The Luna Choosing Game by Jane Above Story

Nicholas held Elva safe and secure in his arms as he stood to his full height. Elva buried her face into the corner of his neck and shoulder. He gently patted her back.

He glanced down at Elva, his gaze so tender that it made my heart clench.

“There, there,” he whispered. “You are safe now.”

“Oh my God,” said one of the other girls in the room, fanning herself. “Of course he’s good with children.”

“Someone pinch me,” said another. “I think I’m dreaming.”

Nicholas’s soft expression hardened as he glared out at the rest of the room. “Whose child is this? Why is she here?”

I started forward, but the girl in the pink dress spoke before I could reach him.

“An outsider sneaked in, unless she’s a maid.”

Some of the other girls snickered at my expense.

“She can’t be a participant,” another girl fake-whispered, loud enough for half-the room to hear. “I thought we had to be virgins, and she’s got a kid.”

I wanted to disappear into a corner. Whether virgin or not, I was nothing compared to the rest of these girls.

My clothes weren’t as nice as theirs, and my figure wasn’t like what it had been at the Academy. I’d lost much of my musculature. I was skinny from too many nights of skipped dinners.

Elva’s wellbeing had always come before my own.

Her sake was the only reason I continued forward rather than hide in embarrassment. I stopped only when I reached Nicholas.

He looked at me, and I looked at him.

I’d forgotten how gorgeous his eyes were, golden brown with flakes of green. When we’d dated, I had spent hours looking at them, trying to memorize that color, but it had seemed different each time.

Before, when I’d stared long enough, I could earn a bashful smile from him. Now, his face was totally devoid of emotion. He looked at me like I was a stranger.

Did he… not recognize me?

to become unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in his past and moved on, never once looking

I could be a great embarrassment to him, showing

Maybe he hated me.

The girl in pink motioned

Another moment of staring at

followed him. He led me to an adjoining room, separated

hurried toward him. “Your Royal Highness, please remember that per the selection rules, you aren’t to be alone with

look at the man, who nervously backed

is an exception,” Nicholas

The man bowed twice as

A servant stepped forward and closed the door behind us, leaving Nicholas, Elva, and I

might be sick. I had never imagined I’d meet Nicholas again, and

say. What would he think of me, to see me as I was? To see me here, as part

She must have cried herself to sleep, eyes closed and drooling. She

Nicholas, and at once, his perfect façade cracked.

Elva, his arm

hide my child from me?”

to a stop. I blinked once, twice, but, no, I couldn’t make sense of what

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

arms. She was three years old. That lined up with our breakup three years

tried to recall the memory. We’d been so young then, too eager and excited

I couldn’t remember where he was when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t he been wearing a

seemed to slide into bewilderment. His gaze shifted, like he was trying to remember

I said, hoping

Nicholas wanted children. He’d even said so on television. For me to hide a child from him would have been a cruelty. He would likely have

her name. But she’s

before the anger

to say, he seemed to struggle

glanced between me and Elva.

identical twin sister. But I wouldn’t tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way

to answer some unspoken question for him, and he started

What

his arms, and he immediately

one of the plush

mad at Mommy,” came Elva’s quiet