"Despite that.Yes."She wiped her eyes."I've spent twenty years consumed by guilt and rage and grief.Wondering what happened to you, if you were safe, if you were happy.And now I know you were loved by good people who gave you what I couldn't."She took a shaky breath."That's worth something.Maybe not everything, but something."
We sat in silence for a moment.I looked around at the photos of my mother, at the life I might have had if things had been different.
"She looks happy in these photos," I said."My mother.When she was young."
"She was happy.She loved horses, loved reading, loved making everyone laugh.She had her mother's stubbornness and her father's optimism."My grandmother smiled through her tears."She would have loved you, Betty.Would have been so proud of who you became."
"Even though I make coffee for a living?"
"Especially because of that.Catherine hated the formality of royal life.She would have thought it was wonderful that you did something normal and honest."She paused."Though she also would have been horrified by the lies I told you about the marriage.She was very particular about honesty."
"Then why did you think lying to me was a good idea?"
"Because I'm not your mother.I'm a dying queen who's made too many compromises and too few good choices, and I prioritized securing your future over respecting your agency."She looked at me directly."I'm not asking you to forgive me, Betty.I'm asking you to understand why I did it and to please, please not let my mistakes destroy your chance at happiness."
"My happiness?You trapped me in a permanent marriage to a man I barely know!"
"I facilitated an alliance that would protect both our countries and gave you the resources and status to live independently if that marriage doesn't work out."She leaned forward."The annulment papers Archibald gave you, do you still have them?"
"How did you know about those?"
"I'm dying, not dead.I still have sources."She smiled slightly."He loves you, you know.Truly, genuinely loves you in a way I haven't seen him love anyone.And yes, he lied to you too, and that was wrong.But he's trying to fix it.Trying to give you the choice I took away."
"By offering to destroy the alliance and leave Solmarina vulnerable to Russian aggression?That's not a choice, that's emotional blackmail."
"No, dear.Emotional blackmail would be me begging you to stay married because I'm dying."She paused."Which I am absolutely about to do, by the way.Stay married to Archibald.Tear up those annulment papers.Give yourself a chance to be happy with someone who clearly adores you."
"This isn't about me being happy.This is about you wanting to see me settled before you die."
"It's both."She didn't even try to deny it."I want you settled and safe because I love you and I'm selfish and I don't want to spend my last year worried about what happens to you after I'm gone.But I also genuinely think Archibald is a good man who will treat you well if you give him the chance."
I pulled out my phone and found the photo I'd saved, the news article about Princess Anastasia, beautiful and sophisticated and everything I wasn't.
"What about her?Viktor brought her to the palace, showed Archie what a real princess looks like.Someone who actually knows how to do this job."
My grandmother took the phone and studied the photo."Anastasia Nikolaevna.Lovely girl.Completely wrong for Archibald."
"How do you know?"
"Because she's Russian-adjacent, which means she's politically radioactive for Mediterranean alliances.And more importantly, because Archibald doesn't love her.He loves you."She handed back the phone."Don't let Viktor's manipulations make you doubt that."
"Viktor."I sat up straighter."Speaking of Viktor, I need to tell you something."
I told her everything.The sabotaged luggage, the switched speech, the music room incident, the Italian lesson materials, the destroyed rooms, the threatening messages.All of it.
Her expression grew darker with each detail, her hands gripping the armrests of her chair with white-knuckled fury.
"Someone in my palace," she said when I finished."Someone with high-level access has been trying to destroy you."
"Archie thinks it's coordinated.The timing is too perfect, the incidents too well-planned."
"Who has that level of access?"She was already running through possibilities, her mind sharp despite her failing body."Who knew your schedule, had access to your rooms, could manipulate palace systems?"
"We have a suspect list.Viktor is on it."
"Viktor."She said his name like a curse."My chief advisor.He will rue the day if it turns out he has done this."
"There's someone else too.Count Alessandro.He was asking questions, showing up in strange places."
