It was the wedding band that set me off.

Ella’s wedding band, sitting in a silver dish beside the bathroom sink.

It’s been a day since Ella left the house.

A day since Heidi appeared with the paternity test, telling us she was pregnant with our child.

A day since my entire life collapsed in ruins around me.

It’s been a hell of a day to say the least.

But I was managing it the best I could.

I think I was more in a daze than anything. Pretending that Ella went around the corner instead of who knows where she went. Pretending that Heidi was mistaken. Pretending that everything in my life didn’t drastically change forever.

But that wedding band, that did it.

I picked it up in my hand and felt the complete absence of her.

The fact that she had left me.

She left me.

The fear that she might not ever come back.

And who could fucking blame her?

I apparently have some demon spawn with Heidi and that’s something you don’t get to come back from.

So, when I saw that ring, the fact that she took it off as if she was discarding our marriage, I did what I do best when I get into these panicky situations.

I completely trashed my room.

I mean, yelling, screaming, punching the wall, kicking things over, throwing shit. It was ugly.

Just acting like a complete barbarian with a peanut brain.

And even though Ottar is used to these kinds of outbursts from me from time to time, when my temper and frustration levels and my race-car brain can’t be controlled, this time he’s barging in the room like he’s ready to wrestle me.

“Bring it on, little man,” I snarl at him as I turn around, doing my best Wolverine impression.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asks, looking at the mess and chaos around him. Feathers from the down pillows I kicked are floating in the air. “Don’t you have any self-control?”

“You know I don’t,” I say, still trying to catch my breath. Somehow, I don’t feel any better though, and now the room is all fucked up. “You should really know I don’t by now.”

“Sir, listen,” he says as he slowly approaches me, as if I’m going to pick him up and throw him through the window. That’s when I notice the envelope in his hands.

The paternity test.

The sight of it nearly sends me reeling again.

“Get that thing out of here,” I grind out.

He shakes it at me. “No, listen to me. I don’t think this is legit.”

That makes me pause. “What do you mean?” I can’t ignore the hope building through me and if it’s false hope I’m going to kill him. “Tell me you know something.”

He comes on over and shows it to me. It looks the same as it did before.

“Look,” he says, running his fingers over some lines at the bottom. “See the doctors that signed it?”

I squint and read the list of three names below their signatures. “Yeah, so?”

“Well I thought the name Gunnar Hamundarson sounded familiar,” he says. “So I Googled him.”

“Yeah. And?”

“Well he’s a famous Viking from Iceland. From the tenth century.”

I stare at him.

“So then,” he continues, “I Googled the rest of the names. They’re all dead Vikings. Magnus, these doctors don’t exist. The thing is a forgery.”

“Are you sure?” I ask carefully. “Please be sure about this.”

“Positive,” he says. Then he flashes me a smile. “Besides, you said she got your DNA from her father? That’s a load of shit. The prime minister doesn’t have people’s DNA on file, he’s not a criminologist or whatever. I doubt anyone has your DNA. You’d have to know about it if they did.”

“Soooo,” I say slowly.

“So, Heidi Lundström just royally fucked herself.”

“But her stomach?”

He shrugs and puts his hands on his own round belly. “Maybe it was a food baby. Either way, it doesn’t matter what it was. That test is a fake and therefore you’re not the father. Rest easy, Prince Magnus. There shall be no red-headed ginger babes.”

I should be relieved.

I mean, I am relieved.

Relieved but I also feel completely foolish for taking Heidi’s word at face value and on top of that I feel like a total ass for losing my temper like this and having a yelling match with Ella last night which prompted her to leave.

But I’m also still angry.

Only it’s a righteous kind of anger.

Driven by justice.

“Oh hell,” Ottar says. “You’re getting that look in your eyes, Magnus. You know the look. This can’t be good.”

I grin at him. “You’re a good friend, Samwise. Been here through so much of the journey.”

“Please don’t start, sir.”

I ignore him. “But we have to do this together. We have to put an end to this battle once and for all. Or at least, you can come along for the ride.”

I grab a sweater and leave the room. I’ll deal with the mess when I get back.

“Where are we going sir?” Ottar asks with a weary sigh before eventually following me. “Or maybe I don’t want to know.”

“We’re going to see Sauron.”

“Fucking knew it,” Ottar swears.

We pass by Jane on the stairs. “Jane, tell me where Ella is.”

She pauses and leans against the railing and rolls her eyes. “I told you. I think she went to Liechtenstein.”

“Think? How come you don’t know? You know everything.”

“Because I’ve tried calling her too. She won’t answer. I think she’s just figuring stuff out. Maybe she wants to be alone. I certainly don’t blame her when she’s surrounded by a bunch of twits all the time.”

“Well keep trying her. Tell her to call this twit, please.”

She sighs. “Will do. You know, I don’t like being put in the middle of your marital quarrels. I don’t think it’s fair.”

Ottar laughs nervously. “Welcome to the rest of your life, Lady Jane.”

We get into the car with Einar behind the wheel and he drives Ottar and I into the city. I call Ella numerous times, trying to tell her the news, but she never answers, and my texts don’t seem to go through either. Not that I was about to text her: Surprise! No Demon Baby! Come Home!

Einar drives us straight to the prime minister’s office, which actually is just a few blocks from my parent’s palace. I think I’ll pay my father a visit after but for now, I have one thing I need to set right, even if it hurts me.

Of course, I don’t have an appointment with the prime minister, but I use my status and smile to get the secretary to send me on through, Ottar at my side.

“Your Highness,” he says as we step into his office. He gets to his feet and gives me a slight bow, which already makes me feel like I have the upper hand. “To what do I owe the honor? I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I have something I need to discuss with you,” I tell him, leaning against the edge of his desk. “It’s rather personal and sensitive.”

He nods slowly and eyes Ottar. “Should he be here then?”

“He’s here for backup,” I tell him. “You see, this concerns you. To be more specific, it concerns your daughter.”

Oh, it’s so hard not to call her the “psycho-hose-beast, stage-five-clinger, batshit barnacle of a daughter” but I manage to bite my tongue.

“What about her?”

Uh oh. His eyes are already narrowed. This won’t be easy.

But hopefully it will be satisfying.

“First of all, I want to apologize yet again for that video that leaked out into the world. It was never meant for anyone else’s eyes and I’m still very mad at myself that I let it happen,” I say.

His eyes soften, just slightly. “Oh. Okay. Well that never hurts to hear again.”

“I should have never put myself in that situation. I never should have gone out with her and I never should have let her film us. It was a bad idea and being a prince, being the older one, being the man, I should have put a stop to it. I didn’t, and I accept that as a lack of responsibility and control. It’s something I will forever aim to make better.”

He was nodding during this but now he’s stopped. “You make it sound like it was her idea. She would never…”

I try not to smile. “Yeah, well, here’s the thing. It was her idea. I should have said no, I should have known better, but it was her idea. And I think she leaked the whole thing as well. There was no hacker. It was just her, sharing it with the world.”

His eyes spark as he looks to Ottar and back to me. “That’s insane. More than that, it’s terribly inappropriate, horrific even, to accuse my girl of that. How dare you!”

“Once you know what else she’s done, I think you’ll come to the same conclusion,” I say, jerking my head toward Ottar.

Ottar comes forward and places the paternity test papers on the desk, sliding them toward the prime minister.

He eyes them but makes no move to pick them up. “What are these?”

“This is a paternity test. Your daughter borrowed your car yesterday and came to see me at Skaugum Estate. Did you know that?”

Now he looks completely taken aback. “Oh, well I. Uh, no. She said she needed it but…”

“She came to see me and Ella and gave me this. A paternity test that says she’s pregnant and I’m the father.”

“What?” he barks, his beady eyes flashing. He snatches up the paper, his hand starting to shake as he reads it over.

“Yes, that was my reaction. Said it must have happened back in September. Maybe that tape was supposed to have captured it all for proof, I don’t know.”

“She can’t be pregnant,” he says softly. “Especially with you.” He glares at me, his words turning harsh at that.

I shrug. “That’s the game she was running. Until Ottar, wonderful, suspicious Ottar, who was further removed from the situation and able to look at it unemotionally, decided to examine it further. First of all, all those doctors who signed it are dead Vikings. So, that’s weird right? Second of all, she said you personally have my DNA on file somewhere and that’s how she obtained it.”

“I don’t,” he says, his voice now breaking a bit, like he’s losing it.

About time.

“That’s what we figured. Look, I understand it’s a lot to take. But you have to know that even though I have royally fucked up before, many times, that is all in the past. I learned my lesson. And I found love. I’m not saying I won’t fuck up again, but you can be damned sure it won’t be like this. I am the future king and from this moment forward, I will be behaving as one.” I pause and stand up straighter. “I think it’s only fair you treat me as one.”

He stares at me for a few long, awkward seconds and I have no clue what he’s going to say. Finally, he says, “I’ll treat you like a king when you act like it.”

“Fair enough,” I tell him. “I didn’t expect much otherwise. But just so you know, I don’t take being threatened lightly. The fact that she told me she would extort me and slander our family name is something we all take very seriously. I don’t know what she’s going to say and given that she’s probably not pregnant with anyone’s baby, I don’t know how far the charade was going to go on for. But she meant to do as much damage as possible with that document.” I clear my throat. “I should probably take legal action against her. And perhaps you, for allowing this to happen.”

Now I’ve got him.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

“Come now, Your Highness,” he starts babbling, wiping sweat off his greasy brow. “I had nothing to do with this, I don’t know what goes on with her. I mean, you can’t be serious. We can talk this out. There is no reason to take it to that level.”

I shrug. “I don’t know. Considering the mess she aimed to cause, I think it should be. This is an offense I’m sure, forging something like this, and it’s a greater one to threaten royalty. If this got out into the public, why I’m sure your entire reputation would come crashing down in a hot second.”

“Magnus, Your Highness, please. Just sit down. Let’s talk.”

“I don’t need to talk,” I tell him. “And I won’t say a word of this. I’ll sweep it under the rug.” I pause, pointing my finger at him. “Just promise me that you’ll deal with your daughter. Honestly, and I mean this from a good place, but she’s not right in the head. She needs help. Professional help and lots of it. I think she’s lost and lonely and feels ignored when it comes to you. She feels victimized and forgotten. You need to start being there for her more and you can start by getting her the help she needs before she goes off the rails for good.”

He just nods, staring into space. “Yes. Yes. Of course.”

“Are we good, sir?” Ottar says to me.

I give him an appreciative, triumphant smile as we start toward the door.

“Oh yes. We’re good.”

* * *

I’m staring down at my phone, willing for Ella to call me, when my father beside me stirs. I’ve been sitting next to him for nearly an hour now, patiently waiting for him to wake up. I know I shouldn’t unload anything on him, I know he needs his rest and, as my mother has been saying, only happy thoughts and happy things are to be discussed with the King, but of course that doesn’t seem to apply to her since she’s still the number one complainer in this royal household.

But I digress. I need to talk to him. In the past I would have kept my father out of whatever messy thing was going on in my life. When it came to the whole sex tape thing and marriage, well that was him reeling me in, not the other way around. If I could have, I would have pretended nothing happened.

But I don’t want to live like that anymore.

Today, talking to the prime minister, I felt more like a king than anything else. Emboldened and authentic and real. For the first time, I really felt like I owned up to my title of heir, that I was worthy of it.

And kings don’t shrink from the hard conversations.

My father never did.

And I won’t with him. I have to speak with him, I have to let him know what happened. Pretending it never existed won’t do me any good. I need to own it before it’s swept under a rug.

He groans lightly and opens his eyes, blinking at me. “Magnus?” he asks, his voice hoarse.

“It’s me,” I tell him, grabbing his hand softly. “I just wanted to say hello.”

His eyes close but he smiles. “Well hello to you too. How long have you been there, watching me snore away?”

“Long enough.”

“I have to say, with your condition, that must have been very boring for you.” He opens one eye and spears me with it. “What brings you here today?”

I take in a deep breath. Suddenly I’m afraid. I’m afraid that he’ll lose respect for me. I’m afraid that he’ll think I’ve regressed in some way.

“What is it, Son?” he asks. “I can tell it’s something big. Do I need to call for a nurse?”

I shake my head. “No. No, I think it’s okay. It’s okay because everything turned out okay in the end. Just, uh, remember that. That everything is fine now.”

He sighs, his chest rising and falling. “Well that’s good. Fine is good. They say greed is good, but fine is good too.”

Hmmm. He may be a little loopy.

“Ella left me.”

Boom.

There it is.

“She what?” he says, moving around to get a good look at me. “What are you talking about? I thought you guys were writing up your thank-you cards just yesterday. Oh, and by the way, don’t bother with Prince Hans of the Netherlands, I didn’t care for the way he way he looked at your mother at the wedding.”

I ignore that. “We were doing that yesterday. After that, well…a bomb went off. It wasn’t pretty.”

“Well what was it?” He pauses, watching my face carefully. “Magnus, what did you do?”

“Heidi Lundström came to our door.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yeah. Oh fuck was more like it, but yeah, oh dear works. She told me she was pregnant with my child and had a paternity test to prove it.”

His eyes widen. “Oh, fuck,” he says after a beat.

“There you go.”

“I can see why Ella might have left,” he surmises. “What did you do?”

“Well I pulled my lovely hair out and commenced losing my mind. She said she was four months pregnant, she had the stomach to prove it, and the paternity tests, which she left in my care.”

He frowns thoughtfully. “Wait. How on earth did she get your DNA for a paternity test?”

“She said her father had it on file.”

“That’s simply not true.”

“I know. I know that now. Thanks to Ottar who took the documents and examined them closely. Heidi isn’t very smart, and she isn’t very thorough. Conniving yes, but that’s not the same thing. They were forged.”

“What about her stomach?”

“Well aside from wanting to punch her in the gut to find out, I’m guessing she was just sticking out her stomach. The bump was there but it wasn’t huge and it’s not like I got a chance to inspect it.”

My father shakes his head. “This is unbelievable. I’m sorry you had to go through that Magnus. But surely this isn’t the end of the world if Ella knows it was all fake.”

I sigh and rub my hand down my face, suddenly so tired. “She doesn’t know because she’s not talking to me. According to Jane, she’s in Liechtenstein, but Jane hasn’t been able to talk much to her either.”

“So, did you tell Heidi?”

“I marched right down to the prime minister’s office and told him.”

My father grows silent. Then, “You what?”

“I know it’s not the protocol with dealing with him, but he has to know what his daughter is up to. And I refuse to be bullied and intimidated by him. I am your son. One day I will be king. There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, but there should always be respect, and that man has no respect for me. But I think he does now.”

I can tell my father is thinking the worst. That I went into his office and embarrassed myself. But I didn’t.

I go on. “I owned up to my mistakes, but I refuse to own up to things that aren’t of my own making. I chose Ella and we are married and that’s the life I want to pursue. The man I was before isn’t gone, but I feel the king in me is stepping forward. People can deal with that however they wish, but it’s the new truth.”

My father sighs. “Well then. I see.”

I swallow hard, feeling pained for bringing it all up. “I didn’t want to make you upset, but I had to be honest with you and let you know. I’m sorry for the things I’ve done in the past, I’m sorry it took me so long to live up to my potential. But it’s better late than never.”

“Oh, Magnus,” he says to me. “You’re my world, you really are. My world, my son, my heir and you’re exactly who you’re meant to be and where you’re meant to be. I’m very proud of you for standing up to him, and her, and I’m grateful that you chose to tell me the truth when I probably would have had no idea. I don’t like to rule like that. Ignorance is no way to run your life, let alone a country.”

I give his hand a squeeze, feeling overly emotional for the second time today. “Thank you,” I whisper.

He smiles but his breathing suddenly becomes more labored and his face seems to pale.

“Are you okay?” I ask him, my pulse quickening.

He nods, takes in a few deep, shaking breaths and clears his throat. “I’m fine, Magnus. I just feel…anyway, I’m happy that everything is sorted.”

“Well, I still don’t have Ella.”

“I’m sure she just needed time to think.”

“I found her wedding band by the sink.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

I feel like if I mention it, it will come true, but I can’t ignore what’s really worrying me. “Father, the clauses she put in the contract. What if she’s going to use them?”

“And ask for a divorce?”

“Yes.”

“Over a fake pregnancy?”

“No. But she never really got to know me before we married. There’s so much baggage behind me. What if something else one day raises its ugly head? What if she discovers that she can’t handle being with me? What if she decides that marriage with me was a mistake?”

My father chuckles softly, which then turns into a wheezing cough. When he finally recovers he says, “That’s called divorce, Magnus, and it’s available for everyone. Not just you. Those clauses are there because Ella had to have some sort of control over this situation. You can’t blame her. And she’s young. She’s so young to be thrust into this new role, she has no idea how to handle this and neither do you. You just have to trust that what she feels for you is genuine and let everything else go.”

I look down at my hand on his. “What if she stops loving me after this?”

“She won’t. I promise. It’s a hurdle that will make your love grow stronger. Take it from me. You’re going to have a lot of hurdles.”

“What if…?” I trail off. I could go on and on.

“Ignore the what ifs,” he says. “Ella is complicated and passionate and fierce. Just like you. You have a fierce Viking heart, handed down from your ancestors. So, love fiercely, Magnus. Love bravely. Love her with everything you’ve got.”

It feels like I have a brick in my throat. It all sounds too simple and yet I know there’s nothing simple about love at all. But I can continue to be brave with my heart.

“Thank you for listening,” I tell him, taking in a deep breath. I glance up at him. “It means the…”

Something stops my words.

My father’s eyes are closed.

His face seems more ashen than it was seconds ago.

He’s not moving.

He’s suddenly so unnaturally, eerily still.

No. No. No.

I squeeze his hand. “Father?”

Nothing.

Oh god.

I lean over him, peering at him. “Father? Wake up. Wake up.”

No response.

“No, no, please!” I cry out, feeling his neck for a pulse, trying to see if he’s breathing. I can’t find it. His chest isn’t rising.

“Nurse! Someone! Help!” I start yelling, frantically grabbing his other wrist to check, lightly slapping his face.

No, this can’t be my father dead.

This has to be a dream.

This can’t be real.

“Help!”

The door bursts open and the nurse rushes in, followed by Sven and Tor. Tor pulls me out of the way while the nurse checks for vitals.

“We need an ambulance, now!” she yells, and Sven brings out his phone, dialing it.

Then my mother is in the room, panicking, and Mari, crying, and I’ve never felt so alone so suddenly before, like everything beautiful and light and joyous in my heart was suddenly sucked out like a vacuum, like my father was taken with it.

Mari comes to my side, tears streaming down her face and I put my arm around her, holding her close to me, holding on for dear life.

Soon the medics come, and the stretcher, and I’m escorted out by people I don’t know, and I’m lost and I’m surrounded by people but I’m alone and my father…

God, please don’t take him.

I’m not ready to lose him.

I can’t imagine life without him.

As he’s taken out on the stretcher to the ambulance, I lean against the wall in the hallway and slump to the floor, the sorrow inside me flooding up like a tidal wave.

For a moment the numbness and the confusion fades.

For a horrible moment I feel everything I have lost.

The tears that I had held back can no longer be tamed.

I cry, tear drops splashing to the palace floor.

I never had the chance to tell him how much I loved him.

My father.

My king.