The Crown Princess Secret Heir

The King's Summon

Nadia's Point of View

My father's eyes widen in disbelief.

For one terrifying heartbeat, he simply stares at me, his lips parting as though he wants to speak. Then his hand flies to his chest.

"No..."

The word barely leaves my lips before his knees buckle. He crashes onto the polished floor with a sickening thud. The room instantly erupts into chaos.

Bodyguards rush toward him. Servants cry out in panic. My Aunt Zuri pushes through the crowd, screaming for the royal healers. Yet every sound around me fades into a dull hum as if the world itself has been plunged underwater.

I cannot move. I cannot breathe.

I can only stare at the man who survived assassination attempts, political coups, and wars... lying motionless because of me.

My feet remain rooted to the floor as the royal healers fight to save him. Every instinct urges me to run to his side, to beg for his forgiveness, to tell him I never meant for this to happen. But no words come. The apology burns inside my throat, too heavy to escape.

What could I possibly say? That I had fallen in love with another man? Or that I no longer want the life he has sacrificed everything to preserve for me?

No apology could erase the betrayal reflected in his eyes before he collapsed.

I have never seen my father like this. Not when rebels tried to seize the palace. Not when a neighboring kingdom declared war against us. Not even when assassins slipped through the royal guards and came within a breath of taking his life.

King Zane has always stood tall through every storm, carrying the weight of the crown as though it were nothing. Yet the truth I had hidden from him brought the strongest man I know to his knees.

If he dies because of me, I will spend the rest of my life wondering whether love was worth the price of losing the only parent I have ever known.

"Clear the way!"

The command echoes through the room as the healers lift my father onto a stretcher. Still, I cannot move.

He has spent my entire life protecting me. To the kingdom I am Princess Nadia, the Crown Princess and sole heir to the Crescent Kingdom. But to him, I have always been something far simpler, his little girl.

After my mother died bringing me into this world, people whispered that I had stolen their queen. Some even looked at me as though I were a curse, but my father never allowed me to carry that burden alone. He loved me enough for the both of them.

He silenced every cruel tongue against me, stood between me and every accusation, and made sure I grew up knowing I was cherished, never blamed for my mother’s death. And now... I was about to repay that love by breaking the promise that meant everything to him.

A shrill ringing slices through the chaos.

The palace, the shouting, the frantic footsteps… everything disappears.

I jerk awake with a sharp gasp, my fingers clutching the sheets beneath me as my chest rises and falls in frantic breaths. Sweat dampens my skin, and my heart pounds so violently that it feels like it is ready to burst from my ribcage.

Sunlight streams through the curtains, bathing my bedroom in a warm golden glow.

There is silence. No bodyguards, no chaos , no royal healers. No stretcher carrying my father away.

Only the relentless vibration of my phone on the bedside table.

It was only a nightmare.

I press a trembling hand against my chest and force myself to breathe, but the relief is painfully brief.

The nightmare may not have been real, but the secret was. If my father ever discovered the life I had built beyond the borders of the Crescent Kingdom, the future I feared might no longer remain just a dream.

My gaze drifts to the framed photograph on my bedside table.

Jake.

A faint smile tugs at my lips despite the fear still twisting inside me.

The photograph had been taken at our favorite park after a sudden rainstorm. My tightly coiled hair dripped with rainwater ,and Jake had laughed so hard that he almost dropped his phone before taking the picture.

It remains my favorite photograph.

For two years, he has loved me without ever knowing who I truly am.

To him, I am simply Nadia. A woman who came abroad to study. Not the Crown Princess of the Crescent Kingdom. Not the only heir to a throne waiting thousands of miles away.

Sometimes I convince myself that I am protecting him by keeping that secret.

Other times…

I wonder if I am simply protecting myself.

Because once Jake learns the truth, he may stop seeing the woman he fell in love with and start seeing the crown that has followed me since birth. And that is a risk I have never found the courage to take. At least not yet .

A soft chime pulls me from my thoughts. I glance at my phone lying on the bedside table.

Reminder: Dinner with Jake : Tonight, 7:00 PM.

A warmth spreads through my chest. For weeks, Jake has been impossible to read.

He smiles to himself at the strangest moments. He slips his phone into his pocket whenever I walk into the room. And just last week, I caught him browsing engagement rings.

The poor man nearly dropped his laptop trying to close the page before I saw it.

I never told him that I had seen it. Instead, I teased him about looking so nervous lately. He simply laughed and blamed it on work.

I pretended to believe him but deep down, I already knew.

Tonight is not just another date. I have a feeling it is going to be the night Jake pops the question. And I already know my answer.

Not because he is perfect but because for the first time in my life, someone had made me forget that I was born with a crown waiting for me. With Jake, I am not the future Queen of the Crescent Kingdom I am simply… Nadia. A woman who could dream about a future she has chosen for herself.

The thought brings a smile to my lips.

Then my phone begins to vibrate. The smile disappears as two words flash across the screen.

Dad Calling.

A knot forms in my stomach.

I stare at the screen for a long moment before finally answering.

“Hello, Dad.”

The moment I answer, my father’s voice fills the room.

“Nadia, my child.”

There is warmth in his voice, but beneath it lies something unfamiliar.

Urgency.

“I need you to come home.”

For the past three months, he has asked me the same thing. And for the past three months, I have given him a different excuse. There was always another course to complete. Another paper to submit. Another commitment that simply could not wait. But the truth was never about my studies. It was about the life I had built here. It was about Jake.

“Dad…” I swallow hard. “I still have a few things to finish.”

A heavy silence follows.

When he speaks again, the warmth is gone.

“Nadia, your studies ended months ago.”

My fingers tighten around the phone.

“It is time for you to come home.”

“I just need a little more time.”

“You have already had three years.”

His words strike like a hammer.

“I am not ready.”

“You do not have the luxury of deciding when you are ready.”

I close my eyes.

“Dad, please…”

“I am not asking anymore.”

The quiet authority in his voice steals the air from my lungs.

“I am commanding you as your King.”

The line goes dead.

I stare at the phone in my hand, unable to believe what has just happened. My father has never spoken to me that way before. Not once in my twenty-three years. He has always been a father to me, not a king .

Why now?

Before I can gather my thoughts, a sharp knock echoes through my apartment.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

I freeze.

“Who is it?”

No answer.

Another knock.

This one louder.

Slowly, I walk toward the door, every instinct warning me that whatever waits on the other side is about to change my life.

I pull it open.

Three men in perfectly tailored black suits stand outside.

Behind them, a woman wheels an empty suitcase into my apartment without waiting for permission. She walks straight past me and begins opening my closet.

The woman packs with terrifying efficiency, filling the suitcase as though my departure had been planned long before I knew about it.

None of them speak. They do not have to. The silver Crescent emblem embroidered on their jackets tells me everything.

My father had not just called to ask for his daughter. The King had sent for his heir.

And for the first time since leaving the Crescent Kingdom…

I understood that I was no longer being given a choice.