“Both of you are coming with me, right now,” he growled, his voice shaking with barely controlled rage.
“Fine,” Quincy said. “But if you are going to blow up once we get back to the palace, you can direct everything to me, Father, not Olivia.”
His words set Lamont off, and for the first time, Olivia saw the king’s face turn crimson as he lost it. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? You ran out on your own wedding! Parliament is calling for your crown, and you come back to me with the woman who is your stepsister and she’s pregnant!”
“And my wife,” Quincy said, holding up Olivia’s hand. “We got married, Father.”
His eyes widened at the ring, and he yelled in pure frustration. “You idiot! You are going to lose everything! What were you thinking?”
“We love each other,” Quincy said and put himself between Lamont and Olivia. “I love her, Father, just as you loved Mother.”
“This is an outrage! Your mother is going to be beside herself,” he yelled over Quincy’s shoulder at Olivia. “Once she knows what happened, I don’t know what she’ll do, but I do know you two are getting this annulled, today! You are not going to marry your stepsister!”
Quincy yelled back, but Olivia had stopped listening. Her stomach clenched painfully, and suddenly, the world spun around her. Something was wrong. She tried to say something, but her words were drowned out by their yelling. She stepped forward and grabbed Quincy’s shoulder. He turned to hold her back, but he gripped her arms when she faltered.
“Olivia? Olivia?”
“Wrong… the baby,” she whispered. Everything went dark, and her last thought was of losing their child before they ever had a chance to meet it.
***
Quincy paced up and down the hall of the hospital, waiting to hear about Olivia. By the time the ambulance had arrived, she’d been bleeding and Quincy feared the worst for her and the baby. He didn’t care anymore about his kingdom or his dad. He just needed to know that Olivia was going to make it.
Lamont stood at the other end of the hall and hadn’t taken his eyes off his son the whole time. Melinda was on her way, too, but Quincy didn’t want to deal with anyone until he knew what was going on.
“Son,” Lamont said as he approached him finally, “we need to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Gigi and her parents… They are going to claim your crown.”
Quincy’s hands curled into fists and for the first time in his life he wanted to hit his father. “Seriously? My wife, the woman I love, is lying in a hospital bed, possibly losing our child, and you’re going to talk to me about my damn crown?”
“It’s your life, Quincy.”
“No, she is my life. That baby, if it survives, is my life. I can’t follow the same path you did, Dad. I just can’t! I love her, and I am not going to give her up, not for anyone. Not even you.”
He turned away from Lamont and ran a hand through his hair. Why was it taking so damn long? He couldn’t take this much longer, and his dad continually watching him with that look of disbelief wasn’t helping at all. What didn’t he understand about how he felt for Olivia? He loved her deeply and nothing was going to change that, ever.
“Dad, just go away, please,” he said, desperate to be alone.
“Lamont? What’s going on?” Melinda called as she entered the hall. “Where’s Olivia?”
“She’s still in there,” Lamont said. “We don’t know anything yet.”
“You said she was… pregnant, but I don’t understand.”
Lamont nodded to Quincy. “You might want to ask him what’s going on and maybe you can talk some sense into him.”
Melinda looked from one to the other, shaking her head. “What are you saying? Quincy? You and Olivia… you… you got her pregnant?”
“And married—they got married in Nebraska!” Lamont fumed, but to Quincy’s surprise, Melinda turned around and very politely told him to calm down and walk it off. Lamont’s mouth dropped open, but he did as his wife said and stalked down the hall.
“Well,” Melinda said, her hands shaking as she took a seat in the hall. “This is definitely not what I was expecting.”
Quincy sat down beside her when she patted the plastic chair. “It just happened,” he said quietly. “We fell in love and when she went back home—”
“You couldn’t let her go,” Melinda said and patted his hand. “I understand completely.”
“You do?” He frowned, wondering if she was just being nice, but the look in her eyes was genuine.
“It’s what I felt for your dad when I was here the first time. Sometimes, love doesn’t give you a choice of who, and… well, I guess you and my daughter were supposed to be together. This is just a difficult situation.”