Page 18 of Royally Knocked Up (Princes of Passion #1)

HAILEY

S he couldn’t face him. She could feel the weight of his presence behind her — so much heavier, somehow, than that of the king at the head of the room.

I should have told him right away .

“I don’t understand.” Enzo’s voice sounded hollow. “You’re pregnant?”

“I just found out. I was going to tell you, Enzo.”

“But you didn’t.”

“I was— I was thinking about how to do it…” I was thinking of how to let you know that I’ve been working with your father all this time.

“How does this magazine know before I do?” he asked. “If you didn’t tell me, who did you tell?”

“No one! I didn’t tell anybody, Enzo. You have to believe me. I would never have done that.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how they found out.”

“You were seen buying a pregnancy test,” the king spoke up. “Seen by someone who had seen you checking into a hotel with my son.”

“I wasn’t checking in with him. He was checking me in.”

“The palace contacted the source,” the king told her.

“Apparently the two of you seemed very close. Your behavior was suspicious enough that he began to have you followed. He must have thought there would be something to find, and there was.” He looked at Enzo.

“You may not have checked into the hotel room with her, but you stayed there last night. That’s in the article.

You were seen going into her hotel room last night, and you never left.

That was how I knew where to find you this morning.

That was how the source knew that you were the father of her child. ”

“But how could they have known the test was positive?” Hailey stammered. “I didn’t take it until late last night.”

“With a story this salacious, no one would wait for proof,” the king said darkly. “The rumor was enough to go to print.” He sighed. “And now I hear you tell me that it’s true.”

Enzo looked from Hailey to his father and back again, clearly making up his mind about something.

Then he took a step in his father’s direction. “All right,” he said. “I confess, Father. Is that what you want to hear? I’ve fallen in love with this woman.”

In love?

They hadn’t said those words to one another yet.

But seeing Enzo stand so boldly before the king and say it — this man who was famous for never taking anything seriously — Hailey knew at once that she felt the same way.

She loved him. He was more important to her than anything else in this horrible, mixed-up situation.

How could she have spent all this time worrying about professional consequences?

She could handle whatever came professionally, but the thought of losing him was heartbreaking.

She saw the king’s expression harden. “Enzo, I’ll deal with you later,” he said.

“There’s no dealing with me for you to do!

You’ve made it clear that you don’t want me to spend my days fooling around at bars, wasting time with people I don’t feel any sense of commitment to.

You don’t want me to have flings with random women.

Fine. I can understand that, even though I’ve taken issue with how much you want to control.

But, Father, you can’t possibly also say that you don’t want me to have serious feelings for a woman.

I know that I should have screened her first, allowed the palace to determine whether there was anything unsavory about her, but I trust Hailey.

Do whatever investigations you feel you need to do.

I’m sure you won’t turn up anything unpleasant about her.

Hailey felt queasy and panicked. She wanted to run. She wanted to leave and take Enzo with her, before he could hear what his father would say next. And she knew there was no way for that to happen.

It was inevitable now — it was already happening. She could only watch in agony as the truth came out.

When the king spoke, it wasn’t to Enzo at all. It was to Hailey.

“This wasn’t what you were paid for,” he said.

She stood frozen, unable to react.

“I was going to give you a royal commendation,” he said.

“I brought you here just yesterday to congratulate you on the job you had done. You must have known this then. And you did nothing. You said nothing. You had already betrayed the crown, and you stood there and allowed me to congratulate you for it.”

“Betrayed the crown?” Enzo repeated. “Father, what are you talking about? Hailey hasn’t betrayed the crown.”

Then the rest of the king’s words must have registered with him, because he frowned. “Wait a moment,” he said, turning to Hailey. “You were here yesterday?”

“Enzo, I can explain.”

“You keep saying that,” he said, his tone darkening. “I want to believe you, but — first I find out you’re pregnant from a magazine. I assume it’s my child?”

“Of course it is. Enzo, how can you even ask me that? You must know that I haven’t been with anyone else since you and I first met.”

“I’d like to believe that, but I don’t know what to think right now. Why didn’t you tell me as soon as you knew you were pregnant?”

“I meant to tell you! I was waiting for the right moment…”

“And then I find out that you were at the palace yesterday? Were you waiting for the right moment to tell me that too?”

“I was,” she whispered.

“Well, I think you’ve got your moment. Tell me. What were you doing here? Why was my father going to give you a commendation? He says this isn’t what you were hired to do, so tell me what you were hired to do. I think I have a right to know.”

“You do,” she said quietly. “And I should have told you sooner, Enzo, but I didn’t know how. I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me.”

He waited. His face showed no expression.

She drew a deep breath. “I’m here because I was hired by your father,” she said. “He brought me to Monteverde to do a job.”

“I’m guessing that job wasn’t events planning at La Fantasia.”

“No.” She closed her eyes. “I lied to you. Right from the start.”

“Go on.”

“I’m not an events planner. I’m a private investigator.”

His eyes widened. Even though he had been suspicious, she could tell this was the last thing he had expected to hear. “You’re what?”

“I work as a private investigator. I’m good at what I do.”

The king cleared his throat.

“I’m usually good at what I do,” she amended.

“I’m in high demand, although this is the first time I’ve ever been hired by a member of any royal family.

This job — you have to understand, Enzo, this job meant a lot to me.

More than any other job I’ve ever had. I’ve been trying to grapple with that fact for such a long time now. This hasn’t been easy.”

If he was moved by that at all, he didn’t show it. “What was the job?”

Hailey sighed. “I was hired to watch… you,” she said. “You were the mark. Your father hired me to go to La Fantasia and…”

“And what ?”

“And keep you out of trouble,” she said. “Keep you from making any headlines or doing anything that would draw attention to you.”

He stared at her for a long moment.

She was sure he was revisiting their whole history, rethinking everything that had happened between the two of them. Redefining it in the context of this new information.

She wanted to interrupt that process, to tell him that everything had been real and there was no reason to doubt. But it felt impossible. Why would he believe her now, after everything? He had to come to his own conclusion.

“So the whole time,” he said slowly, “everything that happened at the resort — it was all just you trying to keep me out of trouble for my father’s sake?”

“That was the job that was given to me,” Hailey said. “That was what I was sent to do. Enzo, you have to understand, I took that job before I knew you. Before we were friends. Everything changed once I got to know you.”

“Did it? What changed? Did you stop working for my father? Because it sounds like you came right back to Luria to report to him on what a thorough job you’d done at controlling me. Just like he wanted you to do.”

“It was never about controlling you.”

“No? What about all those nights I tried to get you into Vista Grande, and you never wanted to go? I thought it was just your personality, Hailey. I thought, oh, my new friend prefers a quiet night in. I decided I liked you enough that I’d go ahead and acclimate to your preferences.

But that was all a lie, wasn’t it? The truth is, I have no idea whether you like going out or staying in.

I don’t know anything at all about you, because it was all an act designed to get me to do what you wanted. ”

“It wasn’t an act,” she whispered.

“Don’t. Don’t say that to me now, because it was.

Of course it was. You couldn’t have sat there listening to me open up about how hard I found it, knowing that my father needed to draw lines around the life I lived, and all the while known that you were helping him draw those lines, if our friendship had been what I thought it was. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Don’t say that,” Hailey pleaded. “What happened between you and me was real, Enzo. What you said a few moments ago — I feel the same way.”

He shook his head. “I don’t even want to hear about what I said,” he told her. “I didn’t know the truth when I said that, and now that I do, everything is different. I can’t possibly feel what I felt before you were honest with me.”

“But… Enzo, I love you.”

“Stop lying. It’s too late for that,” he said. “I don’t want to hear any more.”

“Enzo, please. We’re going to have a baby.” Just saying the words was a knife to her gut. He had to believe that this was real. There was so much at stake here. How could he turn on her now? Surely this was bigger than any mistakes that had been made in their past…

The prince whirled. His eyes were blazing.

“Don’t you talk to me about a baby,” he snapped.

He had never come at her like this. It fascinated her. It terrified her. She stood frozen.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” he said.

“I don’t know what you expect from me. You lie to me, and then you come to me and tell me we’re having a baby — I mean, were you ever going to tell me that if you hadn’t been outed by this excuse for a reporter?

Or would you have gone home with this baby as your souvenir of your dalliance with a prince? ”

“How can you think that of me?” she whispered.

His face was stone. “I don’t even know you.”

He turned and stalked out of the throne room.

Hailey watched him go, trembling from head to foot. Then she turned to face the king.

He didn’t meet her eyes. He was looking at one of his attendants. “Get the girl out of here,” he said. “Give her some money and make sure she isn’t going to talk.”

“I don’t want any money,” Hailey protested.

“You came here to do a job.” The king still wasn’t looking at her.

“The crown pays its debts, and you will be paid for the work you did. There will be no royal commendation, of course, and you’ll be sent out of Monteverde at once.

And you won’t be welcome to come back. You’ve let us down tremendously.

As for the baby — the crown will provide a sum for it, in exchange for which neither you nor that child are ever to try to contact any of us again. ”

He signaled, and Hailey knew she was dismissed.