Page 99 of Royal Caleva: Luis

It brought home yet again the vast gulf that separated her life from his.

The doctor opened the door silently and waved them through. The room was large and dim. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust enough to focus on the figure lying in the bed, surrounded by blinking monitors and seemingly held captive by a web of wires and intravenous lines running to his body.

His eyes were closed, and his face was drawn, the angles of his strong bones painfully sharp. More shocking was his terrible stillness. All his charisma and power and life force had been stripped away by the poison. He looked not like a king, but like a very sick man.

Eve had to swallow a gasp as fear seared through her. The doctor had said Luis would survive, but his appearance made that hard to believe.

Grace lifted her hand to cover her mouth, tears gleaming in her eyes. Eve pushed her own distress aside and squeezed her daughter’s shoulder in reassurance before checking on Raul.

The prince’s face had lost all color. He looked as though someone had walloped him in the gut. She reached for his hand, folding her fingers around his, not caring if she was being presumptuous. He looked startled and then gripped her hand almost convulsively.

Eve could almost feel all of them sending their hearts toward the man lying motionless on the white sheets. If a person could be healed by the force of love, Luis should be rising from his bed at any moment.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way.

No one moved for several minutes as they hoped Luis would open his eyes or at least stir to demonstrate that he was alive.

Dr. Ibarra finally stepped between them and the bed, gesturing that they should leave the room.

Raul released Eve’s hand when they turned to exit. The moment the door closed behind the doctor, he said, “I wish to stay in the room with him tonight.”

“I do too,” Grace said. “I’ll sit in one of the recliners.”

Eve had noticed the two overstuffed chairs at one side of the room.

“I…” Dr. Ibarra hesitated as her gaze traveled between Raul’s and Grace’s faces.

“I want to be with him when he wakes up,” Raul said, his voice carrying a snap of command.

Dr. Ibarra gave in with a nod. “But you must not attempt to wake him. His body is in a battle to recover from the effects of the poison. He needs all the rest he can get.”

Grace turned to Eve. “Mom, you’ll stay here, too, won’t you? There’s that sofa in the waiting room.”

“Of course I’ll stay,” Eve said, although she once again felt the pang of having no official reason even to be in the waiting room in the royal wing of the hospital. But Grace would need her if Luis took a turn for the worse.

“I’ll text you when he wakes up.” Grace hugged her and headed for the door with Raul and the doctor.

Eve returned to the waiting room and sank into the closest chair. Doubling over, she gave way to a long, wrenching sob. She had expected Luis to look ill, but not so inert that he seemed lifeless. She felt like she had been kicked in the stomach. Another sob twisted itself from her throat.

Mikel had said that the doctors refused to make a commitment about Luis’s full recovery. After seeing Luis, Eve discounted Dr. Ibarra’s reassurances to Raul that his father would be fine. She feared that the doctor had just been offering comfort to a worried son.

She hoped like hell that Mikel was hot on the trail of whoever had done this. The poisoner deserved to rot in CárcelMax along with Odette Fontaine.

“Señora, may I get you anything?”

Eve straightened to find Jacobo kneeling beside her, offering a box of tissues. The gesture reminded her of Luis’s handkerchief, and a fresh wave of tears coursed down her cheeks. “Thank you,” she said, accepting the tissues. “I…”

There was nothing he could get her that would cure this anguish.

“I can show you to a bedroom where you can rest. It will be more comfortable.”

She felt like she shouldn’t have the luxury of a bed when Grace and Raul were keeping vigil in chairs. Big, comfortable chairs, but still not beds. Her rational self reasserted itself. “That would be great.”

The receptionist led her to a carpeted hallway that looked like it belonged in a hotel. Opening one of several doors, he gestured her into a small but plush bedroom. “The bathroom is equipped with toiletries,” he said. “You’ll find the Wi-Fi password on the credenza. Buenas noches.”

He closed the door with a soft click, and Eve went to the bed to touch the soft cream-colored blanket folded at its foot. The coat of arms of Caleva was embroidered in teal green in one corner. She rubbed her fingers against the fabric, guessing by the texture that it was cashmere.

She didn’t belong here. In this room. In this wing. Anywhere near Luis. It didn’t matter how much she loved him, he was the king. She was not a queen.

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