Chapter 34

Jakob

The two of us sit in the corner of the windowless conference room.

Flora is pacing and texting someone.

Uther is unbothered, standing by as always.

Doug and Nancy are beside themselves.

And Jo? Jo is confused.

As for me, I'm in shock.

And yet, something deep down tells me I should have known.

"The question is, how did they get Jakob's DNA?"

"They didn't. This is all guesswork," Doug snaps.

Nancy nods. "My sources tell me that there's a team of reporters who've been investigating the king's, uh, dalliances for years."

Flora, who has overheard the conversation, interrupts. "I'm sorry, but my mother has known about my father's infidelities. He has always had a habit of disappearing for days, sometimes weeks at a time. His dalliances are not a surprise to anyone."

Jo and I glance at each other. I turn back to Flora. "He has?"

Flora nods solemnly and lets out a heavy sigh. "I'm just glad we're finally talking about it in the open."

Doug waves his hands in the air. "No. No. No, we're not talking about any of this in the open. Your Highness, please put your phone away. We have to strategize…"

Doug continues to throw out all sorts of made-up explanations and back stories, but no one is listening.

Jo turns to me. "You know, I wondered. When that man at the Salska train station approached us. I thought he was being so silly. But the more I look at you now, the more I see it."

My wife is talking to me and yet, why do I feel as if she's slipping away from me?

"It's true there's no father listed on my birth certificate," I say, "but that doesn't mean anything."

"The exact color of the Haart brothers' beards, the cheekbones, the shoulders, the chin, the height. Just like the king. Just like your brothers."

"Half-brothers," I correct. "Maybe. If any of this is true."

"Jakob, you might be a prince. Do you understand that?"

I don't know how to respond, except to call upon memories that I've bottled up for my entire life.

"The king visited my mother on and off for years," I finally admit.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Doug's attention snap to me.

"What the fuck?" someone whispers.

"It was the 1990s, and no one was telling on the king's personal business," I continue. "My mother suffered massively from depression. I suppose she was in love with a man she couldn't have. She became addicted to pain pills and made the difficult choice to send me away to live with my aunt. Jo, that aunt was your neighbor when we were children, so I suppose you could say my mother is responsible for us meeting."

"Holy hell, Jakob."

"My mother revealed the affair to me before she died three years ago. I've kept it a secret to protect myself and to protect her."

Jo is unreadable at this point. "I…I don't even know what to say. Gods, I need air. Why doesn't this room have a window!"

I grab her hand. Our world is collapsing.

"I need you by my side, Jo. I have to find the king. We have to talk to both of them before they hear this gossip from someone else."

She pulls away from me, and it's a knife to my heart. "I need to get out of here. I need to think."

"We need to speak to the king," I say to no one, because no one is paying attention to me. My wife is panicking, and everyone is staring at their phones.

I get in their faces and make my demands. But neither Doug, who still paces and types furiously on his phone, nor Uther, who hovers over Flora, will agree to me having a private meeting with the monarchs.

"They are resting before the press conference," says Uther when I implore him.

"Rest time is over. This is important. At the very least, the queen needs to hear this news from me and not have it sprung on her in public."

Doug shakes his head. "We're killing that story. We're squashing it. There's no reason to even entertain any such ridiculous claims."

No one is hearing me.

"The king has to tell the queen the truth before we go to this press conference, or I will tell her," I tell him.

"No one is simply granted an audience with the queen because they request it. There are forms to be filled out," Uther says.

"You can't be serious!" Jo lays a gentle hand on my arm, and it instantly cools my boiling blood.

"Maybe I can help."

Jo and I both spin around and are struck by the fact that the princess is offering to do us a favor.

Her eyes glint with mischief. "I have ways of bypassing all of the red tape."

I bow my head to her in gratitude.

"None of that bowing and scraping now. Follow me. Brother."

With a wink, we are off to find the king, as Doug's protests echo off the walls of palace's corridors.

It turns out that not even the princess can access the king and queen whenever she wants to.

"I'm sorry," Flora says as she exits the monarchs' private chambers, closing the door behind her. "Perhaps we can pull them aside at the press conference."

Uther may pin me to the ground for trying to approach them, but I have to try.

"The king has to be prepared. There are DNA tests to conduct before we know anything for sure," I say.

Flora shakes her head. "All in good time. But look at you. I think we have our answer. In the meantime, I think we should tell your brothers."

The word "brother" does something to me. I feel strange. Not bad. But different.

Everything hits me all at once right there in the hall as we make our way toward Sigurd and Stasi's chamber, where the other siblings are gathering to meet their new niece.

Emotions clog my throat. I had nothing mere months ago. And now I have a wife, and I may have a sister and three brothers. And a niece.

We arrive at Stasi and Sigurd's chamber. Flora goes in first, while Jo and I wait out in the hall.

To my alarm, Jo's face is downcast. "I'm happy for you, Jakob."

"Jo, I know it's a lot to take in. Yet we don't know for sure."

"I think we do. I just wish you'd told me about the affair."

The light from the chandelier above us is reflected in the teardrops that fall to the floor.

"Would you have believed me?"

Jo lifts her chin finally and meets my gaze. "I would follow you to hell and back, Jakob. I would have kept all your secrets. It's you who didn't trust me."

"Jo."

"I need to lie down."

"I'll walk you," I offer.

She walks away, her silvery blue gown glittering as it sweeps over the marble floor behind her. "I can find it on my own."

Callum Black strides up, just then, looking perturbed.

"Have you seen Flora?"

I gesture at the door. "She's in there, meeting her new niece."

"Oh," Callum grunts, looking uncomfortable.

A second later, Flora throws open the door and grabs my wrist, pulling me inside Sigurd and Stasi's room, Callum following quickly behind.

My old housemate is tired but radiant, propped up by what may be a thousand pillows in a grand four-poster bed. In her arms is a tiny, wriggling, fresh baby girl.

My heart aches for Jo to be here.

"Jakob! I'm so happy to see you," Stasi exclaims.

Flora clears her throat and makes a grand bowing gesture. "Sigurd. Meet your brother."

The silence that follows is deafening.

Sigurd bellows, "Brother? What the hell is going on?"

"It seems that palace security has known all along who it was who caught Flora when she fell from the balcony box. But the king hushed it all up," Callum says.

"Why?" Stasi asks.

I'm having a hard time finding the words, being surrounded by what is most likely my blood family for the first time in my life.

"Because…because my mother was the king's…mistress."

The sounds of a squirming newborn baby fill the shocked silence.

"I can't believe you never told me," Stasi says.

"There's never been a paternity test," I say.

Sigurd comes to his feet, hesitant to leave his wife's side. He towers over me and slowly offers his hand.

I take his offered handshake. My brother—most likely.

The conversation continues around us.

"You know what this means," says a voice from the corner. That would be Etienne, prince number two.

"We don't know that for sure. Not yet." This comes from the eldest brother, Torben.

"Look at him. I think we know what happens next," Etienne says.

Stasi's tired eyes widen in panic. "You don't have to do this, Jakob. You don't have to face the queen. If you are the king's biological son, you don't have to be king if you don't want to."

She may know me better than anyone in the room, a fact that scrapes a hole in my chest because Jo isn't here.

She should be. My wife needs to be a part of this decision.

Something in Sigurd's grip on my hand empowers me.

I don't have to do or say anything. But when I look around the room, when I look at the fallout, someone needs to hold the king accountable for his actions.

Torben and Hailey, denied the monarch's blessing because she's an American and a commoner. Etienne declared unfit to rule because of his "embarrassing" public recovery from alcohol dependance. Sigurd was driven away, hiding out for months to avoid the pressure and resentment over a responsibility he never wanted.

Finally my eyes land on Flora, who may be my sister, who gives me an encouraging nod. She's at peace with whatever I decide to do…or she doesn't want the throne at all.

All eyes are on me. "After what he put my mother through, I'll do it just to see the look on the old bastard's face."

I wait for a backlash that doesn't come.

"My father could just as easily find a way to declare you unfit," Sigurd says.

Flora adds, "He'd be hard-pressed. There's no law against entitlements to any offspring of a sitting king, no matter the status."

"I'll do my duty," I tell everyone. "And I'll do exactly what needs to be done with the monarchy."

What that means, exactly, depends entirely on how the king takes responsibility for the news—if the paternity test comes back positive.

I tell them what I plan to do.

Not only do I have four new siblings, they are all in agreement.