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“You don’t have to…”
I freeze. “Hailey. What is wrong?”
She shakes her head. “I’m realizing that I’ve been calling you prince when you’ve been cut off from your family. Are you even a prince anymore?”
“By blood, yes. And I still have my legal inheritance if you’re concerned about money. My father cannot undo the will of our ancestors.”
“It’s not that. I don’t care about that. But you now have to change how you live, where you live. You’ve lost your family. You’ll lose friends over this.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Perhaps my brothers and sister can talk sense into the king and queen. But no, I’ll never be king. I officially, publicly abdicated.”
“You may regret that one day,” she says, as a single tear spills down her temple and onto the pillow.
Still seated inside her, I roll to my side and clasp Hailey against me.
“Put your ear to my chest.”
“Torben.”
“Just do it. Do you hear that?”
She pauses, listening. “Yes. Your heart rate is pretty high. Perhaps you should see a cardiologist about that.”
“Nonsense. It beats so rapidly because I’m excited to be married to you. I’m excited for what’s next. Is it scary? Yes. But there are no other circumstances under which you and I would have met. And you are my person. Forever. For once, I don’t have every single moment of my day prescribed for me. No one is keeping track of where I am, what I’m doing, and who I’m with. And honestly, a small part of me is beyond thrilled to make seventeen babies with you, just to throw it in the king’s face.”
To my delight, she laughs. “I’m all about a little bit of pettiness. But we can’t keep them from our children. I want our children to have a relationship with their grandparents on both sides of the family. Not just mine.”
“I agree. And I believe they will come around.”
She grins at me, and my cock begins to stir anew. “Is the prince full of hope? Is that what I’m hearing? Goodness, I thought I’d married a cynic.”
I kiss her soft mouth and murmur, “I don’t know that man.”
“Yes, you do,” Hailey snorts, playfully slapping my chest.
I acquiesce. “You’re right. I do know that man. He’s better now. All because of you.”
EPILOGUE
Five years later
Torben
Turning the page to the global news section, a bold headline churns my stomach.
“Dowager Queen snubbed again.”
Interesting. I wonder what the current reigning monarch makes of that spin.
I flip to another section of theGravenland Timesand silently pass what I’ve read across the table to my wife.
She’s going to see it sooner or later.
Hailey wordlessly takes the paper from me as she sips the coffee I brewed myself, on a patio that Hailey and I built together, overlooking the community that made her who she is.
In the distance, a dog barks, and a goat bleats. Fish jump in the creek. A breeze sweeps through the valley, rushing like ghosts through the stately Virginia pines.
“Sometimes it’s so quiet now, I can actually hear myself think,” Hailey says.
