Chapter 63: I want our child to be loved.

Arora

As soon as the doctor gave us the all clear that everything was okay with the baby, we made the official announcement that I was pregnant. I could hear the celebrations from town as soon as the announcement was made, and it warmed my heart to know that the people were so happy about the news. It was amazing, and I had never felt as much loved as I did at that moment.

Thanks to my genes and rank, I will be giving birth in just a couple of months. It felt as though I was actually living a fairy tale. The bigger the baby and I grew, the more people seemed to fall in love with our unborn child. I made Luke promise to love him or her no matter what happened. If I didn’t survive the birth, I would want our child to be loved.

Luke and the doctor tried their best to convince me that I wouldn’t die, but I just kept thinking about my mother and convinced myself the same thing was going to happen to me. Time simply flew by, and we started preparations for the nursery, but since we didn’t want to know the gender, we couldn’t actually decide on one colour.

Thankfully, Luke had a brilliant idea. The entire room was painted green with forest trees all around. The painter was really talented and when she added some fairies, I fell in love with it all. However, I had no idea what the two of them were up to. On the day of the baby shower, Luke surprised me with a set of pictures of us. Each represented a different stage of the pregnancy.

The pictures were put up on the walls in the nursery, and it all finally made sense! The fairies were pointing at the picture frames! I thought it would be too much, but seeing it all put together like that was breathtakingly beautiful. The staff made sure that all the baby stuff was ready and packed away, and I walked into the room during the late-night hours to look at everything.

We made sure the nursery was right next door to our room. I didn’t want our baby growing up in my old room that was on the other side of the castle. Luke was still fast asleep when I got up, and I walked to the terrace. Opening the French doors, I stepped out. We were in the middle of summer, and it was one of those very hot nights where I felt as if I couldn’t breathe.

I looked up at the moon and smiled as I silently thanked the moon goddess for saving me all those years ago. If she didn’t give me a second chance back then, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what would be happening to our people right now.

“Penny for your thoughts.” Luke’s soft voice drifted past me as his arms slipped protectively around me and his hands came to rest on my enormous stomach.

“I was just thanking the moon goddess for saving our lives and bringing us back from the dead.” I sighed deeply.

“She brought you back twice!” He nodded in agreement and I realized I had never actually told him the truth! Turning around in his arms, I looked into his eyes. My arms were resting on his shoulders and the moonlight lit up his gorgeous face.

“Actually, it was only once. Do you remember when I went to see the witch? The servant girl told you about the potion?” I took a breath and he frowned. “Well, I needed you to act in the right way, so I couldn’t tell you the entire truth, and then there was the trial, and before I knew it, so much time had passed that I actually forgot.”

“What are you talking about?” He sounded upset.

“I took a death potion. It wasn’t the moon goddess that brought me back.” I watched as a multitude of emotions crossed his face until it finally settled on anger. I knew he would be angry when I finally told him.

“I … You … How could you, Arora?! That witch could have given you poison! What if you didn’t wake up from the spell?! Why didn’t you tell me?” He pulled away from me.

“Because I knew that if you knew, you wouldn’t let me go through with my plan, and it was the only way to get rid of you know who.” I turned around and looked at the moon. I hated lying to him back then, and I hated seeing the pain in his eyes right now.

“Yes, I wouldn’t have allowed you to go through with it!” I felt him moving closer. He hesitated for a moment before turning me around to look at him. “I guess we can both just be grateful that the witch didn’t poison you, but you have to promise me that you will never do something like that again!” I nodded and promised, and he pulled me into his arms.

I didn’t want there to be any secrets between us and I should have told him sooner. I was just relieved that he didn’t leave me. He took it a lot better than I thought he would. It was growing late, and we closed the French doors before I took one last look at the room. After my midnight walkabout, we went to bed and I felt even closer to Luke, if that was even possible.

In the morning, I had just gotten dressed when a sharp stabbing pain shot through my entire body and I cried out. Doubling over as I cried out, I hardly noticed the staff around me rushing around as Luke rushed to my side. In the blink of an eye, he swooped me into his arms and started to carry me to the hospital wing. The doctor and his staff met us half way there with a stretcher just as I doubled over again in pain.

“It’s time.” The doctor smiled, and my eyes grew wide.

“What’s the date?! It can’t be! It’s too soon!” My eyes shot to where Luke was as fear gripped my heart. His eyes told me that the doctor was right! It was my actual due date! It was time!