Chapter 291 Whatever It Takes
ADRIANA
“Let me be very clear about something.” I looked around the room — at Hazel, at Elijah, at the space where the Elders had been sitting before they filed out. “That woman’s child will not sit on this throne while I am breathing. I don’t care what the test says, I don’t care what the Elders say, I don’t care what tradition says. Leo earned that position. It belongs to him. And anyone who tries to suggest otherwise is going to find out very quickly what I am capable of when it comes to my children.”
“Nobody is taking Leo’s throne,” Elijah said immediately and without qualification, which I appreciated.
“Make sure it stays that way.” I looked at him directly. “Because if you think for one moment about giving that crown to a boy who walked through our door forty-eight hours ago with a woman we have no reason to trust, I will burn this kingdom to the ground before I let it happen.” My voice grew louder as I pointed to my chest. “I raised Leo. I watched him train. I watched him study and struggle and grow into the kind of person who deserves to lead. No biology test changes that.”
Elijah was quiet. He knew better than to argue with me when I was in this register and he knew I meant every word.
“Get the DNA test done,” I said. “Today, if possible. And then get Simone and her son out of my house the moment the results are in, regardless of what those results say.”
I didn’t wait for a response. I left the room and went upstairs and sat on the edge of my bed and pressed my hands flat against my knees and breathed through the fury that came with having too many things happening simultaneously, all of them aimed at the same target.
Me. My family. Everything I had built.
Hazel came in after a few minutes and sat across from me without being asked.
“Will you actually kill him?” she said.
I looked at her.
“Elijah. You said if he thought about putting that boy on the throne—”
“He’s my husband.” I rubbed my face. “No. But I meant the rest of it. Leo’s position is non-negotiable and anyone who decides to make it a negotiation will find me on the other side of that table and I will not be reasonable about it.”
“I know.” She looked at me steadily. “I’ve arranged for the doctor to come tomorrow morning for the DNA test. I told him we need the results within twenty-four hours. He said he can do it.”
“Good.”
“And I booked a car to go to Roy’s pack myself in the morning to oversee the fingerprint analysis. I don’t want the results being handled by anyone I haven’t personally vetted.”
I looked at her with something close to gratitude. “Thank you.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” She paused. “Adriana. Do you think she knows she was sent here? That someone engineered her arrival?”
I had been thinking about exactly that since the courtroom. “I don’t know. She’s been carrying this story for years — a man she was with who turned out to be a king, a child she raised alone, a grievance she has every right to feel regardless of whether the boy is Elijah’s or not.” I nodded towards the window. “But the timing. The Elders being contacted before she even came to us. Someone who knew the formal succession process walked her through exactly how to make this land as a legal issue rather than a personal one.” I turned back to Hazel. “That’s not a woman acting alone. That’s a woman who was briefed.”
“Which makes her either an accomplice or a tool.”
“Yes. And I need to know which one before I decide how to deal with her.”
Hazel stood. “I’ll let you know the moment Roy’s results come in. Whatever time it is.” She moved to the door and then stopped. “The twins were asking about Lana again. Lorain too.”
Something moved through me at the mention of Lorain. Five years old and watching everything with those quiet, perceptive eyes, not saying much but missing nothing.
“What did you tell them?”
“Same as before. Hospital, recovering, coming home soon.” She paused. “Elijah junior told me they’re going to make her a welcome home sign. He and Liam have been working on it in secret.”
I pressed my lips together hard. “Don’t tell them anything different. Not yet.” She nodded and left.
I sat alone in the room and thought about the things I hadn’t said out loud yet. The part of me that was terrified about the deadline in the letter, the night that had passed without me leaving and without anything happening to Lana, and the silence from whoever had sent the letter that I couldn’t interpret yet. Were they watching and waiting? Had they moved her somewhere worse? Was the threat already in motion and I just didn’t know it yet?
The door opened and Elijah came in.
He looked at me and I looked at him and the silence between us was its own kind of conversation.
“Leo,” he said. “I spoke to him.”
“How is he?”
“Managing it. The way he manages everything.” He came and sat beside me. “He asked if his position was safe.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth. That it is, unconditionally, and that I would stand in front of anyone who tried to tell him otherwise.” He paused. “He didn’t say much after that but I could see what it meant to him.”
I nodded.
“I also think Simone was sent,” he said. “Someone is running this whole situation. The letter, Lana, and now her arriving exactly when she did with exactly the right knowledge of how to make it a formal legal matter.” He turned to look at me. “The name from Roy’s results tomorrow is going to connect to all of it. I can feel it.”
“When we have the name,” I said, “what do we do?”
“We find Lana first,” he said. “Everything else waits. She comes home first.”
I held his gaze for a long moment and then I looked at the window and the dark outside it and thought about my daughter somewhere in it and I made myself the same promise I’d been making every hour since she disappeared.
She was coming home. Whatever it took.