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"Are you sure your grandue turned dry and sticky in her mouth "She’s a farmer! She’s lived in France her whole life Hoould she know anything?"

"She was in the military before she was a faro How long has the princess been ? Ten, fifteen years? That doesn’t even make sense"

"You can’t discount it"

"Sure I can!"

"What if she does know so Wolf’s growing desperation

"Scarlet," he said, "Ran said that the assignment had been called off--he could only have ine why, after so many years … but if it’s true, then itin her stoo?"

Wrinkles forht dropped onto Scarlet’s chest He didn’t need to speak for her to see his answer

No No, they would not let her go

She sucked in a dizzying breath, dropping her attention to the streaks of ht on the tracks below

"If I’d known … if I’d met you before … I want to help you, Scarlet I want to try and make this better, but they want inforrand for Selene, therein her past, anything that wouldyou know, any infor her You can barter for her Give them the information they want"

Her frustration nearly enveloped her "I don’t knohat they want"

"Think Has there ever been anything suspicious? Anything your grandma has said or done that struck you as peculiar?"

"She does peculiar things all the time"

"That’s related to Lunars? Or the princess?"

"No, she’s…" She paused "I mean, she’s always been more sye"

"What else?"

"Nothing Nothing else She has nothing to do with the Lunars"

"There’s evidence that that’s not true"

"What evidence? What are you talking about?"

Wolf scratched at his hair "She must have told you that she’s been to Luna"

Scarlet pressed her pal in a shaky breath "You’re insane Why would one to Luna?"

"She was part of the only diplomatic mission to be sent from Earth to Luna in the last fifty years She was the pilot that brought the Earthen officials The visit lasted almost teeks, so she must have had some interaction with Lunars…" He frowned "She never told you any of this?"

"No! No, she never told me any of this! When was this?"

Wolf looked away, and she could see his hesitation

"Wolf When was this?"

He gulped "Forty years ago," he said, his tone going quiet again "Nine months before your father was born"

Twenty-Three

The world spun Scarlet searched Wolf’s face for a joke that never caht sheabout this"

"But … how do you know all this?"

"It all ties back to the princess Evidence suggests she was taken off Luna by a an Tanner, a doctor" He searched her for so to Scarlet Wolf continued, "The only Earthens Dr Tanner would have had contact with prior to taking the princess were those who had been on the sarandmother People who knew him suspected that Dr Tanner had had a liaison with Michelle Benoit during her stay Those theories becaiven birth to a son, with no record of the father, nine , Scarlet sank to the ground If Wolf was telling the truth … if these theories were correct … then her grandfather was Lunar

A flurry of thoughts passed before her Clues she’d never known she was collecting settled into place Why her grandma was so syrandfather Why she had insisted that neither Scarlet nor her father be born in a hospital--the mandatory blood tests would have shown their ancestry

How could she have kept it secret for so long?

It occurred to her with a jolt that it was always her grandmother’s intention to keep it a secret She had neverso big Sorandma had kept it from her

"We don’t keep secrets," she whispered to herself, head sinking as tears started to well in her eyes again "We don’t keep secrets fro before her "I thought for sure you would have known about this"

"I didn’t" She rubbed the tears away Why wouldn’t her grandan Tanner? Was it to protect her fro part Lunar, or was there so else? An even…