217

Isabella

Damon laughed suddenly, his shoulders quaking, and the room filled up with the hearty sound of joy. He stopped after a while and turned his head towards Cassandra.

 "It looks as though this wannabe princess is uninformed about what's happening in the city. Someone please tell her."

Andrew cleared his throat. "The King…" Damon took off his mask, revealing his face, causing Cassandra to gasp and cover her mouth, as did Donatella.

 "The King has been married to the princess for quite a while now. I happen to be one of those privileged to witness the ceremony and the signing of their marriage certificate.

This, of course, meant that as one without a surname, he would take his wife's own, making him Damon Montenegro  Therefore, your challenge… your stake on the throne is very much mitigated by him."

"That's not possible!" Cassandra screeched. "You wouldn't do that," she said as she turned her head towards me and stared daggers at me through the screen.

 "I did. Would you like to have proof? Even your father was a witness."

"My father cannot stand as a representative of my family," she retorted.

"You had no representatives of the family that—”

“ I was representative enough. And your father was also represented. If I remember correctly, you are supposed to be under trial for your many offenses. Need I remind you what they are? Need I remind you who you are?"

"And who is that?" She asked, raising her chin, most likely thinking she had me in her snare.

"You are a virus in my family," her face fell instantly. "You may bear my name, but you do not belong to the direct lineage. You may bear my name, but you are no member of my family. If you say that your father has been excommunicated from the family, then so would the rest of his children.

Last time I checked, Cassandra, that includes you. Get off my seat and get out of my council," I said as I moved closer to the screen.

"And if we go by your flawed logic, you cannot stand bearing my name as much as your father can.”

"You cannot kick me out of this city. I will not go so easily," she said, sneering at me. Suddenly, she started laughing, a stark contrast to her earlier expression.

 "Before I forget," she said as she leaned back in her seat.

 "You are infertile. You cannot have children, remember? Despite how much your husband must be fucking you full of his seed, it will not take root inside of you. It is a simple waste. So, no matter how much you want to scream at me and talk about my lack of a claim, I am all you have in keeping the family alive."

"Then the family will die with me," I said as I closed my laptop in anger.

"Was that wise?" Ted asked as he sat opposite me in the lounge.

"Obviously not," I said, "but honestly, I don't care."

"So, what do you care about?" I suddenly found myself snapping at him.

"I want to give birth to this child. I am tired of waddling around like a whale. I care about getting my sleeve back!"

"There's no need to snap at him like that," my friend said as she walked into the room. "I understand what's bothering you, but there really is no need for you to be like that." She placed a bowl of grapes in front of me with a wide smile. "What is this supposed to be?"

"Call it a peace offering."

***

"She's desperate," Julius said as he paced the length of the lounge before taking a seat opposite me. "I saw the way she was behaving yesterday. If she's not desperate, then what is her issue?"

"Pardon me, Princess," Marie said as she stepped into the lounge. "I have a box for you from Donatella."

I rolled my eyes and stretched out my hand towards the box. On it was a note that read, "I don't mean to stand against you, Princess. I only need to ensure your safety and the safety of your family. As you know, yours is a great family and cannot be allowed to die like this.

 Your dynasty can stretch on for the next few generations if handled properly and sensitively. My intention is to have Cassandra give birth while you keep the baby and raise it as your own."

 I crumpled the note and threw it away. A delicious smell of cookies wafted from inside the box, and as I opened it, I found it to be true.

"My favorite," I said as I held up one large chocolate chip cookie that was almost the size of half my face.

"Oh, I know where those are from," Julius said as he held the note in his hand.

"They're from this expert store in Belgium that makes the best cookies in the world. The box was also quite expensive," he said as he leaned back and read the note.

I broke apart the first cookie, and just as I was about to eat it, Alessandro walked into the room.

 "Princess," he called, making me roll my eyes in frustration. "I…" he looked at the cookie and moved so fast I couldn't see him. I looked down and found the box away from me and inside his hand as he stood at the other end of the room.

 He held up one of the cookies and sniffed it again as though he was a dog.

"I know they look delicious, but there's really no need for you to snatch my box of cookies from my hand!" I said as I stood up from my seat and walked over to him.

 "The cookies are poisoned," he said in a soft voice that caused me to stop dead in my tracks.

Damon

"What?" I asked Alessandro over the phone.

"I smell poison in the cookies. Currently, I have Ted analyzing them. You should have a response soon enough."

 I hung up the phone and started tapping my feet on the floor of the car, wishing we could go faster.

 "Remind me to have Ted armor this fuckomg limo," I said to Franco, opposite me. The old man raised his hands in defense. "Whatever reason you're angry for, don't pull me in, boy."

Twenty minutes later, I bounded up the stairs and found Ted and Alessandro huddled over a piece of cookie. My wife was pacing the length of the room, mumbling to herself and biting her fingernails.

"What is going on here? Tell me you have something," I said as I walked towards the men, without waiting for an answer to my earlier question.

"It's not exactly poison, as much as something that will cause repeated damage the more she eats it. I cross-referenced the formula and found it against a number of drugs," Ted said, looking up at me with his eyes black and numbers running through them.

 "Birth Control," he said.

 "Or, rather, more accurately, with the way it is condensed into these cookies, it's more like an abortion pill."

"But she doesn't know she's pregnant," I protested, and my wife seconded my thought.

“ She has no idea I'm pregnant! How... just how does she know to send these things?!"

I walked over to my wife and held her hand. I reached up to her soft chin and began to caress it.

 "Hush," I told her as I planted a kiss on her nose, causing the smell of anger to disappear instantly from her.

 "I don't think it's because she knows you're pregnant. Remember Daniel said it's a 25% chance. Maybe she's trying to completely ruin the remaining 25% by giving you these. It's not by eating it once," Ted slowly only said as he leaned upwards and looked at me.

"It's when you eat over and over again."

I laughed bitterly and looked at my beautiful wife, who seemed scared. Her cheeks that were once rosy had turned white, and she gripped my hand so hard I felt the blood begin to flow backwards.

"What an attempt," I said with a smile.

 "I'm going to kill Donatella. I'm going to kill her so bad, and I'm going to find her children and do the same," I said.

Isabella squeezed my hand tighter, forcing me to look at her.

 "Don't do that," she said softly.

"Donatella doesn't know that I'm pregnant. But her notes seem genuine. Besides, I'm willing to bet she's just being controlled by Cassandra. And what about the way she started? Didn't she start the rumors by herself? Maybe she did.

Maybe she didn't. I'm sure I'll find a way to ask her sooner or later. For now, honestly, I just want to go to sleep.

And please tell your chef to make me some chocolate chip cookies that are better than those ones. The smell is amazing," she said with a weary smile and pulled me towards our room.

Isabella suddenly stopped, her eyes widening in surprise and her face getting even paler than before. "Not now," she said softly.

"What is it? Mia Bella, talk to me, is the baby coming now?" She gasped and looked at me.

"Yes," she said.

First, the entire room was silent until the man exploded in a flurry of action, running helter-skelter in pandemonium.

 "Where's the doctor?" I heard someone ask. Instead, I knelt in front of her as I felt the blood drain from my limbs because I collapsed to my knees in front of her. Staining her trousers was liquid that ran down the sides of her legs to pool between her feet.

"And my water just broke," she said with a slight giggle. I turned upwards to look at her.

"The midwife," I said suddenly, causing everyone to stop moving. "Marie is a trained midwife. Call her now!"

***

I paced outside of our room three hours later, closing my mind off to the screams I was hearing from inside.

Despite the fact that my heart was aching, I felt my very existence almost leaving my body several times, especially when Isabella started to shout again.

 At some points she fell silent, but I knew it wasn't silence. I could hear the deep groans she was making as she battled with labor.

"I'm sure she'll be fine, boy," Frank said as he stood beside me, but I didn't stop pacing. No amount of "she'll be fine" was going to calm me down.

 I kept walking back and forth until I had to take off my jacket and then my tie. I loosened my cufflinks, dropped them into my butler's open hands, and resumed my pacing. At some point, he gave me a bottle of water.

"Has she drunk anything?" I asked.

 "I wouldn't know, sir. After all, I'm locked out of the room like you have been."

"Don't be such a smart ass," I told the man, and instantly the door opened.

 "Come inside. She's crowning," Paula said as she poked her head through. Instantly, I pushed my way into the door and closed it behind me.

Isabella was on her knees as Marie stood behind her. On both sides were two female staff members that I trusted and were around Marie's age. They held her hands, holding Isabella up on her knees.

Slowly, I walked towards my wife, and finally, when I reached the bed, I almost fell to pieces. They had made a blanket pit where blood was flowing down her thighs to land between the white sheets.

Isabella looked at me with exhaustion but resolve in her eyes. Her hair had stuck to the side of her face with sweat, as did the clothing she wore.

 "Push," Marie yelled, just as I climbed onto the bed and knelt in front of my wife. I took her hands from the women and propped her up myself.

 Isabella wrapped her arms around my neck and squeezed tightly as she screamed into my chest, pushing with all her might. She did that once, and then twice, before she suddenly stopped, and the room was filled with the sound of a baby crying.

"It's a boy," Marie said.