Page 52 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
DESPITEBEINGSOviolently ill that she was certain she would die, Claudine woke in the royal wing of the Stella Vista hospital.
Felipe stood over her, unshaven, eyes sunken into dark pools of brooding anger. He wore his tuxedo shirt open at the throat, his bow tie and jacket abandoned somewhere.
“How do you feel?” he asked in a voice that rasped across her dulled nerves. He gently brushed his fingertips along her jaw.
“What happened?” Her voice floated across the dry creek bed of her throat.
“You were poisoned. Francois is the culprit, not that I have proof. Now you’re awake, I’ll go to the palace to oversee the interrogations myself.” He took out his phone and glanced at it. “Your mother has landed. She’ll be here shortly.”
He was avoiding her gaze, mouth tense. She had no doubt he was upset on her behalf, but all his emotions seemed to be directed at the palace and his brother. She couldn’t discern how he felt beyond that. How he felt abouther.
If he had told her in these moments that he loved her and was frightened for her and was grateful she had pulled through, she might have had a different reaction besides despair. As it was, all she could think was that even if he found the servant who had tainted her food, Francois would still be protected.
“For now, the pregnancy is unaffected.”
As she gasped, his gaze slammed into hers. Inside those dark depths, she read shame and fierce protectiveness, helplessness and agonized yearning. That was why he was avoiding looking at her. She had nearly lost a baby she hadn’t even known she carried!
“They did a blood test.” His hand squeezed hers, perhaps reminding her to breathe because she suddenly realized she had no oxygen in her lungs.
She made herself shakily hiss air through her nostrils.
“I’m sorry, Claudine. I’m sorry it’s come to this.” His brows flexed in torture. “It never will again. I swear that to you.”
All she could think was that if Francois had the means to slip her poison, he could dose her with a medication to end a pregnancy. She would never be safe! Neither would any child she had. Felipe would have to stay on guard forever, never allowing himself to love her or their child because he would be too afraid of losing both of them.
“I wouldn’t leave you right now if I didn’t have to,” Felipe continued gently. “You understand that, don’t you?” He rested his hand atop her head, looking so anguished it hurt to see it. “I have to go to the palace and finish this.”
He did care for her, in his way, which meant she would hurt him when she did what she had to do, but it was the only way. She couldn’t stay here and be the instrument his brother used to persecute him.
“I know,” she murmured. “Can I have my phone?”
“Of course.” His hand squeezed her limp fingers once more before he pressed her phone into it. “Your guards are right outside the door. You’re completely safe.” He leaned down to touch his mouth to her forehead. “Text me if you need anything at all.”
She nodded and watched him leave before she texted Freja.
Claudine was a fighter.
Felipe had spent a long, dark night clinging to that knowledge while accepting that he could not ask her to be part of his fight any longer. Not if it might cost her her life.
A sense of déjà vu had gripped him as he stood over her, except that three months ago, he had seen her as a very useful pawn. Now he was ashamed to have pushed her into such a dangerous position, especially when she had come to mean so much to him. More than anyone else in the world. That was what he had acknowledged as he finally watched her blink her eyes open, only for fear and confusion to come into her pallid face.
And a baby? He couldn’t even process that. Not yet. Not when Francois’s actions could have taken both of them in the blink of an eye.
Leaving her had physically hurt, especially when paparazzi surrounded the hospital, clamoring at the news that had broken overnight about her accusations against Francois. It was an absolute nightmare, but once Felipe knew she was conscious, and would have her mother on hand, hehadto come to the palace to deal with this once and for all.
Predictably, his father was uninclined to do what needed to be done.
“The culprit has been identified and is in custody,” King Enzo said dismissively. “He claims to have acted out of spite toward America.”
The King was gray beneath his normally swarthy complexion. It wasn’t only the toll of a difficult night. His illness was beginning to run him down.
Felipe steeled himself against pitying him. He had never been shown such a thing by this man. “You really believe that? For God’s sake, think of the damage he could do if he took the throne. Do you want that?”
“It doesn’t matter what I want, Felipe. Francois is the spare.” He whirled away in frustration. “I cannot believe I’m still having this conversation with you. Work it out! You’re not children.”
“You dare say that to me?” Felipe barely kept his grip on his temper. “When you have pitted us against one another our entire lives? No, we are not children. This is not a case of my brother stealing my favorite toy.He tried to kill my wife. She’s pregnant.That is an attempted assassination of a future ruler.”
“Is she?” King Enzo took a moment to absorb that, then, “Once she delivers—”
