26. Chapter 26
Queen Adanna
The rhythmic hum of the yacht’s engines was the only sound cutting through the early morning calm of the open sea.
I sat near the glass paneling, watching the fog roll off the water. The energy of the night had settled into a quiet lingering stillness, but the peace was short-lived.
The hum of my encrypted personal phone vibrated against the side table.
I didn't like unscheduled calls, especially at dawn. When I picked up the device, my brow furrowed.
"Speak," I commanded, my voice cold and clear.
"My Queen..." The guard’s voice was strained, laced with a panic he was barely managing to suppress. "There's been... an emergency at the Chairman’s residence."
My posture went rigid. "What happened?"
"He didn't answer his morning check-in. When the local guards bypassed his master bedroom locks... they found him." The man swallowed hard through the line. "He's gone, Queen Adanna. He passed in his sleep... but something isn't right."
The room seemed to drop ten degrees in a single second.
I froze, the phone held tight against my ear as the words echoed through my mind. Idris. My mother’s brother. The pillar who had held me upright when the world felt like it was crumbling. The man who insisted his guards remain at Family Day to protect me.
A suffocating weight slammed into my chest. Grief ripped through my composure, but I forced my jaw to lock, suffocating the sob that tried to claw its way out of my throat. A Queen could not break. Not now.
My mind immediately raced through the cascade of consequences.
Nana. My chest burned at the thought of my grandmother. She had already buried her daughter years ago. To lose another child would crush whatever was left of the old woman’s heart.
It meant someone had planned this. Someone knew his guard would be thin.
"Tell no one else yet," I ordered into the phone. "I want a full lockdown on my uncle's estate—no press, no outside authorities until I arrive. Gather Chief, Nana and the inner circle at the compound."
I hung up without waiting for a reply.
I didn't bother calling down to the crew. I stormed straight out of the suite as I headed for the bridge.
Damini stirred from the lounge couch, blinking through his sleep, but I walked right past him. I grabbed the dual throttle controls, jammed them all the way forward, and slammed the helm wheel hard to the left.
The massive yacht whipped around so fast the hull shrieked against the ocean, tilting hard onto its side and sending loose wine glasses shattering across the deck floor. Damini caught himself on the wall, his eyes snapping wide open. "Adanna, what the fuck—"
"Chairman is dead," I spat, staring straight ahead at the horizon as the engines screamed, pushing the boat to its absolute limit, slicing through the waves at suicidal speeds toward the marina. "And somebody is about to pay for it."