Byron's brows furrowed. "I want to talk with Mother and my aunt."
"And say what?" The Emperor sighed. "I've been placating her all these years for one reason. To protect you."
"I wanted you to have a peaceful carefree life as the Crown Prince because that was what had been set up for you from the moment of your birth. If you confronted her and this whole situation blows sky high, the one hurt the most will be you."
"But Father, I cannot sit back and watch them harm Candace or take away her Empress Crown!"
"Even if it means you will not have a chance to be with her?" The Emperor asked.
"Even if it means I get thrown out of the Royal Palace and labeled illegitimate for the rest of my life. I cannot allow Candace to be harmed by this."
Ray Torra, who had been sitting quietly listening to all this debate suddenly jumped up.
"Let's get the Empress and her sister into this conversation, shall we? I, for one, am all for laying everything out into the open and letting the sun shine down upon the world."
He grinned with mischief. "May all the flowers bloom."
He waved a couple of fingers and two other 3D visuals appeared, one on each side of the Emperor.
Empress Clarissa was obviously the Empress by the extreme opulence of her clothing.
Her sister, Lady Marissa was far less ostentatious but there was no mistaking the striking similarities between the two women.
They were like peas in a pod. Same red hair, same blue eyes, same lilting way they held their heads.
"My apologies for intruding upon your day, Empress, Lady Marissa." Ray Torra smiled. "I've invited both of you here today so that—"
"Mother!!!" Byron interrupted Ray's soliloquy. "Why???"
"Why what?" The Empress' eyes darted from all the Princes to her husband. "What is wrong?"
"The jig is up, Clarissa." The Emperor announced without his usual cheerful pomp. "The children all know what happened at the last Avgo event."
"What do you mean?" She turned to him, her eyes full of concern and recrimination.
"It had nothing to do with Rex. He kept his promise to you." Ray Torra cackled. "I was the one who showed the kids that video that everyone thought had been destroyed."
He again waved his hand and the image of Anastasia wearing her crown and smiling into the crowd again showed up.
The Empress' face whitened.
"This may have been true but she was disqualified because she was pregnant. Since I was in second place, I took over the winning position."
"Ah, but then that begs the question, now doesn't it, Clarissa. Where's Anastasia's baby? The one that disqualified her from the Avgo Event?" Ray interjected.
"He right over there!" She pointed at Dante. "He was the one responsible for his mother losing the Avgo Event. It had nothing to do with me!"
Dante rolled his eyes. Did the Empress think he was a child who could not see through that baseless accusation?
He didn't even get the chance to defend himself or his mother. A chorus of voices chimed in from all his brothers.
"Dante is blameless in that!"
"He did nothing wrong!"
"He wasn't even born yet, how can you accuse him of anything???"
"That's ridiculous!!!"
"Unbelievable!"
"Boys," the Emperor held up his hand. Turning to the Empress, he gave her a hard stare.
"You know Clarissa, I was expecting better of you than that. You are actually accusing my own son of being the cause of his mother's failure to become Empress. So then let me ask you. Why is Dante not the Crown Prince?"
"Because Byron is first born…"
Too late! She recognized the folly of her words.
Clarissa herself had hung her own throat using her own words against her.
"Uh huh." Ray Torra gave an evil wicked grin. "Pray tell, Clarissa. How was it possible for you to have given birth to a first-born son when you weren't even pregnant yet at the time when Dante had already been conceived?"
The Empress Clarissa said nothing. The jig was truly up.
And of course, since the jig was up, there was no more reason for the other part of the jig to be fully exposed.
"She never gave birth to a first-born son." Marissa's eyes were triumphant. "She never even had a son."
She'd been wanting to shout this from the roof tops ever since she bore the child but had never been allowed to.
"Her child is a first born daughter. Byron is my son!"
Marissa looked around, fully expecting the news to be a huge bombshell.
Nobody looked as if they cared.
The Emperor turned cold and angry violet eyes at her. "So tell me, Marissa. Why did you give up your first-born son, and does your husband know about this?"
Marissa fumed.
Why was nobody reacting to the one secret she had been carrying within her all these years? She deserved some kind of reaction, damn it!!!
"I was approached by Clarissa about trading places for the duration of a few months so I could also become impregnated by you."
The Emperor's eyes grew deadly.
Of course, he had known this had happened, but he had quietly kept it inside all this time to protect his son.
He no longer needed to hold it in at this point.
Marissa continued talking, missing the dangerous glint in the Emperor's eyes.
"Clarissa told me that if I bore a son and she a daughter, she would trade places with me and I would be the Empress."
She turned a disgusted stare at Dante.
"We were doing this for the overall good of the galaxy, after all. We cannot allow disgusting bugs to take over our galaxy!"
She turned back to Clarissa.
"But then on the night that I gave birth to Byron, she stole him from me and discarded our agreement. I never could prove that he was my son because in his place was the female child that she had given birth to."
Marissa's face turned ugly.
"I have kept it in all these years because I didn't want my son to be harmed by this evil woman, but no more."
Clarissa's face turned dark.
"Lies!" She spat. "Byron is my son!"
Marissa laughed. "You are such an evil woman, Clarissa. You had your entire team of doctors killed off to keep the silence about your daughter's birth, but you forgot something."
Marissa glared at her. "My physicians are all still alive and they will vouch for my son's birth. We have visuals of him emerging from my body, a boy!!!"
"Mother!!!" A voice shouted from the far end of the room. It was a strong female voice full of fury.
Striding in was a long-legged red haired female wearing full warrior outfit, including all her insignias and rankings.
Both Clarissa and Marissa turned to the sound of their daughter's voice.
"Poppy…" Byron called out with a hoarse strangled voice.