Page 43 of Will You (Not) Marry Me

“I’m sorry,” she whispered into his shirt, so quiet he barely heard her. Although it was almost physically painful, Finn pushed her back a little so he could see her face, keeping his hands firmly on her shoulders lest she disappear in a puff of smoke. Tears were rolling silently down her cheeks, and all Finn wanted to do was scoop her up and wipe each one away.

“What could you possibly be sorry for?” he asked, genuinely confused.

“I know you need to announce your engagement in a minute,” she said, looking up at him with a wry smile. “Tobias explained while he was leading us here. Sorry for causing chaos when you have important things to be doing. Pretty typical of me, huh?”

Her bottom lip quivered at that, and it would have been comical if it weren’t so painful to see. Eva tucked her head, swiped her hands across her cheeks, and took a deep breath before looking back up at Finn.

He wanted to tell her that there was nothing to apologize for, that seeing her here was the best thing that had happened in weeks.

“Eva, I—”

“I’m pregnant.”

Finn shut his mouth so fast his teeth clicked.

“That’s why I came in person,” she said quickly. “It wasn’t really a conversation I wanted to have over the phone. And yes, it’s definitely, one hundred percent yours. I promise.”

“Is that why you look so unwell?” Finn asked, noting the dark circles beneath her eyes.

She smiled a little and shrugged. “That and the jet lag and running through the city and a bunch of other things.”

Eva was pregnant. Finn’s brain was trying to process the new information, but he honestly didn’t know what to say. He scrambled for words as she looked down at the toes of her boots, her shoulders hunching smaller with every second of his silence.

“Eva,” he said, forcing his mouth to work. “I—”

“Your Highness!”

Finn could have screamed, a proper primal yell of frustration, as the lead crew member appeared next to them as if by magic, throwing a confused glance at Eva before turning his attention back to Finn.

“Apologies, sir, but we’re due to go live in just a few moments, and I really must insist that we stay on schedule.”

Still in shock, Finn felt his feet move backwards as the man, throwing propriety and decorum to the wind, took hold of his arm and tugged him along.

“Go,” Eva insisted, for once sounding like a princess, brimming with authority. “We can talk more after your announcement, if you want to?”

If he wanted to? All he wanted to do was talk to her, for the rest of his life, till the end of his days. But the words got choked in his throat and were left unspoken as he was dragged back through the maze of hallways to stand in front of a camera and announce his engagement to the entirely wrong woman.

CHAPTER20

EVA

Well, she had done it. She felt cold all over and like there were knives in her throat, but she had done it.

Eva still wasn’t entirely sure if Finn’s reaction had been a positive one or not. He’d mostly just seemed shocked, which was fair enough. But he had been coming to find her, hadn’t he? He’d been on his way to the courtyard to meet up with her. He hadn’t just ignored her text or called security on her. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it?

She could slap herself. A good sign for what? He was being dragged off to announce his engagement. She was being delusional.

Eva took a deep breath in the empty hallway and wiped her cheeks again on the cuffs of her jacket. She probably looked like she’d crawled out of a sewer drain. She certainly felt like it. Finn noticing that she looked sick, not like herself, had almost been enough to break her in two. But she’d managed to spit it out, to tell him that she was pregnant. She had done the right thing.

Even though she just wanted to curl up on the floor right now and sleep for a year, she had to admit that she did feel better. Like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. There would be no more secrets, certainly no more lies, and the ball was firmly in Finn’s court. If he didn’t want anything to do with her, she understood. She couldn’t expect him to tell anyone either. What a mess that would be.

It would certainly be kind of an awkward thing to break to your new fiancée and everything. God, now she had to tell her parents…

Before Eva could dwell on that terrifying prospect, she turned on her heel and made her way back the way she’d come. She didn’t want to accidentally overhear the engagement announcement. The thought made her sick. She’d go and find Tobias and Abbie and wait patiently to hear whether Finn even wanted to speak to her again. Her feet felt like lead as she dragged them step by step further away from Finn, and further away from any delusional thoughts.

She’d barely turned the corner of the hallway when she felt hands grab her from behind. Letting out a terrified squeak, Eva froze, convinced a security guard was about to slap her in handcuffs and drag her out of the palace. Then she really would have some explaining to do to her family.

“It’s me.”

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