Prodigal Princess

True Beginning

"Jennifer!" Thomas called my name from the base of the stairs.
"We're going to be late!"
"How did I let him talk me into this?" I muttered to myself.
I stood in the centre of my walk in closet dressed in a deep red floor length aline evening gown with a sequined deep v-neck bodice and attached matching sheer cape. My red four inch heels, the only reason I could wear this dress and not tear up the hem. I pulled my bright red locks up into an elegant bun to show off my diamond drop earrings.
"Back home you'd be wearing a crown." Thomas said appearing in the doorway since I didn't answer him.
"That's not who I am anymore." I sighed turning to look at him.
"You look so much like your mother. You will always be the rightful queen of Emerlisle, Jennifer. Always."
I chose not to answer. Instead turning back to the mirror.
"Are you ready?" He asked gently.
"I suppose." I sighed.
"This will be good for you." He insisted.
"This will be good for you. I don't need this. I was too young to remember any of those royal engagements and you know it."
"If you don't want to go then..."
"I'm already ready. Let's go." I cut him off shoving him playfully out of my closet.
Thomas brought my grey Chevrolet Corvette to drive us out to Symon Estate for the charity gala honouring the Angels of New York Children's Orphanage.
The large brick mansion sat back on the estate beyond the lush grounds at the end of a long driveway. Dozens of lit windows shone down on the valet in the front.
A young man with light brown eyes and olive skin opened my door as soon as we pulled up.
"My lady?" He smiled down at me offering me his hand.
"Thank you." I answered allowing him to help me out of the car.
His eyes lingered on me even after trading places with Thomas who offered me his arm.
"Shall we, your highness?" He whispered.
"Oh. Stop." I smiled taking his arm.
"For Ms. Jennifer Jensen." Thomas said at the entrance to the ballroom.
I looked around the room taking in the golden floor adorned with a dozen round tables covered in black tablecloths and white place settings.
"Jennifer?" Thomas prodded me.
"Yes." I shook my head looking at him.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes. I was just admiring all of this." I gestured to the room before us.
"It is quite grand, isn't it? Something that interests you?"
"What? Hosting my own? No. Even if it wouldn't likely get me killed; it looks like entirely too much work for this princess." I answered as he lead me to a nearly empty table.
"Are these seats taken?" He asked the woman sitting alone at the table fit for six.
"No." She said simply gesturing absently towards the chairs.
"Are you alright?" I asked choosing to sit next to her with Thomas on my left.
She wore a high collar, deep v-neck navy blue gown, her brown hair pulled into an elegant high ponytail.
As I looked at her something about her struck me as familiar.
"I don't get invited to many of these and when I do I show up and it is always clear it was a mistake. As if they forgot to take my name out of rotation." She sighed heavily.
"Well, I am glad you are here. I'm Jennifer." I offered her a smile.
"Thank you. I'm Jessica." She returned my smile with a genuine one of her own.
"This is my brother Thomas." I gestured to him giving her our typical white lie.
"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He smiled at her briefly before resuming watching the room.
"Is he always this intense?"
"He is." I laughed.
"Ever since we lost our parents when I was thirteen he's grown hypervigilant, especially around me. Thomas was barely twenty."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Thank you."
As the room continued to fill with the upper echelon of New York I began to understand what Jessica meant. The rest of the guests clearly avoided her.
"May I ask, why they continually avoid you?" I asked gently.
"My ex-husband did some terrible things and my image never recovered." She answered vaguely, then I understood.
Malcolm had his mother's eyes.
"Do you have a son who worked for the FBI?" I asked.
"Malcolm. Yes. Do you know him?" She looked at me again suddenly more alive.
It was clear she was incredibly proud of her son.
"I do. He's a good friend. We met oh, eight years ago now." I nodded.
"Eight years?" She exclaimed.
"How is it we have never met?"
"Malcolm and I met under rather tense circumstances. I think he was trying to be respectful of my healing." I answered.
I felt Thomas' hand on my arm.
"Je..."
He was cut off by the crack of a gunshot. I jerked my head to my left in time to watch Thomas fall to the ground, a bullet wound in his forehead.
"No!" I pushed myself out of my chair towards him but Jessica gripped ahold of my arm pulling me back towards her as another bullet whizzed passed my face.
"Thomas!" I screamed his name as Jessica pulled me towards the exit, dodging more flying bullets.
I could hear more bodies falling around us as we ran.
"I can't leave him." I told her pulling on her out in the hallway.
"Jennifer! If you go back in there you're going to end up dead too!" She yelled at me and pulling me towards the exit again.
Outside she urged me into the back of an SUV that peeled away from the estate.
I couldn't stop shaking as Jessica's driver took us back to her home.
"Sit down. I'm going to call Malcolm." She told me gently as we walked into her living room.
I nodded absentmindedly sitting on her couch.
Thomas and I had been nearly inseparable since my parent's murders. His brother gave his life for me that night.
"Malcolm." Jessica saying his name pulled me out of my fog.
I looked up and found her on the phone with her back to me.
"The shooting at the gala?"
She paused.
"Well, because I was there, Malcolm. So was Jennifer."
She paused again.
"Yes, she is."
Another pause.
"That's what I thought."
She hung up the phone.
"He'll be here soon. Can I offer you a drink?" She turned back to me putting on her brave face again.
I shook my head.
"I'll get some water should you change your mind."
I nodded.
In moments she returned and handed me a small glass with ice water.
'Thank you." I muttered barely looking up at her.
I couldn't even cry. I felt as if my heart were not just broken but gone.
"Mother!" Malcolm's voice called out shaking me slightly from my shock.
"In here, dear." She called back.
I could feel her watching me.
"Are you okay? Where's..."
His voice was closer now.
"J.J.?"
I felt him sit down next to me but couldn't bring myself to look at him.
The first hot tear streamed down my face.
"This is my fault." I whispered almost silently.
"No, J. No. It's not your fault." He touched my shoulder.
I turned and buried my face in his chest. He wrapped his arms around me as I finally cried against him.
I don't know how long he held me.
"J.J.? My colleague and I need to ask you some questions about what happened tonight, okay?" He said finally.
I nodded and sat up finally looking at the woman who sat in a chair off to Malcolm's left. She had honey brown skin with dark brown eyes and shoulder length curly black hair. Pretty but not delicate. Strong, clearly.
"Ms. Jensen? I'm Detective Dani Powell with the NYPD. How about we start from the beginning?" She said gently, her eyes soft as she looked at me.
I struggled to decide what that actually meant. Was it safe to tell them who I really was? Was Malcolm in danger now that Thomas was... gone?
Malcolm squeezed my shoulder gently.
"You said, "It's my fault." What did you mean by that?" She continued.
"I lied." I said softly speaking more to Malcolm than to Detective Powell.
"What?" He asked.
"I lied. We lied. Thomas isn't... He wasn't my brother. Before my parents' murders he wasn't anything. He didn't exist." I answered louder.
"I don't understand." Malcolm shook his head.
"I was born on the twentieth of March 1992 in Emerlisle UK to Evelyn and Wyatt Nova." I began.
"You're the lost princess?" Dani Powell asked me.
"They call me that because they don't want the country to know that they were planning to kill me too." I sighed.
"How do we know that's the truth?" Jessica cut in.
"I have my original birth record at my estate. In the thirteen years or so between my birth and the murders my parents transferred trillions of dollars into an account in the name I would take upon my arrival to the states, bought the house I live in and sent various documents and items to the estate that could be used to verify my identity should the time come I should need to. The last thing my mother gave me was this necklace mere moments before her murder." I reached up and touched the crescent moon necklace that hung around my neck.
Dani showed us a picture on her phone. A picture of my mother, father, and I on my thirteenth birthday, barely six months before they were murdered; my mother wore the necklace around her neck.
I heard Malcolm's phone notification.
"Edrisa says that according to the trajectory of the bullet wound in Thomas' forehead he was leaning forward and to his right." Malcolm read off his screen.
I sighed and closed my eyes letting more tears fall from my eyes. Now both of the Jensen brothers had given their lives for mine.
"Jennifer sat to his right." Jessica said sitting down next to me.
"I'll call Gil and get some protection for you." Malcolm told me gently touching my shoulder again.
"Okay. Okay." I nodded knowing that it'll barely matter.
This wasn't the era of knives and swords but of guns and explosions. The only one who could save me was me.
I didn't know how to do this without Thomas. We strategically kept almost everyone at a distance. Now without Thomas, Malcolm was all I had.
Malcolm convinced me to ride back to the crime scene with him and Jessica's driver, Adalpho to get my car and meet with Gil Arroyo.
I knew Gil well from surviving The Ghost in 2011. He wasn't a Lieutenant then, not until after he helped catch The Ghost.
"Bright." Gil Arroyo said solemnly walking up to us as we leaned against my car.
"Gil. You remember Jennifer Jensen?"
"Of course. I'm sorry to be meeting again under such horrible circumstances." He reached out and shook my hand.
"We will find the people who did this."
"Thank you, Lieutenant." I nodded.
"Call me Gil, please."
"Gil." I nodded.
Malcolm nudged me gently.
"What?" I muttered.
"Tell him." He hissed.
"Not here." I growled.
"We'll leave the address with you and you can meet us back at Jennifer's when your finished here? You're going to need this." Malcolm said pointedly handing him his gate opener.
Gil nodded cautiously while looking at Malcolm as if he had grown a second head.
I knew Malcolm didn't drive so I steeled my nerves and drove him back to my home in the Corvette.
The electrified stone walls surrounding my home relatively foreboding lead to an electrified black wrought iron fence which only opened with three gate openers; mine, Malcolm's (which he'd given to Gil), and Thomas' (which we'd left on the dining room table).
"It doesn't matter how many times I come down here, I'm always in awe of this house." He muttered as I parked my car in the three car garage.
"My parents wanted me to maintain the lifestyle they'd been able to give me during my childhood." I replied almost offhandedly leading him to my front door.
"Maybe you should let me go in first." He touched my forearm as I reached forward to unlock the door.
"Malcolm... This place is impenetrable. Why else would they wait to attempt to kill me until I attended the gala?" I sighed.
"It'll make me feel better if you let me go in first." He persisted.
"Alright. Fine." I shook my head and handed him my keys.
I walked into my home less than a minute after Malcolm.
My body ached with pure emotional exhaustion. I wanted a hot shower and my cotton nightgown.
"Do I have time to shower and change?" I asked him once he was finally convinced that the entire mansion was safe.
"Of course. Just leave out your dress so they can check it for evidence. Any kind of blood spatter could give us a better picture of what happened." He answered.
I knew he didn't mean to be harsh or unsympathetic but the thought of having Thomas' blood on me was almost too much to bare.
I rushed back upstairs to my bedroom and ripped the dress off of me throwing it in the far corner. I finished undressing and got into my rain shower allowing the nearly scalding hot water rush over me as I cried. I spent what felt like hours scrubbing my skin in an attempt to wash away the pain.
Finally, I dried off and dressed in a pale blue thin strapped floor length nightgown.
When I made it back down into the living room Malcolm sat in the arm chair while Dani, and Gil stood looking out the window. As I stepped further into the room I noticed a taller man with light brown skin and crew cut black hair in the corner seemingly watching the room.
"You've brought quite the entourage." I said walking up behind Malcolm.
"I hope you don't mind. Dani and I were just filling in Gil and JT on the gravity of the situation." He told me.
"That's just fine with me. I'd rather not go over it again anyway." I sighed.
"Is there anything else you need from me?"
"You should probably tell them about The Ghost." Malcolm said.
"You know more about that than I remember. You gave lectures on it every May for the last seven years." I complained.
"The New York Ghost?" The man, who must have been JT, asked looking at me.
"I was the sole surviving victim of The New York Ghost. Abducted on the eighteenth of September and escaped the twenty second." I answered with another sigh.
"That's how Malcolm and I met."
"He worked The Ghost case?" Dani asked.
"No. It was his car I ran in front of when I escaped." I answered.
I ran as fast as I could through the dense forest, branches and thorns cut and scraped my bare skin but I hardly felt it. I saw what I hoped were street lights shining before me.
The road didn't have a crash barrier for me to contend with so I ran straight into the center of the road.
A black SUV, the only car on the road slowed down as it approached me. The back door flung open. A young man climbed out and ran towards me.
Instinctively I shrank back away from him. He clearly wasn't my captor. His light brown hair neatly combed and much shorter and his blue eyes shone with concern.
"It's okay. My name is Malcolm Bright. I'm with the FBI. I can help you." He said gently removing is long trenchcoat and holding it out to me.
"Help me." I muttered stepping forward to let him wrap the coat around me.
"Don't let him get me."
Malcolm lead me back to the back of the SUV and helped me inside.
"We're going to take you to the hospital. It's going to be okay now." He assured me gently.
"Less than two weeks later we got news in the hospital that The Ghost was dead. Killed in a standoff with police at the cabin he'd held all of his victims in." Malcolm added.
I nodded thoughtfully sitting on the arm of Malcolm's chair. He'd taken off his blazer and probably put it in the closet before his team had arrived.
"We can't get a full protection detail until the morning but if it's alright with you my team will stay here for the night?" Gil asked.
"Sure. Of course. I can turn down some beds." I nodded.
"You don't have someone to do that for you?" JT asked.
"No. I may be royalty but I haven't lived like it in fifteen years." I sighed leaving the room.
The mansion I lived in had nine bedrooms not including my own all of which on the second floor.
I knew Malcolm followed me even though I couldn't hear him.
"I didn't want to lie to you." I sighed as he watched me turn down the comforter in the bedroom at the end of the hallway across from mine.
"I think I understand why you did." He answered almost silently.
"Thomas and I have always been so afraid of trusting anyone. We should have told you."
I walked over to him and he wrapped his arms around me.
"I can't imagine how scary it is to be constantly looking over your shoulder like that." He muttered pressing his lips to my hair.
"Most people don't fake their death and leave their home for a whole new continent at thirteen." I smirked up at him.
"I'll protect you." He assured me looking into my eyes.
"Whatever it takes."
He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine briefly, trying it out.
Our relationship had never been like that before but it was nice. I liked having him close to me.
"I have to turn down the other beds." I told him almost anxiously after our kiss broke.
He followed me again as I entered the room that he'd be sleeping in, right next to mine. If he managed to sleep at all.
"That was the wrong thing to do." He started to apologize standing across the bed from me.
"No. No, I just... I, uh. If they see us together like that, they'll pull you off this." I sighed looking up at him.
"Even if they do I'm not going anywhere. I promise you." He assured me.
I nodded wiping a tear off my cheek.
"I just... You're the only person I know now; that I've known before tonight, anyway. This can't be what my parents wanted for me. This isolation and secrecy." I sighed.
"No. It probably isn't. We'll put an end to this, J. I've seen this team work. They're the best there is. Let me help you so you can get some rest." He insisted.
Malcolm helped me turn down the other two beds.
"I put Dani and JT in the rooms at the ends of the hall and Malcolm and Gil in the rooms next to mine. I figured that would be the best set up." I explained.
"It's perfect, Jennifer. Thank you." Gil answered with a small smile.
"Thank you all for being here. I know it's your jobs but I truly appreciate it. I need to try to sleep but you're all welcome to look around." I said.
"Get some rest, J.J." Malcolm answered.
I walked upstairs back into my bedroom closing the door with a sigh.
Everything changed in that one moment. Suddenly, five people knew my secret.
I'm not sure Thomas would approve.