Arabella immediately began shouting in a rage. I could see right away she wasn’t hurt by the situation, she was infuriated. She began to shout all kinds of threats at Antonio, asking him how he could have done such a thing to her, and demanding to know why he would make a spectacle out of her in such a way. It was clear she thought he had done the entire thing as a publicity stunt, and the room was beginning to descend into chaos.

I looked up once more and met Antonio’s eyes once again. I could see by the utter shock on his face that he had no idea what to do or say, and that he would have done anything to get out of the room at this point. I, on the other hand, didn’t want to wait around to see what would happen next.

The one thing on my mind was that I needed to get out of there. I needed to get out of the room as fast as I could, and I needed to leave the country. I didn’t know what I was going to do as my plane didn’t leave until the next morning, but I knew if I could get to my hotel room, everything would be all right.

I stepped into the aisle, glad that I was behind the bride at this point. She had thrown the bouquet of flowers on the ground, stomping on them as she stormed toward the altar. I could see the rage in her movements, and it looked as though Antonio would rather jump out of the window than stand there and deal with her, but I was gone.

There were clearly many eyes on me as I stepped into the aisle, but I didn’t care. All that mattered to me was that I was going to get out of the building, and I was going to hide somewhere—anywhere. I flew down the stairs outside and onto the sidewalk below, refusing to look back. I had tears in my eyes, and I couldn’t think straight, but I had to press on.

Suddenly, I heard someone calling my name. I turned slightly, amazed to see Antonio following me. He was running up the sidewalk, doing his best to catch me before I could hail a cab. I could see in the distance that there was a crowd of people coming up the street as well and there was no doubt in my mind that they were very likely to be Antonio’s parents and family members.

I could hear it now, all the accusations of how it wasn’t Antonio’s child, or that I was only after money, or even that I had come for the pure fact that I was going to ruin his wedding once more on account of some rumor that someone may have heard or started.

A cab pulled over and waited for me to climb in, which I was about to happily do when at that moment Antonio caught up with me. He was breathless, his chest heaving with the strain of trying to catch up. He gasped as he mopped his face with his sleeve, but I wasn’t going to wait for him to speak. I had said what I wanted to say, and now it was time for me to get out of here.

I tried to slip into the cab, but he caught my arm and stopped me for the moment.

“Is it true? Are you pregnant?” he demanded, though he was still doing his best to catch his breath. I glanced over my shoulder and gave him a curt nod, making it clear that I didn’t want to speak about it any longer. He looked at me with shock and horror in his eyes, and I could see that he wasn’t sure whether I was telling the truth or not.

As far as I was concerned, he was more than welcome to believe me or not, I was going to get out of there. I wanted him to know the truth, but this was not the way I planned him finding out, and the fact that his family was drawing closer was only serving to make me even more anxious, and I dove into the back seat of the cab.

To my surprise, Antonio jumped right into the seat next to me, ordering the cab to take me not to my hotel, but to his place. I looked back at him in surprise.

“Antonio! Do you know what you’re doing?” I asked in disbelief, and though there was still a look of uncertainty and shock in his eyes, I could see that he was confident in his decision. The cab driver stepped on the gas, and in a moment we were off, leaving the gathering crowd behind us.

Although there were many things I wanted to say to Antonio at that moment, I couldn’t find the words. With him sitting next to me, I was feeling such a blend of emotions I didn’t know which one to follow, and I felt tears welling up in my eyes. I was angry with him for not responding to my messages, and I wasn’t about to let all that go without him explaining why.

“I wish you would talk to me,” he said at last, after a few minutes of him trying to make conversation and me doing everything I could to avoid it. I glanced over to him.

“What is there to say?” I snapped. He looked at me in surprise, and I sighed, knowing that I wasn’t behaving like an adult. He was trying to figure out what had happened, and I was making it difficult. I shook my head and turned my attention back out the window.

“You didn’t respond to anything that I tried to tell you,” I said quietly.

It was his turn to sigh, and I felt a surge of satisfaction run through me as he did, happy that he was finally seeing that he should have handled things differently. It didn’t matter to me whether he was the Prince or not; he was the father of my child, and he shouldn’t have ignored my attempts at communicating with him.

“I’m sorry,” he said at last, and I scoffed as I shook my head.

“No, really, Sasha, I am. There are so many things that I am sorry for, but perhaps the biggest of all is that I did this to you. I should have answered you when you were trying to contact me, I should have known that there was some reason behind it besides you wanting to attack me about my new marriage, but Sasha, you have to realize that there is more to the story than you think.” He let his voice drift off, and I looked over my shoulder at him, uncertain if I ought to believe him.

“Like what?” I demanded, and once again he sighed. It was clear he didn’t want to talk about such a sensitive topic while it was just him and me in the cab with the driver and, despite my impatience, I could understand why.

“Can we talk about this more when we get to my house? You don’t have to come inside with me if you don’t want to, but I would love to have the chance to talk about this with you in private, if you know what I mean.” He looked up toward the cab driver and I sighed, knowing that he had a point. Everyone had eyes and ears when it came to royalty, even the person who was driving him home from a second failed wedding.

I didn’t want to be gossiped about any more than Antonio did, so I agreed to not say another word about it until we were in the privacy of his home. I turned my attention out the window, once more thinking about what it would have been like if I had decided to stay here. This time, I was almost glad that I had not, that I would not. I was going to get through this with Antonio, and he was going to work it out with me, I was sure.

There was something about the way he was acting that gave me hope he was going to come through for me, and I felt that I was going to get the support that I needed for our child. I wasn’t asking for anything for myself, and I wanted him to be clear about that—the only thing that I was going to ask of him was to provide for his child.

Even though the baby wasn’t yet born, I knew that I wanted nothing but the best for them. I wanted them to grow up in a home in which they didn’t have to wonder if they were going to have clothes for school. I wanted them to know what it was like to have the childhood that I myself had never been blessed with, I wanted them to know what it was like to be happy in their life, regardless of what else was going on.

All these thoughts were swirling around in my mind as the cab pulled up the winding road toward Antonio’s house. And yet, as I recognized the pad, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of happiness. Although there were many things that I had wanted to forget about my trip to Italy, spending the night with Antonio in that house was not one of them.

I took in a deep breath, filling my lungs with the rich scent of the sea. There were some things in life that I knew I would always remember, no matter where life took me. The car pulled into the driveway and Antonio was quick to pay, though I could see that the driver was disappointed that he wasn’t able to get more information about the situation from either one of us.

I hesitated a moment, trying to decide if it really was the best choice to go into Antonio’s house with him. I didn’t want to be caught up in an international scandal, but at the same time, I could see in his eyes how desperately he wanted to talk to me and, putting everything from the past few weeks to one side, I wanted to give him that courtesy.

“Will you come inside? Just for a few minutes. You are free to leave any time you want, but there are a few things I would like to discuss with you before you go, especially if this is the last time I am going to see you.” He had concern in his eyes as he spoke, and after a moment of hesitation, I gave him a curt nod.

I did know that it was the right thing to do, if not for me, then for my unborn baby. This man was the father of my child, and I was going to have to work something out with him, no matter what level of care that happened to be. International scandal or not, I was in this for the long run and there was no going back now.

He reached out and took my hand, gently leading me through the gate and onto the walkway. I had brief flashbacks of what it had been like before, but I was quick to push those out of my mind. The last thing I wanted to think about was before. That was then, and things were different now.

We were here to discuss business, pure and simple.

And that would be the end of things.