"You are the real Princess Bettina," Vasseur said, accepting his mug with a nod of thanks.
"Fine.What happened to me twenty years ago?"
Captain Steiner wrapped her hands around her mug and took a careful sip.Her eyebrows rose slightly."This is excellent."
"Thank you.Now talk."
She set down her mug and looked directly into my eyes."You were kidnapped from the palace gardens during a party.By the time security realized you were missing, your kidnappers had vanished without a trace.No ransom demands.No political statements.You simply disappeared."
"Are you saying my parents," I stopped and shook my head."My adoptive parents kidnapped me?"
"Bob and Linda Montclair are good people," she said quickly."From what we've been able to determine, they had no idea about your true identity.They were told you were the child of a teenage mother who couldn't care for you.The adoption was handled through a third party, completely legal on their end."
"But not legal on yours."
"No.Not legal on ours."
I took a long drink of my mocha and tried to process this information.Mom and Dad were my parents in every way that mattered.They'd raised me, loved me, supported my dreams even when those dreams changed every six months.The idea that they might be innocent victims in some elaborate kidnapping plot was almost harder to believe than the princess thing.
"So what happens now?"I asked."Do I get a tiara and a pony?"
Lieutenant Commander Vasseur still didn't crack a smile.This guy was fun at parties, I could tell."You come home to Valdoria.There are obligations you need to take care of."
"What kind of obligations?"I said suspiciously.
Captain Steiner and Vasseur exchanged another one of those meaningful looks.The kind that said they were about to drop another bomb on my already-exploded Tuesday.
"Perhaps," Steiner said carefully, "we should let your grandmother explain the situation herself."
"My alleged grandmother."
"Your grandmother," she corrected firmly."Duchess Margot has been waiting twenty years to see you again.She's not going to wait much longer."
There was something in her tone that made my stomach clench."What does that mean?"
"It means," Vasseur said, "that if you don't come willingly, there will be consequences."
"For who?"
"Whom," Vasseur corrected.
I resisted the urge to flip him the bird.
"For the people who raised you."
The temperature in the café seemed to drop ten degrees."Are you threatening my parents?"
"We're explaining the reality of the situation," Captain Steiner said."International law is very clear about kidnapping cases.If you refuse to return to Valdoria, your adoptive parents could face charges."
"They didn't know," I said, my voice rising."You just said they had no idea."
"That's not how the law works," Vasseur interrupted."Ignorance isn't a defense.They harbored a kidnapped child for twenty years.That's a crime in most countries."
"Including this one," Steiner added.
I set down my mug carefully, my hands shaking.This wasn't happening.This couldn't be happening.Mom and Dad were the most innocent people on the planet.They volunteered at animal shelters, donated to food banks, and had never even gotten a speeding ticket.
But then I thought about what had just happened.How quickly the Valdorians made Derek disappear.How easily they'd purchased an entire café without blinking.
