Chapter 287 Legitimacy
ADRIANA
“I’ve already said this once and I won’t make a habit of repeating myself.” Elijah’s voice was very quiet and very final. “You will not speak to my wife that way. I don’t care what you came here to say or what history you believe you have with me — in this room and in this house, you will conduct yourself accordingly. Am I clear?”
Simone held his gaze for a moment with the expression of someone recalculating how much ground she’d already lost. Then she huffed. “Yes. Fine. Can I continue?”
“You may.”
She turned back to the room with the composure of someone who had rehearsed this and was going to deliver it regardless of the reception. “As I was saying. We were together, and I got pregnant. And this—” she gestured toward her son with the particular pride of a woman who had been waiting a long time to make this presentation, “is the result. Look at him. He’s a fine young man. Anyone can see where he comes from.”
I looked at the boy. He was looking at the ceiling like he desperately wanted to be somewhere else, and I understood that feeling completely. Whatever his mother had told him about this trip, the reality of being stood in a formal courtroom while adults negotiated his existence was clearly not what he’d signed up for.
I looked back at Simone.
She was watching Elijah with an expression that was performing confidence and underneath it was something rawer. hope, I thought. Or what was left of hope after years of running a story in your head and finally arriving at the moment you get to tell it out loud.
It didn’t make me like her. It made me understand her slightly, which was worse.
“Elijah.” I kept my voice level. “Would you like to respond?”
He leaned forward slightly in his seat. “I am the King. I have been married for over ten years. I have children. four of them, and we have built a life and a family and a kingdom together. You’ll understand why I am not prepared to simply accept what you’re telling me without verification.” He held her gaze. “Beyond your claim and the child standing in front of me, what evidence did you bring?”
Simone looked at me when she answered, which told me she understood exactly who she needed to convince and it wasn’t Elijah. “I don’t carry around paperwork proving my son is my son,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d need to.”
“You walked into a palace to claim your child is an heir to a throne,” I said pleasantly. “You didn’t think documentation might be useful.”
“The people that matter believe me.”
“And the people that matter need more than your word.” I held her gaze steadily. “A birth certificate would be a reasonable start. Medical records. Anything that establishes a timeline.”
She looked back at Elijah. “Eli, is this how it’s going to be? You’re going to let her interrogate me like a criminal?”
“She’s asking reasonable questions,” Elijah said. “Questions that need answers.”
“I need time to think about all of this,” Elijah continued, “before I give any kind of ruling. The situation is complex and I am not going to make decisions under pressure in a room with insufficient information.” He stood. “We’ll arrange accommodation for you and your son for the time being while this is investigated properly.”
“Accommodation?” Simone’s eyebrows went up. “Where?”
“There is a room in the guest annex,” I said, before Elijah could respond. “Outside the main house. It’s comfortable and fully serviced. That is where you and your son will stay until this matter is resolved.” I kept my tone completely pleasant. “You’re welcome to let the staff know if you need anything.”
She looked at Elijah. “Eli, look me in my eyes and tell me you’re not letting her put me in some outbuilding like staff.”
“My wife has offered you accommodation on the property,” Elijah said. “That is more than most people would receive arriving unannounced with a claim like this.” He looked at the guard by the door. “Please show them to the annex.”
As they were being guided out, Simone paused and looked back at Elijah with the expression of a woman trying to decide whether she still had leverage and how much.
“This isn’t what I expected,” she said.
“No,” Elijah said. “I imagine it isn’t.”
She left. The door closed. The room was quiet.
I stood up and walked out without saying anything to Elijah, because what I had to say to him was not for a courtroom and not for right now, and I went back to my room and took off the crown and sat on the edge of the bed and thought about my daughter who was somewhere I couldn’t find her and my son whose throne someone was now standing in this house trying to claim and the specific exhaustion of being someone who never got to put a problem down before another one arrived.
I was still sitting there when the door opened.
Elijah came in. He looked at me and I looked at him and neither of us said anything for a moment.
“What will it take?” he said finally. “For you to not be angry with me.”
“I’m not angry at you.” I looked at him directly. “This happened when you were seventeen and you didn’t know about the child. That’s not something I can hold against you.” I paused. “What I’m managing right now is the fact that this is happening at this moment, while our daughter is missing and Leo’s position is now being contested by someone who showed up in our house without warning. That’s what I’m sitting with.”
“Leo’s position is not being contested,” he said immediately. “I told you—”
“I know what you told me. I also know how quickly things move when the Elders decide something is a legal question rather than a personal one.” I stood up and crossed to him. “I need you to promise me something. Not as my husband. As the King.”
“Tell me.”
“Whatever the test says — and we are doing a test, that’s not a discussion — Leo’s crown stays where it is. He has been prepared for that position his entire life. He has earned it. No biological technicality walks into this house and undoes fifteen years.”
Elijah held my gaze. “You have my word. Leo’s position is not in question.”
I stretched my hand out. “Then shake on it. Like a proper agreement.”
He took my hand and shook it once, and then didn’t let go, and I let that sit for a moment before I pulled away.
“Now go find out what the Elders want because they’re here and that’s not a coincidence.”