Chapter 14 - The Truth About Her Mother|
The arrest of Edmund Blackthorne shook the kingdom.
Within days, the royal archives were opened to independent investigators. Old records emerged from sealed cabinets, and witnesses who had been silenced for years began speaking. The council suspended its own proceedings while a special tribunal reviewed the former king's actions.
Hazel spent the first week after the confrontation recovering under medical supervision. Her wolf had begun to awaken, but the physician warned that the suppressed markers might produce unpredictable symptoms.
She refused to be treated as a royal curiosity.
“I want a doctor who answers my questions before touching me,” she told Eleanor. “And I want every test explained in plain language.”
Eleanor arranged it.
Adrian visited every evening, but never entered without knocking. Sometimes they discussed the investigation. Sometimes they sat in the library without speaking. He did not demand gratitude or affection, and Hazel found herself trusting the quiet consistency more than any grand declaration.
Rowan remained nearby, trying to repair a relationship that had been broken by years of fear.
One afternoon, he brought Hazel a small wooden box from the northern settlement.
Inside lay her mother's pendant.
Hazel lifted it carefully. The silver crescent was engraved with a tiny wolf standing beneath a moon.
“She wore this every day,” Rowan said. “She believed it would help you remember who you were.”
“Why didn't you keep it with me?”
“I thought someone would recognize it. I hid it until I could be sure you were safe.”
Hazel looked at him.
“Did you ever try to find me?”
“Every year. I watched from a distance when you started school. I saw you graduate. I saw you leave your pack's territory and move to Manhattan.”
“You watched me?”
“From far away. I never wanted to bring danger to your door.”
She closed the box.
“You should have trusted me enough to let me know you existed.”
Rowan's eyes filled.
“I know.”
It was not the apology she had dreamed of as a child. It was not enough to restore the years she had lost. But it was honest, and she was learning to accept honesty without pretending it erased the damage.
The investigation soon revealed the full extent of Edmund's scheme. Malcolm Voss had been paid to suppress Hazel's wolf markers. Richard Sinclair had provided medical records and used his influence to keep the matter hidden. Thomas Vale had altered the archive, while several guards had helped Edmund disappear from public life.
Lydia Montgomery had discovered the plan and attempted to expose it.
She had not died in an ordinary accident, as Hazel had been told.
The vehicle that carried Lydia home had been sabotaged by a royal security officer acting under orders from Edmund's adviser. The officer had died years later, but a written confession had been preserved in a private archive.
Hazel read the document alone.
When Adrian found her, she was sitting by the window with the paper folded in her hands.
“He killed her,” she whispered.
Adrian sat in the chair across from her.
“Yes.”
“I spent years thinking she had left things unfinished because she wasn't strong enough.”
“You were a child. You deserved the truth.”
Hazel looked at him.
“I don't know how to mourn someone I never got to know completely.”
“You don't have to do it all at once.”
He did not touch her until she held out her hand.
When he took it, she felt the steady warmth of another person beside her—not a command, not a claim, not a demand.
For the first time since learning about her bloodline, Hazel allowed herself to cry.
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And when the tears finally stopped, she knew one thing with certainty.
She would not let Edmund's crimes define her mother's memory.
