The Cursed Prince

After lunchtime, Doctor Vitas came.

"So?" Mars stared at the very, very old doctor with anticipation in his eyes. Doctor Vitas was checking Emmelyn's healthy by asking her to answer some questions, and then he checked her pulse and heart rate.

"Well..." The old physician turned to Mars and smiled. "Congratulations, Your Highness... you will soon become a father."

Even though he was expecting the news after one month of regularly doing the job of planting his seeds inside her, the crown prince was still dumbfounded. He was rooted to his spot and stared at Emmelyn with disbelief.

The girl was just as surprised. She knew she was supposed to be pregnant after doing that so many times with this man, but still.. when the news came, she was not ready to accept it. 

Subconsciously, she looked at her flat stomach.

Wow...

There was a life in there.

Her heart suddenly turned into a mess.

"I-I beg your pardon—I'm afraid I didn't catch that," said Mars in a stammer. Suddenly his chest was pounding so hard. It felt almost like his heart wanted to jump out of his chest. "Could you repeat it?"

He stared at Doctor Vitas's lips, not wanting to miss out on any single word. He thought he misheard the doctor just now.

Mars was worried that he had been blinded by his intense hope and his brain made up things...

"I said, Lady Emmelyn is pregnant. I think she's around 5 or 6 weeks in now. At the moment, it's still not visible, but all the signs are there. The increased appetite, the change in her sense of taste, and several other signs. I also calculated the time you both started trying to conceive and the last time Lady Emmelyn got her period. That's how I came up with 6 weeks."

Doctor Vitas repeated his words and added more details. The old man intentionally spoke slowly, to make sure the would-be parent understand him.

The crown prince suddenly looked like he lost some brain cells and couldn't react properly.

"Oh...." Mars nodded absent-mindedly.

So, she was six weeks in.

He quickly did the math in his head to predict when his child would be born.

"Next July?" He asked Doctor Vitas in a doubtful voice.

The old man nodded. "Yes, around July next year, Your Highness."

"Oh.. that's amazing!" Mars muttered to himself. He turned to Emmelyn who was also looking dumbfounded. She didn't really know how she should respond to this good news.

Wow... She was really pregnant!

Next week, she actually wanted to kill the king, and she was ready to die as the punishment. After she killed the enemy, she could die without regret.

All her family was gone and she had no one to go back to anyway... Dying wasn't such a bad option.

She even once thought that by dying for killing the king, she could make the Strongmoor family suffer further by depriving them of the heir that only she could provide.

However, she wasn't counting on getting pregnant so quickly. Now that they knew she was pregnant, even if she killed the king, they wouldn't let her die until she gave birth to that baby.

She was really conflicted. What should she do now?

"Honey..." Mars walked slowly toward Emmelyn and then crouched down, hugging her knees. After the initial shock and making sure he didn't mishear, Mars was filled with so much joy. He looked at Emmelyn lovingly and whispered, "Did you hear that? We are going to have a baby."

Emmelyn pressed her lips. Her heart melted at the sight of those two golden irises, staring at her lovingly, with so much joy evident on his face. 

Emmelyn realized how much she had grown to love this man before her. When she came to the capital to get her revenge, she also didn't count on the possibility that she would fall in love with the prince.

Couldn't blame her though. The crown prince's reputation out there was really bad. He was known as the devil incarnate himself.

So, that was the image that Emmelyn had about him before she met him and knew him personally. 

Who would fall for the devil, right? Surely, nobody in their right mind!

That's what she thought months ago. However, now she proved herself wrong.

What should she do now?

Should she just reconsider her plans to kill the king?

How could she hurt this man by killing his father? And this child that was growing in her womb... would call the king grandfather...

Would she really have the heart to let this child born without ever seeing their grandfather?

[They would hate me for killing their grandfather, just like I hate the king for killing my family.]

[Ugh...]

Emmelyn felt trapped by the vicious cycle.

Maybe she was really jinxed.

She couldn't even get her revenge properly. She had to be entangled with the enemy and ended up carrying his child. 

She came here to kill the prince but now she was falling for him?

And her next target, the king, now suddenly became the grandfather of the baby she was carrying.

She hated the Strongmoors for her family's demise, but soon her child would be one of them. If she killed them, she could imagine, the child would grow up hating her. It's truly a vicious cycle. One must stop to end the cycle.

Should she be the one to stop it?

Now that she was really pregnant.. she might as well finish her end of the deal and then left. She shouldn't stay too long and build a connection with the children she was going to give birth to, otherwise, she might never be able to go.

While Mars was away, Emmelyn had been thinking hard about her feelings and realized one thing. She may have forgiven Mars for the war.. but not the king. And she also could never forget what had happened between their two families.

How could she forget the fact that her parents and siblings all died because of Draec's invasion? No matter how much she liked or even loved the crown prince, he and his father were still the enemies.

She could never be family with them.

Their sins may be forgiven, but not forgotten.

This thought made Emmelyn able to steel her heart. She forced a smile and nodded, "Congratulations, Your Highness. You will have your first heir."

Her as-a-matter-of-factly response made Mars a little bit disappointed. He said to her, they would have a baby and she responded by saying HE would have HIS first heir.

She said those words as if to remind him of their agreement that she was just renting out her womb. The children that would be born out of their agreement were his and his alone.

It was sad to be the only one celebrating the pregnancy.

However, Mars pretended not to care. His words were crisp and happy when he said to her, "I can't wait to welcome him to the world."

Emmelyn's heart ached for him. She wished she could share his happiness. Unfortunately, her heart wouldn't allow it.

She must be strict with herself. This was part of their agreement. One that would give Wintermere back to her. So, she shouldn't let her determination waver.

She already canceled her plans to kill the prince and the king. Surely that was enough?