Page 57 of A Fierce Princess

My father stops pacing. “What did you just say?” he asks me.

I shudder. “I just tracked the last message to Uncle Eddie’s house. The one we used to visit with the pool,” I restate.

“It’s not him,” my father says firmly.

“Daddy—”

“Susanna, stop! I’m telling you, Edvard is not trying to kill his son,” my father yells. “I know because he has provided security detail to keep tabs on Logan since he was born.”

The room goes deathly silent.

“What?!” Logan says, breaking the silence.

My father walks around his desk and sits in the imposingly large leather chair behind it. He runs his hands through his thinning hair and looks back at us.

“Everyone sit down, please,” he says. Just then, Paolo, Mia, Shannon, Pete, and Marcus emerge from the hallway. “You might as well come in too,” he adds to them, pointing at the sofas along the wall of the study. They scurry in and take seats.

He places his elbows on the desk and folds his hands together. He’s silent for a long moment and then glances down at his phone as it pings.

We all stare expectantly at him.

“We have one more joining us,” he says, his voice seems loud and echoes in the silence of the giant two-story room.

There’s a knock on the open door a minute later, and we all look up as our butler, Gerard, stands at the door with King Edvard behind him.

“His Royal Highness, King Edvard, Your Majesty,” he announces as he steps back and allows Uncle Eddie to enter the room.

I know that my mouth is on the floor, but as I look around every face in the room is staring at the door in complete and utter shock.

“Michael,” he says to my father.

“Good to see you, Eddie. I believe you are just in time,” my father says.

Everyone is looking from Dad to Uncle Eddie and back again. I can feel the tension radiating off Logan, and I reach over and grip his hand. Uncle Eddie’s gaze travels across the room and, eventually, stop when it reaches Logan. I had noticed similarities before, but now that they are both in the same space, the common physical traits between them seem magnified exponentially.

I swear I see tears form in Uncle Eddie’s eyes, but he quickly composes himself.

“Shall I begin, or do you want to?” he asks my father without removing his stare from Logan. Logan is now so tense that he feels like a statue against my hand.

“Well, I think introductions are required first, don’t you?” my father suggests, glancing between Uncle Eddie and Logan.

Uncle Eddie sucks in a deep breath. “I’ve waited for this moment for so long that I’m not entirely sure where to begin,” he says to Logan and no one else in the room. I suddenly feel like a voyeur, as though it’s very wrong to be in the room. But Logan squeezes my hand, and I know being here is giving him strength, so I remain still.

Uncle Eddie clears his throat. “We have so very much to catch up on, my son. But first, I think everyone in the room, especially you, deserves to hear the truth,” Uncle Eddie says. My father motions for him to take a seat in the chair by the window. Uncle Eddie complies and looks back at my father.

“I suppose I should begin with why I sent you and your mother away,” he says, looking back at Logan. “It was the hardest thing that I’ve ever done. I loved her…I still love her,” he continues, his voice laced with emotion. He pauses, composing himself again. “I met Leah when she was covering me for a story. I was immediately awestruck by her. She was not only beautiful and intelligent and kind, but she was so full of life. We fell in love quickly. I kept it a secret from everyone, even my family because I knew that they wouldn’t approve of my being with a commoner. We were together for a year or so when she became pregnant. Around the same time, there was a threat from anti-monarchists in our country. They had attempted to assassinate me. I was newly king after my father’s death, and I was scared for Leah and for you,” he says, pausing to look at Logan. “I knew it wasn’t safe, and I didn’t know when it would be safe again. Your mother and I secretly wed. I kept her hidden in an apartment not far from the palace until she gave birth to you. I managed to sneak you both out to a small cottage on our country estate. You remained there for a few months. I hoped the leader of the anti-monarchist group would be captured and tried for my attempted assassination. But that didn’t happen as quickly as I liked. I begged your mother to go home to Pittsburgh, to stay away from me. If her connection to me got out…it was too dangerous. She refused. We fought, and I left her. I knew she was too stubborn to listen to my reasoning, so I did the only thing I thought I could. I told her I no longer loved her, and she needed to leave. She packed up and went home the next day.”

Uncle Eddie stops for a long minute and the pain in his eyes radiates across the room.

“The threat ended when my military forces stormed a compound and killed the leader of the group that was attempting to assassinate me. I went to your mother but she refused to see me, refused to speak with me. You were three and still living with your grandparents. I didn’t give up though. Every few months, I’d try to contact her. When you were just a teenager, she finally agreed to meet with me. I told her everything. She said that she didn’t know if she could forgive me for abandoning you both. But after that meeting, we began to speak again, regularly. I talked her into moving to the Bahamas where I had a friend with a property,” he says as he looks toward my father. “She agreed, and we began to see each other in secret. We were about to tell you, Logan. She hadn’t wanted to introduce us until she was sure that I wouldn’t leave again, but that took several years of convincing. Then she was killed in the car accident.” Uncle Eddie looks completely heartbroken. I’ve never seen him like this before, and it scares me a little.

“I saw you at the funeral. I watched you, and then I watched you back in the Bahamas. You had a life and a good one. You had friends and freedom to do what you wanted. I knew if I came to you and told you the truth, you’d lose all of that. So, I made the painful decision to stay away from you. I secretly hired security through Hans, so it couldn’t be traced back to me. They kept general tabs on you. Reporting back to me once a week through a secret email account I had set up. When Michael said you’d shown up here, I thought it was an odd coincidence at first. He talked me into coming here. But from the conversation I just heard from out in the hallway, I do believe we are faced with more than a family reunion, years in the making. I don’t know who’s trying to harm you, but I do know it is not me.” Uncle Eddie closes his eyes for a moment. The silence in the room is all-consuming.

“I would never harm a hair on your head, my son. You’re all I have left of her, your mother. And I would die protecting you from any enemy, even myself,” he says.

He walks slowly toward Logan and kneels down next to his seated son. He takes Logan’s other hand in his and looks into his eyes.

“Please, please forgive me. I never abandoned you. I’ve always loved you. I would die for you,” he says. This time a tear does escape his eye. He wipes it away and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a photo, and I look down to see an image of Uncle Eddie holding a baby, Logan.

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