The Crown Princess Secret Heir

The Promise I made

Jake’s Point of View

My secret phone vibrates just as I finish fastening the cuffs of my shirt.

I do not need to look at the screen to know who it is.

The calls have become almost predictable over the past five years. Different voices. Different excuses. Always the same destination.

Home.

With a quiet sigh, I set the bouquet of white roses on the kitchen counter before answering.

“Jake.”

Sierra’s voice is softer than usual, almost hesitant.

“I need you to come home.”

I walk toward the window overlooking the busy city below. Morning traffic crawls through the streets while people hurry to work, completely unaware that somewhere not far from the city , powerful men are once again trying to pull me back into a world I promised myself I would never let consume me.

“I can’t.”

The answer leaves my mouth before I have time to think about it.

A heavy silence follows.

“Our father needs you,” Sierra says quietly.

I close my eyes.

For years, my family has found new reasons to bring me home. A rival family crossing the border. A shipment intercepted. A meeting that only I can handle. There is always another crisis waiting for me.

Another reason why I should leave behind the life I fought so hard to build.

“I will call him after tonight,” I say.

“Not tonight.”

Her voice trembles just enough for me to notice.

“He needs you now.”

My grip tightens around the phone. Before she can say anything else, I end the call.

The apartment falls silent once more. Slowly, I turn toward the dining table. The small velvet box still sits exactly where I left it.

Sunlight spills through the window, catching the diamond inside. It sparkles with a quiet brilliance, completely untouched by the darkness of the world I left behind. It is as pure as Nadia.

A smile finds its way onto my face.

Just a few more hours.

Tonight is the night everything changes.

The smile slowly fades as I close the ring box.

It is strange how one phone call is enough to drag me back into memories I spend every day trying to bury.

Five years ago, this ring would have been impossible to imagine. Back then, my future had already been decided. I was going to inherit an empire built on fear. An empire that had swallowed generations of my family long before I was born. But it was never supposed to be mine.

That future belonged to Adrian. My older brother. He was my hero.

He was the one everyone admired. The one our father spent years preparing to become the next head of the Moore Empire. While other boys dreamed of becoming athletes or businessmen, Adrian was already leading operations, negotiating with rival families, and earning the respect of men twice his age.

I was only meant to stand beside him.

Then one night everything changed. We were ambushed during one of our missions.

I remember that day like it was yesterday. There were bullets flying in the air and blood everywhere.

I still remember Adrian shoving me behind an armored vehicle as gunfire erupted around us.

“Run!”

It was the last order he ever gave me.

He never made it out alive.

His death did not just leave an empty seat at our family’s table. It placed a crown of another kind upon my head. From that day forward, I was no longer the younger son.

I became the heir.

For months, our father buried himself in work while the empire mourned its fallen prince.

Then, on my eighteenth birthday, I walked into his office and did something no one in our family had ever dared to do. I asked for my own life.

He does not answer immediately.

My father simply watches me from behind his desk, his expression as unreadable as ever. Around him, the walls of his office are lined with maps, security monitors, and portraits of the men who built our empire long before I was born.

Finally, he speaks.

“If I let you walk away today, you will never come back.”

“I will.”

The answer leaves my mouth without hesitation.

“I am not asking to abandon my family.” I meet his gaze. “I just want to know who I am when I am not carrying a gun.”

Silence stretches between us.

For the first time since Adrian’s funeral, I see something shift in his eyes. Not weakness. Not surrender but understanding.

“When duty calls,” he says at last, “you answer.”

I nod.

“You will return whenever this family needs you.”

“I give you my word.”

“And when I send for you…” His voice hardens once more. “You do not make me ask twice.”

“I won’t.”

That promise had since followed me for five years. Every time my father calls, I return.

Sometimes it is to negotiate with rival families. Sometimes it is to recover stolen shipments.

Sometimes…

It is to remind our enemies why they fear the Moore name.

Then I disappear again.

Back to the ordinary life I choose.

Back to the city where nobody knows that the man standing beside them in line for coffee spent the previous night leading armed men through enemy territory.

A faint scar runs across my right hand. Without thinking, I brush my thumb over it.

The memory comes rushing back.

Only twenty-four hours earlier, that hand had been covered in blood.

My thumb traces the scar.

Funny…

Time has almost erased it but I still remember the woman who noticed it before anyone else.

The morning after one of my father’s operations, I had walked into work with a bandage wrapped around my palm, convinced I had hidden the injury well enough.

Without a word, Nadia who was an intern by then had appeared beside me carrying a small first-aid kit.

“You will reopen the wound if you keep using that hand.”

That was all she said.

No questions.

No suspicion.

She never asked why the cut looked more like a knife wound than an accident.

She simply cleaned it, wrapped a fresh bandage around my hand, smiled… and returned to her desk.

For the first time in my life, someone looked at me without seeing an heir. Without seeing a weapon.

She simply saw a man who was hurt.

I think that is the moment I fell in love with her.

A vibration pulls me back to the present.

A message in my secret phone that Nadia knows nothing about.

One of my father’s trusted captains.

“ Operation Black Tide. Briefing in one hour. Your father expects you there.”

I stare at the screen for a long moment before letting out a quiet breath.

Of all the days…

I glance toward the velvet box resting beside the bouquet of white roses.

Tonight, I am supposed to ask the woman I love to spend the rest of her life with me.

One mission. That is all.

I have never broken my word to my father and I am not about to start now.

I slip the ring box into my jacket pocket before picking up my car keys.

I will quickly finish the operation then I will propose to the love of my life. What could go wrong?

With one last glance at the flowers waiting on the table, I walk out of the apartment with confidence.

I have everything under control. One operation. One proposal.

By tomorrow, Nadia will be wearing my ring.