Chapter 7

Not a single person in the room dared to speak.

Edward pulled himself up with his cane, his expression hovering somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "Your Majesty, surely there has been some kind of misunderstanding."

My father did not even look at him.

The crown solicitor projected a formal identification document onto the giant screen.

The heir to the House of Rhine, it read, was named Sophia Rhine.

She had gone missing three years ago when she was attacked during her study abroad program, and the royal family had issued a global search for her.

The photograph on…