Chapter 35 – Rowan
ROWAN
The moment I hung up the phone with Marcella, I called Sebastian. He was a mess. They were working Bellamy up, trying to figure out what was going on with her and the twins. I didn’t keep him on the phone long. I simply told him I was on my way.
But I could hear it in his voice.
He was thinking one word over and over: curse.
How much is Bellamy going to have to go through? What happens if she dies or the twins are lost? Sebastian won’t come back from that. The children won’t either. I’m not sure I will. It’ll be the final straw in our family’s story. The nail in our coffin.
Dread tears through me with the speed and precision of a bullet. This car ride feels never-ending as the minutes tick by with impossible slowness.
Gabe is quiet. He didn’t ask me anything about Marcella, and I didn’t offer, but he heard the end of my conversation with her. He worked late into the evening, searching for anything that could relate to Marie and the tiara.
But like a ghost, Marie materialized and was gone without a trace. No more fingerprints. The camera images we have of her aren’t much to go by. She was wearing all black, had her hair off her face, and had a hood over her head. She kept her head down as if she were aware of where the cameras were.
All we have is her old employee photograph, but that’s more than twenty years old.
She’s aged. She could have had plastic surgery to alter her appearance.
We don’t know what type of car she was driving or what alias she goes by now.
All we know is that she’s alive, knows how to stay under the radar, and stole back Desta’s tiara.
It’s maddening.
Yet I can’t stop. I have to keep searching for her.
It felt less tangible before.
The onesie, the tiara, the blanket, even the newspaper clipping were old. They were discovered recently, yes, but they were from the time right after Desta was taken. After that, I was following small leads. Tiny events that made me think I was onto tracking Marie, which I likely wasn’t.
But this is real. It’s renewed hope.
This is her right on the edge of my fingertips but just out of reach.
Gabe enters the hospital ahead of me, and I keep my head tucked down.
Sebastian told me they have Bellamy on the labor and delivery unit in a special room, and when we arrive on the floor, it’s easy to see that the word is out that the queen is here.
Two attendants are stationed down the hall, but the whispers aren’t quiet.
Neither are the looks we get as we walk down the hall.
I give a nod to the nurses, noting a few blushes and flirty waves.
The old me would have loved that. I might have even taken a few of them up on that to cut the edge off all this shit inside me that I can’t control or stop. But now the thought of sex with anyone other than Marcella feels empty. Flat. Wholly unappealing.
Sebastian is out in the hall on the phone when I approach, but the moment he spots me, everything I heard in his voice on the phone is right there in his features.
“Thank you, Aunt. I’ll keep you updated.
” He ends the calls and puts his phone back in his pocket.
“The children are happy,” he says instead of a greeting.
“Althea just informed me that she and your Marcella are taking them swimming and after that, they’re going to bake something with extra chocolate. I didn’t ask what, nor do I care.”
I grasp his shoulder. “Tell me what’s happening with your Bellamy.”
He cracks. Right here before my eyes, my older brother, the king of my country, my eternal rock, cracks. It breaks me apart. My stomach twists painfully, and my breath is robbed from my lungs. I heave out breath after breath, and fuck, I’m legit about to cry.
“They think she has something called HELLP syndrome. It’s rare, but it can happen with twins. It affects her blood and liver. They were surprised it came on so fast for her.”
I curse under my breath in Russian. “But she’s here. They caught it.”
“She complained of a headache last night and went to bed early. But she’s had a lot of headaches, so I didn’t think anything about it.
This morning when I got up to work out, she was still asleep, and I didn’t wake her, figuring she needed the extra rest. She’s been swollen and having some rib pain.
Bellamy told me it was likely typical end-of-pregnancy stuff.
Especially with twins. I didn’t question it.
I have no clue what Nora went through when she was pregnant.
We didn’t…I mean, I was there during the pregnancies and part of them, but she and I…
” He ends it there. “I’m not sure what would have happened if Marcella hadn’t been there and triggered the alarm. ”
I shake my head. I can’t think about that.
“They have her on some medication that’s making her miserable,” he continues.
“She says she’s hot, but also it’s making her sleepy and a bit lethargic.
And they…they gave steroids to help the babies’ lungs mature because the likelihood that they’ll have to deliver the twins in the next day or two is very high.
They said they can treat the syndrome, but they can’t reverse it.
The longer this goes on, the greater the danger for all of them.
The only way to fix this is for Bellamy to deliver. ”
I gulp. “This early?” She’s barely thirty-one weeks.
“They’re trying to hold off, but yes, this early.”
“Fuck” slips out before I can stop it.
“Yes. Fuck is right.” His hands go to the top of his head. “Rowan—”
“Don’t. Don’t say it and don’t think it. It won’t help anything.”
He swallows thickly and nods. “I love her more than my life. I can’t lose her. I can’t lose them.”
“You won’t.”
“My children can’t lose another mother.”
“They won’t.”
“If it’s not real, why is it one thing after the other? Why are they all happening to her?”
“I don’t have an answer for you, but there is no satisfactory reply. What if I said, yes, it’s real? What will that change? You said you weren’t going to let it control you again, and now you have to prove that to Bellamy and to your children.”
“I brought her into my life. I did this to her.”
“Sebastian, what is that going to change or fix? You just said you love her more than your life, and she’s the mother of your children. She’s part of this now. No changing that. But she’s so strong. A fucking fighter like no other.”
He nods slowly, pacing in a small circle. “You know, there might not be a way to break this thing. If that’s so, then my children will be subject to this.”
“Sebastian…” I trail off. He’s scared. I know that.
I can’t imagine his riotous or violent emotions right now.
I’m positive that if I were him, if I were the king and my wife and children were at risk, I’d be much worse off than he is.
I’d be losing my mind to the tenth degree.
“What can I do? Name it. I’ll do anything. ”
He stops, and his eyes meet mine, resolute and intense.
“I want Marie found. I want the tiara returned. I want to know what happened to our sister. If we can do all of that, perhaps we have a shot at ending this. But with so much unresolved, maybe my loving Bellamy wasn’t enough.
Maybe we have to close the loopholes and put that chapter to rest.”
“I’ve thought the same thing,” I admit.
He scrubs his hands up his face, releases a strained breath, and heads for Bellamy’s room. “I won’t be home tonight.”
“I know. I intend to spoil your children.”
He twists back to me. “Thank you. I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“Can I see her?”
“Yes, but she’s in a gown and very out of it with the medication they’re giving her.”
“I won’t stay long. I just want to give her a kiss on the forehead. Then I’ll go.”
“Rowan.” He stops, his hand on the lever of the door. “We need to find out who Marcella is. I feel you’re right about her, but I also believe those who sent her won’t stay hidden for long, and we need to be a step ahead of them.”
“I’m on it,” I promise, feeling a pang of guilt. I don’t want to let her go. I want to hold on with both hands. But this is about a hell of a lot more than just me. It always was. It’s easy to forget that when I’m with her or hear her voice. But the time for playing around is over.
Bellamy was pretty out of it, as Sebastian said, flushed and complaining of being hot.
The nurse who was in there said the medicine prevents seizures, which is terrifying to even think of.
They’re also debating if they’re going to give her a transfusion.
Sebastian climbed into bed beside Bellamy and held her, which was a relief.
I know his instinct is to pull away to protect her, but he’s not, and I give him credit for that.
If what happened with Charlotte taught him anything, it’s that they are in this together and he won’t be parted from her again.
The moment I get home, I change into swim trunks and go out to the pool.
The kids are running around, having a contest to see who can make the biggest splash.
Althea is sitting in the shade, and I head toward her even as my focus is glued to the woman wearing the most basic and boring bathing suit on the planet and yet somehow managing to make it look sexy with the hint of her breasts trapped beneath the fabric and her blonde hair twisted on top of her head in a messy bun.
She glances up when the kids call out to me. I throw kisses and waves at my nieces and nephew and a smile at the pretty blonde who is trying to show just how unaffected she is by my shirtlessness. Newsflash: She’s failing. I wink at her, and she rolls her eyes and returns to the children.
“You’re drooling, Rowan.”
I chuckle under my breath. “I see there are no secrets in this palace.”
“Sebastian told me about her, so I would keep extra close watch.”
I take the chaise beside her and toss an arm behind my head. I can’t blame him for telling Althea. In fact, I could use her wisdom.
“What do I do?”
“I’ll admit, I haven’t spent a lot of time with her,” she says, keeping her voice low so it doesn’t carry. “I looked into her family. Or at least the family she claims to have come from.”
“And?”
“And her documents are pristine, Rowan. They passed our every inspection.”
“Meaning they’re expensive to obtain.”
“If they’re not legitimate? Extremely expensive.
They’re legal documents as far as I can tell.
Government-issued. The family are farmers with a small bed-and-breakfast that hasn’t been particularly lucrative.
That was part of her story for coming to the palace to work.
She claimed she had to send money back home to help her family. ”
“But?” I press when she doesn’t immediately follow that up.
“But no money has left her account. None. I questioned the bank manager this morning. She hasn’t moved a cent in the nearly five months she’s been here.
She hasn’t spent anything either. On her days off, she stays in the palace or on the palace grounds.
She hasn’t gone to see any of her supposed family.
She’s isolated here. Friendly but not friends with other staff.
She does her job well, is polite and professional, which is why Emily gave her the role.
But there are large gaps, Rowan, and that concerns me.
We don’t know her real name. Her fingerprints and facial scan were clean because it’s as if she has no history, or any history she does have was wiped by very talented people. ”
All of that is a kick in the teeth and makes me angry that I didn’t do my due diligence with her. I was blinded, and hearing this makes me feel stupid and weak.
“I should ask her. I’ve avoided it because I was afraid we’d never get answers, and she wouldn’t lead us to the people behind this. Or at least that’s the story I fed myself. But if you’re telling me in five months of being here we have nothing to go on, then maybe it’s time I press her.”
“Sunday is her day off, and right now we have enough going on with Bellamy and the twins. Let’s see what happens over the next few days.
If she stays here as she’s done, you’ll confront her.
If she leaves, we’ll have her followed. Something is going on with her.
I believe that much is clear. Whether she’s hiding out or here at someone else’s hand isn’t, but I’m inclined to believe the latter given what we know. ”
I nod in agreement because that’s exactly how it seems. “I don’t think she wants to do ill by us.” I don’t. Maybe that’s more of my stupidity with her, but it doesn’t fit the woman I’m looking at, who is playing games with the children and Arthur.
“Maybe yes, maybe no. People can hide almost anything with the right motivation.”
I sigh. “The next few days will tell a lot, and I’ll watch her until then.”
“I had no doubts that you would. Just be careful. The heart is quick to turn our heads so our eyes don’t see what’s actually in front of us. Don’t let her blind you.”