The sharp smell of disinfectant hit hard.
Nina was dragged out of sleep by a dull, throbbing pain.
Her eyelids felt crazy heavy, like someone had poured lead into them.
She forced them open and saw nothing but the bleak white ceiling of a hospital room.
There was an IV needle in her arm.
Cool medicine flowed slowly through her veins.
Her whole body felt weak and sore, and broken bits of last night came rushing back in fragments after she had collapsed in that violent rainstorm.
She had signed the divorce papers.
She had taken off her wedding ring.
She had grabbed her old suitcase and run into the rain, and then…
everything went blank.
What hospital was this?
Who had brought her here?
Would Ethan come?
The second that thought landed, Nina cut it off fast.
The moment that man answered Tiffany Ashford’s call, he had already made his choice.
She should not, absolutely should not, keep clinging to some impossible fantasy.
The ward door was pushed open from outside.
The man who walked in was tall and straight-backed, close to six-foot-three.
His features were sharp and sculpted, and there was a natural nobility in his face, the kind that screamed royal blood without him needing to say a word.
He wore a perfectly tailored dark gray suit, and there was an unmistakable pressure around him, the kind only people long used to power carried.
In one hand, he held a vintage leather document case as he strode toward the bed.
But when his gaze fell on Nina’s pale, exhausted face, the sharpness in his eyes melted almost instantly, leaving behind only pain—deep, heavy, impossible to hide.
“Who are you…?” she asked, her voice so hoarse it barely sounded like her own.
The man leaned closer.
In those almond-shaped eyes—so much like Nina’s—it was all heartache.
“My name is Jordan Calloway, Crown Prince of F Country.” His voice was low and gentle.
“Nina Blackwell…
or maybe I should call you—Nina Calloway?”
Nina’s eyes flew wide open.
Jordan carefully placed a ruby into her palm, then took out a document from his briefcase and handed it to her.
“A paternity report.
It came back yesterday on rush processing.
Match rate, 99.99%.” His voice was soft, like he was afraid of breaking the moment.
“You are the little princess of the F Country royal family who disappeared twenty years ago.
My biological sister.”
Nina’s fingers trembled.
She took the report, her eyes fixed on that string of numbers, and her mind went completely blank.
Princess?
Royal family?
Those words were too far from her life, so far they sounded like something out of somebody else’s story, not hers.
“That’s impossible…” she murmured.
“I’m an orphan.
I grew up in an orphanage, and later I was adopted by the Harlow family…”
“When you were three, there was a palace coup.
The nanny who was supposed to protect you had been bought off and took you out of the palace.” Jordan’s eyes turned red around the edges.
“We searched for you for twenty years.
Father and Mother searched all over the world.
I…
I almost went through orphanage records in every country.
It wasn’t until three months ago that my people found your trail in Uppergate.”
Then he took out another photo.
The photo showed the royal garden of F Country’s palace twenty years ago.
A refined, noble couple stood in the middle, with three beautiful little boys gathered around them.
In the arms of the tall, striking man was a tiny little girl, soft and doll-like.
Her chubby hand was clutched tight around a huge ruby, and her eyes were curved with the sweetest smile.
Nina stared at the photo, and something deep in her sealed-up memories seemed to get slammed wide open.
She remembered that ruby.
She remembered pointing at the crown on her father’s head with her tiny finger, and then that ruby being removed and placed into her palm.
She remembered her mother’s gentle embrace.
She remembered her brothers fighting to take turns holding her, each one unwilling to let go.
“Nina,” Jordan said, his voice thick with emotion, “this was taken on your third birthday.
The ruby in your hand was the main stone on Father’s crown.
After you disappeared, he never wore that crown again.”
Nina’s tears dropped without any warning.
She had thought she’d run out of tears a long time ago.
After the Harlow family was destroyed, after three of her ribs were broken, after she was thrown back into the orphanage, she had believed there was nothing left to cry with.
But now, looking at the little princess in the photo—the child her whole family had treasured like she was the center of their world—she shook with sobs.
Jordan slowly reached out, careful to the point of almost holding his breath, like he was scared she might shatter if he touched her.
Then he gently pulled her into his arms.
“Nina, I’m sorry.
I came too late.” His voice was low and heavy, packed with anger he was trying hard to suppress, and heartache he couldn’t hide.
“I should never have let you suffer outside all alone for so many years.
From now on, the entire royal family of F Country is behind you.
Whoever hurt you, I’ll settle the score one by one.”
Nina cried in his arms for a long, long time.
When she finally managed to calm down a little, she lifted her head.
Her eyes were swollen red as she looked at Jordan.
“Can I…
call you my brother?”
“Of course!” Jordan’s eyes were red too, and he nodded hard without hesitation.
“Call me whatever feels right—your brother, Jordan, anything you like.”
“Jordan…” Nina sniffed, her voice still rough and trembling from crying.
“Can my identity…
stay secret for now?”
Jordan froze for a second.
“Why?
If Mom, Dad, and the other two brothers find out you’ve been found, they’ll fly over immediately.
They’ve been waiting for this day for twenty years.”
“I know.” Nina lowered her head and gripped the bedsheet tighter with her fingers.
“But right now…
there are still a lot of things I haven’t sorted out.
What happened with my adoptive parents, what happened to my brother Ambrose Harlow, and…” She paused, her lashes trembling.
“I don’t want to deal with all of that as the princess of F Country.
Those are my debts.
I want to collect them myself.”
Jordan looked at her stubborn side profile and stayed silent for a long while.
In the end, he let out a quiet sigh.
“Okay.
I promise you.
But you need to know this—no matter what you want to do, I’ll be standing behind you.”
He pressed the call button for the doctor, then gave orders to the bodyguards to keep strict watch outside the room and let no one disturb her.
Nina leaned against the headboard, watching Jordan move around, busy with everything for her.
For the first time in twenty years, she felt like she truly belonged somewhere.
So it turned out she was not someone without a home.
So it turned out she had once been loved, protected, and held precious too.