Page 167 of The Royal Art of Revenge

I stand up, flattening my hands on the table, and stare at her.

She meets my eyes, and she’s exhausted. I don’t need her to elaborate—whatever it is that had Annette in such a tizz is bad, and it’s bad enough to tire my mother.

And nothing has even happened yet.

“Where’s Harriet?” Alec asks the question that’s on the tip of my tongue but won’t come out.

“Sit down,” she says, and I didn’t even realise I wasn’t the only one who’d gotten to my feet.

“Mum—”

“Sit.”

I do as I’m told.

She looks at Harriet’s laptop before sitting in the empty seat at the head of the table. “I have Harriet’s full permission to share this with the three of you. And before you shout, Finn, she’s all right. She’s in your apartment with her attendants. She’s taken her meds, and we’ve already called the doctor to come and make an emergency referral for a therapist to guide her through this.”

“An emergency referral? What are you—”

She holds up her hand to silence me. “Annette was contacted personally by Melissa Nelson to give her the heads up about this story. She’s trying to silence it from within, and all the major news stations and papers across the country are in agreement that nothing will be posted. However…”

“The gossip rags are another matter,” Oscar surmises, obviously correctly judging by my mother’s nod.

“Some in the ‘entertainment’ side of the media have made it clear they intend to hold the story for twenty-four hours and no longer. They’ll publish it with or without a comment from the palace. The more traditional media have agreed to run one story with collaboration from the palace and the government.”

The government?

What the fuck is happening?

“What is the story?” Alec asks. “This is all well and good, but—”

“It concerns the circumstances surrounding Harriet’s kidnapping.” Mum drops her chin and takes a deep breath before sitting back up. “You’ve been looking into it. How much do you know?”

Alec pauses. “Her kidnappers were linked to human traffickers. She saw a lot of children pass through the house she was hidden at. That’s all. Neither her nor Ryan elaborated beyond that, and none of us have asked.”

“Well, the elaboration of that story is what the media is holding onto.”

“What the—” I stop when she looks at me.

“Someone who claims to have been kidnapped with Harriet has sent their story to almost every publication in the country. They claim…” Mum pauses, closing her eyes. “That Harriet was a willing and able participant in both trafficking other children and creating unspeakable content of herself and others until around two years ago.”

“Coinciding with her return to St Peters,” Oscar says quietly.

I think that’s what he says.

I don’t know.

All I can clearly hear is the pounding of my pulse in my ears. Everything is echoing. I don’t even know what I feel. Is it anger? Is it sadness? Is it frustration? It’s such a fucking mix of vicious negativity that I can’t tell where one emotion ends and another begins.

“Finn. Finn!”

I blink and pull myself back to the here and now. Alec has his phone trapped between his ear and shoulder, and he’s swiped Hattie’s laptop where he’s furiously tapping away. Oscar has disappeared, and Mum has moved to sit beside me.

“Are you all right, love?” she asks, touching my shoulder. “You’ve been spaced out for a few minutes.”

I swallow and drag my gaze away from Alec’s furious movements. “No. No, I’m not all right. There’s no fucking way she—there’s no way, Mum.”

“I know. I know.” She grips my shoulder tightly, her gaze blazing into mine. “We will fix this. I promise. There is no such thing as a storm the Royal House cannot weather.”