Page 139 of The Royal Art of Revenge

“Yes,” I reply. “Finn trusts you both, and I have nothing to hide. Besides, he probably already knows what you’ve been doing for me.”

Oscar hesitates, then nods. “Finn told me you asked Alec to look into your kidnapping. That said, if you aren’t comfortable with me knowing anything, I’m willing to leave.”

I shake my head. “It’s fine. Chances are it’s something you’ll have to address one day, so we might as well be on the same page from the beginning.”

“All right, then.” Alec slides the papers out of the envelope, flicks through the sheets, and hands them over to me. “I did as you suggested and investigated all disappearances of children around the time you went missing. Three years either side, to be exact. There’s a list of names on the first page.”

I scan the list. Emily Cartwright. Joseph Crawley. Clementine St. James. Millie Jameson. Olivia Peters-Wright. Matthew Mason. Valentina Devereaux. Ophelia Fortescue. Lucille Partey. Clara Layton.

It’s not even half the list. Not even close.

“All of these happened in the same circumstances?”

“No. The ones with a black mark next to their name are from a similar circumstance as you—social class, education, that sort of thing.” He pauses as a wave of distaste flashes across his face. “Forgive me for this, but a similar ‘value’ in terms of trafficking, I’d guess.”

I swallow. “And the red mark?”

“Those are the children who never returned home.”

Ah.

“It’s more than I thought,” I admit on a murmur. “Although, I’m not surprised. I might have seen some of these kids pass through and never knew.”

My heart.

It’s clenching.

I don’t even know how I’m breathing right now.

I’ve always known I was one of the lucky ones, but to see just how lucky I am on black and white in front of me… shit.

Oscar’s gaze hovers on me for a moment. “Are you all right?”

I force a smile as I meet his eyes. “Yes. Sorry. Survivors’ guilt isn’t something you get over, I guess.”

“You don’t have to get over it,” he says quietly, smiling warmly at me. “And whatever is in that pile of paper, it can wait if you need it to.”

“No. I’d rather know. It’ll only eat away at me.” I turn back to Alec with a deep breath. “What did you find out?”

“Four children not including you came back. Valentina Devereaux returned to St Peters around seven or eight months after she went missing, but there’s no record of where she came from, nor have the Devereauxs ever spoken about it. Olivia Peters-Wright was missing for two weeks before she was spotted at a marina down south and brought home. Amelia and Austin Navarra were found around two months later in Poland. Valentina and Olivia were relatively healthy, but Amelia and Austin were malnourished and had some injuries. They claimed to have escaped and hidden until they were able to find someone who spoke enough English to help them.” Alec sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “They were older, though. About fourteen. Everyone else was younger.”

I nod slowly. “Valentina was with me in Asia,” I say after a moment. “I don’t know how she was found and why the rest of us weren’t, but it doesn’t matter.”

“Yeah, that information is impossible to come by. There are no records of her during that time, and her father especially has never spoken about it. I fear that’s one answer I might never be able to give you.”

“Don’t worry. I accepted that I’ll never know everything a long time ago.”

“Okay.” He pauses. “I also investigated the familial relationships of the children who went missing. Over sixty percent of them were from broken homes, for lack of a better term. Their parents were either divorced, separated, or widowed. At the time of their disappearances, all but one had at least one new partner involved. I didn’t include you in that group because your parents were technically married, even though your father had Rosalyn as his mistress.” He flips to another sheet of paper and motions for me to look. “That was the case for around ten to twelve percent of the others who came from seemingly happy homes. One of their parents engaged in an extramarital affair. Some long-term, some short. The remaining disappearances can’t be linked to a familial breakdown in any way, so they were likely either collateral damage or taken by chance.”

My gaze flicks between him and the paper for a moment. “You know what I’m going to ask next.”

Alec’s lips pull to one side in a knowing smirk. “Yes. Rosalyn can be tied to every single family. Even her indirect contacts are linked enough to assume that they had some kind of conversation at some point. In fact, the stepfather of Matthew Mason knew her back in college, and from what I’ve found out, there’s an indication they once had a relationship.”

“And Matthew didn’t come home,” I say, checking the list of names again.

“No. To this day, he’s still listed as a missing person.”

“Do they still speak? Rosalyn and the stepfather?”