The Lost Princess - A 'Selection' spinoff

CHAPTER 25

"Oh shut up!" Elena said, walking into her closet, and changing into her nightwear.

She returned to find Edward sitting on the edge of the bed gingerly, with Elena sprawled on the floor.

"What brings you here at this hour, Elena?" she asked her sister.

"I've been here for more than an hour, Lo," Elena said, her expression changing to that of a serious one, one that was seldom seen.

"Is Vincenzo alright?" Edward asked immediately.

"He's fine," Elena said.

"Then why are you here?" Elora asked her.

"Because I get access to all files only in here," she said.

"You get that even in the outer chambers," Edward pointed out.

"I like the aura here, okay?" Elena said defensively. "It's very Zen, and helps me do my best thinking".

"How on earth are you elder to me?" Elora asked in disbelief.

"Yeah I wonder that myself," Elena said, before swiping the air and showing a glowing screen.

"That's Aurora's file," Elora said, looking at the picture on it.

Elena stood up, and paced around, talking slowly as though she was teaching a class.

"When did the Selected people arrive in the castle?" she asked.

"Eighth of May," Edward said swiftly.

"And that is?".

"Four days since Ella was kidnapped. The eighteenth anniversary, to be exact," Elora said.

"Aurora said that she turned eighteen a few days before she arrived at the palace," Elena said, zooming the file and showing them what had been documented as Aurora's birthday - Fourth of May.

Edward gasped.

"What are you trying to say, Elena?" Elora asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Now, if you find an infant on your doorstep, and need to register it with the government, what will you put as the kid's DOB?" Elena asked.

"The day they were found," Elora said slowly.

"And we know that Aurora was adopted," Elena said, raising her hand to stop Edward who had opened his mouth to speak. "Just listen".

She swiped at the virtual screen, and a new document came into view.

"These are the results of Aurora's DNA test," Elena said, zooming a particular point. "We see that she has the genetic markup for hemophilia. It's not dominant, but recessive".

"8% of the females in Illea has the particular gene," Edward said, opening a screen of his own.

"True. True," Elena agreed, dismissing his screen, and changing her own to a different slide.

"That's a picture of me," Elora said, frowning, her brain still not able to comprehend what Elena was coming to say. 

"Yes," her sister said, waving her hand, and a new picture appeared by its side. "These are pictures of you and Aurora taken at the Anniversary Ball".

"So?".

"Just notice the posture and the color of the dress," Elena said lightly.

"Many girls like that dark color, Elena," Elora said, her voice shaking.

"Once again, true," Elena said. "But have you ever noticed that Aurora paints like you, Edward, and plays the violin just like you, Elora?".

"Almost one in three girls are taught to play the violin, and painting is a mandatory course in every school," Edward said, catching on to what Elena was trying to say faster than his wife.

Elora was still in shock - she somehow knew what Elena was hinting, but she didn't want to believe it. 

Not after she had gone through so many instances of getting false hope.

"Once again, true. But have you noticed how she plays the air violin when she's nervous. How she hates the smell of bacon? How she despises wearing slippers?" Elena asked before continuing. "I've been doing my own research since I got here, Edward, and I'm simply asking you to put two and two together".

"Elena-".

Elena stopped him, and swiped again, now a solo picture of Aurora coming up. She zoomed her face, showing only her eyes.

A shade of brown, not too light to be mistaken to be hazel, nor too dark to be thought to be black.

"95% of our population has brown eyes, Elena. My eyes aren't exactly that of the most rarest shade," Edward said before pleading, "Please, stop it. We can't go through this again. We can't endure anymore heartbreak".

"You have to see this, Edward," Elena said, swiping her hand again before showing a picture of his painting on the walls of his daughter's room.

It was almost an exact copy of Aurora.

"Those are just his musings, Lena -," Elora began.

"He drew it over four years ago," Elena stated. "But it's alright".

She swiped again to show two rough drawings of Elora and Edward. She quickly picked a few of them - Edward's eyes and roundish face structure, Elena's sharp nose, heart shaped lips and eyebrows - and put them together. She roughly drew black hair on the figure.

Again, it looked just like Aurora.

"Those are just a jumble of random features, Elena," Edward said, his voice trembling with emotion, denying everything his sister-in-law said.

Elena stared at him and swiped again showing a short video.

"I had someone use an AI to see how Elanor would look when she grew up," she said, pointing at the screen.

Elanor's chubby face matured slowly, very slowly into a tween and then into a teen to show Aurora.

They had the same brown eyes and black hair.

"I know you would deny this as well, which is why I took the genome details from Aurora's DNA test, and ran it against mine. You both know I am a microbiologist, and I sent it to my lab, where you know the results are definitely accurate" Elena said, clearly saving the strongest of her evidences for the last. "I got the results an hour or so back. Since Elora and I basically have the same DNA-".

"What did it say?" Elora asked, in a surprisingly steady voice.

"See for yourself," Elena said, smiling.

Red words blared on the screen - 50% match.

"Elora," Edward said in a small voice, sounding like a child. "What does it mean?".

Elena wanted to speak, wanted to smile and laugh, but tears began falling in a stream from her eyes.

"It means..." she said before choking. "It means that we got our daughter back".

DUN DUN DUN.

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XOXO

The Fidgeting Monk