forty one

Pregnant! What?Bella staggered back into her room, her legs unsteady beneath her, the nausea returning in harsh, twisting waves twice in a row and it left her confused. She sank heavily onto the edge of the bed, gripping the blankets as if they could anchor her to the moment that she was in.“I… I don’t feel well,” she murmured, her voice faint, a tremor betraying the unease she fought to hide.Aria hovered nearby, worry etched deep across her face. “Lady Bella… are you sure? Should I call for someone?” She asked again with a worried look on her face.“I will be fine…You don't need to-” Bella tried to rise again, but her knees buckled beneath her. She stumbled, and before Aria could reach her, she collapsed onto the floor with a soft thud.“Lady Bella!” Aria cried, panic slicing through her gentle voice. She turned sharply and dashed from the room, her footsteps echoing down the hall as she called out for anyone.Andre was in council with several elders when Aria burst in, breath

forty two

I Want The Truth.The room did not feel the same anymore even with the tension of everything that appeared to be drowning her quickly.For her it was warmer now in a way almost suffocating yet Bella could not stop the cold that crept beneath her skin. It settled deep in her bones, coiling around her ribs like an invisible grip that refused to loosen.She sat propped against the pillows, her fingers still trembling slightly where they rested over the blanket. The words echoed again and again in her mind, louder each time, refusing to fade…At first she thought she was caught up in this dream but now it was confirmed. She was three months gone and it didn't feel real or rather It couldn’t be real.Her gaze drifted to the door just as it opened, and she watched in silence as Andre stepped out alongside the elderly doctor. Their voices were low, murmured, but the tension in Andre’s shoulders was unmistakable. There was something almost restrained in the way he moved but the exciteme

forty three

His Heir or His Bastard.Bella did not answer immediately as she didn't know how. She stayed quiet for a minute as though processing the question again in her mind over and over.The question lingered in the air between them, heavy, overwhelming and most definitely suffocating, with every second it felt like all of this was pressing down on her chest until it felt difficult to breathe.Whose child are you carrying? She thought through the question again. Her fingers tightened unconsciously against the blanket as her mind began to race, pulling her in too many directions at once. Faces blurred together. Moments, scattered and incomplete between the two men in her life and it drifted through her thoughts like fragments of a dream she could not fully piece back together.Andre? The name came first. It was the most obvious answer. The one that should have made sense. The one everyone would expect.But certainty did not follow.Instead, there was hesitation. A quiet, gnawing doubt that

forty four

I Have Zero Answers.The night settled thick over Bella's room, heavy and dramatic with each passing seconds.Bella lay awake as she had been unable to shut her eyes even for seconds. For her sleep had come in fragments, leaving the moment thin and restless, slipping through her fingers every time she tried to hold onto it. It could be how Aria’s words echoed louder in the silence than Eleanor’s ever had.‘Do not trust Lady Eleanor completely.’Bella's hand rested over her stomach again, instinctive now, protective in a way she didn’t fully understand yet. “It is his.” She repeated the words. Aria had sounded so certain and now she did as well. Maybe all she needed to do was to have that belief as well.Her heart raced slightly with the thought that everything could go bad quickly even faster than she realized it.Bella turned slightly on the bed, her gaze drifting toward the door. Everything feels different now. Every word spoken earlier carried a second meaning, something hidde

forty five

A Friend Or A Foe.The corridor felt colder than it should have that evening as her heart continued to heat heavily. At some point she stopped just so she would gather a bit of courage. She looked back at Aria who just nodded once as if assuring her it was all fine.Bella walked beside Aria whose steps were slower than usual, careful, as though she was feeling that tension and anxiety as well.The hem of her night dress brushed softly against the polished floor, the sound too loud in the quiet that surrounded them.Voices echoed faintly ahead as they approached a room Bella had only been to once or twice.Bella’s fingers curled slightly before drifting once again to her stomach. The gesture came naturally now, protective and almost instinctive, as if something inside her already understood what she did not.“Why would they call everyone at this hour?” Bella asked under her breath.Aria’s expression remained tight. “They don’t do this unless it matters,” she replied.Something does s

forty six

The Rite of Blood.BELLA!She heard her name as a scream somewhere deep in her head but she wouldn't dare open her eyes as she embraced the darkness that came with her fluttering eyelids. This darkness did not come gently. It took away every thought in her mind as she heard her name again this time in a more familiar voice that was more Theo's than Andre’sThe moment Bella opened her eyes briefly to look at the corner where he had been all she could see was his retracting steps as he walked away from the door.Everything seemed to spin in her head as her heart pounded loudly in confusion.What was it for? She pondered as she stared at the moon that was red and in a sickle shape outside the window.The sounds around her appeared to intensify instead of fading. Every movement, every breath in the hall seemed louder, closer, as though she had stepped into something unseen but entirely present.As the air shifted she could feel it. Not just around her this time but against her skin, pr