Chapter 15-An Heir
The physician smiled.
Vinaya did not.
"Your Highness is with child."
The words seemed to come from far away.
Lakshmidevi gasped.
Parvati covered her mouth.
Kalyani began crying.
Vinaya sat perfectly still.
Pregnant.
Her hand moved unconsciously toward her stomach.
A child.
Vikram's child.
Conceived on the night he had mistaken her for his dead wife.
Joy exploded through the palace within an hour.
Temple bells rang.
Servants embraced.
King Amarendra ordered offerings.
Balram picked Kalyani up and spun her around until she screamed at him to stop.
Krishnagiri had waited years for this.
An heir.
Vinaya wanted to hide.
Lakshmidevi noticed.
She dismissed everyone.
Then sat beside her.
"You don't have to be happy today."
Vinaya looked at her sharply.
The Queen took her hand.
"You may love this child and still hate how the child was conceived."
Vinaya's eyes filled.
"What if he hates it?"
"Vikram?"
She nodded.
Lakshmidevi's expression tightened.
"This child has done nothing wrong."
"I know."
"And neither have you."
Vinaya looked away.
"I don't know if he believes that."
Vikram heard the bells from the training yard.
He stopped mid-strike.
Ranveer entered moments later.
Something in his brother's expression made Vikram lower the sword.
"What happened?"
Ranveer looked at him.
"Vinaya is pregnant."
The sword slipped from Vikram's hand.
For a moment, there was no sound.
Pregnant.
His mind betrayed him immediately.
Priya.
Her swollen belly.
His hand feeling their son kick.
Her laughter.
Then blood.
A silent child.
A funeral pyre too small to exist.
"No."
Ranveer frowned.
"What?"
Vikram stepped backward.
"She is certain?"
"The physician confirmed it."
Vikram couldn't breathe.
Another child.
His child.
Vinaya carrying it.
Not Priya.
Guilt crashed into grief so violently that he could not separate them.
He had betrayed Priya.
The thought was irrational.
He knew it.
Priya had been dead five years.
Still it came.
You promised.
Then another memory followed.
Vinaya crying.
You called me Priya.
Vikram turned away.
"Where is she?"
"Her chambers."
He started toward the palace.
Then stopped outside her door.
Inside, he heard Lakshmidevi speaking softly.
Vinaya answered.
Vikram placed one hand against the wood.
He could enter.
He should enter.
His wife was carrying his child.
Instead, fear won.
The door opened unexpectedly.
Vinaya stood there.
They stared at one another.
Her hand rested protectively over her abdomen.
Vikram looked at it.
Vinaya waited.
Perhaps for congratulations.
Perhaps for reassurance.
Perhaps merely for him to acknowledge that something enormous had happened to both of them.
His lips parted.
Nothing came.
Vinaya's expression slowly changed.
The tiny hope in her eyes disappeared.
Again.
Vikram stepped backward.
Then turned.
And walked away without saying a single word.
Behind him, Vinaya remained in the doorway with one hand over their unborn child.
This time, she did not cry.
And somehow, that frightened Vikram far more than her tears ever had.