“I…”
She smiled. “It’s okay, I understand!” A loud beep thundered in the sky above even if there was not a single cloud in view. “It’s dangerous, but I will show you then! But we have to be very quick or the bad men will find us.” A tablet materialized in Sara’s hands, and she held it up to Aiden. It had an image of the seal he’d seen watermarkedacross MDL’s letters—the black and gold triangles—and was currently connected to the internet.
She retreated to her seat and bounced up and down in excitement as she typed, visibly unaffected by the memory she’d shown Aiden.And why should she be when she wasn’t the real Sara, but an AI based on who she’d presumably been when she was still alive?
“You recognize?” she said, showing Aiden the screen.
“Yes, it’s the seal from GN Riley and MDL’s letters.”
Sara performed a bunch of searches and commands and came up with an old article from the Global Nations’classified archives. She handed the tablet to Aiden.
Upon inspecting the page, he realized it was a document from twenty years ago that Sara had used fake credentials to access. He quickly scrolled past the warnings for unauthorized access, then skimmed through the pages with names of people involved. And there were lots of them, which meant that whatever he was about to find out was a bit more complicated than the testing of experimental weapons the public never got to find out about.
The list of names also struck him as strange—after all, why include that on a secret document? But as he scrolled to the start of the actual content, he concluded that things were done this way in order to assure neither party would be tempted to incriminate the other one. Mutually assured destruction, so they would all go down if whatever this was went out.
Aiden continued on. According to what he was reading, this was an agreement between the Global Nations’ council-government at the time, represented by a GN Riley, and an independent entity, MDL, to wipe out all mentions of the Valrais Royal Family from all public records, including the internet. The justification was that even if theGN or MDL failed to locate the surviving heir to the throne, he could never lay claim to something he supposedly had no right to. There was no mention of the ‘legacy’ though, which drove Aiden to believe that MDL never shared that part of his findings with the government.
Aiden’s skin felt too tight. This confidential document proved that the contents of the letters were not falsified and that Sara hadn’t lied to him. She was telling the truth, from the very start, no matter how impossible a conspiracy of this caliber sounded. The heartbreaking memory she’d showed him was real and the Valrais family had truly existed, only to be erased from history by orders from the Global Nations itself.
Still, even if Darren was…a knight serving the Valrais family,what did that have to do with Claudia?The Global Nations would’ve never let a secret like that out, so her and Darren’s paths would’ve had no reason to cross. Yet they had, and she had died for it, killed by a man Aiden understood even less now.
And MDL… who was that and why did it sound familiar, like something Aiden should’ve recognized…
Nerves on edge and head pulsating from the effort to stay focused, Aiden continued scanning the document, coming across an outline of the steps the government and MDL would take to achieve the removal and the subsequent forgery of historical records. Then, at the end of the report where the signatures and seals were, he saw the black and gold triangles again, though this time a red curved line connected the smaller shapes, forming an ellipse around the peak of the big triangular obelisk.
Aiden squinted at the seal, finding it even more familiar now.Fuck, where had he seen it?He knew it, it was at the tip of his tongue, just like MDL.
“Sara,” he said, his annoyance making his voice a little snappy. Whatever, he could just look it up on the internet now that they were connected. “Can you look up this seal…” he trailed off as his eyes moved along to the signature line.
Then he froze, his heart hammering against his ribcage as he finally matched the seal to its modern crowned mountain version and the abbreviated letters to the name they so obviously represented.
“Marcus DuLaurent,”he mouthed alongside Sara, staring wide-eyed at the signature line where MDL was handwritten in the same neat cursive that graced Claudia’s tombstone.
Claudia’s father was one of those involved in the assassination of the Valrais Royal Family.
Chapter 27
Aiden shot up fromthe bench, the rush of blood still ringing in his ears. This was impossible. Claudia’s father couldn’t have taken part in such a cruel crime. He couldn’t have forged historical records and ordered the massacre of an entire family.Of Sara.There had to be a mistake.
“Sir Kesley? Are you okay? I’m going to disconnect us from the internet now so the bad men can’t find us!” Sara chirped, her face scrunched in a frown.
How was this happening…? How could he have known nothing about the family he had been about to marry into?
“Sir Kesley?”
Aiden took a deep breath, but it did little to calm him down. Claudia… She had to have known. Yet she… hadn’t told him anything. A new hole opened in his already wounded heart, a trench that was quickly filling with doubts, suspicions and more questions. He felt nauseousand collapsed onto the bench. Was that why Claudia had died? Because she’d really gone after Darren and tried to kidnap him so Marcus could locate the heir and finish the job he’d failed to do twenty years ago?
So that he could kill Sara’s brother just like he’d killed her?
No, it couldn’t be. Claudia would’ve never kept such a thing from Aiden. They had no secrets from each other, they talked about anything and everything. They’d been together since high school, moved in as soon as they’d started university. They’d shared friends, memories and so many experiences… she’d had so many chances to tell him, so if she hadn’t, then that had to mean she’d not known. Right?
Aiden stared at Sara’s tablet, an urge to crush the device rising in him. He’d adored Claudia. Loved her beaming smiles and sharp wit, her never-ending ambitions, her intellect. He would’ve done anything for her, overlooked even a past like that had she been open with him.
Claudia had to have known, but she hadn’t trusted him. She’d chosen to keep the truth of who she really was from him.
It tore Aiden, breaking his heart, and yet, he still didn’t hate her. Because maybeshe would’ve told him once they’d gotten married. Maybe her parents had forced her to keep it a secret from him until they were sure he could be trusted. Or maybe she’d done it to protect him from the ugliness of the crime Marcus had committed, afraid that Aiden would judgeherfor it.
Whatever the case, now Aiden would never find out. Because of Darren Howe.
