Page 29 of His Hidden Royal Heirs

He knew she was attracted to him still. She could not hide her reaction to him. The issue was that he had his own reaction toher, and he did not care for it. She haunted his dreams, in that same way she had before he’d known she carried his children. As if this huge turn of events had not changed anything at all.

When itshould.

Still, Cristhian had not lost his head. He had continued to engage her in conversation, in meals together. He had worked on charming her, and he thought he was succeeding as that suspicious look rarely crossed her face anymore. He would have been happy to leave it at just the two of them for a few days more yet, but he could sense she had some concerns about her doctor’s appointment, so he had done everything in his considerable power to have the doctor arrive, hiring an entire fleet of people to get the doctor across closed roads and looming snowdrifts.

Though he still felt marriage the best course of action, and certainly something that needed to be acted upon before they approached any signs of her going into labor, making certain all three parties were healthy was paramount to everything else.

Even worrying about getting a clergy member who could marry them to the castle.

The doctor arrived one snowy afternoon, with the fleet he’d hired to get her to the castle safely.

She was a middle-aged woman with a no-nonsense way about her that Cristhian appreciated, and her reputation was one of excellent work and, just as important, working with royals and celebrities and never once letting their secrets wind their way into the press.

Cristhian still had not contacted King Rendall, and since the king’s own men had searched for months for Zia with no luck, he figured he still had a few weeks yet before he needed to answer to the man.

He would do so with a clear way forward. This respite wasn’trunning away. It was preparing a battle plan. Just as he haddone once as a young man, ready to cut ties with his mother’s family. More or less.

“I can do an exam,” the doctor explained to him as they walked up the staircase to Zia’s room. “But a paternity test will have to wait until we have access to a lab without worrying about the state of the roads.”

Cristhian nodded. He had not been lying to Zia about not having any true concerns about paternity, but a child of his, a child of hers... There would need to be legal proof along with protection. So that would be the next step after this.

When they knocked on the door to her suite, Zia answered the door herself. He made the introductions, there was some brief small talk, and then the doctor got to work. She didn’t seem to have much in the way of equipment, but she chatted cheerfully while she worked, setting Zia up in her bed, propped up on pillows.

She took vitals, then talked them through the process, explaining her sonogram machine—an incredibly small little device—would transmit the images to her laptop screen, set up on the nightstand next to the doctor. Cristhian was somewhat dubious of the equipment, but once she started...he forgot all about technology.

On the screen, it was black and gray. The gray and white forming different shapes against the black. The doctor held her little machine this way and that on Zia’s round stomach. She made considering noises, but Cristhian couldn’t begin to imagine what they meant.

Then it was hard to listen to her, because she explained the oddwomp-wompnoise that filled the room was a heartbeat. And then another.

His children’s hearts. Beating. The sound echoed inside him like some kind of avalanche.

Eventually, the doctor took the machine off Zia’s stomach, and gave Zia permission to get comfortable. She clicked a few keys on her laptop and pulled up one of the sonogram images.

“This is Baby A,” she explained, and she outlined the head, an arm, a knee. She did the same with Baby B. She mentioned heart rates and growth patterns, but Cristhian couldn’t take it all in once he could fully recognize what she outlined as bodies.

He had seen the physical evidence of them all these days from the size of Zia’s stomach. He had been fascinated that two children could be nestled inside her, and still...this was something else entirely.

Hearts beating. Limbs moving. Life. A life he’d had a hand in creating. It swamped him, in a way perhaps he had not allowed himself to fully accept yet.

“You are very lucky, ma’am,” the doctor said to Zia. “Everything is just as it should be. I see no risk factors for preterm labor. At this rate, you could make it to thirty-six weeks and perhaps even after. We’ll want to keep a close eye on things, of course, but everything is just as it should be.”

But Zia wasn’t looking at the doctor, and neither was he.

“We can discuss the sex, if you’d like,” the doctor continued.

Neither of them looked at the doctor. Neither of them answered her. The doctor cleared her throat, but Cristhian could not take his eyes off the tears in Zia’s. The way everything about her shone with some... He did not know. He felt bowled over byeverything. Like he was no longer the foundation he stood on, survived on.

Like something else had upended him, wrestled his control and strength away. Which was ludicrous, of course, and a thought to be pushed away. Without control, only danger and tragedy lay ahead.

“I’ll...give you two a private moment,” the doctor said. “Then we can discuss next steps once you’re ready.”

Cristhian had no idea if the doctor left then. He couldn’t have cared less. He couldn’t seem to break his gaze from the myriad of Zia’s green. The tears that spilled over now, dotting her cheeks like sparkling jewels.

He brushed the tears away. “What is this?” he murmured, something heavy and painful in his chest, and yet it held no candle to the pain the tears brought.

Zia shook her head and sniffled. “I cry every time I hear their heartbeats. Not out of any sadness. It’s just so amazing. I don’t know how to explain it. They just...are about to exist in this world and I...” Her voice squeaked, and she made a vague kind of gesture.

But she didn’t have to explain what she felt. Perhaps he would not shed any tears, but he understood theoverwhelmingness. It was just...too big, this reality of theirs. Children.Children. Coming sooner rather than later. Each their own individual person who would exist and live in this world.

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