The Heir

Chapter 36

Dante

I watch Rosa and Cassandra ascend the stairs together. I cannot imagine a life without her or our child. Already the baby, yet unborn, has changed my life.

What happens next plays out in slow motion. I will see it in my mind’s eye forever. I see her reach out to Cassandra to catch her balance, and Cassandra steps out of the way. She doesn’t scream.

She simply falls.

Oh Jesus!

I start sprinting towards her, as if I can catch her mid-fall. I don’t. I feel every jarring hit she takes inside me. She lands on the ground and doesn’t move. My heart stops beating. I’ve never been more terrified in my life as I reach her and look down. Her eyes are open as I kneel beside her.

I jerk my phone out of my pocket. I dial the three-digit emergency number reserved for the royal family and the moment I hear a voice, I say with as much authority as I can muster, “This is Prince Nils De-Beauvouli. There has been an accident in the palace ballroom. Send an ambulance immediately.” I drop the phone.

“Everything is going to be fine. I’ve called an ambulance already. It will be here in a moment.”

“The baby,” Rosa gasps, her blue eyes filled with fear.

I lean over and kiss her on the cheek. “He will be fine. The little prince is tough!”

“Or little princess,” she mumbles, her eyes closing.

“Don’t close your eyes. Stay with me,” I say urgently as I reach down and grab her hand. It feels clammy. I squeeze it lightly.

“Something is wrong. It’s not just the pain from the bruises. My baby. I want to try to sit up,” she says.

“No, no, you can’t. You have to remain still until the medics arrive.” I glance away. “They’re coming.” I see them entering the ballroom from the back door. They are usually stationed very close by during functions.

“I feel dizzy. Don’t leave me,” she says, her voice sounding frightened.

“No, I’ll be right here, and I’ll ride with you in the ambulance. I’m not going to leave your side for a second.”

“My baby,” she cries faintly. Then her eyes fall shut and her hand slips out of mine.

I am aware of a large, muscular man in a white EM uniform coming towards us. “I think she’s fainted,” I cry out in a panic.

“Please step aside, Your Highness,” he says. “Only for a moment. We have to hook her up to our monitors.”

I step back and he and his companion squat down beside Rosa. He shines a pen light into her eyes.

She must have come around again, because she moans in distress.

They attach their machines to her, then the burly EM starts asking her questions.

At that moment Cassandra touches my shoulder, her face is red and tear streaked. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t do anything.”

“How did it happen?” I ask her, my gut burning with hatred.

“It was an accident. I slipped on a step, and my foot hit Rosa’s leg. I guess it knocked her off balance. I am so sorry. God, it’s awful. I wish I had fallen instead of Rosa.”

“Yes, I wish it had been you too,” I snarl.

Cassandra looks shocked to hear the raw hate spewing out of me. “How dare you?” she gasps.

My father appears in front of me. “Not here,” he says warningly.

Linnus pushes my father out of the way. “Apologize to my wife right now.”

“Fuck you.” I push my face close to his self-satisfied, smug face. “I saw what happened. Your wife deliberately tripped my fiancée and caused her to fall.”

“Dante,” Rosa calls out weakly.

“This is not over,” I say coldly, before turning away and going back to kneel next to Rosa. “I’m here. I’m right here beside you,” I say softly. Then I stand back a little so that she can see me, but I am not in the way of the EMs. The burly EM asks her how many fingers he is holding up. She gets the answer right.

While the second EM continues to work on Rosa, the other one turns to me. “No broken bones, but she might have a concussion. We won’t know until the doctors run some tests on her at the hospital.”

“She’s pregnant,” I say, and my voice sounds hoarse and broken.

He frowns. “Right.” He addresses his colleague. “Let’s go. We need to get her into the hospital as quickly as possible.”

I move back to Rosa. “They are going to put you on a gurney. I’m going to move and let them do their work, but I’ll be right here beside you.”

She groans in pain and I have to clench my hands to stop from punching something or someone. My heart hurts seeing her being lifted on the gurney. As the EM’s roll her across the lobby, people are crowded around the edges staring at her.

The ride in the ambulance is a nightmare of watching Rosa slip in an out of consciousness. I hold her hand and I pray, God, how I pray. That she and the baby will be all right. I haven’t been to church for years, and I’m afraid that my prayers will go unanswered, but I grasp her hand and I pray.

And I pray.

And I pray.

I close my eyes and I don’t see her pale and frightened. I don’t hear the siren of the ambulance. I just see her in the moonlight. Naked: a proud, glorious goddess. Don’t let her get hurt. Please. Don’t let her lose our baby.

“Dante,” she moans.

“Shhh … everything is going to be fine.”

I rush along as they push her down the long corridor to a room full of doctors and nurses. I want to enter, but they won’t let me follow her inside.

“She’s pregnant. Will you make sure she is all right?” I tell an older man in a surgeon’s blue smock.

“Your Majesty, please don’t worry. I assure you that we will do everything possible to see that both are fine. Please take a seat in the waiting room. I will be out as soon as I know anything.”

I almost refuse. I don’t want to leave her, and I’m not used to being given orders, not here in Avanti, but reason dictates that I listen to him.

I retreat to the waiting room. It has blue seats that are uncomfortable and a television that is blasting away with some ridiculous game show. Luckily, I am alone. My heart feels so heavy. I pace the floor until the door opens.

“Prince Nils.”

I turn to find the gray-haired doctor standing in front of me.

“How is she?”

“She has a slight concussion, but she’ll be fine. However, I’m going to keep her in the hospital for a couple of days.”

“The baby? What about the baby?”

“The future king is safe.”

The breath I was holding rushes out of me. “Has Rosa been told?”

“No, she is just coming around from the sedative we administrated.”

“May I see her?”

“Yes.” He smiles. “It would actually help if you are there when she wakes up.”

I follow the doctor down the hall. He stops in front of a room. “I’ll give you some privacy. If you need a nurse, just press the red button on the side of her bed, and one will come immediately.” I nod, but I’m barely listening.

I push open the door. My heart hammers when I see her lying on the hospital bed. She looks so small and innocent, almost like a child. I can hardly believe that a couple of hours ago she was lying on my jacket naked and full of life.

I pull the single chair over to her bed and sit down. Gently, I stroke her hand. I turn it over and stroke the soft skin of her wrist. The emotional impact of watching her fall and thinking she could have broken her neck rips into me like a gut punch. I take a deep breath, bu

t I cannot stop the tide of emotion. I bow my head and tears begin to run down my cheeks. I can’t stop myself from sobbing quietly. It was such a shock. Such a shock. I thought I’d lost her. Lost our baby.

“Dante.”

I glance up, my sobs choking in my chest. She is awake. Her eyes are open. She is trying to talk, but she must be disorientated by the drugs.

“I … I’m okay,” she finally manages to say.

“I know. I know,” I sob. Standing up, I lean over her and lay my cheek against hers. My voice sounds thick and awful. “The doctor just told me that you are going to be,” I squeeze her hand, “be just fine.”

Chapter 37

Rosa

“So why are you crying ...” I ask. Then it hits me and my body jerks upwards. Pain ratchets all around my body, but I don’t care, the words fly out of me like rapid-fire bullets. “Our baby! Is our baby, okay? Is it, Dante? Tell me the truth.”

He puts his palms on my cheeks. “Yes, yes, the baby is fine. Calm down.”

“Promise?”

He smiles through his tears. “I promise.”

I fall back on the pillows tiredly, the last bit of my strength stripped away by that sudden burst of fear.

I take a gasping breath. “So why are you crying?”

“They are tears of happiness, bella. They are tears of happiness,” he whispers.

Strangely, I recall the look of triumph on Cassandra’s face when she tripped me. “Cassandra … she deliberately tripped me.”

“I know she did,” he growls, his eyes glowing with hate.

My brain feels foggy. I can’t think straight. “I don’t know what happened. We were getting along so well. Is it because your father gave me the key? I didn’t ask for it. What did I do wrong? She was annoyed I didn’t tell her we were in the garden, but surely that is no reason to push me down the stairs.”

“No,” he says shaking his head. “It’s nothing you did. It’s my fault.”

“Your fault?” I say, shaking my head. My thought process seems to be slow and unfocused. Like there are cobwebs in my brain making everything unclear. Must be the drugs they’ve given me. My body doesn’t take kindly to painkillers. They disorientate me and make me behave in ways that I wouldn’t usually. Once, before I knew what effect they had on me, I almost ruined my entire career by attending a meeting with my bosses while on them.