CHAPTER 2: THE WOMAN WHO STOLE A PRINCESS
That night, the king ordered a full investigation.
Old palace records were opened.
Witnesses were questioned.
Hidden secrets began to emerge.
By sunrise, the truth surfaced.
A former royal servant named Margaret had rescued the infant princess during the attack.
Knowing assassins were hunting the royal heir, she fled the palace and raised the child as her own.
She named her Elena.
She never told the girl the truth.
Not because she wanted power.
But because she wanted Elena to live.
Margaret had died two years earlier.
Before her death, she left behind a sealed letter.
The king read it with trembling hands.
"Forgive me for taking your daughter.
I feared the crown would kill her before she could become a woman.
I gave her a simple life.
But I loved her as if she were my own."
By the time he finished reading, tears covered his face.
Elena sat quietly beside him.
For the first time, she understood everything.
The poverty.
The mystery surrounding her childhood.
The strange royal summons.
The feeling that she never truly belonged anywhere.
The king looked at her.
"I lost eighteen years with my daughter."
Elena looked down.
"And I lost eighteen years with my father."
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then King Adrian opened his arms.
Slowly, uncertainly, Elena stepped forward.
May you like
Father and daughter embraced.
The kingdom would remember that moment for generations.
