Page 42 of Royally Knocked Up
Hailey was on her way to the aisle containing stomach remedies when she walked through the tampon aisle. At first, she hardlynoticed, so intent was she on getting something that would make her feel better.
And then, gradually, she came to a stop.
She had run out of tampons at the very beginning of her stay at La Fantasia. She had meant to go into town and procure more, but she had gotten distracted by everything that had happened, and she had never gone.
She’d never needed to go.
Now a feeling of numbness swept through her, and she turned to the head of the aisle, where she knew — from having been in countless identical drugstores — that she would find a rack of pregnancy tests.
No way.
It couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible.
But that was nonsense. Of course it was possible. Ninth-grade biology class had made that abundantly clear.
She picked up one of the pregnancy tests and carried it to the counter in a daze. She had been through this in the past — a false alarm, in that instance — but it had been years. She hadn’t thought it would happen again, and she certainly hadn’t imagined that it would happen on this trip. On this assignment.
With a prince.
But the test would be negative. It had to be negative.
After she’d paid, she slipped it into her purse and went back out to the car. Romano didn’t ask her any questions, and she didn’t speak again until they had arrived at the hotel.
Enzo was already there, waiting for her.
“Where did you go?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her. “I thought I would surprise you, coming back early, but you weren’t here.”
Hailey had trouble even bringing herself to speak. This was just one more thing she was going to have to keep from him, and it made her feel like the worst person alive. “I went out shopping,” she said.
“You didn’t buy anything,” he noticed, and she could have kicked herself for coming up with such a weak lie.
“I didn’t see anything I wanted.”
“I’ll take you out shopping tomorrow,” Enzo said with a smile. “I’ll take you to the best stores in the city. We’ll find what you need, whatever it is.”
The guilt threatened to pull her under. “You don’t have to do that, Enzo. You don’t have to do anything for me.”
She could tell she was worrying him, but there was nothing she could do about it. There was no explanation she could give. She was truly stuck, and she knew it.
She let him take her to bed, but she couldn’t bring herself to do more than kiss him briefly and roll away. A part of her wanted to just tell him to leave, to go back to his place so she could be on her own tonight. But she couldn’t do that either. What if this was the last night she had with him?
Their time was running out. There was no way to be sure when it would end.
She waited until he fell asleep, snuck into the bathroom and took the pregnancy test.
When it came up positive, she felt no surprise, just a sinking feeling of dread.
She had no idea what she was going to do or how she was going to handle this — but in a few days, she would be going home. She would deal with it then.
For now, she had to destroy the evidence. She threw the test away, then bundled up the bathroom garbage bag, hurried out of the hotel, and dropped it into a dumpster.
She went back upstairs and got into bed — but she lay awake, shivering, unable to relax.
She was going to have to find a way to tell Enzo about this. To keep this from him would be the biggest betrayal of all.
But what on earth would he say when he found out?
She couldn’t begin to imagine — and the thought of that conversation terrified her.
