How could she bring a child into this—the speculation of being born into one of the wealthiest families in the world as well as the royal family of Al Medina?
Her tummy churned for a different reason now. Panic flooded her.
“Cora, what’s going on?” Phoebe murmured, passing over the bread as they walked. Phoebe bit into a corner of a piece gratefully, her stomach squeezing at first and then relaxing.
“Nothing,” she murmured. “I’ve just been feeling a bit off the last day or so.”
She hated lying to anyone, let alone Phoebe, but it was all still far too new to know how to break it to anyone. How would she tell them? How would she answer their inevitable questions? Samir’s part in this had to be kept quiet—she had to respect his choices, the life he was committed to leading. And hewascommitted to that life. He’d made it abundantly clear where his focus had to be—not where he wanted it to be, necessarily, but where he knew he had to put it. She couldn’t lay this on his lap.
“Can you cancel your appointment, Cora? I really think you should just go home.”
“Yes,” Cora murmured, feeling guilty she’d invented an appointment to get out of a long lunch with the beautiful Phoebe. “I will.”
“Oh, good. Come on, I’ll walk with you.”
Alone,at last, but not for long. Less than an hour later, Cora’s phone began to ring.
“What’s going on?” She should have expected Anastasios to be in touch.
“Nothing, I’m fine. Just a bit of a bug.”
“You areneversick.”
Cora’s smile was grim. “Everyone’s sick sometimes.”
“Have you seen a doctor?”
“I’m sure it’s just something I ate. I’m already feeling much better.” And she was. Having delicately eaten her way through the bag of bread, her stomach had settled. A flat lemonade now was giving her a burst of energy. The waves of morning sickness never lasted long, but they were intense when they gripped her.
“I’ll send a doctor to you.”
“Oh my God, Tasso, lay off, okay? I’m fine. I just need to rest.”
Of course,that wasn’t the end of it. Her phone began to sing five minutes later: Nicholas. “Cora, what’s going on?”
“I have food poisoning,” she muttered. “And a sudden hankering to murder my family. Honestly, you are all the worst,” but she smiled as she said it, because she felt their protective love and knew how much she’d need it in the next few months. Years? The rest of her life?
Being a single mom was going to be hard. Oh, she had the privilege of a job she loved and could do from home, and absolute financial security, but to raise Samir’s child away from Samir, away from the headlines…how could she do it?
And once news got out that she was pregnant, how long would it take Samir to realise he was the father?
But then, it would be his choice. He could pretend he didn’t know, hadn’t seen. He could continue with his life, without having to acknowledge her. Or…?Or.The smallest word with the biggest amount of false hope.Orwhat? Her brain pushed. Do you think he might do away with all royal conventions and expectations and decide to marry you?
She let out an angry sigh.
Since when did she evenwantmarriage? After Alf, she’d sworn off the idea of any kind of relationship, let alone a permanent one. But then, years later, Samir had come bursting into her life and nothing would ever be the same again.
10
“I’M SO GLAD TO see you’re feeling better,” Phoebe said kindly, squeezing Cora’s hand. And Corawasfeeling better. A week after their unplanned meeting and Phoebe hadn’t been sick once. It was almost as if she’d simply needed her family’s support—though they didn’t know what they were supporting her through—to kick morning sickness altogether.
“Thank you for rousing the troops,” Cora said with a wry grin. “My phone rung hot all afternoon with worried Xenakis men.”
“I’m so sorry,” Phoebe laughed and rolled her eyes. “I made one off-hand comment to Tasso and the next thing I knew, it was as though I’d said you’d lost a limb. They all just adore you.”
“Yes,” she said, taking consolation from that. After all, the fact she was pregnant with the baby of a man who could never be with her, who she wanted to be with every moment of every day, was made marginally easier by the idea of bringing a little one into this family.
“I never meant to stir up a hornet’s nest though.”