry I didn’t think about all those things you mentioned. You were right.” As much as he hated to admit it. “It would have never worked.”
He stepped closer to her, resting his palm against her cheek. “I wish things could be different.”
A bright sheen covered her eyes. “Me, too.”
With his heart in his chest, he leaned down and gave her a soft kiss. Her hands rested on his abdomen as she kissed him back.
Before things could get out of hand, he moved away. “Goodbye, princess.”
“Goodbye, David.” She’d closed her eyes, but he could hear the tears in her voice.
Forcing himself to walk away was even harder than it had been with Mary. He’d been steeling himself for both for days, but it didn’t matter.
He reached the portico, blessedly out of sight of any cameras that might be trained on the palace. The blacked-out windows meant no one would know who was leaving. His father already waited in the back seat, li
kely unhappy at being kept waiting.
“I know that wasn’t easy.” His father surprised him with the hand to David’s shoulder. “Saying goodbye to the woman you believe to be the love of your life isn’t easy. Neither is saying goodbye to the child you’ve raised for a year.”
David sat, shoulders slumped, with his hands clasped between his knees. “I know you’re disappointed in me.”
“Yes and no.”
From long experience, David knew to wait. His father would elaborate further.
“I’m proud of you for taking care of Mary, for your sense of justice on behalf of your men. I’m not proud of how you went about it. I’d already been in talks with Edward about it when you left, even before you went AWOL. If you’d talked to me, I would have made sure you knew they weren’t going to go unavenged.”
“Benjamin was still enamored with Isaiah.”
“Yes, but no one else was. It was only a matter of time. Edward had known for decades what kind of man Isaiah was. He tried to convince Alfred to make sure Isaiah was kept far away from Benjamin, especially if anything happened to Alfred while Benjamin was young. Alfred wouldn’t listen. He knew Isaiah wasn’t the man he should be, but he refused to see the narcissist Isaiah had become.”
“When I heard Isaiah had been removed from the property, I finally had hope.”
“You called me that day.”
“I did.” It had been their first conversation in months, only the third since David left New Sargasso.
“There’s another reason I’m disappointed, though, son.”
This time his father’s disheartened voice cut even further.
“You left General Lyson to be accountable for your actions. He would have weathered the storm if you’d come back when you were supposed to, but by disappearing, you left him high and dry.”
The fate of the general had never crossed David’s mind. “What happened to him?”
“He was able to retire quietly, a couple of years earlier than he likely would have anyway, but without full pension. If he’d been a few years younger, it wouldn’t have been wrapped up so neatly. He trusted you.”
Implied in the words was that David had betrayed the general’s trust.
The car glided to a stop next to an unmarked, but official New Sargassian plane. Unless someone knew what they were looking for, they’d never know who flew in it.
Time to go home and face the music.
29
In the two weeks since David left, Jacqueline Grace was finding a new rhythm to life.
Mary had withdrawn into her shell, at least to an extent. She’d loved the three video chats she’d had with David, but they’d been too short and too infrequent. Already she mentioned the man who’d been her father for a year less often.
Unfortunately, David’s time back in the military meant his opportunities to call when she was awake were few and far between.
Seventeen days after they said goodbye - not that she was counting - her father called her into his office.
“Have a seat.” He’d taken off his suit coat and tie. His sleeves were rolled up past his elbow. It meant he’d been working hard, focused intently on something important with no outside visitors expected in the near future.
She sat in the chair he’d indicated as he took the seat next to her rather than across his desk.
“You know there was tons of paperwork on the boat, right?”
“I know your men and Benjamin’s are going through it all.”
He leaned back, stretching out his legs, his green and blue plaid socks showing. “There’s all the information we’d hoped to find in his house but never did. Not everything about the investigation into his alleged murder became public knowledge, to anyone but me, even Benjamin didn’t know.”
“Know what?”
“We were almost certain the scene was faked. The blood wasn’t right for someone who’d just been killed. I don’t understand all of the details, but indications were that he’d stored his own blood and tried to make it look like a fight took place.”
She shuddered. “Who would even think to do that?”
“Apparently, it’s been used in fiction a few times - I believe the book and movie Gone Girl was mentioned as was an episode of an American television show, Criminal Minds. I’ve not seen any of them, but perhaps Isaiah did.”
“You knew he wasn’t dead?”
“We suspected. Thor knew we suspected. It’s how he was certain his boss was in on it. His boss was never told but said things a few times that made Thor wonder. I’ve known Thor since Alfred and I attended university. I knew he could be trusted.”
“How is Thor?”
Her father’s look turned thoughtful. “Fine. The bruises on his face were real. The hunched over pain in his torso wasn’t. He’s getting a promotion to head of security for the Quatremaines.”
“Good.”
“We found some paperwork that you’ll find most interesting.” He picked up a manila folder and handed it to her.
Jacqueline Grace flipped it open and skimmed the summary report, then went back and read it more carefully. “Mary’s mother was the one who dropped Kiara off at the hospital? At Isaiah’s request?”
“He promised her money to take care of Mary for life. She and one of Isaiah’s men were the couple who dropped her off then disappeared. They didn’t survive the night.” His voice remained dispassionate. As many bodies as there were in Isaiah’s wake, he likely had to in order to protect his own psyche.
“What about Kiara’s mother?”
“She was the first woman who took care of Gracie before they kidnapped Anabelle’s amma to do it. When she couldn’t keep Gracie under control... well, I’m sure you can imagine.”
That the girls were officially orphans broke Jacqueline Grace’s heart. “Does this mean the adoptions can go forward?” Surely that’s where he was going with this.
“We can start the proceedings for Kiara immediately. It would be final inside a month.”
“Let’s do it.” She handed the folder back.
“You might consider waiting. Despite my clout, I can’t speed up certain things. Mary has to live with you for 150 days before you can adopt her.”
Realization dawned. “Then adopt them both at the same time.”
He nodded. “Just in time for Christmas. December 18, to be precise.”
“Let’s make it happen.” The girls deserved to be part of a real family, even if she was a single mother.
“Despite their heritage, they’ll never be formally accepted by the Quatremaines,” he warned. “Someday they could find out who their father is, but they’ll never have access to part of the Quatremaine inheritance or be considered in line for the throne.”
“Neither will Gracie, but Kensington adopted her,” Jacqueline Grace pointed out.
“I know. I just wanted to make sure you’d thought about it. They’ll be given titles here, of course, but they’ll never be part of our line of succession either.”
She nodded again. “I’m aware.”
“Then I’ll have my lawyers get started on the paperwork and make sure they know we want to postpone Kiara’s until they can both be adopted at the same time.”
Jacqueline Grace took the folder back. “Is there anything that mentions Kiara’s real name?”
“Unfortunately, not. She’s referred to as the Grace lookalike, though we know they didn’t look that much alike. A passing resemblance, but that’s all.”
Unexpected melancholy swept through Jacqueline Grace. David should be here to hear all of this. To know that Mary would soon be adopted, even if not by him.
“Do you ever hear from him?” her father asked, reaching over to rest a hand on her forearm.
“Only when he calls Mary, but that’s seldom. I know he’s busy getting things fixed, and finishing his time in the military, but I wish, for her sake, they were able to talk more.”
“When will he be done?”
She’d exchanged all of
seven words with him that didn’t have to do specifically with Mary. Maybe not that many. “I have no idea. You can probably find out easier than I can.”
“Call him,” her father encouraged.
“It’s after midnight tomorrow morning.”
“Try anyway.” He stood and held out a hand to help her up.
He gave her a big hug then sent her on her way. Jacqueline Grace pulled out her phone and went to the balcony where she’d waited for her father just over a month earlier.
How things had changed.
Taking a deep breath, she pressed on the screen of her phone until she was calling David’s number. Not Dave’s. He even had a different phone.
“Hello?” He answered after only one ring. He sounded tired but not asleep.
“David?”
“Jacqueline Grace?” She heard rustling, like maybe he was sitting up in bed. “Is everything all right? Mary? Did something happen?”
She hadn’t considered that might be his first thought. “Everyone’s fine,” she hurried to reassure him. “But I do have some news I think you’d like to hear.”
Before David could hit the end button, Jacqueline Grace had disconnected the call. He laid back on his bunk. Anyone else would have been thrown in the brig for desertion, but his royal status spared him that. Instead, he was in a barracks with a couple dozen other men while he went through rigorous training all over again. It was hard yakka for all of them and left all of them completely knackered.
And because of who he was, he got to keep his phone. None of the other men had one. He wouldn’t have answered, except he didn’t think Jacqueline Grace would call in the middle of the night if it wasn’t urgent.
It wasn’t.
It was news he’d expected to hear sooner or later.
She was adopting both of the girls as soon as she could.
The best thing for all of them would to be a family and find an amazing dad for them. He had no doubt men would be lining up.
Her Undercover Prince Page 23