The Vindication Gents

Chapter 1.27

Aaron Remes’ POV

“Kathleen, Kai, thank you for the wait,” I said as I took my seat. Kathleen, as usual, just rolled her eyes at me but Kai looked deep in her thoughts.

“Kai,” I called his name. He looked at me as if he had just got out of trance.

“Yes, Your Majesty?” He asked me. I sighed. Even after being married to my daughter for a few months, he still did not call me ‘father’, or perhaps by my name, to say the least. But that matter can be solved later. The only time that he called me ‘father’ was when Kathleen almost died in his hands.

“There was something that I amn’t completely being honest with you, children,” I said as I went to stand up. They looked at me as if I was trying to break this news as easily as possible as I could.

“Kathleen, do you know that your old man was the second son of your grandfather?” I asked her as she looked at me. I was afraid to look at her face but I did anyway. She did not have a surprised facial expression at all. She just shrugged.

“Well, I guess the rumor was true then,” she said as she looked at me. I knotted my eyebrows together as I looked at her. She rolled her eyes again.

“When I was in the sanctuary, they said that you were the second born and when your brother wanted to marry some chick, he abdicated it and gave it to you. You never had official training, so you must be tough and stoic for the people to see who you made yourself be,” she said as she was looking at me. I smiled at her, as she did not seem to believe the rumor until she heard herself.

“So, do you know why you must not let your sister know about this?” I asked her as she looked at me before looking at her husband. She smirked and she just looked like Inari. How I missed her.

“It depends on what you want us to do next,” she said as she was looking at me. She knew about the things that I hadn’t mentioned and yet, she could still tell what it was. Damn my daughter for her skills.

“Kai?” I asked my son-in-law, who was again lost in the trance.

“Hmm?” He asked, as Kathleen and I were staring at him.

“You probably should tell her the truth,” I said, as I sighed before Kathleen said something.

“Well, he was assigned by you to protect you as he was one of the elite warriors that you sent to the Institution to train, isn’t it?” she said, as Kathleen was staring at me. She had to open her big mouth. I sighed before Kai gulped.

“Well, it looks like things have been out in the open. It’s a good thing we all speak in Russian, right?” She said as she relaxed in her seat. Kai was fidgeting his hands as he counted to control his anger.

He might have to deal with that later and Kathleen was on the receiving end of it, but I guess she can handle it herself. I cleared out my throat before I showed the monitor on my screen. I closed the windows and locked the door as I told my staff to leave us.

“What’s this? Another secret you want to show us, old man?” She asked me. I sighed before I played the video. Kai was gasping before Kathleen was knotting her eyebrows together.

“Greetings, my family. How has it been? How long has it been, indeed? Well, I was not the one that keeps track of time, but it has been 5 years since I saw you guys. So, how was my little Kathleen still playing hide and seek?” He chuckled and that made Kathleen flinch. I tried to control my anger as I saw my daughter’s face when she was found in that accident.

“Now, I don’t want to spend some time. I just cut to the chase. I wanted the throne back, Aaron. And I mean it this time. You were a fool when you were on the throne and I know that I have not been qualified, but hey, I was a member of the royal family too, right?” He asked, as if he was chatting with us. He smiled darkly before he switched to being the grim person that I knew him, growing up.

“You will give me the throne or your treasure will be gone,” and with that, the video ended. I blinked a few minutes before I looked at my subjects.

“Well, what do you think of that?”

Kai Virtanen’s POV

After I saw that video, I don’t know, or rather, I don’t want to think. It was clear that it was my great Uncle Fenn who had been married to my great aunt. They have been living in Norway until recently. My great aunt got a job in the States. He had followed her but to see him, who was dark and grim, I didn’t know who to trust anymore.

And, of course, his obsession with Finland and its history should have been a clue. I did not know his background or anything that would make him a greater threat, but I suppose I had missed that part because of my stupidity. I gulped as I just looked at the king and my wife. She was arching her eyebrows at me before she could read my emotions. She smiled before turning to her father.

“Father, I think we will retire for the night,” she said sweetly before she pulled me out of the chair. Her father nodded at us.

“Very well. I see you tomorrow then,” he replied before we headed for the door. We got out of the study room and we went to our quarters in the east wing.

“Are you okay, my love?” She whispered to me in Russian, even though people might not understand, there must be some spies lurking in the dark just to catch us.

“I don’t think I am. I was merely shocked at the news and the video,” I laughed bitterly before we were walking through our quarters. Kathleen locked the door before she went to kill the lights. She motioned not to make a sound as she pointed at the window.

“I felt like someone was watching us,” she signed to me, as she thought I could read it. But of course, I did. It was a necessary skill for a spy in espionage.

“Do you want me to check it?” I asked her. She shook her head before she pointed at the bedroom.

“The last time Chris came, he went through that window. I wonder if he might be there again,” she signed me. I nodded before I went to take a fighting stance and I went to the door.

“Wait,” Kathleen whispered. She shook her head as I was about to open the door.

“Why not?” I asked her and before I knew it, she was dragging me out of the bedroom as she heard something that I did not.

She was right.

As we went out of the room, the building exploded, leaving only a few miles behind us as we were huffing and puffing the debris of our bodies and were looking at each other.

“Told you something was not right,” she said as she was looking at me before she stood up. She pulled me to the side and she went to look at the debris that was about 500 meters radius of the blast.

“It looks like the bomb was handmade,” she said as she was tracing some wiring and she looked at me. I grimaced.

“Then, we have underestimated my cousin,” I said as I looked at her. She smiled before she went to kiss me but was cut short as some guards were running toward us. The King’s guards.

“Your Highness, your father—“ the guards did not finish as Kathleen ran for her father. I was left behind for one second before I ran after her as well.

We were huffing and puffing our chests out and breathing for air. The king had been inside the secured infirmary as the guard told us that he had been moved there after we went out of the study room.

“This was all my fault,” Kathleen whispered as she leaned into the mirror that was separating us. I went to hug her.

“It is not. Your uncle was the one to blame if anything,” I whispered to her. I kissed her head and smelled her fruity scent in her hair.

“I should have stayed away that night,” she said. I arched my eyebrows as she turned around to look at me.

“Come, I will tell you everything,” she said as she dragged me into an abandoned room inside the infirmary.