Page 65 of The Prodigal Prince

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The next day brought a return to the palace, this time driven by members of the security team.

Gray sat between Mac and Fiona, holding both of their hands as they drove through the streets of Ancora.

He and Fiona had talked for a few minutes, mostly to determine that they were both physically fine. Their son calling for both of them sent them back into his room. Fiona slept next to Gray while Mac dozed in a comfortable chair.

Esme had called but hadn’t come over to the estate. There was another event she and Gabe both couldn’t miss without raising suspicions.

The two of them were waiting just inside the entrance to the palace. As soon as the doors closed behind them, Esme ran to him and threw her arms around his neck.

“I was so worried. I already lost you once. A second time would have been too much.” He could hear the tears in her voice.

“I’m not going anywhere, Esme.” They both knew that couldn’t be strictly accurate, but understood that he wouldn’t simply disappear again.

He looked over to see Gabe giving Fiona a big hug then picking up Gray for a hug as well.

When his sister let go, Mac and Gabe did one of those manly handshake hug things as Esme embraced Fiona.

Gray reclaimed his hand before grabbing Fiona’s as they walked through the hallways Esme’s office.

Most of their things had been brought back from the estate. Fiona set Gray up with his tablet, bear, and headphones then startedBlue’s Big City Adventurefor him. He settled into one of the chairs as the rest of those gathered around a conference table on the other side of the room.

“What can you tell us?” Despite the other VIPs in attendance, including two kings, Esme took control of the meeting. “Do we know who the two men are?”

Justin, King Benjamin’s head of security, answered. “We believe Bradley is the son of Isaiah Quatremaine and one of the staff members at the Lake Akushla residence. We’re waiting on test results to be certain, but everything points to that. We don’t know who James is yet, but suspect he’s a henchman of some sort.”

“They’re the ones behind the sabotage at the estate during the Christmas event?” Gabe asked.

“We believe so.” Justin looked at his notes. “Based on what Prince Maximilian told us, Isaiah forged documents to take over the estate years ago. He set up Bradley as his surrogate then left, presumably died, and Bradley continued running it into the ground. When Princess Angelina and Beau arrived, he’d been spending most of his time traveling. We think another one of his associates sent out the invitations in an effort to embarrass them and drive them off so they could take back over. When Beau and Angelina rose to that challenge, they decided to try to sabotage the event itself. That didn’t work out as planned either.”

“So they’ve just been waiting around for another chance?” Mac didn’t understand that.

“Not as far as we can tell. They reentered the country a few days ago. We suspect they saw the reports about Mac having a son and decided to take look for an opportunity to take custody of Gray.”

“Why would they want Gray?” Gabe asked the question.

So he didn’t know about Mac. “Because of who my father is.” Mac sighed.

A puzzled look crossed his brother-in-law’s face. “What are you talking about?”

Esme looked at Mac and waited for him to nod before explaining. “His biological father is Isaiah Quatremaine. His biological mother worked here in the palace. There was coercion of some kind, though we don’t have the details. Mum found out about it and adopted Mac when he was born. From the information Mum left behind, his birth mother is deceased, but a distant relative of hers. It seems that this other woman was technically the next in line after Mum, at least until I was born.”

Mac stared at his sister. “What are you talking about?”

“Mum had no living siblings. Neither did either one of our grandparents or great-grandparents. She and Mum shared grandparents, though her father was the result of an affair and never publicly claimed as a member of the family. However, the way the rules of succession are written, it doesn’t matter as long there’s proof of paternity. If, God forbid, something had happened to me before I had children, Mac would have been the legal heir to the throne regardless.”

The news stunned Mac. Is that why she adopted him? Because he was family? Or was there more to it than that and being so repulsed by her husband that having a second child that a tangentially related child was the best option?

“She knew your mother was related,” Esme told him, reaching over to grasp his hand. “She’d done her best to look out for this cousin, but it wasn’t always possible. When your mum told Mum about the baby, they both knew they needed to keep your existence a secret from Isaiah as long as possible. The paperwork she left didn’t say when he found out but that he had at one point. By then you were thoroughly enmeshed as her son in everyone’s eyes. He couldn’t have tried anything with you.”

“But he could with my son.” Mac closed his eyes. “I wasn’t worried for nothing. He would have come after Gray if he’d known.”

“Most likely,” King Edward confirmed. “Your mother and I discussed your biological parents a number of times. Once you reached six or seven, she started to relax a little bit about the potential for interference by Isaiah.”

Thor leaned forward. “When we found paperwork left by Isaiah, it indicated he had a number of children we were previously unaware of. However, we didn’t have enough information to find any of them. It seems plausible that he wanted to raise a son to be his successor. He didn’t appear to know about Bradley until later in his life. If he’d known about you sooner, he may have tried to raise you himself. There’s no way to know.”

“So if he was still alive, it’s likely he would have tried to get his hands on his grandson?” Mac’s stomach churned at the thought.

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