25. CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY
VERONICA
“Veronica.”
“Five more minutes,” I groan, turning into the warmth of the pillow.
My body is sore from my private session with Sebastian. Not to mention I probably still reek of sex. I’m pretty sure if I sit up, his cum is still leaking out of me. I’m not complaining or anything. It was the best sex of my entire life.
“Veronica Lilith Beverly.”
Wait, what?
The use of my full name, my real name, erases sleep as if I’ve been tossed into an ice bath. I sit up abruptly, my chest bared to the woman beside the bed.
Georgina.
Georgina.
“Georgina, wait, I can—”
The older woman’s eyes close and she breathes out slowly. Fuck.
Tears spring to my lashes and I scramble to get up, the sheet from the bed ripping as I cocoon it around my naked body. No, no, no, no, no. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. No one was supposed to find out, not this soon anyway.
My breaths quicken as fear strikes through my chest. It has been years since I’ve had a panic attack, but I feel one starting to build.
Maybe it’s a heart attack by how fast my heart slams into my rib cage.
Georgina hasn’t said a word, and her silence pushes me until I’m standing at that cliff, ready to topple over.
When her eyes open, I release a choked sound, hot tears falling down my ivory cheeks.
“You stupid girl,” Georgina mutters, her voice tight with emotion as she pulls me straight into her chest.
She’s… hugging me. No, she’s squeezing me.
The weight is crushing and my body shakes harder, the tears coming down in waves as I release the sheet and wrap my arms around her.
She’s crying, too, her tears dropping against my shoulder as her lips press repeatedly to the side of my head.
It’s been so long. I didn’t realize how much I needed this.
“You stupid girl,” Georgina repeats, letting go of me, though her hands remain on my elbows. I can feel her eyes, taking me in. Really looking at me. A smile plays on her mouth before it crinkles into a frown and her eyebrows pinch together.
“Why?” she whispers.
“You know why,” I reply.
Georgina watches me before I’m pulled into another suffocating embrace. We stand in comfortable silence, holding tightly onto each other. Every second making up for the time we’ve been apart.
I press my cheek to her shoulder, and Georgina’s hand cradles the back of my head as more kisses are planted in my hair. While I could never replace my mother, Georgina always filled that void. I have never taken that for granted.
“He’s not the boy you knew.”
The tone in her voice is sad and my heart breaks. Georgina was the one who raised Sebastian. I can’t imagine how she must feel, watching him grow into the man he swore he’d never become: his father.
“No shit,” I grumble, not needing to be reminded of the primadonna Sebastian has become.
“Language.”
I lift my head to smile sheepishly. “Sorry, ma.”
My words have her eyes softening and stepping back, Georgina presses her fingers to her forehead. She’s thinking of what to do next, I know she is. Georgina has always been the one to get Sebastian and I out of trouble. This time, I don’t think she can come up with a solid plan.
Hell, even I have no idea what I’m doing… but that’s a normal occurrence.
“Do you think if Mary just happened to go missing anyone would notice?” I try to lighten the mood. Judging by her ‘absolutely not, Veronica Lilith’ look, I’d say that is a no go.
“Veronica, do you have any idea what you have willingly and knowingly gotten yourself into?” Goergina’s tone is stern but worried. She sits on the edge of the bed and I realize this is Sebastian’s room.
Did I fall asleep here? Did he let me? Did he sleep in here, too? Did. We. Cuddle?
Oh, for the love of God.
“Yes,” I say, my voice shaking. She shoots me another look. “No?” I sit back down, the sheet still wrapped around me. “I have no idea what I’m doing, but I had to try at least.”
I wouldn’t forgive myself if I didn’t.
Sebastian isn’t the same; I am more than aware of that.
He’s a prick with a huge dick, that I happen to be obsessed with, and while I’m sure he is turning into his control freak of a father, I can still see the little boy inside wanting to break out.
It’s only a matter of time before I can set that version of him free.
I just need more time. If I’m anything, it’s persistent.
I’ll rattle the freaking bars of the cage if I have to.
He doesn’t have a choice but to go back to the boy I love.
“Mary will have you executed. She’s already on the verge of locking you up in the prison quarters.” Ha. I’d love to see her try. “And before you even get it in your head that you can take her, she’d have guards bring you down. That girl doesn’t lift a finger.”
There goes that plan.
I shift to look at Georgina. She takes my hands in hers and runs her thumb over my knuckles. The worry is nothing short of a mother scared for her child. It makes my shoulders slump.
“So what do I do? Just tell Sebastian?” I ask.
“Leave.” My eyes widen and I recoil, standing up.
Before the sheet can fall to the floor again, I rolling it against my chest to keep it in place. There is no way in hell I’m leaving, not when I just got back.
“I can get you out,” Georgina continues. “I will explain that you, too, are infertile and are not of use.”
“But what if I am? What if it’s just taking a minute?” I’m panicking. It’s been weeks of nightly baby making and I’m not pregnant. I can’t be thrown out. “Hell, I could be pregnant right now and the tests could be picking up bad readings.”
Georgina rises from her spot on the edge of the bed, her index finger curling under my chin to lock our gazes.
“I’m not young enough to raise another child in this palace.
Sebastian has duties, and he won’t be here to do it himself, even if he wanted to be.
Mary would delegate childcare to Miss Prim. How do you think that will go?”
“Oh God,” I groan.
“I can do it, though, I can raise our baby and it’ll be—”
“You see what you did right there?” Georgina says, releasing me from her grasp. “Our baby. As soon as that baby leaves you, it is no longer yours. Even as it grows inside of you, Mary will make sure you know who the mother is.”
Oh. Right.
I didn’t think this through, at all.
“In the eyes of the kingdom, you are nothing but an incubator. Once you give birth, Mary will have you thrown out. Banished all over again.” Ouch.
My hand instinctively presses to my stomach, a wave of protectiveness washing over me. The action has Georgina’s lips pulling into a deeper frown. There’s no way I could ever hand a baby that Sebastian and I created over to Mary. She knows it just as much as I do. What the fuck am I doing?
A soft knock on the door has both of us turning.
I suck in a breath, watching it open, only to see Addie on the other side.
I exhale, thanking whatever God it wasn’t Mary or Sebastian.
Addie steps inside before she freezes and my heart stops beating.
Oh no. Did she figure it out too? Not that she knows who I really am, but—
“It reeks in here,” Addie says dryly.
Georgina and I exchange a look before soft laughter bubbles between us, leaving Addie more than confused.
The older woman takes my hand in hers and I willingly stand by her side.
“Change Sebastian’s sheets, Miss Prim. I will ensure this one gets a scrub down.
” Georgina smiles and Addie stares at the two of us as if we’ve lost our minds. If I hadn’t before, I know I have now.