Chapter 42

Chapter 42 Prince is adopted

CA SSANDRA

Once dinner was over, a se rvant guided me back to my chambers, and when I entered the room, the lights were dimmed and Finnick was fast asleep.

Erika sat at the table, reading a book by candlelight, and when she looked up to face me, her kind eyes were wide with concern.

“You look stressed, Ca ssandra,” she noted quietly, and she patted the seat beside her. “Come, tell me what’s wrong. Did something bad happen at dinner?”

I crossed over to the table and took the seat next to her. The entire way there, the weight of the conversation earlier hit me hard, and my hands began to shake.

“Lady Margaret made me an offer earlier,” I remarked. “She suggested that Finnick should join Prince Marco in his afternoon lessons.”

“Oh,” Erika said simply, and her brows furrowed. “That… seems… generous.”

I could tell the maid was stringing her words together carefully in hopes not to offend me, but little did she know, she could never say anything to hurt me.

“It is,” I replied, and I leaned my elbows on the table and placed my hands on my temples. I ma*saged them for a moment and then continued processing my thoughts. “I’m worried about Finnick, though. He can be… audacious at times, and I’m worried that he could say something to offend the prince. The last thing I want is for Finnick to be punished for something he didn’t mean to say.”

Erika considered my words and nodded to herself for a moment. She seemed -like she was on the verge of saying something but the words didn’t come. After a

minute of hesitation, she let out a soft sigh and touched my arm.

“Ca ssandra, there’s something you should know about Prince Marco,” she said quietly, and then she looked around the room. “But this must stay between us.”

“Of course,” I replied as my heart began to race. The maid’s tone was serious, and though there was no way for our privacy to be betrayed in the room, I leaned forward anyway.

“I used to primarily clean the Alpha King’s study,” she began. “It was and still is, as you know, a forbidden place to just about everyone in Merliscire. The only ones. allowed in when the Alpha King isn’t present is housekeeping.”

I nodded in understanding.

“Now, Prince Marco understood the rules,” Erika continued. “And yet, he still tried to get me to open up the study for him. He knew that I had a key and could grant him access. I explained to the young boy that I couldn’t do it, and he cried and bellowed and threw a huge tantrum. He flailed his arms about and sobbed until he was red in the face.

“Oh wow,” I remarked. Even when Finnick was a tiny boy, he’d never thrown a tantrum like that before. He’d always been so calm.

“Eventually, I couldn’t take it anymore,” she admitted in an embarra*sed tone. “I knew it was against the rules but I agreed to give him a glimpse. I made the boy promise he would leave right after. Suddenly, he stopped crying and nodded. I thought he understood. I let him-inside for just a moment, but when I told the prince it was time to leave, he wouldn’t comply.”

She let out another sigh and her expression grew more weary.

“No matter what I said, Prince Marco refused to leave. He threw yet another fit and insisted that he belonged in his father’s study. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, the Alpha King arrived.”

“Oh no,” I whispered.

“Indeed,” Erika said. “He was vexed when he saw the prince in his study and demanded to know why he was in there. The prince was scared of being punished, so he blurted out that it was my fault.”

“No,” I murmured, and I shook my head. The boy was even more spoiled and

rotten than I thought.

“Yes,” Erika lamented. “He tried to blame the entire affair on me. Granted,, I was to blame for complying, but he was making it seem as if I’d told him to go into the study. Luckily, the Alpha King trusted me enough to know the prince was lying.”

I frowned as her words sank in. Had Marco learned such behavior from Adalyn? Surely a six-year-old boy wouldn’t know how to use such tricks to avoid punishment.

“Did he punish Prince Marco?” I asked

“No,” Erika replied and she shook her head slowly. “The Alpha King hardly scolds him. In fact, he spoils him more than any child should be.”

I turned around to look at Finnick, who was tucked in and fast asleep in bed.. Bitterness rose in me as I thought about Prince Marco and the way the Alpha King treated him.

“He seems like he’s a good father,,” I said when I turned around, and I absently tugged on a lock of my long hair. “He must love the prince and his mother”

“He does love Marco,” Erika said. “But there’s something else to know about all of this. Prince Marco isn’t Adalyn’s. He was adopted.”

My heart sk ipped a beat and my jaw dropped a little.

“Adopted?” I repeated back in surprise.

“Yes,” Erika çonfirmed. “Six years ago, the Alpha King was out on an inspection. He was investigating the other Packs. He found Marco abandoned out in the forests by the border. No one was around, he was all alone. So, the Alpha King adopted him.”

I blinked in shock. I’d a*sumed Marco was Adalyn’s. The two shared similar features, but then again, perhaps they weren’t as alike as I thought.

It also explained how Marco was six instead of five. Adalyn hadn’t been

pregnant after all.

“Back then, everyone was against it,” Erika continued on. “Mostly because Marco wasn’t born into the royal family and couldn’t be able to compete for the throne later in life. But the Alpha King insisted on adopting the boy.”

“Why?” I wondered.

“I think it was a matter of timing,” she mused, and her expression grew sad. “The Alpha King found Março two months after Cora’s death. And Lady Cora had been pregnant when she died. If she hadn’t perished in the fire, she’d have given birth the following month. So, that’s why he decided to bring home Marco He believed the boy would be a chance to redeem himself given by the Moon

Goddess.”

I sat there in complete shock, lost for words. This was all too much to take in. Marco, Asher… All of it. I hadn’t known any of this.

As I considered all of the information, Erika’s cheeks reddened..

“I’ve said too much,” she murmured. “Forgive me, Ca ssandra, but I must leave.”

She rose to her feet before I could say a word and straightened out her apron.

“I’ll be sure to take care of Finnick when he’s with Prince Marco,” she a*sured

I opened my mouth to speak, but Erika had already turned and walked toward the door. She sl*pped out a moment after, and when the door closed, I heard rustling in the back of the room.

“Mommy?” Finnick called out sleepily, and when I turned around, my son was sitting upright. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.

I stood up and walked over to him. When I reached his bedside, he frowned.

“Mommy, why are you crying?” he asked, and I raised my hand to my cheek. It

was wet to the touch.

When had I started crying?

“It’s nothing, baby,” I a*sured him as I wiped the tears away, and then I decided to lie. “I’m just homesick, that’s all.”