Page 85 of Dark Princess Emerging

"Do you have her signature from before?" Ell-rom said. "We could compare them to see if the divorce papers were a forgery."

Roni gave him an indignant look. "Of course, I compared it to the one on the marriage certificate, and they seem close enough, but I'm not an expert. You will need a forensic document examiner, and given that we can only print out photos of the originals, I assume that comparing the signatures will be difficult."

"Can you print out the copies for me?" Jasmine asked.

"Sure thing." Roni punched a few keys, and the printer on his desk revved to life. "I can dig up some more, but it will have to wait. I'm in the middle of a huge project." He handed her the printouts.

"Thank you." Jasmine clutched them, new hope blooming in her chest. "When you have the time, let me know if you find anything more."

"I will." Roni saluted her with two fingers. "Good luck." He swiveled his chair and went back to work as if they weren't there.

Walking back through the lab, Jasmine's mind whirled with possibilities. Her mother might be alive. She might have chosen to leave them for some reason, but why would she do that?

The idea that her mother had chosen to abandon her should have hurt, but if Kyra had sacrificed her family and her own happiness to fight for her people, perhaps she could forgive her.

"Are you okay?" Ell-rom asked.

Jasmine nodded. "Roni has given me hope that Kyra is still alive, and if Syssi's vision was about her, she is fighting for her people, and I'm proud of her."

"You're not angry at her for leaving you and your father?"

Jasmine took a deep breath. "I cannot judge her until I know all the details. I bet she had a very good reason for what she did, and she either had no choice or thought to protect us." She turned to look into Ell-rom's big blue eyes. "My father holds the answers to at least some of these questions. We need to pay him a visit."

51

MORELLE

It took Morelle less than ten minutes to pack her entire wardrobe into the suitcases Brandon had brought from his house. Another five minutes in the bathroom was all she needed to collect the few toiletries that were actually hers and not what she'd found in Annani's home.

All that she owned fit inside one suitcase, and it was more than she had ever owned before. As she looked around, she realized that this room in her sister's house had become more of a home to her than anywhere she'd lived before.

Strange how a place could feel so familiar after such a short time. But then, she hadn't really lived in the temple. She'd merely existed, marking time like a prisoner counting days but with no end to her sentence in sight.

She couldn't have known that her mother would one day smuggle her and her brother off the planet and send them across the galaxy to their father.

Morelle had believed that the temple was where she would spend the rest of her life, copying scriptures by hand and performing other mundane tasks she found boring.

In the past two weeks here on Earth, she had done more living than in all her previous years combined.

Brandon had already gathered the few belongings he'd brought to Annani's home and gone to help Ell-rom and Jasmine, who had somehow managed to fill the entire walk-in closet in their room, mostly with Jasmine's things, she'd been told.

Well, there was no comparison between her brief life on Earth and Jasmine's. Her brother's mate had a lifetime of collecting stuff, and it looked like the people of Earth enjoyed having many things.

It was nice, Morelle had to admit, to own outfits of different kinds to fit different moods. Variety added another dimension that had been lacking in her previous life. She'd had two sets of identical robes and veils, and there had been no change in her appearance from one day to the next.

Making her way to the other bedroom, she found Jasmine folding clothes on the bed, the suitcase open on the floor next to her, already half full.

"Where are Ell-rom and Brandon?" Morelle asked.

"They went to Brandon's house with what I've already packed," Jasmine explained, smoothing a wrinkle from a blouse she was folding.

"Do you need help?"

Jasmine smiled. "No, thank you. I'm very particular about how I fold my things and in what order I put them inside the luggage, but you can keep me company."

That was already one way in which Morelle was sure Jasmine and Ell-rom differed. Her brother couldn't care less about his clothing and how it was folded.

"Can I ask you something?"

---