Leandro and Mikaela’s face turned grim. They eyed each other before they followed the knight towards the underground facility of the palace. And just like what the knight said, the prison or rather the room where the Duke was staying was empty.
“Speak. What happened here?”
“There… there was a blackout and the security was breached. We didn’t notice anything wrong until… until the generators turned on and when we checked the Duke… he was already gone.”
Leandro frowned. If he was right, the generators needed at least thirty seconds to activate. Does that mean Lily only took thirty seconds to get the Duke out? “They are still inside.” He stated. “Find them!”
“Your highness… the ministers are calling an emergency meeting. They are already waiting for you in your office.” Another knight called out. This made Leandro and Mikaela cursed inwardly. It should be because of the video.
“Tell them to wait.”
“Your highness… they said it was urgent.”
“I said, tell them to wait!” Leandro clenched his hands as he let out another curse inwardly. To him, the Duke’s rescue was the top priority. “Find the Duke!” he ordered his people. “Don’t let them leave the palace. And also… someone call the knights guarding the Duchess. Tell him to bring her to me.” In his mind, Lily’s next course of action should be saving the Duchess. He was wrong.
In Lily’s mind, there is no need for her to save the Duchess. Mr. Neeson should be somewhere around the country watching everything. Why would she save his daughter from the clutches of his own grandson? Not long after, Leandro received a call that Eliza and Levi had escaped too. This only made his headache worse.
Lily didn’t rescue the Duchess first. Instead, she saved the twins. Why? However, Leandro does not have the time to think about this now. Not when the ministers had been asking to see him for more than an hour now.
“Your highness… this…”
“What!? What is it this time?” he already gave the money to Lily, and yet she didn’t hesitate to ruin him! That woman really deserves to die.
“There is another news… online…”
“What? Speak!”
“Your highness this…” the knight hesitated for a few seconds. “There is a new lead connecting you to the terrorists that attacked other countries in the name of religion in the last few months.”
“What did you say?”
“Someone already started a petition online to… they wanted the EU to investigate you.”
Mikaela let out a gasp, her face full of horror. She immediately understood that this was all Lily’s doing. “Leandro… what are we going to do…”
“Shut it!” Leandro massaged his temple. Everything had been so quick, so swift that he wasn’t able to prepare anything that could defend himself in this situation. “Why would they say that I support terrorists?” he asked. “What was the rumour online?”
“Apparently… a bank personnel anonymously sent your bank statements to a media outlet. It shows that you were doing huge bank transfers to organisations that support such acts. We already tried to call the media company, but they refused to tell us who sent them the report. We also tried to contact the bank and they refused to cooperate and said that it wasn’t one of their employees.”
“Leandro… it is Lily.” Mikaela said. She sat next to her brother, the corner of her lips turned downwards as she thought about everything that happened in just one day. “What… What are we going to do now?”
“Go and talk to the ministers. Tell them it was fake. Asked our people to create a statement online stating the video was propaganda against me.”
“But father… Father is already in Lily’s hands. What if he suddenly shows himself to corroborate the video?”
“That is not going to happen. Father is not going to cooperate with someone that is trying to ruin the royal family.” Leandro’s voice was full of assurance. However, this is nothing but a facade. On the inside, he is already trembling, as he thought of the things that Lily and his father would do. “He won’t do that.” This time, he said it to assure himself. Their father loved them. How could he watch someone else ruin his son and daughter?
“But… I…” Mikaela stuttered. “I was the one who stabbed him.”
“We didn’t kill him.” Leandro eyed her. “We could have. But we didn’t.”
Mikaela turned silent for a few seconds. “Then… I will leave and take care of the things that you said.”
“Also…tell the ministers, I am not going to accept any interviews from the media. And schedule a press conference tomorrow. Invite the biggest media outlets in the industry. Tell them… I will answer everything tomorrow.”
“I understand.” Mikaela nodded before leaving the underground facility. Seeing this, Leandro immediately eyed the monitors that showed every corner of the palace. “Now… let’s find them.” He said in a grim tone. “Check every CCTV and traffic camera around the palace as well as the one where we kept Eliza and Levi. And where the hell is my mother? I asked someone to bring her to me!” Leandro continued ordering his people around as he started watching the camera on the Duke’s room.
However, his expression slowly turned grim as he continued to watch the video. It was her.
Lily.
She walked inside the room and started talking to the Duke. After a while, Lily rose from her seat and eyed the camera that was pointed at the Duke. Then she smiled a brilliant smile as she mouthed the words,
‘I’ll see you soon, your highness.’
Then all of the monitors blacked out. Leandro gasp. “What is happening?” He looked at one of his people, who is an expert at computers.
“Your highness… someone is trying to hack our server. No… No…” Leandro watched as the computer expert started typing a series of codes that he was not very familiar with. “No… No!”
“What is going on? Why did the monitor blacked out?” he asked as an ominous feeling spread inside him.
