Alpha Dom and His Human Surrogate by Caroline Above Story

Chapter 352 – Duke

Ella

“D-duke?” I stutter out, completely overwhelmed by the information, my eyes going wide. “There are dukes? And I had I have an uncle!?”

“I’m sorry,” Henry says, and I can see the guilt written all over his face. “I overlooked this – honestly, no one has heard from him in years – and, considering what we think he was actually getting up to, it makes a great deal of sense that he wanted everyone to believe that.”

“Who,” I say, frantic now, looking between Henry, and Sinclair, and Roger – Cora, I see, looking at me with worried eyes, but I know she doesn’t have any answers – “who is he?”

“Relax, Ella,” Sinclair murmurs to me, leaning close. “It’s all right -”

“It is absolutely not all right -“I snap, not wanting to be mean but completely panicked right now. “My father is dead but I have an uncle? Seriously? And no one told me?”

Henry continues to hang his head, shaking a little, and I instantly feel guilty. It’s not his fault – it’s so complicated, the politics, and why would he tell me about an uncle if he hadn’t spoken to the man in 30 years had genuinely a*sumed he was dead –

“I’m sorry, Henry,” I say quickly, leaning forward to put a hand on his arm. “I’m so sorry – I’m behaving so poorly – ”

correct. I have failed you

Ella, you don’t have anything

don’t blame him for any of it, and that I love him dearly and am grateful for him every day. At least, I hope he gets all that from

at the disruption and wanting all of the information on the table now so that we can decide to

there were always…rumors about whether or not his father was his biological father. Either way, Xander was recognized, but he was never the favored son. That is why Xavier – stronger, faster, smarter, better-liked – took the throne instead

clever,” Roger quips, and I’m shocked to find a smile on my mouth as he delicately raises his brows, looking up at the ceiling. “I mean, some

and Cora elbows Roger not-too-gently in the stomach to get him to stop, I grin at my brother-in-law, grateful for the laugh which has drained some of my

popular figure in politics – he was always fringe, always very much the King’s sullen brother rather than a real player. When Xavier died, Xander…he wasn’t even considered for the throne. No one said his name, not even him, as a

“was perhaps… the mistake. That started all

I ask,

my hand. ” Nothing is for sure. But our best guess, at this point, is that…well, that Xander put this in motion. That he knew he was never a contender for the throne when his brother died but he coveted it anyway 1 that Xander wanted it,

chair. “To – to reclaim the

back to Rafe now, cooing gently in his father’s arms. My baby, the grandson of a King. The nephew of a Duke that, perhaps, always

sense,” Roger says softly. ” Honestly, it makes so much sense that we were fools not to consider it before now. Who benefits from Rafe being born? The

haven’t heard Xander’s name since I was a child – I, too, thought he died in quiet obscurity. He’s taken great pains, I think, to ensure that everyone a*sumed that he did. He is playing the long game – we’re not total idiots for falling into the traps he’s taken twenty years to lay.

eyes and gathering my thoughts, “is the a*sumption that we’re making here that Xander wanted Rafe to be born so that he

found a way, somehow, to communicate your existence to his brother before, or directly after, his death

didn’t he come for me?”