"Captain Steiner said I was kidnapped when I was eighteen months old."
"You were.But your parents died six months before that."The Grand Duchess reached for a tissue and dabbed at her eyes, and I noticed her hand shaking slightly.She paused to take another discreet pill, washing it down with water from a crystal glass."Catherine and Philippe were killed in a car accident.”
“Was it foul play?”I asked, my mind racing with plots and conspiracies.
She shook her head.“No.We don’t believe so.Phillipe was driving too fast as he was wont to do. And since you weren’t in the car with them, I suppose he felt he could take riskier chances.”
That was so sad.
“After the accident, you came to live with me, and you were kidnapped from the palace gardens eight months later during a party."Her voice broke then."I should have been watching you that day, but I was in emergency session with the defense minister.There had been threats from a separatist group, and we were coordinating security responses.By the time I realized you weren't with your nanny..."She pressed her hand to her chest, breathing carefully."We searched everywhere, but you were gone.We waited for a ransom request.But it never came."
My brain was starting to short-circuit from information overload.I needed a flowchart.Or possibly a whole presentation with slides.
"So you're my grandmother."
"Yes."
"And you've been looking for me for twenty years."
"Every single day."Her voice broke slightly."The investigation consumed this country's resources for years.The security team, the police, Interpol.There was no trace of you anywhere."
"No one saw anything?"
"No.You simply vanished.We investigated separatist groups for years.Interrogated every member we could find, followed every lead.But whoever actually took you knew how to disappear.The separatists claimed responsibility initially, then retracted it, then went underground."She shook her head."Twenty years of searching, and all we have are dead ends and cold trails.”
“How did you find me?”
“Tik Tok.”
I blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
She pulled out a photo album and turned to a page of pictures of the same woman. She looked exactly like me.Same hair, same eyes, same slightly stubborn jawline that Dad always said would get me in trouble someday.
“That’s your mother, Catherine.”
“Catherine,” I breathed and touched the picture of the stranger with my face.
“I’ve never stopped looking for you and with the advancements in technology, social media and facial recognition, the security team found this.”
With shaking hands, she pulled out a phone and played a video. It was during karaoke night at the coffee shop last week. I was very badly singingWonderwallby Oasis.Derek must have posted it. Without my permission, I might add. I hadn’t seen it yet.Or I would have pitched a fit until he had taken it down.
“You had a whole security team looking for me? All these years?”
“Yes. When they found this, I tried not to get my hopes up. I sent Mireille and Dominic to investigate.”
“Who?”
“Captain Steiner and Lieutenant Commander Vasseur.”
“Right.Them.”
“And it was you. My own Bettina. Once lost.Now found.”The Grand Duchess turned a few pages in the album to a wedding spread.Catherine stood next to a tall man with kind eyes and dark hair.
"That’s your father Philippe.”
I stared at the photo, trying to feel some connection to these people who'd given me life but never had the chance to give me anything else.They looked happy.Young.Completely unaware that they wouldn’t have long life together.
It was so sad.
