00:00She's had eyes inside this palace for three years, Marcus said quietly, which means she
00:06already knows everything we've discussed tonight, including everywhere we might still
00:10consider running.
00:11The room absorbed the weight of that realization in heavy silence.
00:16Isabel held Lucia closer, the little girl stirring restlessly against her shoulder.
00:21Then we don't use anything Edmund built, Marcus said finally, decisive, nothing connected
00:28to his network, his planning, or his mother's 20 years of preparation.
00:33We start from zero.
00:34What does that even mean?
00:36Adrian asked.
00:37Marcus, this is a palace.
00:39Every route, every vehicle, every safe house you know of, was built within a system Edmund's
00:46mother has apparently been watching for years.
00:49Not every system, Marcus said slowly.
00:52There's one option Marguerite couldn't have anticipated, because it doesn't exist inside
00:57any palace record at all.
00:59My sister, Marcus said, she lives two hours from here, off-grid by choice, no connection
01:06to the crown, no digital footprint, beyond a landline and a mailbox.
01:11I haven't spoken to her in over a year.
01:13She has no idea what I do for a living beyond time palace security, and she's never once
01:19appeared in any file, any database, any surveillance system either Edmund or his mother could have
01:25accessed.
01:26You trust your family with something this dangerous?
01:29Isabel asked.
01:31I trust that Marguerite has spent 20 years mapping systems, protocols, and patterns, Marcus
01:38said.
01:38She hasn't spent 20 years mapping my personal life, because until tonight, my personal life
01:43had nothing to do with any of this.
01:45Edmund, listening quietly, nodded slowly.
01:49That's exactly the kind of gap she wouldn't think to check.
01:52She's brilliant, but even she can't account for what she doesn't know exists.
01:57They scrapped the delivery van entirely, along with every other vehicle registered to the
02:02palace or Marcus' known operation.
02:05Instead, Marcus arranged for a plain rental car, paid in cash by one of Tommy's newly assigned
02:11protection detail, someone with zero connection to Marcus' usual network, to be left running
02:17in a public parking structure, three blocks from the palace's outer wall.
02:22Isabel and Lucia left through the palace kitchens instead, disguised in simple staff uniforms,
02:29walking out with the evening delivery crew, as though they belonged there.
02:33No tunnels, no official exits, nothing that matched any pattern either, Edmund or Marguerite
02:39might have documented.
02:41Overmixare feels too simple, Isabel whispered to Adrian as they moved through the loading
02:46dock.
02:47Simple is exactly what she won't expect, Adrian said.
02:51She's spent 20 years preparing for complexity.
02:53Let's give her nothing to prepare for.
02:56At the parking structure, Adrian held Isabel and Lucia close for a long moment, before they
03:02climbed into the waiting car.
03:04I wouldn't come with you, he said.
03:05You can't, Isabel said gently.
03:08You're needed here for the council proceedings, for Maya, for whatever Marguerite tries next.
03:13If we both disappear, it leaves everyone else exposed.
03:16I just got you both back, Adrian said, voice breaking slightly.
03:21I don't want to lose you again.
03:24Too fast, easy rage, expel.
03:26I don't want to lose you again.
03:28This isn't three years of hiding, Adrian.
03:31This is a few days at most, until it's safe.
03:34I promise you that.
03:35Lucia, half asleep against her mother's shoulder, reached out a small hand toward Adrian, and
03:41he pressed a gentle kiss to her fingers, before stepping back to let them go.
03:46With Isabel and Lucia safely departed, the remaining group regrouped to focus on the more immediate
03:53problem, dismantling whatever surveillance network Edmund had unknowingly built for his
03:58mother throughout the palace.
04:00Where else did you install cameras?
04:02Marcus asked Edmund directly.
04:04Edmund pulled out his phone, opening a private encrypted app he'd used for years to monitor
04:10his own personal network.
04:12Twelve locations throughout the palace, installed over eighteen months, disguised as standard maintenance
04:18equipment.
04:19I genuinely believed I was the only one with access.
04:23Show us all of them, Marcus said.
04:25We disable every single one tonight.
04:28Lloyd.
04:29As they worked through the list methodically, Edmund suddenly stopped at one particular entry,
04:35his face going pale.
04:36What is it?
04:37Maya asked, having joined the group, after settling Tommy safely to sleep in a guest room.
04:43The nursery, Edmund said quietly.
04:45I installed a camera in the nursery, eighteen months ago, before Lucia was even born, back
04:51when I was still gathering information, trying to understand the family dynamics I intended
04:56to eventually disrupt.
04:58I forgot it was even there.
04:59You're saying my mother has been watching Lucia?
05:02Adrian said, voiced dangerously quiet, since before she was even born, that I need to check
05:08exactly what that camera has recorded, and exactly what my mother might have learned from
05:13watching a child grow up that she has apparently decided, for reasons none of us fully understand
05:18yet, deserves to be part of whatever she's planning.
05:21Marcus pulled up the archived footage from Edmund's private server, scrolling quickly through
05:27months of recordings, until a single flag clip caught his attention, timestamped just three
05:32days earlier, well before tonight's chaos had even begun.
05:36The footage showed an empty nursery, quiet and still, until a figure entered frame, not
05:42a nanny, not palace staff, but a woman in her fifties, silver streaked hair, moving with
05:48quiet, deliberate calm toward Lucia's crib.
05:52She stood over the sleeping child for a long moment, reaching down to gently adjust a blanket,
05:58before turning directly toward the camera, as though she'd known exactly where it was hidden,
06:02the entire time, I hope you don't mind that I borrowed your little project, I simply wanted
06:08to see my granddaughter, before everything changes, the room fell into stunned silence,
06:14as the recording continued, by the time anyone finds this footage, Marguerite's recorded voice
06:20continued, calm and unhurried, I imagine quite a lot will have already happened, Isabel will
06:27have run, exactly as I intended her to, Edmund will have finally learned the truth about me,
06:32exactly as I planned for him to, and somewhere in all of this, I suspect a certain Miss Reyes
06:38will have finally understood why her father really disappeared.
06:42The footage paused on Marguerite's calm, composed face, staring directly into the camera as though
06:49speaking to each of them individually.
06:51Three days into the past, what none of you understand yet, she continued, is that this was
06:57never simply about revenge, or recognition, or even correcting an old mistake, this is
07:04about protecting the one person in this entire story, who actually matters to me, above everyone
07:09else.
07:10The recording ended abruptly, Adrian turned slowly toward Edmund, who was she talking about?
07:17Edmund stared at the frozen final frame of his mother's face, something dawning in his
07:22expression, that looked less like realization, and more like dread.
07:26I don't think, he said quietly, she's talking about me at all.
07:31Coming up in episode 21, above everyone else, as the group races to understand who Marguerite
07:37is truly protecting, Isabel and Lucia's journey into hiding takes an unexpected turn that ties
07:44directly back to the woman pulling every string.
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