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?

unrecognizable. Unless he truly had sealed me away in

be a great embarrassment to him, showing up here, years after leaving him, and with a

Maybe he hated me.

the outsider.” The girl

Another moment of staring at

He led

Royal Highness, please remember that per

stopped to look at the man, who nervously

is an exception,” Nicholas

course, sir.” The man bowed

Elva into the room. I went inside after them. A servant stepped forward and closed the door behind us,

I might be sick. I had never

even to say. What would he think of me, to see

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

and at once, his perfect façade cracked. He frowned. His golden eyes filled with

Elva, his

dare you hide my child from me?”

a stop. I blinked once, twice, but, no,

Eloquently, I said, “Huh?”

sleeping in his arms. She was three years old. That lined up with

memory. We’d been so young then,

clumsy haste. I couldn’t remember where he was when he’d climaxed. But, hadn’t

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

I said, hoping to give him some

said so on television. For me to hide a child from

That’s her name. But she’s

a moment, before the anger

struggle to

between me and Elva. “She

tell that to Nicholas. Elva was mine in every way that mattered. I would

unspoken question for him, and

What could cause that

arms, and he immediately cut off the deep

lowered Elva down onto one of the plush couches

be mad at Mommy,” came

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