A blush tints her cheeks, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her blush before. I sit beside her, and Jaqueline takes the other side. Bellamy is still at the hospital with the twins. It was announced last evening that they were born and that everyone was stable. It’s been all over the news and social media.
Sebastian has been bouncing back and forth between the hospital and the palace, and that’s on top of everything else that’s been happening. Sebastian takes a seat on the sofa across from us, beside Althea. Javier and Gabe are at the table with their laptops open and ready.
“Marcella, I know you’ve been through unspeakable trauma, not just over the last few days, but over your lifetime. I also understand your loyalty to your brother and what you told me about him and Nora has shaken me to my core. I can’t go back in time. But if I had known sooner, well, maybe many things would be different now. I don’t know. I don’t regret marrying Nora. She was a good woman and a good queen andmy friend. She was also the mother of my children, and for that, I’ll always be grateful to her. That said, I have so many questions, I hardly know where to start. I suppose my first question is, do you have any idea where Antonia could be?”
Marcella glances at Jaqueline. “I heard Signoria asking you about her when I arrived at the house. You said you didn’t know where she was.”
“I didn’t,” Jaqueline states. “Antonia drove me to the bay house, tied me to the chair, and said Signoria would be back. That was it. She left, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“She knew Signoria was coming to meet me in Tourin,” Marcella picks up, though she’s deep in thought. “I don’t know where she could be. As far as I know, she doesn’t own any property. She lived with us at the Batorini estate and would go visit her mother overnight once a week.”
“Her mother?” Gabe questions.
“Yes. Um, Signoria’s much older sister. She’s an Albini. I think she lives near Carona, maybe.”
Everyone exchanges glances, and both Gabe and Javier type away.
“Maryanne?” Gabe asks.
She nods at him. “Yes. I think that’s it.
“She’s dead.”
Marcella’s jaw drops. “You’re sure?”
“Died about six years ago.”
Marcella’s eyes close and she sighs. “I don’t understand. That’s where she told us she went every week. I have no clue about anything else.”
“We searched Signoria Batorini’s home,” Javier explains. “All of Antonia’s things are gone, as well as Signoria’s jewelry and some other expensive items that were listed on her insurance forms.”
“Then she’s gone. She was either planning that from thestart, thinking I was going to kill the king, and then Signoria would kill both Jaqueline and me, or she discovered something that made her do that. I don’t know.”
“Althea, did you know Desta wasn’t our mother’s child?” I ask.
Althea is visibly distraught. “No. Your mother was pregnant. The last time I saw her before Desta was ‘born’”—she puts air quotes around the word—“was when she was seven months along. I wasn’t living in the palace then, and your mother and I were never all that close. Shortly after that visit, she told me she was going to stay at a wellness retreat for the remainder of her pregnancy because she needed to get away from the stress and to relax. Then three months later, she came home with Desta.”
“I remember her being pregnant,” Sebastian says. “That’s why I couldn’t understand.”
“She must have lost the pregnancy,” Althea speculates. “Then stole Desta from Marie, knowing she was the king’s child and therefore of royal blood. Losing a pregnancy that late in term had to be horrific. Your mother was never the same after Desta was born. We thought it was postpartum depression. She was on a lot of medication to help it. After your father was killed and Desta was taken, she withdrew completely.”
“Marie still worked there, though,” I state. “Our mother didn’t fire her until a few weeks before Desta was taken.”
“Maybe Marie started making threats,” Althea suggests. “The baby was hers and being raised by another mother. Maybe it got to be too much for her, and your mother fired her to get rid of her.”
Sebastian stands and goes over to the bar and pours three large tumblers of whiskey. It’s the same thing he did after my mother left the last time. “You’re on pain medicine,” he says to Marcella. “But would you like one?”
“No. Thank you for offering, though.”
“Gabe, Javier? I think I already know what you’ll say, but I’ll offer anyway.”
Both shake their heads and Sebastian returns and hands Althea and me our glasses, and I take a hearty sip despite how my stomach is roiling.
“Antonia worked in the palace,” Javier states. “She was the king’s assistant. He fired her a year before Desta was born.”
I lean back against the sofa, my hand on my forehead as I think. “Why would he fire her? Because he wanted Marie instead of her?”
“I told you what Antonia’s like,” Marcella says in a low tone. “She wouldn’t have handled the king ending it with her for her sister well.”
