1 MINUTE AGO — THE FINAL PILLAR (FICTIONAL ROYAL THRILLER)
The alarms screamed first.
A sharp, metallic shriek slicing through the marble corridors of Buckingham Palace like a blade. Guards rushed, doors slammed, and red warning lights splashed across the ancient walls — a sight unseen in generations.
Then…
the silence.
The most terrifying silence the monarchy had ever known.
Inside the private council chamber, Princess Anne — the family’s unshakable anchor — could no longer hide the storm behind her eyes. Her shoulders trembled, tears staining the front of her formal uniform, medals glinting beneath the trembling candlelight.
She tried to speak… but grief strangled the words.
Finally, with a voice hoarse and breaking, she whispered:
“With a heavy heart, we regret to inform you…”
Her throat closed again.
She wasn’t just a princess tonight — she was the last guardian of a secret so devastating, it threatened to end centuries of royal legacy.
Across the room, Prince Harry sat crouched in the shadows — not in defiance, but fear. His hands were locked together, knuckles white, as though he was holding himself from falling apart completely.
Zara — her voice urgent but steady — reached for the princes:
“William. Harry. Inside the chamber. Now.”
She sealed the doors behind them — iron bolts sliding into place, shutting out the world… or trapping them within it.
No cameras.
No press.
No escape.
The heavy curtains swallowed the moonlight.
It felt like the walls themselves were listening.
Harry finally lifted his gaze — his eyes red, haunted.
“Anne… what happened?” he asked, barely audible.
Princess Anne took a shaking breath and unfurled a scroll stamped with the royal crest. The seal had been broken — a violation punishable by treason.
William’s heart pounded like a war drum.
He recognized what that document was:
The Royal Succession Bloodline Ledger.
Something no one opened unless the monarchy stood at the edge of extinction.
Anne held the scroll as if it burned her fingers.
“We tried to deny it… we tried to bury it…”
She wiped her face.
“But the truth cannot be silenced any longer.”
William stepped closer — terrified of the words he was about to hear.
“What truth?”
Anne stared into both of their eyes — the future kings who had never felt so powerless.
Her lips parted.
“It concerns… the heir.”
Harry’s pulse stopped.
William stumbled backward — his world already collapsing.
Anne continued, voice cracking:
“One of you… is not who the world believes you are.”
A single candle blew out — the chamber plunged darker.
A whisper curled through the room like a ghost:
“The crown must choose again.”
William shouted, “Tell us everything!”
Harry shook his head violently, “No— don’t say it—”
But Anne had reached the point of no return.
Her final words shattered the last illusion of royal certainty:
“The rightful bloodline ends tonight.”
The alarms began again.
Footsteps thundered outside the chamber.
The monarchy’s future — rewritten.
And someone inside that room…
had just become a threat to the throne.
