Now he would get his revenge. How dare she tell him she loved him, warn him about some criminal enterprise, then leave! Damn her!
His rage only increased as he moved back towards the SUV and she was staring out the window with tears streaming down her face.
He ignored the stab of pain that suddenly hit his chest. He wasn’t going to give in to tears. Not after the past year. Not after…!
He opened the door, prepared to give her a tongue lashing. But as soon as the door was opened, she burst out, racing across the grassy field towards…he didn’t know where she thought she was going because he grabbed her around the waist, hauling her back to the vehicle. “No,” he said with deadly calm, “you’re not getting away from me this time,” he explained smoothly.
“Shanta!” Faye said through stiff lips. “Shanta needs me. I should have picked her up from day care an hour ago! I need to get to her. Please, Zantar! I need to get to my baby!”
Baby?
The word exploded around him, his mind reeling. He might have even stumbled back slightly.
Baby!
“Please!” she gasped, her hands gripping his arm and her nails digging into the skin slightly as her urgency finally got through to him. “I need to get to her. She needs me!”
“Get in!” he ordered. “I’ll drive you.”
She got into the vehicle, but she wasn’t very fast about it. Zantar was a bit more stunned, and he almost pushed her in to the interior. When she was seated, he pulled himself into the seat as well, slamming the door to the SUV with more force than was necessary. His guards moved quickly as well, everyone piling into the vehicles. He was so angry, he couldn’t even speak. He couldn’t ask questions. All he knew was that Faye had given birth to a…!
“Faye, is this…?” He couldn’t even speak the words, the possibility too shocking.
She must have realized what his unspoken question was because she immediately nodded. “Yes. A few months after I escaped from Scott, I realized I was pregnant. Shanta is our daughter.”
Two words hit him with that explanation. “Escape” and “Daughter” kept ringing in his ears. His guards must have understood as well because the guard in the front seat was immediately on his radio, issuing orders.
Zantar couldn’t seem to speak. His mind wasn’t able to process those two words, much less the ideas behind them. Daughter. Faye had a daughter. No…there was more to that. What had she said? “Our” daughter. Holy hell, Faye had given birth to his daughter?
The driver pulled up outside of a small house with a pretty garden. The sun was dipping down over the horizon at this point, so he knew that it was late. Later than usual, since an older woman in her fifties with streaks of grey in her dark hair, came out with a small bundle in her arms. The woman’s smile disappeared as she watched the guards streak out of the SUVs, surrounding her house. The woman instantly clutched the small bundle to her breast, protecting the child.
Faye jumped out of the vehicle, rushing over to the woman. “It’s okay, Elspeth,” she said softly, reaching out for the small bundle. “It’s okay!” she said again, her voice soothing.
Warily, the older woman transferred the small bundle into Faye’s arms, still looking around with terror in her eyes.
Zantar took in all of this, still too stunned to speak or even process the information staring right back at him.
He stepped out of the vehicle and the elderly woman gasped, quickly dropping to her knees as Zantar approached. Zantar ignored the woman, his eyes focused on the small bundle in Faye’s arms. Faye looked down at the older woman, obviously confused. “Elspeth?” she called out, shifting the bundle to the side as she peered down at the woman.
“Your Highness!” Elspeth whispered, awe in her voice but she kept her head bowed, her hands on the ground.
Zantar looked down at the woman briefly, then said, “Please stand.”
Faye was very confused, but at least she was holding Shanta in her arms. Her little daughter was safe. Instantly, Elspeth lurched to her feet, but kept her head bowed, her whole body subservient. It was so unlike the kind woman, Faye wasn’t sure what was going on.
She turned and looked up at Zantar. “Who are you?” she asked.
Elspeth gasped, stepping back as she swiveled her head from Faye to Zantar. “You don’t know?” she asked in horror.
“Know what?”
Zantar lifted his hand, stopping the other woman’s explanation. “Please,” he choked out, staring down at the baby in Faye’s arms. “Is this…?”
“Yes,” Faye replied, smiling up at Zantar shyly now. “This is our daughter, Zantar. I named her Shanta.” She laughed softly, then continued, “I would have named her Zanta or some other feminine form of your name, but as soon as the nurse put her into my arms after the delivery, the name Shanta seemed to fit.”
Zantar stared at the bundle with dark hair and dark eyes. Her skin was pale, just like Faye’s, but the rest of the infant looked just like him. Or was he only seeing what he wanted to see? Apparently, even Elspeth saw the similarities because she gasped again, her eyes still moving from the infant to his face.
Faye moved closer. “I’m sorry I was so frantic back at the school. It’s just that…well, I don’t like being away from Shanta. Earlier, I was terrified that you’d take me away and I wouldn’t see her. I was supposed to pick her up right after classes finish.” She shrugged slightly and moved one of her hands, allowing the small girl to wrap her tiny fingers around one of Faye’s fingers.
“You were pregnant when you disappeared?”
Faye sighed, nodding. “I didn’t know it at the time. I was so focused on getting away from Scott and making sure that you didn’t sign any contract with him. And then I was too busy traveling and researching that company, Green Mining, afraid that they would do something horrible to another town. I started writing letters to any government agency that I could, warning them of their illegal activities. So by the time I realized I was pregnant, I was already five months along.”
Zantar looked around, noticing that his guards were looking around nervously. “We need to leave,” he stated firmly, taking her arm and guiding her back to the SUV. “We’re too exposed.”
“Exposed?” Faye asked, skipping along next to him. “I don’t understand.”
“Come,” he told her, urging her faster. He kept glancing down at Shanta and Faye wanted to stop him, demand answers. But he was acting so strangely, she didn’t understand so she simply moved along with him.
Zantar couldn’t believe it. A daughter! He was a father? A father! The infant looked up at him, obviously sensing that something strange was happening to her world. He shook his head, still trying to grasp the full meaning of his current situation. He had a daughter!