CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – HATTIE
“Took you long enough,” I say when Finn and Alec join me and Marina in one of Alec’s opulent reception rooms.
Alec eyes me as he drops onto the sofa opposite me. “I was just telling him that I’ve changed my mind about convincing you to marry me.”
“Oh?” I raise my eyebrows. “Did I scare you off?”
“No, but I’ve got enough enemies without worrying if my wife will pull a blade on me out of nowhere, so I’ll leave you to your sorry fate with him.” He nods towards Finn. “Where did you hide it?”
Finn sits next to me, and I whip it out from my sleeve, drawing the blade with a ‘click.’ He jumps and lets out a, “Jesus Christ,” and I smirk at him.
“Sorry,” I say. “Just a little party trick.”
“Most people juggle,” Finn mutters.
Alec gazes at me with something between awe and wariness. “Where’d you learn that?”
“Like I said…” I withdraw the blade and tuck it back up into my sleeve. “Some little girls are raised on blades and bastards. Let’s leave it at that, shall we?”
Finn runs his hand through his hair. “What did you say to that guy at the end?”
I pause. “I asked him to say hi to Jasmine Sinclair for me.”
“And that scared him?”
“Of course, it did. If he truly didn’t know who’d hired them, it wouldn’t make a difference if I said it or not,” I explain. “But I had a hunch, and he confirmed it. He knew it was Jasmine.”
“Why?” Alec asks. “As far as she’s concerned, she’s still marrying Finn. Why would she hire people to harm you?”
“Because my sister is an idiot,” I say dryly. “She’s been told a thousand times to just sit tight, behave, and let things play out, but she can’t help herself. My presence is a threat to everything she thinks she possesses. She’s just unfortunate that she’s not as smart as she thinks she is.”
“To actually do you harm, though…” Alec shakes his head.
“I get it,” Finn says, running his hand through his hair. “You said yourself that Harriet is the legitimate daughter while she’s just adopted. We know how vindictive Jasmine can be. We’ve seen how she’s manipulated people around her before to hurt others.”
Adopted?
Who’s adopted?
Jasmine?
“Hold on.” I look at them both, then at Marina, who has been standing silently off to the side this whole time. “Who’s adopted?”
“Jasmine,” Finn says. “She’s your cousin by blood, right? Your uncle’s daughter or something like that?”
My uncle’s daughter?
Whose uncle?
I don’t have an uncle.
“Is that what the staff are told?” I ask Marina, not missing how Alec narrows his eyes and sits up slightly.
She nods. “Yes. We… The staff are quietly told shortly after hiring that Jasmine is your father’s niece, or something like that.
His brother? Cousin? And wife passed away in a car crash around the time William Sinclair’s late wife died, and he took her in.
He formally adopted her, then married Rosalyn shortly after, who also adopted Jasmine at his request.” She pauses.
“When you returned, we were told that you were a distant relative, but the truth came out when you were heard referring to William as ‘Dad.’ After that, we were all forced to sign airtight contracts keeping your identity a secret.”
Ha.
Ha.
Hahahaha.
Shit, I’m actually laughing.
I can’t help it. That story is so unbelievable I can barely believe they’ve managed to pull it off. Jasmine and Rosalyn look far too alike for them to be unrelated, and Jasmine resembles our father far more than I do. She’s the perfect mix of the two of them.
Are these people all stupid?
They must be. It’s the only explanation.
“And everyone believes that?” I ask through my giggles. “Finn? Is that what you were told?”
“Everyone knows that story,” he says, staring at me with confusion muddling his gaze. “He took her in after his relative died because he’d lost both you and your mother. Then he met Rosalyn, and she adopted Jasmine a couple of years later after they were married.”
I press my hand to my mouth and glance away, taking a deep breath in through my nose.
Wow.
It’s like I’ve stepped into a fucking soap opera.
“Hattie?” Finn gently touches his fingertips to my knee. “Are you all right?”
“I have to give kudos to them,” I say quietly, lowering my hand. “Because they’ve got you all totally fucking fleeced. Even the household staff. Wow. I never thought I’d say this, but I’m impressed.”
“What do you mean?” There’s an edge to Finn’s tone, and when I turn my head and meet his gaze, I simply raise my eyebrows and smile.
“My father is an only child, and his cousins are all alive. As far as I’m aware, there have been no deaths in his side of the family except for my grandparents around fifteen years ago. Certainly, there no orphaned children in the paternal side of the family.”
He stares at me, but it’s Alec cocking his head to the side that catches my attention.
“I did hear… A long time ago…” he mutters, then pauses when he sees I’m looking at him.
“I was young. Early teens, maybe. My mother was gossiping about something to do with the new Sinclair wedding. Something about a mistress, but I’ve never thought anything of it.
The story we all knew was plausible, after all.
Nobody wanted to question a grieving man finding happiness, either. ”
That’s the problem.
Sometimes, grieving people do stupid shit.
Like take in their biological daughter, marry their mistress, and spin a web of fucking lies.
“You should have paid more attention,” I say dryly. “Do you think I call Jasmine my sister out of some familial goodness? The kindness of my heart? Absolutely not—I call her my sister because she is. She’s my biological half-sister. And Rosalyn isn’t her adopted mother. She’s her birth mother.”
Finn pinches the bridge of his nose. “Are you saying that your father and Rosalyn had an affair?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. She was his mistress for almost his entire marriage to my mother.
I vaguely remember that she found out not long before I was kidnapped.
I caught her crying one night to her assistant, even if I didn’t understand what it all meant back then.
” I clench my fist, but Finn reaches over and uncurls my fingers, taking hold of my hand so my nails dig into his skin instead of my own.
“Shit,” he whispers. “Everything you said at the hotel makes sense now.”
Alec glances between us. “Should I leave you alone for a moment?”
“No. Actually, you might be able to help me.” I release Finn’s hand and grab my bag. I pull out the same file Rafayel gave me a few days ago. “Here.”
Alec looks at Finn, almost as if he’s asking for permission. Finn hesitates, but bobs his head, and Alec reaches for it as he asks, “What is this?”
“The only evidence I have linking Askurg’s upper class to the group of people responsible for my—and others’—kidnapping. It’s flimsy and circumstantial at best, but I wasn’t the only child who went missing in a short period of time.”
“I vaguely remember that. Her Majesty assigned my father to quietly investigate, but even he couldn’t find anything.” Alec scans the paper, then peers over at me. “How did you get this? How do you even know who’s responsible?”
“Some kids are luckier than others.” I press my lips together.
When I don’t elaborate after a moment of holding his gaze, he nods. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. I assume you’re looking for something that ties this specifically to Rosalyn?”
I nod. “Here, take this, too.” I pull out a USB drive and toss it across the table. “It has all the media coverage regarding mine and others’ disappearances. I wasn’t the only little rich kid in St Peters to suddenly disappear overnight. A couple made it back. A lot didn’t.”
“You want me to find them?”
“No. You…” I drop my gaze to my lap for a breath. “You won’t be able to.”
The weight of my words hangs heavy in the room, and even his calculating gaze softens for a moment.
“I want you to find who made them go missing in the first place.” I push my hair behind my ear and force my jaw to unclench so I can speak again.
“Somewhere in that tangled web is proof that Rosalyn had a hand in the orchestration of my kidnapping. Someone knows something. I just don’t have the means to find out who they are. ”
He picks up the USB drive and stares at it for a moment before turning his midnight-blue gaze onto me. “And you’re absolutely sure she’s involved in it?”
“The daughter disappears. The wife dies. The mistress becomes the wife; her daughter becomes the Sinclair heir and inherits a royal marriage arrangement.” I glance at Finn. “Don’t tell me she wasn’t.”
“She’d be counting on you never coming back. That’s a big risk.”
“I saw far more children disappear than I did return to their families. A big risk, but a worthwhile one from her perspective.”
Alec inclines his head in acknowledgement of my words. “One more question. How did you get all this?”
My lips pull to one side. “I might have been kidnapped twenty years ago, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t escape. Don’t tell me you think I’m fresh out of Hell and walked back into that household without a plan two years ago?”
His mouth flattens into a thin line. “I don’t think anything,” he says after a moment. “After watching you threaten a man with a blade small enough to tuck invisibly into your sleeve, it seems that to assume anything about you would be a grave misstep on my part.”
“Good. Keep it that way.” I check my watch, then look at Marina. “We need to leave. Jasmine will be waiting for an update from her lackeys.”
“I’ll walk you out,” Finn says, getting to his feet. He holds a hand out for me, and I take it, letting him pull me up. “I’m guessing you’re parked in the underground garage?”
I nod.
“Make sure you’re ready to leave. Sophia will handle everything,” he tells Marina, who quickly bows her head and disappears. “Alec, I’ll be back in a few.”
“Go ahead,” Alec replies, twiddling the USB drive between his finger and thumb. “I assume you’re moving into the palace after the banquet?” he asks me.
“I’ll be there for at least a night or two. We haven’t decided further yet,” I reply.