“Make sure you check in with your regular doctor within a week or two. He should be able to assist you with any side effects from your procedure and recommend a fertility specialist.”
“Fertility specialist?” she echoed. “I don’t understand. I can’t have children.”
“You can’t bear children,” the doctor agreed. “But your ovaries are intact. It might be possible to harvest your eggs and freeze them in case you decide to pursue motherhood in the future.”
“I could be a mother?” Olivia breathed, overcome by the possibility that something she’d longed for with all her heart could still come to pass.
“You’d need to find a surrogate,” the doctor said, his eyes twinkling. “And of course, you’d need a father, but it’s certainly a possibility.”
“I never imagined...” Her voice trailed off.
“Medical science is making miracles happen every day.”
The doctor left her alone to dress and Olivia went through the motions in a daze. Her first impulse was to call Gabriel and tell him her news. Then she imagined how that call would go.
Gabriel, I have great news, I might be able to be a mother, after all. It’s chancy and it will involve another woman carrying the baby, but it would be my egg.
Could a country as traditional as Sherdana accept a prince conceived in a test tube? And raised by a mother who hadn’t actually carried him inside her for nine months?
Could Gabriel?
When Olivia returned to her suite at the hotel, she couldn’t stop pacing as her mind spun through her options. Possible scenarios crowded her like desperate beggars in need of coin. Staring out the window at the river, she held her phone against her chest and searched for the courage she needed to dial Gabriel’s number and tell him that she loved him and find out if he was willing to take a risk with her.
The sun had set by the time she dialed. With her heart pounding against her ribs, she counted rings, her hope fading as the number grew larger. When his deep voice poured through the receiver, telling her he was unavailable and asking her to leave a message at the tone, she held her breath for five seconds, then disconnected the call. She really didn’t want to share her news with his voice mail.
Next, she tried Stewart. This time, she got through.
“I was trying to get ahold of Gabriel,” she told his private secretary. “Do you know if he’s in the palace?”
“No. He left two hours ago.”
“Do you know where he went?” A long pause followed her question. Olivia refused to be put off by Stewart’s reluctance. “It’s important that I speak with him.”
“I’m sorry, Lady Darcy. He has left the country.”
“Did he go to Italy?”
Stewart paused before replying. “All he would tell me is that he had something he needed to do that would impact the future generations of Alessandros.”
Olivia’s stomach plummeted as she pictured Count Verreos and his beautiful daughter from the twins’ birthday party and recalled the familiarity between her and Gabriel. Had they reached an understanding already? Was she Olivia’s replacement?
“Is there any way to reach him?” she asked, desperation growing as she suspected where Gabriel and gone and why.
“I’ve left him several messages that he hasn’t returned,” Stewart answered, sounding unhappy.
“How long was he planning to be gone?”
“A week to ten days. Before departing, he left instructions that you should be given use of the royal family plane. It will be available to take you back to England tomorrow.”
“That’s kind of him.” Although disappointed that Gabriel had at long last accepted their relationship was over, Olivia wasn’t deterred. “But when you speak with him, would you tell him I intend to stay in Sherdana until we can speak face-to-face.”
She hadn’t believed Gabriel when he’d insisted this wasn’t over between them. If only she’d known how right he was a couple days earlier.
After hanging up with Stewart, Olivia called her father and gave him the news that she was staying another week, but didn’t share the real reason. To her relief, he didn’t try to talk her into coming home immediately.
With nothing to do but wait, Olivia had an early dinner and took a walk in the private walled garden behind the hotel. Instead of enjoying the picturesque charm of the boxwood hedges and urns filled with cascades of bright flowers, Olivia grew more anxious with every step. What if Gabriel was proposing to Fabrizia Verreos at this very moment? A painful spasm in her chest forced Olivia to stop. Gasping for air, she sat down on a nearby stone bench and fought to normalize her breathing. She focused on the fat blossoms on the peach rosebush across the path from her. Closing her eyes would have allowed her mind to fill with images of another woman in Gabriel’s arms.
A vibration against her upper thigh provided a welcome distraction. Pulling out her cell phone Olivia saw Stewart was calling. Her pulse hitched as hope bloomed.