--->

“There was a boy...a boy who worked in the palace..., he opened a wall...” There was nothing but silence as Anya tried to remember that fateful night. Dimitri felt himself choke. How could Anya have known? Was this just a coincident? The only way she could’ve known about the secret passageway was if she were there herself...as Anastasia.

He looked at her, wondering whether he would see the face of a Grand Duchess or of an orphan. Despite himself, he wanted to see that skinny little orphan he had met at the Old Palace in St. Petersburg. She couldn’t be Anastasia! If she were, he could lose her forever, but the longer he stood there, the pieces started to fall into place. A place that he didn’t want, but there they went.

Everything was so clear now. The resemblance was striking, but then there was that necklace that looked so familiar, her ability to learn the royal ways so quickly, the nightmare about the Romanov Curse. Now...,this. Dimitri now knew beyond a doubt that his Anya was not to belong to him anymore. He was a kitchen boy, she a princess...

His heart shattered like glass, and there was nobody there to pick up the pieces for him. Outside, the sun shone, the birds chirped, and the world was alive. However, he didn’t notice. Anya was Anastasia. She was a princess. “A princess?” wondered Dimitri. They have come so far, and now, it was over. Vlad would stay with Sophie. Anya would take her place as the Empress of Russia after marrying someone she deserves, like a Duke. And Dimitri, he would go back to St. Petersburg after learning the hardest lesson of love. He didn’t know what it was yet, but somehow, he felt the joy and despair of love too quickly and too sharply.

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