Chapter 15: Adriana

I laid in my bed and watched as the rain ran down my window. I had hoped Milos would have come into my room during the night, but he hadn’t, and I woke up alone as usual. Outside of my bedroom chamber, I could hear the servants scurrying about, cleaning up as they whispered back and forth. It was strange for me to hear them at all, much less whispering in low tones outside of my door. I pulled myself from the bed, curious as to what all the noise was about. I opened my bedroom doors, still dressed in my pajamas, and stared out at the girls who froze instantly and looked down at the floor.

“Okay,” I said putting my hands on my hips. “What’s going on?”

I looked at each of the girls, but everyone refused to look me in the face. I walked forward, toward the head servant, and noticed she was clutching a newspaper in her hands. There was obviously something these women didn’t want me to see.

“All right,” I sighed, holding out my hand. “Give it to me. It can’t be that bad.”

The woman looked up at me but didn’t move, obviously not wanting to be the one to hand me the paper. She took a deep breath and met my eyes as she handed it over and shooed the other girls from the wing. She stopped at the door and looked back at me.

I opened the paper and stared down at the picture on the front page. It was Milos with two girls strung around his neck. He looked completely wasted and the headline read, “Trouble In Paradise?”

Slowly, I crumpled up the paper and threw it hard at the floor. That’s why he never came to my room. He was too busy screwing some dirty whores in the capital. To make matters worse, he made the front page of the paper, which humiliated me and showed he didn’t give two shits about the price I had to pay for this whole ordeal.

“Can I get you anything, Your Grace?” The servant obviously felt terrible, but I was glad I had seen the paper in the privacy of my own room, instead of in front of the Queen.

“No, thank you,” I said, shaking my head.

How could I have been so stupid? I had really given a piece of myself to him in that hedge maze in the gardens, and he’d given me the same thing he always did, absolutely nothing. He had taken my forgiveness and wiped his ass with it, making me look like an idiot. I went back to my room and laid down in the bed, resolute to not get up for the rest of the day, and that is exactly what I did.

Several days passed and still, I heard nothing from Milos. Either he was too drunk to care or he was hiding out, knowing he had to face both me and his mother when he returned. Whichever it was, it wasn’t boding well for him with the kingdom or the Parliament. One good part about being the girl no one pays attention to is the sheer amount of information you get from just walking the halls past the royal council and members of Parliament.

While I was in self-induced exile, I figured, what better of time to go through the bags I had brought with me? Slowly, I pulled my old clothes from the backpack and laid them out. I grabbed my toiletry bag, excited to finally find my favorite body spray. I opened the case and dug around, running my hand across a tampon and stopping in horror. I dropped the case and ran over to my phone, pulling up the calendar and shaking my head. My period had been like clockwork my entire life, and I realized at that moment, that I was more than two weeks late. I had forgotten my birth control pills in Prague and vowed to reorder here, but with the wedding and everything else, I had completely forgotten. Immediately, I started to panic, wondering if I was, in fact, pregnant with Milos’s child.

I grabbed one of my old pairs of jeans and sweatshirt from the bed and threw them on, pulling the hood up high. I peeked out of the door and called the head servant over and whispered into her ear. I needed her to discreetly get me into the city so I could go to the store. I told her it was private but of grave importance. She thought for a moment before she reached through the door and grabbed my arm. I followed her into the servant quarters and out the back door where she had parked her car. She drove me slowly into the city as I hid my face, and parked outside of the local drug store. I walked in with my head down, not wanting to be noticed, and grabbed a pregnancy test. A sick feeling washed over me as I handed the money to the girl behind the register and glanced over at the Prince and his whores on the cover of every magazine there.

When I got back to the palace, I ran to my chambers and locked the door. I sat in the bathroom, staring at the instructions for several minutes. Then I made the decision to just take the test. When the test was soaked and set on the counter, I paced the bathroom floor and waited while the minutes clicked by slowly. I looked down at my watch and realized it was time. I got closer and closer to the test and shook my head, not believing what my eyes were seeing. Clear as day, there were two lines, which meant I was pregnant.

I dropped the stick in the sink, backed up, sat down on the edge of the bathtub, and shook my head. Tears started to pull at my eyes, but I knew this was no time to lose it. I grabbed the test and walked out into the bedroom, where all my stuff still sat.

I needed some fresh air to clear my head, so I threw my sweatshirt and sneakers on and headed out to the garden. The night air felt amazing, and I stood in the garden under the evening sky, just breathing heavily. I couldn’t believe I had been dumb enough to get myself into this situation. I had no idea what to do, and I had no one to talk to about it.

“Nice night,” Brat’s voice echoed behind me.

“Hey,” I said as I opened my eyes and mustered a smile. “It is. It’s beautiful tonight.”

“You okay?”

My face must have been white as a ghost. “Me? Oh, yeah. Just thinking about everything.”

“I’ve wanted to ask you something for a while, but we haven’t had a chance to be alone,” he said as he walked up next to me. “How do you really feel about Milos?”

“Oh.” I was taken back by the question. “He is an ass.”

“Yes, he is,” Brat said, laughing.

“But I know he is good on the inside,” I said, letting go of my anger. “He does have good intentions from time to time, but he covers them up with this playboy façade. He makes me laugh.”

Immediately, I regretted saying that. I gave in to my urge to tell someone I had feelings for Milos. Before he could respond, his phone rang, and I heard Milos’s voice on the other end of the line. The two men were speaking Polish, so I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but Brat glanced down at me nervously before hanging up. He chuckled and shoved the phone in his pocket.

“It was really lovely seeing you, Princess,” he said as he turned and walked away.

I stood there for several moments, trying to decide my next move. but the only thing I could think was to go back to the castle and eat some dinner. As I climbed the palace steps, I was met by Brat’s sister, Zlata, who looked like she had been standing there waiting for me. I smiled at her as I passed, but stopped abruptly as she pressed her arm in front of me. I turned my head toward her and smiled sarcastically.

“Hello, Zlata,” I said as I looked at her snide face.

“You don’t fool me for a second,” she replied as she crossed her arms. “I know there is something fishy about this whole situation. You don’t deserve that man, and when I find out what your secret is, I’m going to expose you.”

“Zlata, if you spent more time worried about your own life, you might actually be married by now,” I stated. “Now, if you will excuse me, I have things to do.”

Zlata scoffed in my direction before she marched out the doors and down the steps. As soon as she was out of sight, I breathed deeply at the fear that had risen in my chest. I could play coy all I wanted, but if she found out my past, I would be the next face all over the tabloids. I reached down and pressed my hand against my stomach, thinking about the repercussions that could bring to my future child’s life. I immediately took off for my chambers, grabbing one of the servants and letting them know I needed a private audience with the Queen immediately. After I had packed a bag, knowing I had to get away from the palace, I wrote Milos a letter and sealed it in an envelope.

The Queen’s guards arrived almost immediately to take me to the Queen’s chambers, where I explained that my mother had fallen ill, and I had to leave immediately. Part of me felt like the Queen had seen right through the excuse, but at that moment, I didn’t care. I just needed to get out. I handed her the envelope and asked her to give it to Milos whenever he returned. She shook her head as I turned to leave. I stopped as I felt the Queen’s hand on my shoulder.

I turned around to face her, bowing my head in reverence. She stepped forward, kissed me kindly on the cheek, and nodded knowingly. She might have assumed my rush from the kingdom was due to Milos and his latest escapades, but it was more for my own sanity than anything else. I had to get away from Silesia, from the palace, and especially from Milos, if I was going to work out what to do with this child. I knew I couldn’t raise a baby in a marriage that was a sham, with a man that couldn’t stop flaunting himself all over the country. But what were my choices?

Within the hour, I was on the plane and airborne. A feeling of relief washed over me, getting stronger with every mile I put in between me and Silesia. I sat and gazed out over the earth below me as I made my way toward Liverpool. I knew that one decision would change everything, but I didn’t know what to do.

I needed space and air, and the last thing I wanted was Milos dangling the contract over my head. There was no way he was going to welcome this baby into his life, not after his true colors had surfaced. I refused to live a life holed up in the castle, watching as my husband destroyed the beautiful history of a country and taught our child to do the same. This may be the heir to the Silesian throne, but it was also a child, and it deserved so much better than Milos, even if that meant a flat in Liverpool with a half sober grandmother and a single mother. At least I felt comfortable, knowing my child wouldn’t end up like Milos, cold, angry, and incapable of love.