Page 62 of Hooked On Victor
One letter seared across the screen like prophecy:
“If they find out about the boy, the line ends in blood. Bury him so the name can survive.”
There were maps.
Ledgers marked with red slashes.
Unsent appeals to foreign courts begging for sanctuary in coded language.
And at the bottom of one page—scrawled in childish Cyrillic:
??????.
The Tsarina’s hand held it steady beneath the boy’s trembling letters, a mother guiding a child who didn’t yet know he was being taught to survive.
Historians fell on it like wolves.
Within an hour it was the front page of Reddit’s academic boards.
Within two, a Twitter war broke out between Russian archivists, each one screaming for provenance, crying forgery, or whispering confirmation.
The Russian Ministry of Culture released a terse, icy denial that only made it worse:
“Obvious fabrication designed to sow discord and insult the memory of the Imperial Family.”
By dawn, every major outlet was running it.
In Amsterdam, rain lashed the canal houses in relentless sheets, blurring the world into smears of gray and neon reflections.
Inside a narrow café crowded with old wood and newer pretensions, Victor sat at a table pressed against the fogged window.
His black sweater was damp at the shoulders from the walk.
A folded newspaper sat beside an untouched espresso that had gone cold.
He picked it up with fingers that trembled once before steadying.
The headline screamed across the front in blocky capitals:
ROMANOV LEDGER SPARKS GLOBAL FRENZY: WHO IS THE GUARDIAN?
Historic Leak Reveals Private Letters, Betrayals, Possible Surviving Heir
In an unprecedented leak late last night, hundreds of pages of unpublished Romanov-era documents were posted anonymously online. Historians and forensic analysts are scrambling to authenticate what many are calling the most important Imperial Russian discovery of the century.
The Letters
Letters from Nicholas II describe a desperate attempt to save his bloodline: “We cannot protect the crown, but perhaps the name can survive.”
The Tsarina’s private notes are more personal: “I fear for him. He does not understand what we ask.”
The Ledgers
Payments to revolutionaries to buy loyalty.Bribes to foreign embassies for silent passage.Redacted lists of collaborators.
The Child
Perhaps most shockingly, a letter hints at a secret child born to Tatiana Nikolaevna and hidden with Rasputin’s help before the massacre. Scholars are debating the authenticity of the note, which simply reads: “Bury him so the name can survive.”
