Mag-log inInside, Blair sat on the sofa, her hand resting on her slight belly, while Roman stood nearby deep in conversation with Luca. Two-year-old Olivia was showing off her drawings to anyone who would look."Aunt Keira!" Olivia shouted, abandoning her colouring-in to run across the room. Keira bent down,
Olivia, growing restless, wiggled off Blair’s lap. “Can I go play with my blocks?”“Yes, but stay in the playroom,” Roman told her. “I’ll be there in a minute.”As Olivia skipped off, Roman pulled Blair to her feet and into his arms. “You look tired. You should have let me bring someone in to handle
“Mama! Look!”Blair looked up from her laptop to see her two-year-old daughter, Olivia, proudly showing off a crayon drawing that was mostly colorful scribbles.“That’s beautiful, sweetheart,” Blair said, genuinely impressed with the artwork of her toddler. “Is that our family?”Olivia nodded madly,
"Is that what you think?" Niko's voice was dangerously quiet. "That your only value is as a... what? A royal broodmare?""It's the reality of our position," she insisted. "The Wystovian crown needs an heir. You need an heir. And I can't—" Her voice broke.Niko crossed the distance between them in th
"I'm trying to protect him—""From what? From having a choice?" Keira's voice grew stronger. "You're deciding what's best for Niko without asking him what he wants. That's not protection, that's control."Amelia stared at her, startled by the blunt assessment."Look, I get it. The pressure is overwh
Amelia shook her head, the weight of her failure pressing down on her. "The doctors say there's nothing wrong with Niko, which means the problem lies with me. I'm considering stepping aside, letting him divorce me so he can marry someone who can actually give him an heir." She glanced at Keira, sudd
But she wasn't wrong Wystovia only had Niko and Alexei for next in line and babies being born in other royal families didn't seem to be a problem.Meanwhile, here she stood, approaching her second anniversary in six short months, but she was still frustratingly, devastatingly empty."Some things can
Amelia watched Keira slight hesitation at the threshold, that familiar deer-in-headlights expression she recognized all too well from her own early days at the palace. Blonde, petite, with cornflower blue eyes that darted around the room assessing, Keira Warner was nothing like Alexei's usual conque
"Metropolitan General, it's the closest hospital.""I really wish you would OK me going there," Niko said immediately.Theodore held up a hand. "No, Niko.""Father, he's my brother—""And he's my son," Theodore cut him off. "But rushing to the hospital now would only create a media circus. The press
17 months laterAmelia stared at the pregnancy test, watching with a familiar sense of dread as the single line appeared. Again. Just like last month, and the month before that, and every month for the past year and a half.Not pregnant.She dropped the plastic stick into the bathroom trash, burying







