Kiss Me Not

At Derhan Palace, Country B

The King frowned as he read the latest report that arrived from Sean.

"I can't believe we missed such important details Sean," Lucas weakly whispered. His hand that was holding the report paper was trembling.

"We never knew that something like this happened, Your Majesty. The late Queen kept it hidden from everyone and she probably had her reason. It's a good thing that we were able to retrieve this file at least now. 

Leila previously mentioned to me that Queen Cecilia was very excited about your upcoming birthday and told Leila that she would give you something wonderful as a surprise gift… Knowing the late Queen, it was probably about this but unfortunately, the incident of her abduction happened before your birthday celebration.

This is the only analysis I could come up with, given how her Obstetrician/Gynecologist died during that incident with her." Sean voiced his opinion. The Queen was with her friend who was also her Obstetrician/Gynecologist when she was abducted. The day they found the Queen, she was already dead and was holding a small baby in her. The baby grew up to be Prince Cedric they all know.

When the Queen was pronounced dead, an autopsy was not conducted as Lucas did not want Cecilia's body to be touched. She was buried soon after and did not even hold a funeral to send her off. The case was kept confidential, not letting the public know about what truly happened except informing them that it was a car accident.

There was only one confirmed suspect they had, who even dared to leave the King a message the day Cecilia was abducted. The suspect was the bodyguard whom both Lucas and Cecilia trusted very much and treated like their family, Duncan. 

It turned out that Duncan had long planned the abduction and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to carry out his plans. He had loved Cecilia secretly for a long time and wanted her for himself. Duncan also had a personal grudge against Lucas because he felt that the King stole Cecilia from him and even confronted Lucas about it. 

But who would have thought that he would go to such an extreme? Moreover, Duncan grew up as part of the Jones family, more importantly, he grew up as Cecilia's brother. Although the Jones did not adopt Duncan legally, they treated him like their own family and did everything they could do for him. Sean sighed as he looked at King Lucas, who was devastated after learning about this. He could feel Lucas' pain...

Lucas' eyes welled up with tears as he looked at the copy of ultrasound Sean managed to retrieve after so many years. If not for Cedric telling and showing him his doppelganger, they would not have any idea about this matter and it would have remained buried for God knows how long.

"I got one of my sons back but where is the other Sean? Is he still alive? Is he safe? Who is my son that is with us right now?" Lucas breathed, stuttering as his lips trembled. He could not believe that he had lost one of his kin without even knowing the truth. The pain… The ache… It was too much to handle. He had to hold his chest and struggle because he felt like he was running out of air to breathe.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?" Sean shouted as he rushed towards Lucas. He immediately called for the Royal Doctor.

"I am so useless… As a husband… As a father…" Lucas cried before he lost consciousness.

Doctor Cain and his team hurried towards them and immediately did the needful for the King.

"He's been in a lot of stress lately and he needs to rest Sean. Did you inform Prince Cedric about this?" Cain asked.

Sean shook his head and said, "His Majesty won't like it if I inform The Prince. The Prince will soon be on his way to the Palace along with his girlfriend. Later they will have dinner together with the family. You should stay and talk to The Prince about His Majesty's condition after dinner."

"Alright, I will do that. For now, let the King rest and relax. He will wake up after about an hour so let's just wait for his instruction till then," Cain commented while looking at Lucas in worry. 

Lucas had no alarming disease but if he continued straining his body due to stress, then it could trigger some serious health problems people his age were commonly facing like high blood pressure, diabetes, and more.

Sean was feeling frustrated because there was another problem he strongly believed was connected to the incident of the Queen's abduction. Will told him everything that Olivia had said and he wanted to report the same to the King but he lost consciousness after he learned about his lost son.

He stayed with Lucas for about an hour after which Lucas slowly opened his eyes and woke up.

"How long did I pass out for?" The King asked Sean. 

"Just an hour, Your Majesty. Doctor Cain gave you a sedative to calm you. Please wait while I call him to check on you," Sean said and was about to get up but Lucas stopped him.

"Later... I will talk to Cain later. That brute will just scold me and nag me about my health… Let's discuss what has to be done now. Cedric will be arriving soon so I want you to check his fingerprints and compare them with what we have in our voter's system. When we finally found him after he was kidnapped, we were not aware of his twin so all of us assumed that he was Cedric. He had also lost his memory so what we did was input everything we knew about Cedric to him without even doubting his identity

Now that we know Cecilia was carrying twins, we must check every single detail and find out which son is with me right now and who is the one missing.  I don't even want to assume that my other son is dead, not until I see a body or a bone proving that he is no more!"

"I understand Your Majesty. Do you plan to tell Cedric about it?" Sean asked.

"He deserves to know Sean, and like he said the two of us must not keep any secrets from each other. About the man who took good care of Gavin… I will discuss that matter with Cedric. I am grateful that these things are unfolding while I'm still alive so I can still make amends instead of being useless," Lucas answered tiredly.

"Your Majesty, please stop blaming yourself by saying you are useless. You did your best to protect your family and I witnessed it with my own eyes. Nobody saw these incidents coming. That man Duncan was very good at hiding his motive so no one suspected him. 

Even I was fooled into liking him and thought he was good before the abduction." Sean commented because he really thought Duncan was a good man. He was so good to everyone that no one could really see how evil and rotten the man inside was.

There was only silence until Sean uttered, "You also need to know something, Your Majesty. It's about the Prime Minister and his family. I think that Duncan is still connected to it."

Lucas looked at him with a frown and said, "Tell me, Sean."