Chapter 3 – Bellamy
BELLAMY
“We’ll land in an hour,” Sebastian tells me, holding my hand as the royal jet shoots high into the air, the sparkling blue-green water of the Mediterranean and the warm tan of the island growing farther from us.
I nod. It’s all I’ve got. It took us less than fifteen minutes to pack and get out the door, but my heart hasn’t stopped racing since his phone rang.
My dad fell and broke his wrist.
Worse is that he fell because he was having a coughing spell.
Rowan said the doctors feel it’s just a cold, but that doesn’t settle my nerves.
I need to talk to the doctors. They were trying to calm him down, but they were having trouble when Rowan called.
His dementia makes him agitated and combative, and it’ll only be worse with a broken wrist.
“I shouldn’t have left him,” I murmur, feeling nothing short of sick and guilty.
“Don’t do that,” Sebastian comforts, squeezing my hand and shifting me closer to his side. “He was doing well before we left and has a team of nurses and caregivers on him at all times. You deserved a break, and you have nothing to feel guilty about. He would have fallen no matter where you were.”
“Maybe.” My gaze lingers out the small oval window, impatient to be home now that we’ve left. “I just hate that I wasn’t there.”
“I know. But you’ll be there soon enough and he’s in good hands. It’s why we didn’t travel farther away for our honeymoon.”
I nod and turn to catch his eyes. “I’m sorry we had to cut our honeymoon short.”
His fingers stroke along my cheek. “Bellamy, we have a lifetime of vacations together. Your father is more important.”
“He’s sick, Sebastian. And I’m not talking about his cold.
Every day he slips farther and farther away from me.
Now this. He won’t understand that he has a broken wrist. He won’t know to take it easy.
If he’s combative and even more disoriented, as much as I hate to say it, I don’t want the children around him.
It’s not safe for anyone, but more importantly, I don’t want that to be part of their memories of him. ”
“I know and I thought of that too. But let’s hold off on any major decisions until we see with our own eyes how he’s doing.” He runs his fingers through my hair and nips at my bottom lip. “You’re very beautiful when you worry about our children.”
“I always worry about them.” Even though I can’t help but love the flutter I always get when he refers to the children as mine.
Still, there is something in his voice. Something I noticed almost instantly along with a flash of consternation that momentarily hit his eyes while he was talking to Rowan on the phone.
I turn fully and look at him and it’s there again.
That faraway look. The way he’s holding his body, almost too still and stiff. “What aren’t you telling me?”
A frown twists his lips, and he blows out a heavy breath. “There’s been movement on Desta.”
My eyebrows knit together and now it’s my turn to squeeze his hand.
“What does that mean? Movement?” As far as I knew, Desta was kidnapped when she was an infant.
Sebastian’s father was killed as he tried to stop it, making Sebastian king far too young.
I know Sebastian and especially Rowan have been searching for her since, but as far as I know, it never led anywhere.
“The police were called to a home on the southern Italian border of Messalina. Evidently, there was an abandoned cottage in the middle of nowhere where teenagers were having parties. The home was raided, and a blanket was discovered.”
“A blanket?”
“Desta’s baby blanket. It’s…well, famous, I suppose.
At least the description of it is well known since that’s what we reported and spread everywhere when we were trying to find her after she was taken.
The blanket found is identical and Rowan said it’s been taken to a lab and is being tested for DNA. ”
My jaw drops. “Oh, my god. Sebastian.” I start to shake. “But no woman was found, right? Just the blanket?”
His icy blue eyes pierce mine with burning intensity.
“Just the blanket, but we have a team of people going through the cottage now, searching for clues on who previously lived there. The press got wind of the blanket, but we’re trying to quiet our involvement down.
I don’t want this getting out of control before we can see what’s really there and what isn’t.
It might lead to another dead end. It might lead to the person who took her.
Desta’s body was never found. There is a chance she’s still out there somewhere. ”
I fall back against the seat, staring sightlessly toward the front of the plane, utterly floored. “When will you know if it’s her blanket?”
“It’s her blanket,” he says with assurance.
“It has to be. It has our family’s crest on it in gold and silk.
It’s not something anyone would make a replica of.
Certainly not after she was stolen with it.
” He clears his throat and moves our joined hands to his lap, urging my attention back to him. “Rowan is a mess.”
“How do you mean?”
“He’s been searching for Desta for years. More so than any of us. Rowan was twelve at the time and heard the intruders. He woke our father instead of alerting the royal guards who were stationed around the palace. He’s blamed himself for our father’s death and Desta’s kidnapping since.”
My heart sinks. “Poor Rowan. I had no idea.”
“No one knows but us. Still, she’s been gone from us for a very long time, and this might very well all lead nowhere.”
“Or be the start of finally finding her.”
“I hope so.” He kisses me softly. “For now, there’s not much else to do but wait and focus on your father.” His fingers thread through my hair and he kisses me deeper, slipping me some tongue until I push him back.
“No more making moves, Your Majesty. I’m too worked up.”
He licks the seam of my lips. “I like you worked up.”
“Different kind of worked up. I’m edgy and I don’t like it.”
He gathers me in his arms. “I can see that, my queen. But rest assured, your father is in excellent hands and will be just fine.”
Only I can’t help the part of me that isn’t so sure.
First my father’s wrist, and now this blanket. I never believed in the curse, and I’m certainly not saying I do now, but something feels off. Like a panic attack in the making. Like control is slipping through my fingers, and I’m simply trying to compensate. Even in my own mind.
I had the same feeling the night Sebastian proposed. The night Samil took me.
A foreboding.
An if something feels too good to be true, it likely is.
Something didn’t feel right that night, and something doesn’t feel right now.
It’s so unlike me. I’m never dark. I’m never dark. I’m forever the levelheaded Bellamy. Bright and shiny. A focus on what you can control and don’t obsess over what you can’t woman. I’m the one who compartmentalizes. The one who sees a situation for what it is and navigates through it.
That’s been my strength. My go-to.
And it’s what I’ll have to rely on now.
So I do my best to push the darkness away and concentrate on what’s in front of me.
“When is your next doctor’s appointment?” he asks, changing the subject as the plane already begins its descent. Despite feeling on edge and worried about what I’ll step into with my father, I’m excited to see the children, Althea, and even Rowan.
“Two weeks. I have an ultrasound and some blood work I’ll be doing then. Despite my young age, they do genetic screenings at this stage of pregnancy.” I pause and say, “I don’t want to find out their gender.”
“No?” For some reason that surprises him. I know he’s been anxious to find out, but…
“I like the idea of a surprise with this. I feel like that’s a moment we’ll only get once, and I don’t know…it just feels special that way.”
“But what about the nursery?”
I shrug. “We can go gender-neutral for now and, if we choose, update it after they’re born.”
He plays with my long dark hair and claims my lips with his, his tongue immediately demanding access I’m all too happy to give.
“I’ve already had three children. I knew their genders each and every time.
But this is your first time and I want it to be everything you’ve ever dreamed of.
Okay?” he rasps against my lips. “We’ll be surprised. ”
“Thank you.”
I turn back toward the window, watching as Messalina grows larger before my eyes, the snowcapped mountains a reminder of winter despite the warmer climate we were just in.
“Come here.” Sebastian pulls me in tight, tossing his arm around me and tucking me into his chest. “Je t’aime. C’est pour toujours. Tu m’as libéré.”
I smile, my heart fluttering. It’s the same words he said to me the first time he told me he loved me.
For a man who was nothing short of a grumpy beast when I first came to work at the palace, he’s anything but now.
His heart is a beautiful, dynamic place, filled with layers and complexities I’ve only just started scratching the surface of.
He makes me feel safe. He makes me feel loved.
He makes me feel worshipped and somehow always seems to know what I need, oftentimes even before I do.
His touch is electric as his large hand holds my much smaller one.
And I sink into that. Taking the comfort he’s giving me and allowing it to slow my racing heart and tumultuous thoughts.
His mind is reeling as well. For as stoic as the king of Messalina can be, this new development has shaken him. How could it not?
I can only hope it leads him and Rowan down a road to peace instead of tragedy.