“It would be a real shame if word got out that the Crown Prince was involved with someone like you. A former delinquent with a record cozying up to the Prince seems rather… Well, scandalous.”
“These have to be fake,” I whimpered under my breath. “They have to be. There’s no way.”
“I don’t think the people of Wyvernbank will care, to be honest,” continued Clavets.
“Then I’ll tell them the truth. I was arrested for minor possession. It’s not that uncommon these days.”
“Even if they aren’t real, it’s still enough to drag your name—as well as the Prince—through the mud. And even if you told the truth, nobody would care. You’re a nobody to them. You’re a nobody who’s tainting His Royal Highness, seducing him for your own gain. The public will turn on you faster than you can blink. It’d be a real shame if this wound up affecting Sunyata’s delicate peace with Wyvernbank.”
My eyes welled up with the threat of tears as adrenaline rushed through my veins. It was sickening how quickly everything was falling apart.
“What do you want from me?” I demanded.
The corner of the man’s lip curled up into a dark, mischievous grin. “Leave town,” he said calmly. “Tonight.”
“But the conference doesn’t end until the day after tomorrow,” argued Klaus. “People will be suspicious.”
Clavets chuckled and patted Klaus harshly on the shoulder. Klaus recoiled like he’d been burned, glaring at the ambassador with a fiery hatred and disgust.
“People are going to talk one way or another, young man. It’s entirely up to you what they say.”
“If I leave,” I mumbled slowly, “you promise not to say anything about me and Sebastian?”
Ambassador Clavets nodded. “You have my word.”
12
Sebastian
My heart sank into the pit of my stomach when the last day of the conference commenced and Alison was nowhere to be seen. I held out hope that she was making some grand entrance, arriving stylishly late just as she did on the first day. But as each hour passed, the quiet hope I held within me started to shrivel away—little by little—until all I felt was a cold emptiness. The diplomats took turns with their closing statements, reciting vaguely worded, but generally positive pathos to fill their speaking time.
I leaned toward Patrick in my seat and whispered, “Any news? Where is she?”
“I’ve been trying to text Klaus all day,” he informed. “Even tried calling. I haven’t received any answers.”
I frowned. “Since when did you get his phone number?”
“Er, not important,” he said defensively. “Just because your correspondence has to be discreet, doesn’t mean that mine has to be.”
“Sure, sure,” I grunted.
“I’ll continue to try to locate her.”
“Thank you.”
I did my very best to sit still while the conference came to a close, but I was too anxious. I bounced my knee in an attempt to expend some energy while I nervously stroked my chin and the side of my face. I’d managed to sit through an entire week of speeches and overly formal presentations, so why was I having such a hard time now? The answer was simple, of course. The one person who I most looked forward to seeing every day was nowhere to be found. Alison had disappeared, and what bothered me the most was that this was all my fault.
Ambassador Clavets showing up unannounced probably frightened her. Maybe she was taking some space, trying to figure out her next move before coming to see me again. We needed to tread lightly, needed to think with clear minds and distinct end goals. Patrick had been checking the news on my behalf all day to see if the Dulanian representative let the knowledge of my date with Alison slip, but so far, everybody was none the wiser. I supposed I should have been relieved that our secret hadn’t been revealed to the public, but it only made me more irritable. What was the man waiting for? If he wanted to, he could expose my relationship with Alison with ease. He was biding his time. For what, I didn’t know.
The moment the floor speaker announced the close of the conference, I was out of my chair and storming down the hall toward the back exit in an instant. My driver was already waiting for me, the car pulled up to the curb. Patrick followed, hot on my heel.
“Where are you going?” he asked as we briskly walked.
“I have to see her.”
At that exact moment, Patrick’s phone pinged. He glanced down and read the message on the screen, the muscles in his shoulders visibly tensing.
“What? What is it?” I demanded.
Patrick bit the inside of his cheek. “She’s not going to be there.”
“What?” I hissed.
“Klaus just messaged me.”
“And? Patrick, tell me.”
“The just touched down in Sunyata,” he said gravely. “They’re gone.”
I shook my head in disbelief, swallowing hard against the dry lump that had lodged itself in my throat. “No. No, this isn’t right.”
“I’m sorry, Your Royal Highness.”
“She wasn’t supposed to–” I leaned against the car door, the world around me reeling. “I wanted to ask her to stay. I needed more time with her. I can’t—
This isn’t right.”
“Get in the car,” Patrick said softly. “I’ll take you home.”
“Patrick, I think I am falling for her.”
The realization came all too hard and much too quickly. My lungs burned for air as my heart thrummed angrily, sending blood pumping so hard that the tips of my fingers and toes were tingling. Patrick regarded me with pity in his eyes, brows pulled together in concern.
“Get in the car, Sebastian. You’re upset. We can’t have you out here making a scene.”
“Give me your phone,” I demanded.
“What?”
“You heard me. Give me your phone.”
I snatched the device out of his hand and dialed Klaus’ number. The three dial tones that played were as painful as drilling teeth. By the time someone on the other end finally picked up, I was a bumbling mess.
“Where is she?” I exclaimed. “I need to speak with Alison.”
“She can’t come to the phone right now,” Klaus grumbled.
“What happened? Please, tell me what happened? Why did you two leave?”
“I’m sorry, Your Royal Highness. I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Klaus, I swear to God, if you don’t put her on the phone right now I’ll–” I choked on my tongue, anguish devastating my heart.
Patrick plucked the phone and held the device to his ear. “Klaus, it’s me.” He pressed his lips together and nodded along, listening carefully. “I understand. I’ll let him know.” And then, in a softer voice. “It’s okay, Klaus. There’s nothing to apologize for. I’ll text you later.” He promptly hung up and shoved the device into his pocket.
“Well?” I picked at my fingernails, realizing much too late that I’d started to grind my teeth together. The muscles in my jaw were already starting to ache.
“Diplomat Smith is refusing to take your call.”
“This can’t be right,” I mumbled weakly.
“I’m sorry, Sebastian. There’s nothing more you can do. She was going to leave eventually.”
“But I didn’t want her to.”
13
Alison
I didn’t realize that something was off until I woke in the middle of the night with a terrible craving for lobster and strawberries. I’d been incredibly moody the last few weeks, suffering from an almost constant bout of headaches. I chalked it all up to the breakup, though, because that was exactly what it was. I broke up with Prince Sebastian IV of the Kingdom of Wyvernbank and ghosted all his attempts to contact me through Klaus. As much as I wanted to give in, to talk to him and explain myself over the phone, I had to remind myself that this was all for his own good. As much as I didn’t want to stay away, I had to in order to protect him. Ambassador Clavets had kept his word about not reve
aling anything about our affair to the public, and I fully intended on keeping it that way. To be completely fair, Prince Sebastian was the least of my worries now.
What worried me more was the fact that it was five in the morning and I had my face shoved into the toilet, vomiting my stomach out.
“What the hell?” grumbled Kamrin from down the hall. “When I took up your offer to move in with you to save money, I didn’t realize that included you doubling as my alarm clock.” She stumbled into the bathroom, eyes widening in shock when she finally noticed me keeled over the toilet bowl. Kamrin dropped to her knees and rubbed a comforting hand on my back while she tried to pull my hair away from my face with the other.
“I feel like shit,” I whined.
“You look like shit, sis.”
“Thanks.”
“What did you eat last night? Did you eat something bad?”
“No, I don’t think so,” I managed to get out before I started to hurl again. I wiped at my sweaty brow and shivered, a chill running itself down the nape of my neck to the base of my spine.
“You didn’t catch some weird disease from Wyvernbank, did you?”
“I don’t think that’s it either.”
“Good. I’m not up-to-date with my vaccinations.” Kamrin continued to rub circles into my back, but the friction felt more like fire against my sensitive skin. “I’m about to ask an icky question, but I don’t want you to be offended.”
“I’ve got splashes of toilet water on my face,” I groaned. “I am the very definition of icky right now.”
“Did you sleep with anyone while you were on your trip?”
I curled my face up. “What?”
“I told you it was an icky question. Now I can’t stop picturing my big sister with some Wyvernbank between her–”
“I get the picture,” I interrupted.
As I dragged my forearm across my mouth to rid it of spit and traces of vomit, I took in a deep breath and thought hard. My throat squeezed shut as dread sunk its teeth into me. In the week that Sebastian and I had spent together, we’d had sex a number of times. He’d always worn a condom, saying that it was better safe than sorry. But now that I thought about it, he hadn’t worn protection our first time. We were so caught up in the moment, trapped in each other’s passionate embrace that the thought hadn’t occurred to either of us. I had to admit that when he came inside of me, it was the hottest thing I’d ever experienced. And when all was said and done, I made sure to clean up thoroughly. I was also on the pill, so the chances were slim.
But not impossible.
I looked up at my sister slowly. The shock must have been written all over my face because her mouth immediately fell open.
“You used protection, right?”
“Er,” I stammered.
“Oh my God, Ali. What the hell were you thinking?”
“Would you relax? You’re freaking me out.”
“You’re freaking me out.” Kamrin rose to her feet. “What if you’re… Oh my God, Ali, what if you’re pregnant?”
“You don’t know that for certain.”
“I’m going to the corner store right now to pick up a test!”
“It’s five in the morning. Nothing’s open yet.”
“I’m waiting two hours and then I’m going to pick up a test!” she corrected.
“Since you’re up, would you mind grabbing me a glass of water?”
“Nope. Water is for good girls who listened to their sex-ed teachers.”
I glared daggers at her.
“Fine,” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “But only because I feel really bad for you right now.”
I snorted, “Get in line.”
“Should I message Klaus? He was going to pick you up on your way to work, right? Maybe he can buy something to settle your stomach.”
“God, no,” I wheezed. “He can’t know.”
Kamrin frowned, deeply concerned. “Since when do you keep things from him? Is it–” She gawked, eyes widening in horror. “Is it his? I thought he was–”
“It’s not,” I interrupted quickly.
“Then why can’t he know?”
“Because…” I took in a careful breath. My stomach had twisted itself into a tight little knot, leaving absolutely nothing behind, but there was still a terrible pressure at the base of my throat that left me nauseated. “Because he’ll definitely know who the father is, and I don’t want to deal with any of that right now. Just let me take a test first, and we’ll go from there, okay? We might be freaking out over nothing.”
Kamrin nodded slowly and sighed. “Okay. The moment stores open up, I’ll go get a test for you.”
“Thank you.”
It took another thirty minutes before the nausea finally passed. I was still running through the different possibilities in my head. Maybe I really was just sick. I was suffering from awful chills, I was breaking out into a cold sweat, and my forehead was warm to the touch. My chest felt heavy, both because I’d been hurling all morning and because the guilt of leaving Sebastian the way I did was still eating me alive. I wondered if Sebastian was thinking about me, wondered if he was as distraught as I was. We had a really good thing going. Had it not been for Clavets, I probably would have still been in Wyvernbank. Out of all the things that I regretted, I regretted not kissing Sebastian one last time.
Kamrin eventually returned with a test, a small box with a single stick inside. I followed the instructions carefully—not that peeing on a stick was a particularly difficult thing to accomplish—and found myself reading it over and over again in an attempt to distract myself. It was easier to lose myself in the words, zone out while staring at the spaces between lines, than focus on the seconds that passed by before the test was complete. Maybe this was all in my head. Maybe I picked up a bad sandwich from the shop around the corner. I tried to think of as many alternative explanations as I could, because the thought of being pregnant left me hopelessly lost. I didn’t know what I was going to do if it turned out that I was in fact carrying Sebastian’s child.
The prospect of having a kid didn’t upset me. I’d always wanted children. I grew up in a small family and would always get jealous of classmates with more than one sibling. A life surrounded by children was a dream I had to push aside in order to focus on my career. The only thing holding me back was the fact that I always imagined raising the child with a partner. It wasn’t like I couldn’t afford to do it on my own. I’d saved for years and could easily make time in my busy schedule to shower my baby with all the love and attention it would need. But the idea of being a single parent sowed doubts in my mind. Could I really pull it off? It wasn’t like the Crown Prince of Wyvernbank could drop everything and be with me and the child. But I knew I was thinking hypothetically. There was only one way to find out for sure. I gingerly picked the pregnancy test up from off the edge of the sink after another minute and swallowed hard.
“Kamrin!” I exclaimed.
“What?” she shouted from the other side of the closed bathroom door.
“I need you to call Klaus for me.”
“Wait, does this mean you’re–”
“Yes,” I said hurriedly. “I’m pregnant.”
14
Sebastian
I was balancing on a tightrope, waiting for a strong breeze to knock me over and plummet. The last couple of days had been absurdly tense as I spent every waking hour awaiting any kind of news, both good and bad. Clavets hadn’t made a move. At least, not in the way I’d expected. He’d been invited to speak at a public gathering where he sang praises of my efforts in the region of Belwald. Thousands of people now had access to food and fresh drinking water, while many more were starting to settle down in the region to begin development like Alison had suggested. But I couldn’t take his compliments at face value. I knew what Clavets was trying to do. His televised appearance had been a warning. If he felt so inclined, he could easily use the same outlets to reveal the truth about my affair with Alison.
Affair didn’t sound like the right word. It felt dirty and awful. It had been passionate and quick, but it meant something to me. I’d never met anybody like Alison before. I’d never felt that happy to be around someone, to want them near at every opportunity. My whole life, I’d been surrounded by people, but Alison was the first person I ever truly saw. She was like a bright light in the darkness, illuminating the way while keeping me warm and safe. But without a word, without an explanation, she was simply gone.
Patrick opened and walked through the door to my private study. I looked up from where I was slumped over on my desk, discouraged by the frown he wore.
“Well?” I asked, though I could easily guess the answer.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t find very much.”
“I need details. Is she okay?”
“The private investigator I hired on your behalf says that she’s returned to work. There aren’t a lot of interesting details. I’m sorry, Your Royal Highness, but I think she’s moved on with her life.”
I clenched my jaw tight enough to hear my molars squeak against one another. This couldn’t be right. Was I really just a fling to her? Did she really not care about our time shared together? She seemed so happy, despite her initial hesitation. Ali smiled so bright and laughed so carefree that I’d easily been fooled into believing that she maybe felt something for me, just as I did her. Every inch of my body felt numb at the thought, made heavy by the realization that she left much too easily. She hadn’t tried to reach out through Klaus, hadn’t tried to explain her decision. But I couldn’t bring myself to be angry with her. The only person I was angry with was Clavets. If he hadn’t shown up at dinner and scared her away, none of this would have been happening.
And maybe, to a degree, I was angry at myself.
I should have known better than to get involved with Alison. She was only at the conference to do her job, to make things better for people. I was the one who pursued her, chased after her like I had no control. If only I’d remained professional and distant. If only I hadn’t fallen so deeply and so quickly for her. In such a short period of time, Ali had managed to render me absolutely useless, paralyzed by her absence to the point I could no longer function without memories of her creeping into my mind. Maybe I could have saved myself the heartbreak by focusing on my work as the Crown Prince, just as my father had asked me to.
Royally Loved: The Royal Romances Books 1-5 Page 41