originally published august 18, 2022
pairing: knight!steven grant x fem!princess!reader x knight!marc spector x knight!jake lockley
series summary: you were a princess who would rather be anything but a royal; he was the knight her father forced her to marry—a true match made in hell if there ever was one. but, as the wedding inches closer and closer, it seems that, perhaps, your father had finally done something right by you.
chapter summary: the pieces start to come together.
word count: 3,449
warnings?: discussion of affair, discussion of dubcon, mention of miscarriage, shitty police officer, mention of anxiety, not proofread
It was almost scary how much Charlotte looked like Kieran. Some part of you had deluded yourself that perhaps it was a trick of the light in the photo, something that was misleading about their likeness. But, staring her in the face now...Looking at the same slope of the nose, the same color eyes, the same hair color...It made it incredibly obvious how little Kieran looked like you and your mother, how he only barely looked like your father.
Charlotte sunk into a curtsy as you stood in front of her. "Your Highness."
"Please, don't do that. I don't like those kinds of formalities," you said. She rose back up, her hands clasped in front of her. You'd seen the maids stand in a similar position many times over the years as they waited to be directed to do a job. Old habits die hard, you supposed. You held your hand out to her, and said, "I'm Y/N. This is my fiancé Marc, and my bodyguard Layla. And I'm sure you already know Jessica. It's nice to finally meet you."
"Charlotte, ma'am. Please, come inside," she said, shaking your hand.
Charlotte's home was quaint. It wasn't much bigger than the safe house, and it was styled in a similar minimalist manner. You wondered if that was truly Charlotte's decorating style, or if it was just another way for your father to exert control over her. Even with her being hidden away from the rest of the kingdom, he still had her pinned under his thumb. She led all of you to the living room, taking a seat in an armchair, inviting the rest of you to make yourselves comfortable. You sat between Marc and Layla on the couch, Jessica electing to sit on the arm of the couch next to Layla.
"I'm sure you have many questions," Charlotte said to you. "I don't know how much Jessica has explained to you or how much you've figured out on your own, but you can ask me anything you wish."
"I don't know where to begin," you admitted. It was all still such a surprise to you. To have it confirmed that your family had been waiting to kill you and finding out that your brother was the child of an affair and that affair had been hidden all these years? All in one day? It was overwhelming to say the least. "...Why don't you tell me how the story starts?"
Charlotte nodded, looking down at her lap, a shuddering breath escaping her. "I was young. I just begun working at the palace. I'd hoped for more back then. I wanted to work in a museum or an archive. I went to school for that, you know. But I was too young, a woman, and inexperienced. I was lucky to even get a job at the palace. I kept my head down, for the most part. I didn't exactly want to be there. I wanted so much more. But money is money."
"I hear that," Marc muttered. At your confused glance, he explained, "I didn't want to be a Moon Knight. But I barely finished high school. I didn't have a lot of skillsets. We can talk about it later, if you'd like."
You nodded, then looked back to Charlotte. "I'm so sorry. I wish you'd been able to live out your dream."
"Maybe one day," she said with a bittersweet smile. "I still wonder how it happened, you know. Getting the attention of the king. Like I said, I kept my head down. I mostly talked to my superiors and occasionally my coworkers when necessary. Somehow, I caught his eye. The king watched me, a lot. He never really tried to hide that. I suppose you don't have to when you're a man like him. It was a long time before he spoke to me, though. I had been cleaning the throne room when he came in, started talking to me. He seemed to know so much about me already. I remember him asking if I had ever seen the royal library. I hadn't, so he took me there. That was the first time he...you know."
Your heart clenched, hard. That library had been built for your mother. Your mother had always told you that the only reason she had accepted your father's proposal was because he promised to build the most beautiful library in all the kingdom in the palace. Before then, the royal library was housed in an archive far, far from the palace. For your father to disrespect your mother like that...It made you see red.
"Your mother, Elaine...She walked in on us. I never felt more humiliated. I hadn't wanted any of that to happen, but...It's impossible to say no to your father. He'll manipulate and scheme until he has what he wants."
"I understand that all too well," you said, the anger still bubbling below the surface. You tried to not let that rage slip into your tone. Charlotte was not to blame for your father's actions. "What did my mother do?"
"She was sympathetic. She was the kindest woman I'd ever met. We both knew there was no way to get out of the situation...That your father would harm anyone who stood in his way. But she showed me how to make things more manageable, how to keep his cruelty at bay. It didn't always work, but it helped." She looked away, staring out the window, taking a long pause. "And then I got pregnant, and it only got worse. He became more possessive, more cruel. He still made me work, but he also made me keep quiet about who the father of my child was. At that point, your mother had had a few miscarriages. Your father blamed her."
Layla rolled her eyes, scoffing. "Of course he would."
"She took a lot of pictures, Elaine did. She kept copies of ultrasounds, took pictures of important events. There were even a few home videos. Your father hated it. Early on in my pregnancy, he'd decided that he would pass off my child as his and Elaine's. It was easy enough to do. When I first found out I was pregnant, Elaine had gotten sick. She didn't make any public appearances for a few weeks and...When she got better, your father decided to cancel all of them for the next several months, keeping up the ruse that she was six. Nine months later, he announced that an heir was born. I loved your mother, she was a great friend...But it still hurt to see her get show off my son, pretending Kieran was her own. It pained her, too, I think."
"I know you got to stay in the palace for a while after that. I saw a picture of you at Kieran's first birthday. When...when did they—my father—send you away?"
"Not long after that, actually," Charlotte said. "Your father had been growing paranoid that, as Kieran got older, someone would recognize our similarities. He bought me this house, sent me away. He has his advisor...Harrow, now, but he's sent his others before, bring me anything I wish in exchange for my silence. I've been alone here ever since."
"My father...He destroyed a lot of evidence you existed. But Marc found this picture, of you at Kieran's birthday. I wanted to know...Did you leave it behind?"
Charlotte shook her head. "That would've been your mother. Most of the pictures Benjamin destroyed, I later learned were copies. I think your mother always planned for the truth to come out. A few years after I was sent away, she came here. I don't know how she managed to get here. I believe it was under guise of a doctor's appointment outside the city. She was a few months pregnant with you, actually. It was around the time the laws changed about who could inherit the throne. It turns out, she had saved all of the pictures and videos of me being pregnant. There was even one from when I was giving birth. It was strange, though, what she managed to record."
"What do you mean?" Marc asked.
Charlotte glanced at him, then back to you. "She made sure to record your father talking about falsifying the birth certificate, to have himself and Elaine listed as the parents."
Your jaw dropped. "She'd been planning this entire time to reveal Kieran was illegitimate."
Layla looked at you, raising a brow. "Do you think your father knew?"
"It's...It's certainly possible. Father was almost as critical of her as he was of me. It would explain some of his animosity. Charlotte, do you still have all of those pictures and videos?"
She nodded. "I boxed them all up after Jessica came here a few days ago. I figured you all would need them."
"Good. Because we cannot sit on this any longer. My father cannot still sit on the throne, and Kieran certainly cannot be allowed to inherit it."
Marc's brows furrowed together. "Wait, I don't understand. Can you remove the king from the throne?"
"There's a failsafe, built in nearly a century ago, when there was a lot of in-fighting between the family about who could inherit the throne. The Parliament was still new. It was their first real act, actually. If any member of the royal family attempted to kill, or succeeded in killing, an heir to the throne, then that member could never sit on the throne. Well, there was a lot more legalese to it, but that was the gist of it all," you said. "If we manage to put it out there that my father organized the assassination attempt...Then Parliament would remove him from the throne."
Marc looked at you, his brows furrowed together. "How do you know all of these laws off the top of your head?"
"I thought that memorizing all of the laws would make my father proud of me. I thought it would show him that I was dedicated," you said. "It didn't work. But, in any case, it's helpful now at least."
Jessica raised a brow at you. "Do you have a plan?"
"Do you have any way of getting in contact with Karen Page? She's the only journalist I trust."
"Karen? Yeah, I know her. Won't be a problem." She looked at Marc. "What about him? We're not going to be able to get anything done with everyone looking for him."
"I can go on my own," Marc said. "If we get back in the city, I can cause a distraction. That'll give you all time to get to the news station. But, uh, I don't suppose you know any lawyers, do you know?"
Jessica snorted. "I know of a couple of good ones."
"Fantastic," you said. "Charlotte, you can say no if you wish. But I have to ask...Would you mind joining us in exposing the truth?"
"It would be an honor, Your Highness. It's about time someone gave the king hell."
"Then let's get everything together and go."
"Alright, but someone else has to drive. I made an exception to my personal rule just this one time, but I'm not doing it again," Jessica said, tossing the car keys on the coffee table.
You watched as Marc's face shifted, Jake now fronting. Jake grabbed the keys. "I'll drive."
"Where is the princess?"
"I'm not answering anything until my lawyers get here."
The officer narrowed his eyes at Jake before slamming his hands down on the table. "You're gonna telling me where you fucking took the princess," he snarled.
"I don't have to tell you anything until my lawyers get here," Jake said, leaning back in his chair. His hands were cuffed, so it was hard to find a comfortable position to sit in, but he maintained an air of nonchalance. He could tell that it was getting under the officer's skin. "So why don't you just run along and go to a donut shop until they get here, yeah? Might be able to actually find a coupla criminals out there if you did. 'Cause you sure as hell don't have one in front of you."
Be careful, Marc muttered. Don't give him a reason to actually throw us in prison.
We could take 'im, Steven argued.
And that would just make things even worse for us!, Marc snapped. We have a plan. We need to stick to it. Keep our heads down, wait for our lawyers to show up. Alright? We can't afford to mess this up.
Jake elected to ignore their pickering.
The officer leaned forward, so close that Jake could tell his breath. It was gross. An odd mixture of stale coffee and Marlboro Reds. It took everything in Jake to not show his disgust. He knew if he did, the officer would find some way to use it to his advantage. "Now you fuckin' listen here, you better start talking or I'll hit you so fuckin' hard that you—"
"I hope you don't think you can speak to our client like that."
Jake looked over at the two men who entered the interrogation room. One was slightly taller than the other with short, dark brown hair, wore red sunglasses, and carried a white can. The other had long blonde hair. Both were well-dressed in their suits, the blond carrying a briefcase. Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson, attorneys at law.
"Because if you were," Foggy continued from his previous sentence, "I do recall there being laws that prohibit the use of physical coercion."
The officer's lip curled as he looked at the two men. "We're in the middle of a fuckin' investigation here."
"And our client is still entitled to his rights," Matt said. "We would like a few moments to speak to our client."
The officer looked between the two lawyers as if he were sizing them up, trying to figure out if there was a way for him to shut them down, to keep them out of the interrogation room, to deny their requests. But, reluctantly, and almost surprisingly, the officer stepped towards the door, muttering that they get fifteen minutes, before leaving them alone.
Matt and Foggy sat at the table with Jake. No one said anything for a beat, then two. Finally, Matt said, "The princess is safe, if you're wondering."
Jake glanced at the two-way mirror. "Are you sure it's safe to talk about that? While I was more than happy to do this, I don't actually want to end up in prison."
"Those cops might be stupid, but they're not going to totally ruin their investigation. If they want to listen in, they're going to need a warrant," Foggy explained. "Until they present one, we are still protected by attorney-client privilege."
Jake nodded. It didn't stop the uneasiness from weighing down on him. He'd dealt with cops a lot, both before and after becoming a Moon Knight. He knew the system well enough to know that they don't follow the rules, that the rules are only enforced when it serves them. If they wanted to break a rule, they would do it and deal with the mess later.
"Did they all get there okay?" Jake asked.
Matt nodded. "Layla has been sending updates every step of the way. Everything is going exactly according to plan. But until then—"
Foggy's phone went off, cutting Matt off from finishing his sentence. Foggy fished his phone out of his pocket, reading over the notification, before looking up at Jake. "They're starting."
Matt Jake, "We're going to have to be ready for the fallout."
And as Jake glanced at the two-way mirror again, seeing the reflections of Steven and Marc stare back at him, he wasn't quite sure he was ready for the mess that was about to be made.
"Thank you for doing this," you said to Charlotte, the two of you watching as Karen compiled the information Jessica had given to her into a comprehensive news story. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
After Jake had driven into the city, he split off from the rest of the group. Layla took over driving, making sure that you, Charlotte, and Jessica all arrived at the station. Jessica, who was friends (acquaintances? you weren't entirely sure—you just knew they had a good enough relationship that Jessica could ask for a favor) with Karen, was able to sneak you into the station. That was the imperative part, if you were being honest. If one person saw you that wasn't supposed to see you yet...Well, it could be game over. You would be taken right back to your family, and by the time the information was leaked...You weren't sure you would get to live to see the aftermath.
That's why Jake served as a distraction. While you all were busy at the news station, he let the police catch him, let them think they had done something right. His role was just as risky. By letting the police arrest him, there was a decent chance that they might just throw him straight into prison, lock the door, throw away the key. But you were banking on the police trying to interrogate him and Jake wasting their time with non-answers. You weren't entirely sure what your father said when you were reported as missing, but you were sure that the "finding you alive" part of it was important so that he could have you killed on his own terms. Jake was the key to finding you, and your father was not going to let any information Jake may have go to waste.
"You don't have to thank me. It's what's right," Charlotte said.
You, Charlotte, Layla, and Jessica all hid in Karen's dressing room. Karen eventually was going to go out to start the evening news program before derailing it with breaking news coverage. After she gave a run down of the facts, an interview with yourself and Charlotte would begin, using a laptop Karen had given you to televise your end of the interview.
You were nervous about what was to come. Your father had no power to stop a broadcast—especially not one as serious as this—but that did not mean he would try to disprove your words. Or worse, he may attempt to run before anyone could catch him. And you weren't entirely sure which was a worse outcome.
"The right thing to do is rarely the easy thing to do."
Before Charlotte could respond, Karen bid all of you farewell, disappearing out of the room. The anxiety began to set in. You usually tried to hide the signs, so used to your father chastising you for showing yourself as anything other than a perfect princess. But, now...Now, you let your foot tap on the floor, you let your fingers drum against your thigh, you let yourself play with your hair.
There was a TV hanging in the corner of the room, and Layla turned the volume up when Karen began to speak.
"Breaking news out of the capital this evening: Despite Marc Spector's recent arrest in connection with Princess Y/N's attempted assassination, a private investigation has revealed that the story is far more complex than previously believed. Spector, the investigation reveals, had nothing to do with the event. The true culprit? The King himself."
Karen paused, and in that pause, Jessica reported to you, "Social media's already going crazy."
"Already?" you repeated. "It's not even been a minute!"
"Beloved princess nearly killed by father? You don't need a minute for that to blow up."
"The motive? Well, that's where it gets complicated," Karen continued. "Evidence has shown that Prince Kieran, the apparent child of an affair between the king and a now-former maid is not the true heir to the throne. After destroying nearly everything that proved the affair had happened, the King had hoped to hide his infidelity. With the death of the Queen and paying off that former-maid, Princess Y/N was the only thing standing in the way. Yet, everything attempt the King made to hide his affair ended in failure. We now turn to the princess and the former maid to learn the truth behind the King's actions."
Layla quickly muted the TV so that it wouldn't interfere with the interview. You grabbed Charlotte's hand, giving it a squeeze. "You got this," you whispered.
"So do you."
And, oh, you hoped you did. Because you couldn't afford to break down on television.