“How is it your fault? I don’t understand.”
“By denouncing the throne, I set in motion a plot that will affect any child I have.”
“What?”
“Please, Rosa, just hear me out.”
“All right, tell me.”
“If I don’t take the throne after my father, then the rules of ascension state that the first child born of the next generation becomes the rightful heir to the throne.”
Seeing that I am about to speak, Dante holds up his hand again. “Cassandra hoped to give birth to the first child, but when I returned with you and announced that you were already pregnant, she saw her dream of giving birth to the future king, or queen of Avanti, die.”
My muddled brain struggled with that information. “Oh my God! What a fake bitch. She pretended to be my friend. All that kissing and hugging,” I shake my head, “and the whole time she was planning to kill my baby!”
“Yes.”
I frown at Dante. “Why did you bring me here knowing that neither I nor our child would be welcome?”
“Rosa, you know I never wanted to be King and I never wanted my child to have the responsibility and pressure of being the next King or Queen either. Because I always made my position clear I thought I was out of their political games and shenanigans. I brought you here for the weekend to make it clear I had found my soul mate, the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and to tell them that I would never be coming back as King. I did not account for how power hungry they have all become. Maybe they were always that greedy. I just didn’t know it because I always did my own thing and stayed away from them.”
“Hmm … I guess your innocent weekend scared the shit out of them: the useless playboy prince who they had completely written off returns with a woman who is already pregnant with the future ruler of Avanti.”
“Yes,” Dante admits, his eyes dark and stormy. “I didn’t see it coming.”
“Oh, Dante.” I lift my hand to his face. “It was not your fault. You are not like them. There is not one bad bone in your body, so you couldn’t have known what they were capable of.”
His face hardens. “Rosa, the blood that runs in their veins runs in mine too. My happiness made me careless, and I underestimated their greed and jealousy. I won’t make that mistake again. They are no longer dealing with the playboy prince as they are all going to quickly learn. What was done can be undone!”
“What are you going to do?”
“I need your blessing for what I have to do, Rosa. Avanti might seem like a tiny insignificant country to you, but we are sitting on one of the largest deposits of money in the world! What Linnus is planning will destroy this country and I cannot allow it. It is time for me to step up and be counted.”
My heart swells with pride to see Dante grow right before my eyes from a pleasure-seeking player to a real man of strength and a purpose higher than him. Tears fill my eyes. “You don’t need my blessing to take back what is your birthright, my darling.”
“I do need your blessing, Rosa. You will be my wife. It is important that you understand what you are signing up for. Your whole life is about to change into something unrecognizable. You will have to live in Avanti. You might be able to run your own magazine, but you will most probably be too busy with charitable work to do so. Being royalty is a burden. It’s not as glamorous a role in real life as it is in movies. It’s a life with little personal freedom. Almost everything is dictated by tradition and rules and expectations, especially expectations. And your every word and action will be examined under a magnifying glass and more often than not criticized.”
“My place is next to you, wherever you are.”
“Are you sure, because I will abandon my plans in an instant if it will make you unhappy?”
I shake my head. “I’m proud of you, that you have chosen this noble path. Whatever comes our way, we will work it out together. I’m here for the long haul,” I say softly.
His shoulders sag with relief, then he straightens them. “I have to go and face the King now. Will you be okay here?”
I smile at him tenderly. “I’m in a hospital. Of course, I’ll be fine. Go do what you have to.”
He kisses me lingeringly. “Rest. I’ll be back soon. I have something important to tell you.”
I grin. “Can’t wait.”
Chapter 38
Rosa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggrz8mzy-e0
It’s Not Goodbye.
After Dante leaves I look around me. There is a remote by the side of the bed. The button to call the nurse is clear. It’s red. I press one of the other buttons and the TV comes on. I switch it off and press another. The blinds open.
It is already daylight outside.
I lie back and stare at the lightening sky and think of my baby. My body still feels sore and my head still feels strange as if it doesn’t really belong to me, but what a lucky escape the baby and I have had. I think of Dante crying with happiness and a warm feeling fills my chest. We will be fine. Everything will be fine.
A light knock on the door brings me out of my daydream.
“Come in,” I call.
Linnea opens the door and immediately my entire body contracts with fear. My hand reaches for the remote. I hold it in my hand, ready to call the nurse, but I know I am not really in physical danger from her. She is the Queen of Avanti. All the staff would have recognized her as she came into the ward. She won’t try anything in a hospital.
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I wanted to make sure you were all right,” she says, closing the door.
I look at her incredulously. “Spare me.”
“There is no one to blame. You were drinking. It was an accident.”
“I did not drink, and it was not an accident,” I fume.
“I saw you drinking.”
“I took one sip of champagne. I was perfectly sober. I know exactly what happened. Cassandra tripped me deliberately.”
She moves her hand distractedly. “She is a silly girl.”
“Silly girl?”
“I didn’t come here to fight with you, Rosa. Contrary to what you think, I am not your enemy. I came here to warn you. Dante is a nice guy, maybe too nice. He doesn’t understand what he has blundered into. Important treaties and agreements are being drawn up and there are billions of dollars at stake. There are people who will kill for a lot less. Avanti is not safe for you, your baby, or Dante anymore. He will never be able to protect his family twenty-four hours a day. Unless you all become prisoners in the palace. And even then, how can he be sure someone will not bribe the servants to poison your child?”
She takes a step closer to me and I feel myself unconsciously shrink back against my pillow.
“Your child will never be safe. Never have a normal life. At any time you could get the dreaded news that the child is dead. It will be an accident, of course. No one will be responsible. The whole world will become hostile. You will never be able to trust anyone again. Just like you mistook Cassandra for your ally. Any person who comes into your life could be the one who will take away the most precious thing you have. Even while you are here, a nurse could come in and inject you with something that will cause you to miscarry. There is no happy ending for you in Avanti, Rosa.”
A shiver of fear goes through me. Instinctively, my hands go to cover my belly.
“How will Dante fight this level of evil? It is not just Cassandra, Linnus, and my weak husband he will have to watch. It is all the grasping, deceitful courtiers about whom Dante knows nothing.”
I take a deep breath. “I assume you have a solution for me.”
“Nobody wants to see you, your baby, or Dante get hurt. Just get out of the way.”
My head starts to hurt. “Get out of the way?”
“Take your man and go back to where you came from. You can have a nice life with the man you love and your gorgeous children. You will have more money than you know what to do with, but yo
u have to go now.”
“I need to speak to Dante first.”
“Please trust me. You know I have no love for you, but I don’t wish you harm. And harm will befall you if you remain. As I said before, while you are here, you are vulnerable. Leave. Protect your baby. If you leave Dante will follow. If you stay, he will try to fight them, and it will cause only harm.”
I frown.
“Until last night,” she continues, “Dante was a player. All he did was party and chase women. He has no experience in politics and he doesn’t understand his enemy, so he can never fight them and win. You must believe me. Even if I am being too dramatic, it is better for you to leave than to stay and take the risk that I am wrong. You have nothing to lose by leaving and everything to lose by staying.”
I don’t feel like my usual self. I feel bewildered and anxious. So many things have happened to me in the last twenty-four hours. There are painkilling drugs rushing around my system. I’m disorientated by my physical injuries. I’m still in shock at Cassandra’s betrayal and thinking I lost my baby, and now I’m really frightened for my helpless baby. I feel light-headed and woozy, but what she said does seem to make sense. Dante is a newbie at this and they seem ferocious in their intent to keep the power base. I could stay and fight if I did not have my baby. As it is I have only one duty. To put my unborn child above my own needs. Above all else.
“One of the royal jets is ready to fly you back to England.”