I'll Protect You (Re-Edit #2, 2016)

My name may be Park Sparrow, but I'm secretly Ethan Hunt

Dedicated to amber_lee014 ~ happy birthday, love!
i hate this song more than anything--please listen to it as you read this overly long chapter

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Jasper had been born earlier than my mother expected. The difference between his expected due date and actual birth date wasn't a concerning gap that could've potentially lead to future health problems. No, Jasper Sparrow had been born a week earlier. But that one week difference had been enough to change his entire life. 

My mother had traveled to the Netherlands on a private vacation that week. My father had been on a diplomatic envoy to France, and she hadn't wanted to be by herself, so she and her brother had visited their parents. 

On the night that Jasper was born, there was a ferocious storm thundering in the Netherlands. The water-slicked roads from that afternoon had turned into black ice and the wind blew with such a rage that my mother was forced to stay at home rather than head to a hospital. 

My mother always described Jasper's birthday with a sad smile on her face. The night had been a miraculous night for Jasper. Born early, without proper medical aid and materials, it had come to a wonderful surprise to my mother that the two of them had survived, and that Jasper seemed like a strong child, just like his siblings. 

Things took a turn for the worst that week.

The weather never improved, so my mother's family had to make do and create a little hospital for Jasper. My mother spent all her hours nursing her son. She said it was lucky that Isaac, her brother, had decided to come along, for he had been a doctor. That's why Jasper's middle name was Isaac--a tribute to the man who spent the last moments of his life caring for her son. 

On the fourth night after his birthday, there was an attack on the house.

A group had broken into the home and stole my mother and Jasper away as hostages. They were the only ones left alive.

My father received a phone call on his arrival back home. Archer and I had been there, waiting for our father to phone our mother so we could talk to her for the first time. We had watched him fall to his knees, terror on his face as he swore to pay the ransom. 

I had been too young to truly grasp the horrors of the situation. The kidnappers had demanded a high ransom for the return of the princess and her child. My father agreed to send the money--along with the Order of the Dragons. 

I remembered my mother coming home, clutching Jasper in her arms and sobbing as she recounted her events. Her entire family was dead because of who she was married to. Jasper had nearly been killed, and my mother was absolutely terrified for his life. So, she asked for the unbelievable. 

She asked for Jasper's true identity to be kept a secret. 

It wasn't hard to do. When your mother-in-law was a queen and your husband was a prince, there's not much you can't do. The queen pulled a lot of strings, and voila! -- Jasper was the last child of the Bishop family, born out of wedlock. 

My mother had gone through a tragic miscarriage, prompting her escape to her family in the Netherlands to "cope." A grievous accident occurred, but not before my mother had learned the truth about her brother's indiscretions. She set off to find the woman who kept the child, and coincidentally, the woman happened to be dying. 

News all over the world reported the ordeal: The Royal Family Adopts Bastard Child.

Elena Bishop, victim of world-wide pity and scorn at the fact that her husband had cheated on her, had sworn to take the truth with her to the grave, a promise she upheld. With her death, it left the knowledge of Jasper's identity with our family and two of my friends, who had accidentally discovered the truth on their own.