Shadowed-Death by Design

Chapter Ten - Mistake After Mistake?

                                            

"---a perfect DNA match with one of the four persons of interest. But it will not to be revealed today, as one of the four is absent." That was the last thing Lucy remembered about the trial, except being very disappointed and impatient about the DNA results. The following day, on her way through the university library stacks, Lucy caught a glimpse of a red-head sitting on the floor, her head lowered, engrossed in a book. Unable to see her face, Lucy tiptoed up to her, whispering, “Danni? I'm Lucky.” Startled, the young woman whispered, "I really must not be seen with you! It is forbidden!” Danielle, promising to phone her soon, put her pen to her palm and wrote the numbers Lucy dictated. When Danielle disappeared, Lucy rushed to the flat, where the Lafites were not home. Lucy answered the phone and heard, “Lucky? Again, use no real names! Phrase things without compromising anonymity.”  

“Danni, at the memorial service, I could sense there was something between you and Perry. Please tell me about it.”

“I met Perry when my family moved to South. I was thirteen, he was seventeen. We met at a traveling carnival. My first glimpse of him was from high above, on the Ferris wheel. He paid the ticket taker to let me ride again and to let him sit beside me. Afterwards, he convinced me to break away from my girlfriends and go with him on the roller coaster and the tunnel of love, where he stole our first kiss. After that, we saw each other after school at the park with my friends. I remember that, at the time, he was distraught about losing a close relative in an auto accident. I seemed his only comfort, perhaps a distraction from his overwhelming sorrow. I fell in love with him. I’ve never regretted being in love with him. I’m still in love with him! There has been no one else my entire life. All these years I’ve dreamed of Perry wanting me. But I would never intrude upon your relationship with him. I had my opportunity with him years ago, and I don’t ever expect another chance. I’ll send you his immediate family tree. After you’ve read it, burn it. Ashes tell no tales.

I have lived in the dead quiet shadows of his dark secret past since Gabby was conceived, because of Perry’s reputation in South. When our baby was born, my parents adopted Gabby and raised her as their own. I posed as her much older sister. The day I turned eighteen, I adopted Gabby from my parents. My father is American military and my mother is French. His family bought my family’s silence, so you must never breathe a word about our daughter. The money is why I am still in France, raising Perry's child on the sly."

“That must be why Perry is so secretive!”              

“Oh, no, it is much more than that! South was, and still is, a small place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. At the time of Gabby’s birth, he was busy starting college in Paris. Then he began his career in law enforcement. I will send you something. Heat it up, Lucky. Adieu!"                                          

Several days later, an envelope appeared under the front door, addressed to “Lucky” and containing a blank piece of paper. Lucy removed her lamp shade and held the paper over the stark white light bulb until it heated up and letters began to appear. Lucy scrutinized the diagram, A and J for Pierre's parents, X for the firstborn child, and P for Pierre. N, B, and C were Pierre's younger siblings. Lucy had questions. Her meeting with Danielle could not take place soon enough! In Lucy's bedroom in the Lafite's flat, Danielle inquired, “Any questions about the family tree, with Xavier and Pierre being twins?” 

“Twins? Pierre has a twin, Danielle? At the funeral in Ville I did not see any man who looked anything like Pierre's twin!”  

“They are fraternal twins, not identical. Xavier is much shorter. The recently deceased Marcel was Pierre's cousin. Marcel's father, Prince Hercule, is Pierre's uncle. Pierre's deceased Aunt Marilyn was married to Hercule."

"Danielle, here is an unopened correspondence from PIerre." She ripped apart the envelope, her eyes scanning to the post script at the end of the letter. “Lucy, see the P.S.? It is always the most important part of any letter, so I will read it first. He has been keeping you in the dark about his family, omitting facts, all parts of his deception. Listen! ‘Lucy, now that my Cousin Marcel has died, I could be the next prince. If so, as my wife, you will be princess when elderly Uncle Hercule passes away."  

"What does he mean by he 'could be' the next Prince? It should be clear-cut, shouldn’t it, that he either is or is not going to be the next Prince?”  

“It is complicated, Lucy. Pierre’s twin is supposed to be next in line to the throne, as first born. But Pierre could actually be the first born! The line of succession would be clear cut, except for the ‘switched at birth’ fiasco thirty years ago when Pierre and Xavier were born. It would not have mattered, but, with Marcel gone, the birth order must now be legally determined. One of the twins will be prince of Ville!”   

“So, that is what Judge Letour meant by 'switched at birth,' just before he died! I still do not know who was who at the funeral. Before when you mentioned Hercule and Marcel, I thought they were your family on your mother’s side. You told me she is French, Danielle.”  

“She is, but the Royals are not in her gene pool. Or mine. Although Gabby has half Royal blood flowing through her veins, she is not on the family tree, and she shares my last name, Jones.” 

“Uncle Hercule--- Cousin Marcel--- wife--- Princess?' What about the word ‘principis?’ I now believe it translates to princess or prince. The ‘Marilyn’ engraved on the church headstone was the princess! Now I know why Pierre took me to the grand cathedral in Ville! It is his Aunt Marilyn's final resting place! He tried to tell me, but the frightened old woman---” 

“Lucy, Pierre's deception was so convoluted and shrouded in mystery! He should have told you in so many words that Hercule’s wife and a movie star, the beloved Princess Marilyn, was your double!”

“I did not realize that the mourners were Pierre’s family because, unlike the others at the memorial service, Pierre did not place a rose on the casket. I had no idea he was related to Marcel!”  

Danielle responded, “Pierre's sins of omission, Lucy, are so unfortunate! Here is the story. The royal family had already mandated the name, ‘Xavier Lemare Lecroix,’ for the firstborn bloodline son of pregnant Arielle Lecroix, Prince Hercule’s sister, who subsequently became Pierre’s mother. The hospital was understaffed on the day of the birth, over New Year’s weekend. Before Arielle could even get to the hospital, she had already gone into hard labor and was progressing so rapidly that she was taken, stat, into the nearest delivery room, B. The first mistake was the wrong room! After Arielle’s baby was delivered, Doctor Pascal noticed that within her womb lay a second baby, yet to be born, an 'oops’ twin! No one knew! Arielle recalled seeing her firstborn placed in a makeshift cart, because the extravagantly decorated royal warming tray was still in delivery room A, along with the gold identification bracelet that had been designed and engraved over a period of months by a world renowned jeweler.  

What further complicated matters was a train accident victim, a pregnant commoner, who was rushed to delivery room A. The doctor was busy saving her life and that of her unborn baby, who was born at the same time as Arielle’s second baby. The two nurses of the tiny Royal hospital were swamped, cleaning the babies before nurse Angelique went off duty. Afraid for her job, nurse Lily asked no one for help in deciding which baby was which. She randomly placed the special I.D. bracelet randomly on one of the babies and simply wrote ‘Baby Boy Lecroix’ and ‘Baby Boy Duvalle’ on two standard I.D. bracelets. She attached them to the two other babies, another opportunity for identity mix up! One of the Royal babies could even have been switched with the commoner baby! 

If Pierre has Royal blood flowing through his veins but his ‘fraternal’ twin’s genes do not measure up, the search for Pierre’s real biological twin could take forever! No one knows what became of the commoner mother, Veronique Duvalle, and baby boy Duvalle all these thirty years! They remain a mystery---"