CHAPTER THIRTY – HATTIE
“May I come in?”
I look up at the sound of Oscar’s voice. It’s been a while since our paths crossed, and I’m not sure he and I have ever been alone.
Huh.
Well, now I’ve realised that, this is weird.
“Of course,” I say, saving the photo I’ve been needlessly editing for the last twenty-five minutes. “I could use a break.”
“Excellent.” Alec sweeps in past him in, clad in his customary black, and casually throws himself on the sofa.
Ah. We still aren’t going to be alone.
I raise an eyebrow in question at Oscar.
“Oh,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “If it isn’t obvious, he tends to appear out of nowhere.”
No kidding.
“A useful skill to have,” I muse.
“Not quite as useful as pulling a knife out of thin air,” Alec retorts with a cheeky grin.
“I’m starting to wish I’d never done that.” I push my chair back from the desk and spin, looking at the two men. “Would either of you care to explain why you’re here?”
Alec sighs. “Can’t a couple of young, respectful, upper-class gentlemen drop in to see their future crown princess without judgement?”
I look at Oscar. “Is it a visit that requires the two of you, or can I kick him out?”
He chuckles and closes the door behind him, then walks over and sits on the opposite sofa to Alec. “Unfortunately, he’s the one with the information. I’m here on His Royal Highness’ orders to, and I quote, ‘Make sure that bastard doesn’t try to convince my fiancée to run away with him again.’”
I choke back a laugh. That sounds about right. I can even hear it in Finn’s voice.
“I’m offended,” Alec says, setting a briefcase on the coffee table and pulling out an envelope. “I’m not here to steal her away. Quite frankly, she scares me a little. I’m all for fearing my wife, but I’d rather not have my life part of that equation.”
“Good.” I get up and join them at the sofas. “Fear keeps people in line, and you strike me as someone who needs to be controlled.”
He tilts his head to the side, his dark eyes focusing on me. “If you weren’t so utterly correct in that statement, I think I might be upset by it.”
“I’m sure you’ll get over it.” I eye the briefcase. “If you’re here, I assume that means you have information for me.”
“You assume correctly.” He glances at Oscar. “Are you comfortable having this conversation in front of him?”
“Yes,” I reply. “Finn trusts you both, and I have nothing to hide. Besides, he probably already knows what you’ve been doing for me.”
Oscar hesitates, then nods. “Finn told me you asked Alec to look into your kidnapping. That said, if you aren’t comfortable with me knowing anything, I’m willing to leave.”
I shake my head. “It’s fine. Chances are it’s something you’ll have to address one day, so we might as well be on the same page from the beginning.”
“All right, then.” Alec slides the papers out of the envelope, flicks through the sheets, and hands them over to me.
“I did as you suggested and investigated all disappearances of children around the time you went missing. Three years either side, to be exact. There’s a list of names on the first page. ”
I scan the list. Emily Cartwright. Joseph Crawley. Clementine St. James. Millie Jameson. Olivia Peters-Wright. Matthew Mason. Valentina Devereaux. Ophelia Fortescue. Lucille Partey. Clara Layton.
It’s not even half the list. Not even close.
“All of these happened in the same circumstances?”
“No. The ones with a black mark next to their name are from a similar circumstance as you—social class, education, that sort of thing.” He pauses as a wave of distaste flashes across his face. “Forgive me for this, but a similar ‘value’ in terms of trafficking, I’d guess.”
I swallow. “And the red mark?”
“Those are the children who never returned home.”
Ah.
“It’s more than I thought,” I admit on a murmur. “Although, I’m not surprised. I might have seen some of these kids pass through and never knew.”
My heart.
It’s clenching.
I don’t even know how I’m breathing right now.
I’ve always known I was one of the lucky ones, but to see just how lucky I am on black and white in front of me… shit.
Oscar’s gaze hovers on me for a moment. “Are you all right?”
I force a smile as I meet his eyes. “Yes. Sorry. Survivors’ guilt isn’t something you get over, I guess.”
“You don’t have to get over it,” he says quietly, smiling warmly at me. “And whatever is in that pile of paper, it can wait if you need it to.”
“No. I’d rather know. It’ll only eat away at me.” I turn back to Alec with a deep breath. “What did you find out?”
“Four children not including you came back. Valentina Devereaux returned to St Peters around seven or eight months after she went missing, but there’s no record of where she came from, nor have the Devereauxs ever spoken about it.
Olivia Peters-Wright was missing for two weeks before she was spotted at a marina down south and brought home.
Amelia and Austin Navarra were found around two months later in Poland.
Valentina and Olivia were relatively healthy, but Amelia and Austin were malnourished and had some injuries.
They claimed to have escaped and hidden until they were able to find someone who spoke enough English to help them.
” Alec sighs and runs a hand through his hair.
“They were older, though. About fourteen. Everyone else was younger.”
I nod slowly. “Valentina was with me in Asia,” I say after a moment. “I don’t know how she was found and why the rest of us weren’t, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, that information is impossible to come by. There are no records of her during that time, and her father especially has never spoken about it. I fear that’s one answer I might never be able to give you.”
“Don’t worry. I accepted that I’ll never know everything a long time ago.”
“Okay.” He pauses. “I also investigated the familial relationships of the children who went missing. Over sixty percent of them were from broken homes, for lack of a better term. Their parents were either divorced, separated, or widowed. At the time of their disappearances, all but one had at least one new partner involved. I didn’t include you in that group because your parents were technically married, even though your father had Rosalyn as his mistress.
” He flips to another sheet of paper and motions for me to look.
“That was the case for around ten to twelve percent of the others who came from seemingly happy homes. One of their parents engaged in an extramarital affair. Some long-term, some short. The remaining disappearances can’t be linked to a familial breakdown in any way, so they were likely either collateral damage or taken by chance. ”
My gaze flicks between him and the paper for a moment. “You know what I’m going to ask next.”
Alec’s lips pull to one side in a knowing smirk.
“Yes. Rosalyn can be tied to every single family. Even her indirect contacts are linked enough to assume that they had some kind of conversation at some point. In fact, the stepfather of Matthew Mason knew her back in college, and from what I’ve found out, there’s an indication they once had a relationship. ”
“And Matthew didn’t come home,” I say, checking the list of names again.
“No. To this day, he’s still listed as a missing person.”
“Do they still speak? Rosalyn and the stepfather?”
“Yes. The two of them grew up on the peripheral of the upper class.”
“New money, as the term goes,” Oscar says. “I’m familiar with Matthew’s stepfather, Daniel. My father has done business with him. His family is extremely wealthy, but his parents were never quite able to break into the aristocratic circles. He did so when he met Susannah Mason during her divorce.”
“Who is she?” I ask. “I don’t know half these families, although some names ring a bell.”
“The Earl of Longford’s granddaughter. Well, she was at the time.
She’s now the niece,” he explains. “No title of her own as she’s of a female line, but blue-blooded enough that Daniel could get a foothold in society.
Matthew was the heir to the earldom at the time as his uncle was unmarried and childless, but after his disappearance, there were rumblings that Susannah and Daniel’s son was lined up to become the heir. ”
I wrinkle my nose up. “Is he still the heir?”
“No. The earl… Well, everyone thought he was gay, honestly. He married later in life to a younger woman and had children. There were rumours at the time it was transactional was because he refused to allow Daniel’s child to be his heir, but they’re still married today, so who knows?
” Oscar shrugs and holds out his hands. “It wouldn’t be unusual, even if he is gay.
He can live his life, have a secure heir, and his wife lives in the lap of luxury.
As long as she consents to it, I don’t see a problem. ”
“If we assume that’s correct and the Earl of Longford is gay, it wouldn’t be unreasonable of us to come to the conclusion that Daniel was involved in Matthew’s disappearance.” I set the papers on my lap then look at them both. “If his own son was being lined up to become the heir…”
“Theoretically, but not guaranteed,” Alec says slowly.
“Depending on the rules of inheritance. However, if Christian Longford expressed to Her Majesty that he wished to nominate another blood relative as his heir in the absence of him having his own children, she’d likely approve it.
It’s happened with Matthew, so there’s no reason to believe she wouldn’t approve it again, but Lord Longford didn’t do that. ”
“Yes. The fact that he avoided marriage for so long only to go down the path he did backs up the theor,” Oscar continues. “He has three sons now.”
“Wow. He really didn’t want Daniel’s child to be his heir, huh?” I shake my head. “What about some of the others?”
“Similar stories.” Alec pulls a cigarette box from his pocket, removes one of the contents, and replaces the box before twirling the cigarette between his fingers. “Mostly the eldest children, the heirs, all from first marriages or relationships.”
“How did nobody ever put it together?” Oscar asks, taking the papers from Alec and scanning them. “It’s obvious, isn’t it?”
A bitter laugh escapes me. “Money. It’s always about money. All these people have access to unimaginable funds and can cover up things most people can only dream of.”
“She’s right,” Alec says to him. “You know that yourself.”
“I suppose. It just seems… I don’t know. There’s something barbaric about harming children, isn’t there?” Oscar looks up from the papers. “To actively seek to harm them in such a way for something that is so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things…”
“Because you aren’t evil.” I put my sheets down on the coffee table with a sigh.
“I’m not an idiot. I know the two of you do some questionable things on behalf of the Royal Family.
Heck, I’ve seen it.” I eye Alec for a moment, and he simply grins in response.
“But you aren’t evil. You’re not actively conspiring against people with a goal of hurting them.
More to the point, you aren’t hurting children. You’d never dream of it.
“And some of those things are inconsequential to us, but not to them. Take Daniel and the Masons—his family were never able to break into the circles they desired because of prejudice from the upper class, but he’s suddenly one little boy away from having his own son be an aristocrat.
That’s a huge deal for someone who probably feels like he’s been snubbed just for being born to the ‘wrong’ person. ”
“I suppose,” he replies. “I simply can’t imagine how horrible a person you must be to treat a child that way.”
“Most people can’t. That’s the point. To be that kind of evil is unfathomable for most people.”
“And, like you said, the people who commit such atrocities are rich beyond belief,” Alec continues. “Which makes them extremely hard to chase and catch. And if by some miracle you can catch them, it’s even harder to prove.”
My stomach knots. “Which is a very nice way of telling me that there’s an extremely slim chance of me ever being able to hold Rosalyn accountable for my kidnapping.”
He hesitates and briefly flicks his attention in Oscar’s direction. “You… may be an exception to that rule. You’re engaged to the heir to the throne. For all their money and power, you possess far more.”
“But you will be flirting with politics,” Oscar adds, his tone measured. “And that—”
“The lives and safety of children is not political.” I press my lips into a firm line. “And anyone who strives to make it so should be investigated immediately.”
“I wholeheartedly agree, but others don’t. Don’t forget that politicians and others in positions of power can be the most corrupt of them all. Even Her Majesty struggles against them sometimes.” He runs his hand through his hair, looking away. “I would encourage you to tread lightly.”
I curl my fingers into my palms, and my nails sting as they dig into my skin. I’m angry. Not at him, because it’s not his fault, but because there’s so much corruption at levels it has no business being at. So much self-serving bullshit without a care for others or how it harms them.
How ridiculous that I’m in the societal position I’m in and yet, I can do nothing about it.
I sigh, uncurling my fists. “Very well. I never set out to hold her legally accountable anyway. I always knew it was virtually impossible to do, so I suppose it is what it is.”
“Societally, however…” Alec shrugs a shoulder and replaces the untouched cigarette in the box.
He slips it into his pocket and peers over at me with his dark eyes.
“You’ve already made a fair start on tearing Jasmine Sinclair to shreds, and from what Marina has told me, she’s rather put out by it.
I have to say, I’m very much looking forward to what you intend to do from this point. ”
Yes.
He and I both.
Because I have no idea.