Page 51 of The Un-Apparent Heir

“No,” Sanne answered. “Okay, probably, but that’s not what is happening. Paul, Mom is sick. There was an accident and Linny says it’s bad. We need to go home. Now.”

“Sanne, it’s like three AM.”

“Linny was begging, Paul. I need to get home.”

Paul sat up and stared. “How bad?”

“Linny seems to think Mom is going to die. It’s bad.”

“Fuck. Okay. Um… well, let me make some calls. You nurse him. Just… focus on the baby.”

Sanne stared at Keir, now wide awake and angry. She shook but didn’t cry. She was panicked—on the wrong side of the ocean, far from those she loved most. Or so she’d thought until now. She was torn between the need to reach them and caring for the soul who depended on her for everything. Keir’s needs kept her grounded. She wouldn’t put the baby down.

Sanne heard Paul argue with someone in the other room.

“Well fuck you!” He shouted. “I need a plane then. I need a fucking plane. I will hire it?—”

He listened. “No. Fuck no. I am not flying separately. What the fuck, Dad?”

Paul rarely lost it or raised his voice. He was the calmest, gentlest soul. But now, he was being downright aggressive. He never spoke to his father this way. She held her baby so close, feeling every need to block out the world and protect him, Paul did the same. Everything he held dear was in that cottage and it all needed to make it back to the States.

“Well, fuck you, Dad. Really. I will be sure to relay your lack of fucks to give! Fucking protocol! Fucking?—”

He was cut off. “Mum, I don’t… Mum, don’t listen to him. Do not…”

Paul’s voice broke. “Mummy, please, can you not just… override this?”

He pleaded with her. He wanted so badly for something he couldn’t have.

“Why? What do you mean we’ll talk about it? This is not how protocol?—”

He was in tears. “Okay, what the fuck ever. But this conversation isn’t over.”

He hung up and returned, “I have failed, Sanne.”

“Paul, you haven’t failed.”

“I’ve failed you. I’ve failed him. I cannot?—”

“Paul, I need you to use your words, okay? Like, I cannot think right now.”

“I called Natalie. She said she wasn’t authorised to take us. What the ever-loving fuck? Like, is she punishing us for the baby? And then I called Dad and he said not only could she not take us, he could send a charter for you and the baby because you’re nursing, but he cannot authorise me to fly with you. He flat-out will not allow it. Protocol this and that. What the fuck?”

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly. I don’t know.”

“Paul, this is crazy!”

“I know. Protocol dictates the heir, and the spare cannot travel together—but he’s not the heir to anything. Keir is just a baby. He’s just… Natalie and Ed will have a baby soon and make this all pointless.”

“We can hope. He must just be careful.”

“Well, I’m not going to fucking let you fly alone. I’m going with. I’ll take the heat later. Fuck my dad!”

“They deliberately defied my orders!” Robbie was hopping mad over breakfast.

Ed kept his head down. He and Natalie remained sympathetic to her brother’s desire to go rogue. Without knowing the details of their inability to produce an heir, Paul couldn’t know how essential following protocol was. Two, Ed knew he’d never let Natalie fly home alone under such circumstances—let alone with a newborn. It felt inhumane. He was on Paul’s side.

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