~*Mordal, 1985*~

"Sarah!" Queen Taylor gasped, grabbing Sarah's arm.

Taylor was Queen of Mordal, a country that stretched across the bottom of France from Spain to Italy. She was born a princess, and when her parents died, she became Queen. Her husband, Gregory, was king consort. Taylor had never wanted to get married, but she had promised her parents that she would so that heirs to the throne could be born. She had finally married Gregory, Sarah's older brother, and she supposed that their marriage was a good thing.

But now, she was pregnant with twins. The heirs to the throne that she had promised her parents. However, she and Gregory had often discussed the problems. The twins would be so close in age, but legally, the one who was born first would be the one who would someday rule. Taylor had insisted that it would be okay, that both of their children would be treated equally, but Gregory kept saying that the younger one would always feel inferior. *Soon we'll find out*, Taylor thought. She had just felt a contraction.

"Your Majesty! Is it time?" Sarah asked anxiously.

"Yes," Taylor said with a wan smile.

Sarah had been her best friend ever since she could remember, and would now be aunt to her children. Everything would be perfect after her twins were born.

~*~*~*~*~*~*10 Hours Later*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Identical twin girls!" Sarah said, hugging Gregory.

Gregory didn't smile. "What's the matter?" Sarah asked.

"Sarah, how far apart were they born?"

"Five minutes. Why?"

"We have to get rid of the younger one."

Sarah stepped away from Gregory and stared at him, her mouth agape. "I can't believe you just said that!" Sarah hissed. "How could you even suggest getting rid of one of your daughters?"

Gregory held up his hands. "I don't mean to kill her! Just secretly give her up for adoption."

"Gregory, I know that you're not a nice person. Truth be told, Taylor didn't want to get married at all, but her parents wanted her to, so I suggested you. Well, okay, I pushed you onto her. I know you two don't really love each other. But you DID create these two girls together! How could you say that you want to get rid of one?"

"Sarah, listen to me. We have to act quickly. Even though the Mordalian people don't like me, I still want to do the best by my country. Having twins as heirs isn't good. Civil wars could be started, not to mention the fact that the older one would always be preferred. That wouldn't be good for either of them! Sarah, can't you see? I'm trying to do my best for both of them!"

Sarah bit her lip. Gregory fought a smile from his face. Two things could be said about him: one, he could be persuasive and charming when he wanted. Two, Sarah would do anything he wanted.

"All right," Sarah agreed. "But how are you going to keep it from Taylor?"

"We'll tell her the other baby died."

"But...who could adopt the baby?"

"I'm sending her to America."

"With who?"

"Agatha," he said.

Agatha was Sarah and Gregory's younger sister. Sarah looked away. "I'll go along with your story, but I'm not going to be involved in any other way."

"Fine," Gregory said smoothly.

There was no way he wanted two screaming babies. One would be bad enough. And maybe, in her grief, Taylor would turn to him. As he snuck in to where the twins were sleeping, he froze. He had forgotten to ask Sarah which one was the younger one. Oh, well, he thought. He grabbed one of the babies and quickly stole away to Agatha's house.

*****************************************

"Gregory, I can't do that to one of my nieces!"

"Please, Agatha. Really, you're helping Taylor and I. And the other baby. Not to mention the peace and stability of our country."

Agatha, like Sarah, eventually agreed to take the baby to the United States, to friends of hers who lived on New York's Upper East Side. Gregory knew Agatha's friends would take the baby; they were both plastic surgeons and desperately wanted their own child, but couldn't have one. As Gregory placed the baby in her arms, Agatha looked at the baby's bracelet. "Gregory, this is the older twin!" she exclaimed.

"What? How do you know that?"

She pointed to the ID bracelet. "It says on here that this is the older twin."

"Oh. I didn't see that. Well, it's too late now. Come on, I've got my private jet for you two."

Gregory left Agatha and the baby and hurried back to Taylor. First he picked up the other baby, the younger twin, and brought it in to Taylor. She woke up as he entered. "How's the baby?" she asked tiredly.

"She's doing great," Gregory answered, placing the baby he was holding into her arms.

Sarah was standing in the corner of Taylor's room silently. Taylor smiled as she looked down at her sleeping daughter, then looked at the baby's bracelet. "So she's the younger one? Where's the older twin?" Taylor asked, looking around the room as if she expected the baby to be hiding in the corners.

Gregory motioned Sarah to take the baby from Taylor's arms. "Taylor, the older twin wasn't strong enough. She...I'm sorry, Taylor. She died."

Sarah and Gregory watched anxiously as the color drained from Taylor's face and her face crumpled. She looked at Gregory, who came over and put his arms around her as she started to cry.