“—loved posting about gardening tips. What are your thoughts on this?” Kai questions, still digging through comments.
I can’t help myself, already trying to make sense of what he’s shown me.Watch the cousin.That doesn’t really sound conspiratorial to me. It sounds like a warning given in confidence.
“If this is fake, somebody put a lot of effort into it.”
“And if it’s not? Baked Bean could be right, and we’re letting you walk into a trap.”
Wow, he’s giddy about the very idea, like my life is some cheap murder mystery for him to binge whilst stuffing his face with jellybeans.
“Then I’ll find out the old-fashioned way, when Lady Francesca inevitably murders me.”
He ignores me—no surprise there—and refreshes the page, which does nothing to yield new results. “This radio silence makes no sense. No updates, no follow-ups, not even trolls are speculating anymore.”
“Maybe they got scared they’re next,” I deadpan.
Kai clicks his tongue, then nods to himself. A beat passes before he’s grinning. “I’m gonna comment.”
Before I can kick him out, the doorway is shadowed again, and Henrik trails in quietly, balancing a laptop in one hand and a coffee cup in the other.
Brilliant. More company that I never asked for.
He kicks the door shut with his foot, cursing softly when some coffee spills onto my carpet. I barely stop myself from lifting my tray and throwing it at his head. The look on his face immediately makes me suspicious. Once Kai’s comment has been sent off, he steals my tray from me and places it on the bedside table. Its spot is instantly replaced with Henrik’s laptop.
I glance between two pairs of identical grey eyes. “And what’s all this?”
Henrik sets his coffee aside and then types in his passcode, and what greets me is the screensaver of his stupid fucking cat, Pablo. “I found something.”
“If it’s another Reddit thread, I’m not interested.”
Kai snickers. “You will be.”
Again, I glance between the two of them, then eye the grapes my brother is so clearly enjoying. Despite my earlier complaints, I take them from him and pop the last few into my mouth. He rolls his eyes again. “If this is one of your sex scandals, Kai, then?—”
“Just listen,” Henrik cuts in, hunching over the side of me as he navigates the thousands of tabs he has open. “Look at these. Regional press archives I managed to tap into. Local broadcast stations, stuff they don’t air outside of the duchy.” His fingers fly across the keyboard, and his elbow is knocking into my fucking sternum.
The screen lights up as he clicks enter, and Kai leans close enough that I can smell the strawberry jam on his breath.Dear god, I’m suffocating.A grainy video appears, the quality absolutely fucking garbage, and there’s no date stamped in the corner. It looks like it was recorded on somebody’s microwave.
Just as I open my mouth to complain, I see her.
She’s six. Covered in blood, soaking wet, with black hair plastered to her skull andtrembling. Somebody wrapped her in a blanket, but she barely reacts to anything going on around her. And a lot is happening. A medic checks her for any injuries, and another drapes even more fabric over her shaking shoulders. The camera isn’t focused, but I can tell her mouth is moving. From behind the camera come muffled voices.
“Is that the Lanorythe girl? Good God, look at her.”
“She’s the only one they found alive.”
“Where are her parents?”
“Somebody get the Duchess. Now!”
A reporter’s voice rises above the static, somewhere to the side of the man and his microwave.“Lady Francesca Lanorythe, granddaughter of the Duchess of Sheffolk, was found unconscious near the southern bend of Lake Mirethia after a boating accident believed to have claimed the lives of her parents and elder sister. A search crew retrieved her after nearly two hours in freezing conditions?—”
The audio catches as the person filming shoves people out of the way to get closer. I almost find myself scoffing at him, like I’m there, ready to tell him he’s being an ass. But his disrespect brings me something that freezes me in place. I hear Lady Francesca’s small voice.
Just enough.
“The boat made a loud noise. Papa fell funny. Like he was playing. I looked for him under the boat. Mummy was holding me, but she let go. Then she was floating.”
The audio stutters. Her voice is high and hoarse. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t what I’m looking at now. Thisawareness. She’s trying to speak clearly, tiny hands gripping the medic’s jacket.
