Aidan: Prince of Sorenia (Dirty Princes)

by Imani King

  “He said it was a condition called hyperemesis gravidarum. Stress makes it even worse. In fact, when I mentioned that I was going to be going on a trip, the doctor strongly recommended that I stay home. He doesn’t want me traveling until my blood pressure goes down,” I said quickly. It was a bit like ripping off a Band-Aid. I just had to get the words out.

  Aidan’s body stiffened as he took this in. “So that means you won’t be able to go to Sorenia with me after all.”

  “I’m sorry, Aidan, but I have to think about what’s best for the babies. We both do. I’m supposed to relax, and maybe that isn’t a bad thing. You have to get the situation with your parents figured out before I can feel comfortable doing anything else. It’s important that you make peace with them if nothing else. Being around that whole situation there at the palace is going to be even more stressful. That’s apparently the last thing I need. I’ll stay here, and I’ll take my medication to feel a bit normal again, and we’ll talk once you get all of that figured out.”

  “Well, of course, I wouldn’t want you to do anything that would put the babies at risk,” he finally said. He stood up and looked at his watch. “I need to finish packing. My flight leaves in a couple of hours."

  He left the room, and I felt myself began to tremble. I needed to talk to someone, and I knew it was time for me to finally be honest with Abby. As I made sure that Aidan was in the bedroom with the door closed, I dialed my friend’s number.

  “Wow, I finally get a call from my best friend,” Abby said. “Are you still my best friend?”

  “I’m so sorry, Abby. Things have been crazy here,” I said rubbing my forehead.

  “Crazy doesn’t even begin to describe it. Man, Kian and his parents have been going round and round about what’s happening with you and Aidan. I can’t even believe how unreasonable they’re being about everything. It’s been nothing but yelling and screaming around here day and in and day out. Who knew? Seems like royal families aren’t all that different from regular ones after all.”

  That was not what I wanted to hear. I was suddenly even more grateful that I wasn’t going to be going to Sorenia with Aidan after all. “That’s part of the reason I’m calling,” I said. “I know I told you that I was going to see you in Sorenia. But I can’t come after all.”

  “Why? I so wanted you to be here.”

  “I know, but there’s something I need to tell you.”

  “What is it?” Abby asked.

  I knew there was a chance that she had already heard that I was pregnant from Aidan’s parents. But then again, Aidan had told me that his parents had refused to say anything more on the topic. I didn’t know if they were hoping that he would dump me with a massive pay-off or that I would decide to have an abortion. Either way, it made me hate them.

  “It’s because I’m pregnant,” I murmured.

  I heard a squeal of delight on the other end of the phone. “Oh my God! I can’t believe it! I know it wasn’t what you were planning, but if you and Aidan are having a baby, that’s amazing!”

  I couldn’t help but smile at my friend’s enthusiasm. “Well, change that from singular to plural. We found out we’re having twins.”

  This time, I had to take the phone away from my ear so that Abby squeal of delight didn’t burst my eardrum. “That is fantastic! You are so lucky. And best of all, we get to be pregnant at the same time!”

  My mouth dropped open. I remembered that Abby had told me that she was trying to get pregnant. Now I felt like an awful friend because she’d been trying so desperately to get a hold of me for the past week. “Abby, that’s fantastic news. Congratulations!”

  “See? This is why you have to come to Sorenia anyway. So we can be together and be pregnancy besties.”

  “It’s actually under doctor’s orders that I need to stay home. That’s what I was calling to tell you. Apparently, all of the stress of the situation has taken quite a toll on me, and the doctor wants me to rest. To be honest, over the last few weeks, this pregnancy has been hard on me.”

  “Oh, tell me about it. Morning sickness is a killer.”

  For the next few minutes, we compared pregnancy notes, and for the first time in what felt like forever, it seemed as if there was a kind of normalcy to my life. I regretted not confiding in Abby sooner. She was like a rock in the middle of any storm, and I had forgotten about that.

  We signed off a few minutes later, and I promised to send her a text with the ultrasound pictures of the twins. She was going to send me one of her baby in return.

  Aidan came back into the room just as I hung up the phone. “I take it you finally broke down and called Abby.”

  I nodded. It took everything inside me not to start to cry. Seeing him standing there looking so uncertain with his suitcase in his hand made me feel like it was going to be the last time I ever saw him. In the back of my mind, I thought it was possible that his parents could somehow change his mind about me. He could go back to Sorenia and decide to forget all about me. That idea made me so sad, but there was nothing I could do about it. I had to stay, and he had to go.

  I walked him to the door, and as he paused there in the doorway, he leaned down and gave me the gentlest kiss. There were too many emotions to count in that simple gesture, and he didn’t even try to say anything else, although I could tell he wanted to. Then he touched my stomach. “Take care of our babies, okay?”

  I nodded and couldn’t stop the tears from gathering in my eyes. He smiled at me softly as he brushed the tears away. “No need for tears. I won’t be gone that long. I promise.”

  I could do nothing but trust his word. I nodded, and then he left. I went back and sat on the couch and turned on the fireplace. I let the tears fall then, but I put my hands over my stomach. “You hear that, babies? Daddy will be back soon. We just have to be patient and wait for him.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  It didn’t take as long as I expected to reach the airport. By the time I got through security and was waiting at my gate, I realized I still had more than a half an hour to kill before they were going to board the plane. I wanted to kick myself because that was an extra thirty minutes that I could have spent with Eva. I could tell that she had been trying to be strong when I left. That what all she had been doing all along. She was so concerned about wanting to make sure that I believed that I was making the right decision. Why she kept thinking that being with our babies was not the right decision blew my mind. It told me just how far we had come and how far we had yet to go. There was no way that I was going to give up on my newly formed family.

  I had every intention of going back to Sorenia, and if my parents refused to listen to me as they had so far, I would willingly sign away the throne and be done with all of it. Then if they wanted no further part of my life, that would be their decision. Not mine.

  I sat and waited as I scrolled through my phone looking at the emails from my brother that had grown more and more anxious in tone. Although he tried to call and text me several times daily it seemed, I had blown all of them off completely. It wasn’t like me at all, and we both knew it. But I couldn’t be sure that he wasn’t going to join my parents’ side and try and convince me that it was my destiny to be king or something like that. Although, I didn’t think that he would do that, I also knew that he had never prepared himself for the idea of being king himself.

  I thought about Eva and the expression on her face when I had left the flat. I had been able to read it so easily. There was a part of her that thought for some crazy reason that I wasn’t going to come back to her. I had no idea what else I could do to convince her that she was my world. We were starting a family, and everything was going to be about four of us from now on. And then I realized my mistake. How could she believe me? So far, everything I had been doing was focused on trying to make peace with my parents. Whether my parents accepted me and my decision in the end or not, it would not impact the outcome of what I was going to do next at all.

  So why was I
leaving her and flying to Sorenia? She was ill, and she needed someone to take care of her. She was the most important person in my life, and it was time I started acting like it. I wanted to marry Eva, and I didn’t want to wait any longer.

  I stood up then and tossed my ticket in the trash. I wasn’t going back to Sorenia. I was going to go back and stay with Eva. I was going to convince her that it was time for us to move forward in our relationship. Continuing to focus on making my parents understand something they might never understand was a waste of my time and energy. I would do whatever she wanted, and hopefully, she would agree to marry me.

  Determined and happy with this plan, I still couldn’t stop myself from dialing my brother’s number. I had to give him a warning about the storm that was about to land squarely on his head.

  “There you are. I’ve been worried sick,” Kian said as he answered the phone.

  “I’ve had a lot going on,” I said.

  “No kidding. You are the talk of the palace,” he said. “All our parents can talk about is the fact that you will not come home and that you’ve driven Imogen away with your erratic behavior. They’ve even mentioned committing you, which is preposterous. It’s been quite a scandal. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about in the media somewhere yet.”

  He said it all in his typically gleeful tone, like he'd been waiting a long time for me to trip up. And I guess he had. I rubbed my face. “Please tell me that isn’t a tactic that mother is going to try to use to get me to come home.”

  “Well, the fact that you’re supposed to be on a plane in less than half an hour cooled her jets on any of that talk, at least for the moment.”

  “I’m not going to come home,” I said.

  “That’s new,” Kian said.

  I could hear, though, that there wasn’t any judgment in his voice, and that was what caused me to push forward with my explanation. “Mother is not listening to a word I’m saying. I don’t know if Father gives a damn or not. But regardless of any of that, this isn’t a good time for me to leave Eva. She’s very sick, and it’s important that I stay with her. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we are expecting twins.”

  Even across the distance, I could hear the smile in my brother’s voice as he said, “Congratulations, man. You must be thrilled.”

  “I am thrilled, except for the part that our parents cannot get over the idea that I am in love with Eva, and we are about to start a family. I would have thought they’d be delighted to have grandchildren in their future so soon.”

  “You need to just relax. They will come around eventually. Besides, you know that you can come home and still be king because of that whole clause in the law about producing an heir. You’re the one who found it yourself. Now that Eva is pregnant, they can’t stop it.”

  “If only it were that easy,” I said. “The thing is, Eva doesn’t want to be part of the monarchy. She doesn’t want to be queen. I can’t force this life on her. She has brought up some good points about how we were raised and how she doesn’t want that for our kids. I need to respect her wishes too. And it doesn’t matter to me anyways. I will abdicate the throne, and you can take the throne.”

  “Well, especially now that Abby is pregnant too. That would also supersede that law for me, right?” Kian said casually.

  I was dumbstruck. “Abby’s pregnant too? Wow. Congratulations.”

  “Thanks. We’ve been trying ever since we got hitched. Thing is, I don’t know that I want to be king either. I can’t say I blame Eva for not wanting to take on that whole responsibility. It is a life in and of itself. I mean, look at Father. I think he checked out of our lives years ago.”

  That was really what it came down to at the end of the day. I hadn’t examined the relationship that I had with my father the way I had the one with my mother. Perhaps that’s because I just assumed that the responsibilities of being king automatically made you distant and different from everyone. But I didn’t want to end up like that with my children, and I certainly didn’t want Eva to turn into any variation of my mother.

  “Abby's planning to finish her thesis in Sorenia now, and we’re going to stay here for the foreseeable future after all. I actually got into the MBA program at the University of Sorenia, and I can do most of it online. But, I still don’t think that she’ll want to be queen any more than Eva does. It is different for them because they didn’t grow up with it like we did. I’m willing to discuss it with her, but I wouldn’t hold out any hope there.”

  “And that is the crux of the issue, isn’t it?” I said without any humor in my voice. “So we both abdicate the throne and then where does that leave us? It leaves our country without a successor, and who knows how that would impact everything else for the rest of Father’s reign? It’s enough to almost make me feel bad for our parents.”

  “This is what I think we should do,” Kian said. “Abby is dying to see Eva. I’m sure that they’ve probably already talked about this whole pregnancy thing, and if you guys can’t come to us, then we’re going to come to you. We can sit down, the four of us, and think about what we can do that makes sense for all of us. I’m sure if we put four heads on this, we can come up with something that will work. Then I’ll take it to Father and Mother, and if they don’t accept it, they don’t accept it. They are on tap to figure it out from there, but we can rest easier knowing that at least we tried.”

  I was starting to feel a bit better. Calling my brother had been exactly what I needed to do, and now I felt even worse that I hadn’t done it sooner. “When can you get here?” I asked.

  “It’ll probably take me a day or two to make the arrangements, but if not by tomorrow evening, then the next day for sure. We’ll get this straightened out, Aidan. You and Eva just relax and forget about all of this in the meantime. No sense worrying about it. I hope she feels better.”

  “Thanks, Kian” I said to him. “I love you, man.” It felt strange saying those words out loud at our age, but I wanted him to understand how much I appreciated him having my back.

  “Yeah, yeah, I love you too. I’ll see you soon.”

  I hung up the phone feeling better than I had in days. Kian was right. Four heads were definitely better than one, and we would figure something out. And if our parents didn’t accept the plan, then we were still out. That was all there was to it. I started to whistle as a way that made my way outside to the curb to call a taxi. My beautiful future bride waited, and hopefully, she would see that things were starting to look up. After everything, we both deserved some good news.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  I had been going through fits of crying while at the same time, sternly telling myself that I had done the right thing. I had let Aidan go. He had to decide what he wanted to do with his future, and I could only hope that what he eventually decided was that he wanted to be with me.

  There was a part of me that wished I had told him I would marry him. At least, then I would know that he had to come back to me, but that was a silly reason for getting married. Plus, if he decided the stay in Sorenia and marry Imogen instead, breaking off our engagement would emotionally devastate me. The sooner he got things figured out with his parents and things straight with what he wanted to do, the better.

  I kept inching my fingers towards my phone. I had his itinerary because, until that afternoon, it was supposed to be my itinerary too. Aidan wasn’t supposed to be boarding his flight quite yet. There was still a chance that I could talk to him and just hearing his voice would reassure me that things were going to be okay. I knew that I had to trust him, but that felt harder than I anticipated once we were in two separate countries.

  That was the crux of my issue. For as much as I told myself that we needed this time apart, I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want to be alone, especially feeling so physically sick and being heartsick at the same time. How was I supposed to function?

  The irony of all of it wasn’t lost on me. Abby had always told me that I was so strong and independent that it
was evident I didn’t need a man in my life. But now that I had one, I couldn’t imagine having to make do without him. The tables had been completely turned on me in such a short time. That was probably the biggest reason I hadn’t called him yet. Stubbornly, I wanted to believe that I was the same woman I had been before, but I wasn’t. Aidan had made a place for himself in my heart, and I didn’t see him leaving it anytime soon.

  I took my phone in my hands. I looked at the clock on the screen. He wouldn’t be boarding for another five minutes. I could make up some excuse about just wanting to tell him I loved him one more time. Since he had told me his feelings for me, he never went a day without telling me again several times. He wouldn’t think it was incredibly strange if I asked to hear it just more time. Hearing his voice would calm me and hearing those three words, in particular, would set my mind at ease.

  I finally told myself that I needed to stop being a ninny. If I wanted to call him, I could call him. Besides, what if there was something wrong with the babies? He would want to know. It wasn’t as if we weren’t planning to talk at all during his trip. I dialed his number before I could talk myself out of it. It rang and rang and rang, but there was no answer. The call went to voicemail.

  I looked at the phone and thought this was strange. In the entire time we had been together, Aidan had been almost too accessible to me. He always answered the phone when I called. Perhaps he had already gotten on the plane, and so he couldn’t answer the phone.

  I gave it another minute, and then I dialed the number again. It was the same story. It rang several times and went to voicemail. It was unbelievable. When I wanted to get a hold of him, I couldn’t. I looked at my watch and knew that plane’s boarding door was probably going to be closed any minute, and he would leave Scotland, possibly forever. I was about to lose every chance of being able to tell him how I felt before he was ensconced back in his old life back in Sorenia without me. I dialed one more time, but now it went straight to voicemail without even ringing.