Chapter 4 The Keeper of the Truth
Chapter 4
The Keeper of the Truth
The explosion shook the little seaside cottage to its foundation.
Glass rained across the wooden floor.
Smoke swallowed the living room within seconds.
Lily screamed.
Alexander wrapped both arms around her, shielding her beneath his body as splinters flew overhead.
"Stay down!" Michael shouted.
Two Sterling security officers immediately drew their pistols and positioned themselves beside the shattered windows.
Outside...
Black SUVs blocked both ends of the narrow coastal road.
Eight masked men stepped out in perfect formation.
They weren't ordinary criminals.
Every movement was disciplined.
Military.
Professional.
Calculated.
One of them raised a suppressed rifle.
A bullet shattered the remaining kitchen window.
CRACK!
Wood exploded beside Thomas Reed's head.
The old photographer collapsed behind the dining table.
"They've come to erase the last witness," he gasped.
Alexander's expression hardened.
"Michael."
"Yes, sir."
"Get Lily out through the back."
"What about you?"
"I'll buy you time."
Michael immediately shook his head.
"I'm not leaving you."
"You have your orders."
For a split second, neither man moved.
Then Michael nodded.
He understood.
The mission had changed.
Protecting Alexander was no longer the priority.
Protecting Lily was.
The back door burst open.
A cold ocean wind rushed inside.
Michael grabbed Lily's hand.
"We're going outside."
The frightened girl looked at Alexander.
"I don't want to leave you..."
Alexander knelt, despite the bullets tearing through the walls around them.
He gently brushed a strand of hair from her face.
"You remember what your mother taught you?"
Lily nodded through tears.
"Be brave."
He smiled.
"Exactly."
"And today..."
"You'll be braver than anyone."
She threw her arms around him.
For one heartbreaking second...
Alexander felt as though he were hugging Eleanor again.
Outside, chaos erupted.
Sterling security vehicles screeched onto the coastal road.
Bodyguards poured from armored SUVs.
Gunfire echoed across the cliffs.
The attackers hadn't expected resistance.
They scattered behind abandoned fishing boats.
One masked man shouted,
"Take the girl!"
Another answered,
"The old man first!"
Inside the cottage...
Thomas Reed struggled toward an old wooden bookshelf.
His trembling hands reached behind it.
Click.
A hidden compartment opened.
Alexander stared in disbelief.
Inside rested a weathered metal box wrapped in faded blue cloth.
Thomas carefully lifted it.
"I've protected this..."
"...for twenty-six years."
Alexander accepted the box with both hands.
"What is it?"
Thomas looked directly into his eyes.
"Princess Eleanor's truth."
Another explosion rocked the house.
The ceiling cracked.
Dust filled the air.
"We don't have much time," Thomas said.
"Open it."
Alexander lifted the rusted latch.
Inside lay dozens of carefully preserved items.
A silver baby bracelet.
An old family photograph.
Several handwritten letters.
A small cassette tape.
And...
A royal signet ring bearing the Sterling crest.
Alexander froze.
His grandfather had once declared that ring lost forever.
It had belonged exclusively to the Crown Princess.
No one else had ever been allowed to wear it.
Thomas whispered,
"Your aunt gave me everything that night."
Alexander quickly unfolded the photograph.
It showed Princess Eleanor standing in the palace gardens.
She held a smiling baby in her arms.
On the back...
Written in elegant handwriting...
My daughter, Amelia Sterling.
Alexander stared at the words.
Amelia.
Not Lily.
His breathing stopped.
He slowly looked toward the frightened little girl outside the broken window.
"Lily..."
"...isn't her real name."
Thomas nodded.
"Eleanor changed it."
"To protect her."
Alexander picked up one of the letters.
It was addressed to the King.
His grandfather.
He unfolded it carefully.
The ink remained remarkably clear.
Father,
If this letter reaches you, then I have failed to come home.
Please don't blame yourself.
The betrayal came from someone we trusted more than family.
They didn't want the throne.
They wanted something much older.
Alexander frowned.
Something older?
He continued reading.
There is another inheritance.
Not the palace.
Not the fortune.
What they seek has been hidden beneath the White Tower for generations.
His pulse quickened.
The White Tower.
Again.
The same words Lily had spoken.
"The roses still bloom beneath the White Tower."
This wasn't a memory.
It was a clue.
Thomas slowly lowered himself into a chair.
His face had become pale.
"I never understood what Eleanor meant."
"But I knew someone wanted that secret badly enough to kill for it."
Alexander looked up.
"Who attacked the convoy?"
Thomas closed his eyes.
"I saw him."
"You know who it was?"
"No."
"I never saw his face."
"But I saw..."
He hesitated.
"...his ring."
"What kind of ring?"
Thomas pointed toward the royal signet ring inside the box.
"It carried the same crest."
Alexander frowned.
"That's impossible."
Thomas shook his head.
"Not exactly."
"It wasn't identical."
"There was..."
"...a black stone set into the center."
Alexander's expression changed instantly.
Black stone.
There had only been one royal signet like that.
Created for a single person.
Not the King.
Not the Crown Prince.
But...
The Captain of the Royal Guard.
A memory returned.
Alexander was ten years old.
His grandfather had been arguing fiercely with General Victor Hawthorne, commander of the Royal Guard.
The old King had shouted,
"You wear that ring to protect this family!"
General Hawthorne had answered,
"I have served the Crown for thirty years."
Then...
The conversation had ended the moment Alexander entered the room.
Months later...
Princess Eleanor disappeared.
General Hawthorne retired unexpectedly.
Then vanished from public life.
Michael rushed back into the cottage.
"Sir!"
Alexander turned.
"The attackers are retreating."
"Why?"
Michael held up a bloodstained communication device recovered from one of the gunmen.
"They received new orders."
"What orders?"
Michael pressed play.
A distorted electronic voice filled the room.
Abort.
The photographer is no longer the priority.
Recover the twelfth hairpin.
Kill anyone who has seen it.
Alexander's eyes narrowed.
"The twelfth hairpin..."
He whispered.
"They already have it."
Thomas slowly stood.
"There was never just one traitor."
Alexander looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
Thomas walked toward the broken window overlooking the sea.
"The night Eleanor escaped..."
"I saw three shadows."
"One drove the black sedan."
"One carried the baby."
"And one..."
His voice trembled.
"...opened the palace gates from the inside."
Alexander felt a chill run down his spine.
Someone inside the royal household had helped the conspirators.
The betrayal had reached the very heart of the Crown.
Before Alexander could ask another question...
Thomas suddenly coughed violently.
Dark blood stained his lips.
Michael rushed forward.
"He wasn't hit during the attack..."
Thomas looked down at the blood on his hand.
His eyes widened.
"No..."
Alexander supported him.
"What happened?"
Thomas whispered weakly,
"This morning..."
"...someone brought me breakfast."
His face turned deathly pale.
"I thought..."
"...it was my neighbor."
Another cough.
More blood.
"They poisoned me."
Alexander's heart sank.
The attackers had expected Thomas to survive long enough to reveal something.
But not long enough to reveal everything.
Thomas gripped Alexander's sleeve with surprising strength.
"There is..."
"...one more place."
Alexander leaned closer.
"Where?"
Thomas's fading eyes met his.
"The White Tower..."
"...isn't inside the palace."
Alexander froze.
"What?"
Thomas smiled faintly.
"Everyone..."
"...has been searching..."
"...the wrong kingdom..."
His hand slipped from Alexander's arm.
The old photographer drew one final breath.
Then...
Silence.
Thomas Reed, the last man who had witnessed the night Princess Eleanor disappeared, was gone.
Outside, the waves crashed endlessly against the rocks.
Inside the shattered cottage, Alexander slowly closed the old man's eyes.
He looked down at the metal box, the letters, the royal ring, and the photograph of Eleanor holding baby Amelia.
The answers were getting closer.
May you like
But so were the people willing to kill to keep them buried.
End of Chapter 4
