Olivia reached her hand back and found the bathroom door frame. “Bethany and Karina are wonderful.”
“He doesn’t deserve them. He doesn’t deserve to be happy. And now he won’t because you can’t have children. He won’t want you anymore.” Marissa’s sister was shouting now, her voice rising in unbalanced hysteria.
Another wave of pain made Olivia double over. She backed into the bathroom and clawed at the door. Blackness pushed at the edges of her vision. By feel alone she shut the door and slid the lock into place. The door rattled as Marissa’s sister beat against it in fury and Olivia staggered back.
With her strength failing, Olivia slid to the floor and set her back against the vanity, hoping that the door would hold. Hoping that someone would come find her. Hoping that Marissa’s sister was wrong about Gabriel.
Nine
Gabriel leaned forward in the saddle and urged his stallion to greater speed. Wind lashed at his face, and he focused on the thrum of hoofbeats filling his ears to slow his racing mind. He’d gone for a ride after leaving Olivia because he needed to sort through the conflict raging in him.
Although the powerful Warmblood had stamina enough for a longer run, Gabriel slowed him to a walk after only a mile. He passed the lake where he and his brothers had swum during the hot summers of their youth and wished he could go back to those innocent times.
Accusing Olivia of lying had been unfair. She wouldn’t do that. If he’d learned anything about her, it was that she had a great deal of integrity.
What woman, when faced with the prospect of never becoming a mother, wouldn’t deny the possibility? Especially someone who adored children the way Olivia did. He’d watched her with the twins. He’d seen how his daughters had bonded with Olivia. She’d won them over with her generous, kind heart. They’d been as helpless against her sweetness as he’d been.
By now his parents would be discussing damage control. And debating how to proceed. Olivia had understood the position this news report had put him in. They would advise him against marrying a woman whose fertility was in question. But he wouldn’t make any decisions until he knew the extent of her problems.
And if she could never have children?
He would need to address the bargain he’d struck with her father. The deal with Lord Darcy was contingent on Olivia becoming Gabriel’s wife.
Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. No matter what decision he made, he would fail Sherdana.
* * *
Two hours later he entered the salon in the family section of the south wing and found everyone assembled.
His sister came forward to give him a hug. “Did you check on Olivia?”
“I went for a ride.”
His father regarded him with a frown, his opinion clear. Gabriel ignored him and went to sit beside his mother. He’d come to a preliminary decision and knew it wouldn’t meet with everyone’s approval.
“I needed some time to think.”
The king fixed Gabriel with a hard stare. “How do you intend to handle this?”
“Handle?” Gabriel hadn’t considered how they should approach the press about this latest bombshell. “We could start by sending out a press release downplaying the serious nature of Olivia’s problems, but I’m not sure with her doctor’s records as proof, this is going to do us much good.”
“I meant with Olivia,” the king said, his voice a low rumble.
Gabriel became aware that his entire family was watching him and waiting for his answer. It was as if the occupants of the room had stopped breathing.
“What do you mean?” Gabriel asked, certain he knew where his father was going with the question, but needing to hear it asked out loud.
“You need a wife who can bear children.”
In other words, he must break his engagement with Olivia and reexamine the dozen or so women he’d rejected when he chose her.
“And what am I to say to Lord Darcy? That his daughter’s only value to me lies in her ability to produce heirs?” His father’s glower told Gabriel he’d stepped into dangerous territory with his sarcasm. At the moment, Gabriel didn’t care. What could his father do? For a moment, Gabriel reveled in rebellion. As a teenager, he’d been the best behaved of his siblings, getting into trouble rarely and then never with anything serious.
Nic had started a fire in his room at fifteen experimenting with rockets. Christian had “borrowed” their uncle’s Ferrari when he was fourteen and gone joyriding. The expensive sports car had ended up half submerged in a ditch and Christian had been disciplined, but that had only temporarily slowed him down, not stopped him completely.
Gabriel had shouldered his future responsibility like a dutiful son and the newspapers had been filled with photos of him accompanying his mother on her visits to the hospital and various other charitable events and headlines about how lucky Sherdana was to have such a shining example of youth for their next monarch.
“I had fertility problems, as well,” the queen reminded her husband, breaking the tension between father and son.
“But neither of us had any idea before we married,” the king said, sending his wife a stern look.
“Yet despite your need for an heir, you didn’t set me aside when my troubles came to light.”
“We’d been married two years. How could I have let you go?”
Gabriel saw the unspoken communication that passed between his parents and felt a flare of envy. The emotion didn’t surprise him. He’d felt twinges of it before when watching his parents in private. They were so in sync with each other. He’d hoped for just a little of that depth of intimacy in his own marriage and had begun to believe he’d find it with Olivia.
“Olivia and I will talk later this afternoon.”
“You are intending to break off the engagement.”
“I’m not sure that’s necessary.” He saw his father’s brows come together. “She claims she had surgery to correct the problem. We need to discuss the situation in more depth and consult a doctor before I make such a radical decision.”
The door flew open without a warning knock, catching everyone’s attention. Stewart stood in the open doorway, his face stark with concern.
“Forgive my interruption,” he said, bowing in apology. “Something has happened to Lady Darcy.”
Gabriel’s heart jumped in his chest. He surged to his feet and crossed the room in three strides. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. Miss Marshall said she’s locked herself in the bathroom and won’t answer the door.”
“What makes you think something has happened to her?”
“Her clothes are all over the suite and they’ve been shredded.”
Cursing, Gabriel lunged past his secretary and raced down the hallway. Stewart’s long legs usually made him a match for Gabriel, but he had to resort to jogging to keep up.
When Gabriel entered the suite, he registered the destruction in passing but didn’t stop. He rushed over to join Olivia’s private secretary, who was at the bathroom door, knocking and calling for her to answer. Shoving her aside, Gabriel kicked in the door.
When the door frame gave and the door shot open, the metallic tang of blood immediately hit him. Olivia lay on the cold tile, a large crimson patch on her pale blue skirt. Panic tore through him.
“Call an ambulance!” He dropped to his knees beside her and was relieved to see her chest rise and fall. “When did you enter the suite?” he demanded of her private secretary.
“Perhaps ten minutes ago. I called to her but she didn’t open the door or answer. And from what had happened to her clothes I knew something had to be wrong.”
How long had she been bleeding like this? Gabriel clenched his teeth and fought the fear rising inside him. She couldn’t die. He wouldn’t let that happen.
“Get me a blanket off the bed. We’re going to take her to the hospital.”
Libby did as she was told. “What about the ambulance?”
“There isn’t time.” Besides, he didn’t think he could sit around and watch Olivia slowly bleed to death without going crazy. He’d always prided himself on thought before action, but right now, he was thinking of nothing but saving the woman he’d been yelling at no more than three hours earlier.
Forget that. Focus on getting Olivia to the hospital.
He wrapped her lower half in the blanket and scooped her into his arms. His family had arrived in the hallway just outside the suite. He brushed past his father and brother without answering their offers of help. Olivia was his fiancée. His responsibility.
And he blamed himself for her current crisis. Somehow he knew that if he’d been more approachable, if so much pressure hadn’t been brought to bear on her, Olivia might have talked to him about her fertility problems and a safe solution might have been reached.