Ten

“You have my seed in your womb,” Riccardo stated.

 

Alessio and Enzo swiftly look at each other in surprise. Their hearing capabilities are unmatched, and even with the distance between them and the Supreme Ultima, they can still hear his conversation with Caralyn.

Caralyn’s jaw dropped.

Riccardo wasn’t asking or making speculations; he was sure and was just making a statement. The fact that he knows that information just by splaying his palm over her stomach makes her wonder how he has so much power.

‘Perhaps the rumor was true. Could he really have eaten his mother and father to acquire more-’ 

“Why didn’t you tell me? You don’t want it?” his voice interrupts her thought.

‘It?’ she thought with a frown.

Even though she’s still not sure if she wants to keep the baby or not, she still doesn’t like the fact that he just referred to her unborn baby as ‘it’.

“My Lord, I will appreciate it if you don’t-” Her sentence stops when a piercing pain in her stomach makes her scrunch up her face with a short grunt.

She holds her stomach and doubles over. Alessio and Enzo race over to them.

Riccardo sweeps her off her feet, and the door is already open by Alessio. Riccardo placed her in the car and entered after her.

“The hospital. Now!” Riccardo orders Enzo, who was already in the driver’s seat.

Three more cars follow after the Supreme Ultima as Alessio stays behind with some men to give the departing speech and wrap up the occasion on behalf of the Supreme Ultima.

*

The Chief Doctor shrinks into himself, averting his gaze from Riccardo’s. The other doctors look away as well, dreading what is to come. The look on the Supreme Ultima’s face can make one roast to ashes, mentally. It wasn’t fury, or evil; they couldn’t name it.

The hospital belongs to Riccardo, and this set of doctors has been serving the Supreme Ultima for years now, but that doesn’t lessen the cautiousness and anxiety that envelop them whenever they are before him. 

The Chief Doctor, Doctor John, has only informed Riccardo that Caralyn lost the baby, but he still has something to say. Though he wonders whether he should proceed or not, as everything seems heavy and the more he speaks, the more the strange look on the Supreme Ultima’s face deepens.

“Continue,” Alessio orders.

“According to the tests, there is a high chance that it’s an abortion and not a miscarriage. Though we can’t really be sure unless we speak with the patient,” he drops the bomb.

Enzo’s palms curl into fists.

“There’s no need for further tests,” Riccardo tells the doctor. Then, he faced Alessio. “Transport her to the fortress; she will recover there.”

With that, he walks out of the room.

“If this news gets out, you will all be wiped off the surface of the earth,” Enzo promised the doctors with a straight face.

They immediately give them a series of nods, their mouths tightly pressed together. He signals for them to leave, and they make their way out of the room hastily.

Alessio and Enzo’s gaze moves to the unconscious princess.

“How could she do that?” Enzo raised his right palm over Caralyn’s neck and wiggled his fingers. “I should strangle her neck.”

Alessio gives him an amused look. “You strangle her neck, you will be strangled to death by the Supreme Ultima.”

Enzo makes a doubting face. “You think he wants her?”

Alessio shrugs. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

“She doesn’t deserve him. She’s just a selfish bitch.”

“Careful, Enzo. You are not the only one angry about the situation, so control your mouth, will you?” Alessio lightly scolds.

Enzo huffs. “Handle her transportation yourself. I will go with the Supreme Ultima.”

Alessio watches Enzo walk out of the room.

“He and his hellish temper,” Alessio murmurs to himself.

His gaze once again shifted to Caralyn. “I thought you would be different.”

*

Caralyn stirs on the soft surface, her hands instinctively moving over her stomach. A habit she developed after she realized she was pregnant. Her eyes snapped open, and she slowly sat up. When she realizes that she just repeated that same habit again, her eyes clouded over.

She has been in the Supreme Faction fortress, Ultima Riccardo’s habitation, for a week.

She was glad that she didn’t have to deal with bleeding anymore. It has reduced to light spotting over the week. She hasn’t gone out of the room or seen Riccardo since she regained consciousness a week ago, which is a day after she was taken away from the hospital.

When she woke up and was told the news by Alessio, she cried bitterly. She hadn’t come to a decision, but it was when she learned that she had lost her pregnancy that she realized she had unknowingly gotten attached to her unborn baby.

She was pained.

Her eyes moved to the floor-to-ceiling window, and she almost screamed.

Standing there with his back to her and his hands in his pockets is Supreme Ultima Riccardo.

“M-my Lord?” she uttered.

He slowly turns to face her, then he walks closer. “Are you feeling better?”

She gives him a nod, quite surprised that he asked. He didn’t say anything as he started walking to the door.

“Wait!” She stands up hastily.

He halted but didn’t turn back.

“I didn’t do it on purpose. The abortion, I-I don’t understand how-”

“Your body… your rules,” he says.

She couldn’t see his face, but that statement didn’t sit well with her.

“I just want you to know-I-I would never have made a decision concerning the baby without consulting you first.”

He turns to her with a deadly look on his face, and she almost stumbled at the intensity. “Then why didn’t you?”

“I was waiting for the right time. I didn’t know how to approach you. Considering how you sent me out after we-” she couldn’t say out the words, she choked on a sob. “I was scared you wouldn’t want the baby, scared it would be considered an abomination.”

He doesn’t look like he believed her.“I was scared, My Lord.”

“Well, now you don’t have to be.”

Those words hit her where it pained the most, and she feels an ache in her chest.

There is a knock on the door, and when it opens, Alessio enters. He was surprised to see the Supreme Ultima in there, but proceeded with his mission nevertheless, even though he knew he might end up being chewed out by Riccardo later on.

He gives Riccardo a bow and walks toward Caralyn. She looks at him expectantly. He is the only one she has been talking to since she was brought to the fortress, the only one who seemed to care.

 “I had the concoction examined as you requested, Your Highness. There is indeed an abortion ingredient in it,” Alessio told her the news.

The information aroused rage in Riccardo. Because that just confirms that Caralyn really didn’t know about the abortion. She has been played and cheated.

Caralyn broke down in tears. She fists a portion of her gown, feeling a great immense of emotional pain. She was really heartbroken. She believed it was her fault; she had been careless and oblivious. She should have protected her baby.

It was indeed not a miscarriage. 

‘I murdered my own baby.’