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“Did you really think you could enter our country without me knowing? You didn’t want to be disturbed, whatever the reason. I honored that. Oh, Vivienne, my sweet daughter-in-law. You look beautiful, my dear.”
The King looks at me, and I quickly drop into a curtsy. When I look up, I can see his eyes lingering on my stomach. I wrap my arms around my middle protectively.
“Father, I’m here to tell you I’m withdrawing my name for the throne. I know you wanted us all to compete, to see the best we each had to offer. But my best life is with Vivienne.” He grabs my hand and pulls me forward. “We got married in her hometown, in addition to our wedding in Las Vegas. And we are having a baby.”
“I can see that.” The King smiles. “While I wish you had come to me sooner, please know you have my greatest blessings.”
“You’re… not mad that I don’t want the crown?”
“Of course not. All I ever wanted was for my children to be happy. I wanted to make you think about what you really wanted out of life. One of my sons will succeed me, I know that. I just wanted to make sure that whoever does choose that path, it will be his sincere choice.”
The King holds out his hands to me. “Come here, dear. Let me hug you.”
“Of course.” It’s easier said than done. I lean over to hug him as best as I can.
He tells us to sit, and the butler appears out of nowhere with a tray of teas and coffees. “Oh, I have missed this coffee, Your Highness.”
I say it somewhat mournfully. I already had a cup of coffee at breakfast, and I’m limiting my intake. The butler picks up one and hands it to me. I begin to gesture no.
“I took the liberty of preparing decaf in case that was what you wanted. At the instructions of His Royal Highness, the King.”
“How do you know everything, Dad?” Caesar asks, both of them laughing. The butler bows his way out of the room.
“So.” The King rubs his hands together. “Do you know? Is it a boy or a girl?”
I shake my head. I had an ultrasound, but the baby was, as they say, shy. We’re going to get another one done soon.
“Do you want to know?”
“We do.” Caesar and I answer together, then grin at each other. I love it when that happens. It’s like the universe is affirming how right we are for each other.
“So, will you let me do something for you? You’ll stay for dinner?”
“Nothing big, Father.”
“No, no, just family. And we will reveal the gender, if that is okay with you, Vivienne.”
“But how?”
“Go.” The King motions for us to leave. “You know where to take her, Caesar. I’ll make sure they are ready for you.”
When we leave the King’s apartment, I turn to Caesar.
“What’s going on?”
“I would guess you are going to have another ultrasound.” Caesar leads me down a flight of stairs to a suite of offices. A woman rises from a reception desk.
“Right this way,” she says.
I’m given a hospital gown with the royal insignia printed on it. After I change, I go into a room where Caesar is waiting with a technician.
“You have an ultrasound machine here?”
Caesar nods. “X-ray, too.”
“No MRI?”
“They’ve ordered both the MRI machine and the CT scan before,” the technician says. “The need was greater at the hospital, though.”
