Royal Fake

“Get out of bed, sleepyhead. If I had to brave the redeye to get here, you need to get up, it’s almost nine in the morning.” Madison hopped on her first.

Avery’s sleepy eyes focused on her friends and she completely freaked out.

“Oh my God, Madison, Kylie… you aren’t here? Are you here? Please tell me you’re here.” It looked like Avery was about to cry.

“We’re here,” Kylie threw her arms in the air.

Avery opened her arms and gathered them both into an embrace until morning sickness got the best of her.

“Oh, no… morning barf coming through.” She jumped out of bed and made a mad dash to the bathroom.

That was our morning routine.

“Excuse me for a moment, ladies,” I said as I rushed to meet Avery to hold up her hair and rub her back as I did every morning.

My heart always broke for her as she bent over the toilet suffering for our child. The more I saw her endure the less this became about a contract. She was a remarkable person; one I’d be honored to call my wife. As we spent more and more time together, I was coming to terms with the fact that Avery wasn’t just perfect on paper, she was simply perfect.

“Thanks,” Avery rasped as her hand groped for the hand towel I gave her. “Sorry about that.” She looked at me wincing with shame.

“No, I’m sorry.” I rubbed her belly, which was just barely beginning to show.

The only real evidence of her pregnancy was her breasts which had grown just a tiny bit larger. I noticed the difference because they were one of my favorite parts of her glorious body, but to anyone who didn’t know her body as well as I did, Avery didn’t look pregnant at all. She moved to the sink to brush her teeth and fix her hair. As soon as she did she looked over to me.

“Thank you for bringing them over.” The delightful smile on her face warmed my heart.

“I know you need your friends right now.” I gathered her in for a hug. “I wasn’t sure how else to help you.” Which was the truth. I was the cause of her suffering and yet without it, I wouldn’t be able to have what I wanted. I kissed her and let her freshen up for her friends.

“She’ll be out in a moment,” I said coming out of the bathroom. “There’s tea and breakfast food in the dining room if you’d like to join me there. I’m sure Avery won’t be a minute. And Kylie, I know you needed to leave your nanny behind, but Martha is wonderful with children, I’m sure she’d be delighted to look after Elijah when you want her to.” I hoped Kylie would take me up on my offer as I wanted her to be present for Avery.

“Thanks, Your Highness,” she started.

“Oh God, please just call me Liam, I get enough of your highness, trust me,” I laughed.

“Right. Okay, Liam. Alec has it covered. If we need to be somewhere together without Elijah we’ll take you up on your generous offer, but Alec loves being a daddy. As I’m sure you will too.” Her smile was all-knowing and sly.

I hadn’t really even thought to consider what it would be like to be a father or a husband for that matter, I was just too focused on being a king. Kylie was right though, in a very short while, I’d be staying behind with a baby, though I wouldn’t have to. A king never needed to raise their child, heaven knows my father didn’t raise me, but that was the problem. I only had my mother and she died.

The week before our wedding went better than I could have ever hoped. Avery really perked up having her girlfriends around and while they talked, took little excursions, and basically brightened Avery’s mood, I spent my time getting to know Alec, finding his company quite enjoyable. He had been dealing with “the posse” as they called themselves for over a year and despite the fact that they were called in for every major decision, Alec shared that Kylie, Avery, and Madison were the kind of friend/sisters every woman (and perhaps men) needed.

I watched Avery get her glow and viciousness back. She was loving and playful in bed again and I realized how important her friends were to her. If I kept her in Ireland indefinitely, I would be robbing her of the friendships she vitally needed. This was never more true than on the morning of our wedding.

“I can’t do this,” she woke up saying, crying big ugly tears.

She had a restless night of sleep which I thought was just nerves but seeing her so distraught my heart fell to my knees. I gathered her into my arms and stroked her hair.