The Case of The Missing Princess

The next day, Ivy woke up at 7 a.m sharp. She sat on her bed staring blankly at nothing. Her eyes appeared drowsy.

However, in the next second, she remembered she had to go visit her family to have breakfast with them. Her mood turned upside down immediately.

She plummeted back to her pillow. She felt disgusted by the thought of that family.

The Young's was her paternal family, whereas the royal family of Ardent was her maternal family. From the Young's, she was born as Alyssa Young, the illegitimate daughter of Nicholas Young and the foreigner, Estella Ludencis.

When in fact, her mother's real name was Estella Allaire Ardent. She had changed it when she met Nicholas Young in Country A. She was originally there to observe their business branch and met Nicholas as he was one of the company clients.

At that time, she didn't appear to him as the heiress of the Ardent business empire but as an ordinary assistant. It was crucial as a member of the royal family to conceal her identity and not recklessly revealing herself to just anyone. Thus, she acted as an assistant when she met Nicholas.

As one of their oldest clients, Estelle wanted to know his opinion towards the cooperation between them on a project. But with time and their numerous meetings, Nicholas managed to charm Estelle to his bed.

Estelle fell deeply in love with Nicholas Young. She wanted so badly to marry him but not just anybody could become a part of the royal family. Estelle knew how strict her parents were, His Majesty and Her Royal Highness. Thus, she was waiting for a chance while she observed whether Nicholas was worthy to be a part of the royal family.

But a slip in the moment made her pregnant out of marriage. That was utterly a disgrace towards the royal family. However, at that time, Nicholas was so pleased when he heard it. She thought he was a responsible man.

So, she thought he would be worthy and perhaps, she could conceal her pregnancy and marry him before her stomach grew big. Therefore no one should know the disgrace she had caused towards the royal family's name. She could discuss this with her parents.

But to her dismay, she found out that he was in fact, a married man!

She completely lost her courage and dignity to face the royal family. Thus, Estelle hid away from the Ardent and changed her identity as well as her appearance.

Despite being a mistress, Nicholas' parents still welcomed her warmly except, Nicholas' wife. Estelle thought the elders were a kind couple and she would be safe at least with her new family even though she couldn't return to her real one.

But she was again mistaken. As soon as they knew the baby inside her was a girl, they totally changed their attitude. They began abusing her, made her do heavy house chores, and mocked her for being a mistress and a low-born. They also confined her inside the house saying that she was a stain on their family's reputation, thus she shouldn't go out there and parade herself as a mistress.

During those days, Estelle persisted and stayed hidden away from the Ardent family despite her parents effort looking for her. The last thing she wanted was to bring shame to her family. So, all she wished for at that time was for her daughter to be born safely.

To guarantee that, she wrote a letter with the content saying that Alyssa Ludencis was indeed her daughter along with her real name, the name that she wished to bestow her daughter with, Elizabeth Allaire Ardent. After that, she engraved her seal onto the envelope as proof that it was written by Estella Allaire Ardent.

By the time Elizabeth was born, because of long-term abuse that had weakened her body, Estelle passed away. The Young family unwillingly took Elizabeth in and named her Alyssa Young despite Estelle last words to them. Since they thought it would be much more of a disgrace to keep the mother's maiden name and it would make the Young family being looked down upon by this foreign woman as she didn't want her child to be named after the Young.

Thus, instead of "Ludencis", Alyssa took over the name "Young".

However, one of the servants in the Young's estate who was in charge of taking care of Estelle during her pregnancy had gone to the post office to send the letter during the labor without anyone knowing.

The servant had long been told by Estelle of her real identity because the servant was genuinely kind towards Estelle.

With the royal seal of Ardent family on the envelope, the government of Country A quickly took over and sent one of their men directly to Country S to deliver the letter.

When the royal family realized that their princess had delivered a daughter into this world, the family was sent into utter chaos. What was more devastating was that Estelle did not disclose any information of the male party or what had happened to her. The letter only wrote that she had a daughter named Alyssa "Ludencis" as her facade and that she wished to bestow the child real name as Elizabeth Allaire Ardent.

From this point, Charles Aurelien Ardent, the crown prince and the elder brother of Estelle took charge and went straight to Country A to find the missing little princess. To avoid alerting their enemies and the father of the princess, no one had breathed a word about the accident. It was like nothing of the sort had happened.

Charles went in and looked for Elizabeth in silence. Unfortunately, he was bound to never found the princess as her name was not Ludencis but Young. And by the time Charles arrived in the country, Elizabeth was already sent abroad to the other Young relative along with the servant who had sent the letter.

All the traces were lost and Charles went back after five years empty-handed.

On the other hand, what had unfolded was the servant who sent the letter had volunteered to be Elizabeth nanny and was sent abroad with the baby. During their time in another country, the servant tried relentlessly to find a chance to send a letter to the Ardent family. But never succeeded.

Living with the relative was akin to living a Cinderella life for Elizabeth and the servant. They were merciless in bullying the little princess even though she was just a kid.

Then, as soon as Elizabeth turned fourteen, not being able to bear it any longer, the servant decided to take Elizabeth and ran away from the relative house.

Afterwards, the servant tried so hard to raise her with the money that she had managed to steal from the Young's relative coupled with her wage.

A year passed, during their moment of crisis, the servant stumbled upon Alexander who was eating at the park whilst watching the scenery. At first, the servant aim was to steal from him as he was a foreigner but got caught by him instead.

She was sent straight to the police station. At that moment, she begged him to retract his charge because she had a daughter which was Elizabeth. But Alex was indifferent towards her statement thinking that she was lying.

The servant became desperate because she had been living a hard life and she cared for the little princess so much as if she was her own daughter. Thus, in her moment of insanity thinking that the princess was currently alone in their run-down house starving, she yelled at Alexander, "I demand you to let me out of this jail or I swear you will suffer the consequences of detaining the servant of Princess Elizabeth Allaire Ardent!"

She used the princess real name as she believed the name "Ardent" could strike fear towards this foreigner and he would release her. From Princess Estelle story, she knew that no one actually had knowledge on how many of Ardent royal family members there were because they kept their life low-key and private from the outsiders. Therefore, this would definitely fool him.

On the contrary, the moment she mentioned the little princess name, Alexander became hysterical and emotional with tears continuously rolling down his cheeks. He quickly retracted his charge and implored her to bring him to the princess.

At first, the servant rejected him because she was skeptic towards this man, until he revealed his identity as Alexander Arnault along with the royal family crest as the proof. He was the private designer of the Ardent family and the person in charge of Ardent fashion line business. He was also considered as one of the right-hand men directly to the first line of the throne.

With that, the servant brought him to meet Elizabeth. It was then, Elizabeth discovered her true lineage and her original name bestowed by her mother.

She also discovered that all along, the simple looking gold necklace around her neck was her mother's signature style.

If one looked closely, they would discover that the necklace was made into a design of roses circling into a complete necklace with small cut of diamonds in the mid section of each rose. Thus under the light, these diamonds would glow, making the necklace all the more enchanting and elegant.

Furthermore, even though it was only a simple design necklace, there was only one in the world because the Ardent family released a statement to the public to not duplicate it.

This was the definite proof of her being the daughter of Princess Estelle and the third generation of the Ardent family. Second in line to the throne after her uncle, Prince Charles Aurelien Ardent. The crown princess and the direct descendant of His Majesty and Her Royal Highness.

Ivy gazed at her reflection in the mirror. Her original black straight hair cascaded effortlessly just below her waist. She had just blow dry it after washing it just now.

She was currently wearing a plain white T-shirt with a quote written on it and a pair of denim jeans.

After tucking her mom's necklace into her clothes, without wearing any makeup, she went towards the door on her white Adidas. She sling her small bag on her shoulder.

When she reached the lobby, she saw Alexander has been waiting for her already.

"Good morning, Miss Ivy."

She smiled. "Morning, Lex."

From her appearance, the other employees there automatically greeted her.

One of the security approached her. He bowed slightly, "Young Miss, your car is already waiting outside."

Ivy appeared lost when she heard that. She was sure that she didn't order them to prepare the car for today. She was going to take the bus or taxi to the Young's residence.

"I'm not letting you recklessly ride the public transport. For goodness sake, Miss, you need to be aware of your status," Alexander chirped.

"Oh c'mon, Lex! It's not like I have been officially presented as the princess by my family. I haven't even met my grandparents yet. No one knows the existence of Princess Elizabeth."

She lowered her voice when she said "Princess Elizabeth". Because the only one who knew was Alexander, her grandparents, and her uncle. The employees of Elizabeth Palace was also a part of the attendance chosen personally by her grandparents and they had sworn secrecy under a contract.

Alexander looked at Ivy as if she was still a kid who hadn't tasted the cruelty of the world. "Still, we can't be too careless. Come along, Miss! Don't worry I'll drop you few blocks away."

Ivy sighed. "Sure."

It took them only fifteen minutes to get to the Young's residence as it was still located in one of the housing complex in The Bay area.

As promised, Alex dropped Ivy few blocks away and she had to walk to the mansion from there.

When she reached the place, the security greeted her politely. But she could see it from his eyes, the look of ridicule.

Deep down, Ivy chuckled. Even a mere security guard looked down at her.

The irony of this scene. Ivy shook her head in amusement. She raised her head to gaze at the Young's mansion.

She exhaled a long exasperated breath.

"...and the drama begins," she mumbled as she stepped into the mansion.