Chapter 3 - Shadows Over Rogers Park
The harassment at school intensified over the next two weeks, but back at home, strange things began happening that made the schoolyard bullying feel trivial.
It started with the black SUVs parked down the block—sleek, dark-tinted Range Rovers that never seemed to turn off their engines. Then came the men in tailored suits standing near the corner grocery store, watching their apartment building through the falling autumn leaves.
Claire noticed them first, but when she pointed them out, her mother didn't call the police. Instead, Evelyn walked down to the street, spoke to one of the men in a low voice for thirty seconds, and returned inside without an explanation.
"Mom, who are those people?" Claire demanded as Evelyn chopped vegetables for dinner.
"Security," Evelyn said simply.
"Security? For us? We live next to a laundromat!"
Evelyn set the knife down. Her demeanor was completely calm, almost terrifyingly so. "Claire, seventeen years ago, your father was the Crown Prince of Valoria—a small but incredibly wealthy sovereign nation in the Balkans known for its shipping corridors and rare mineral reserves. When his father died, his uncle executed a violent military coup. To keep you and me safe, your father smuggled us out of Europe in the dead of night while he stayed behind to lead the royal loyalists."
Claire stared at her mother, waiting for the punchline. "A... a prince? Is this a joke?"
"For seventeen years, he fought an underground civil war to reclaim his rightful throne," Evelyn continued, ignoring Claire's shock. "Two weeks ago, the usurper's regime collapsed. The loyalist forces seized the capital. Your father was officially crowned King Alexander IV five days ago."
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Claire sank into a kitchen chair. "If he's a king... why didn't he send for us? Why did we live like this?"
"Because until the last loyalist offensive cleared the border, anyone associated with him was an assassination target," Evelyn whispered, reaching out to touch Claire's cheek. "He didn't stay away because he didn't love you. He stayed away so you would reach your seventeenth birthday alive."
