The Wild Heir(102)

And kings don’t shrink from the hard conversations.

My father never did.

And I won’t with him. I have to speak with him, I have to let him know what happened. Pretending it never existed won’t do me any good. I need to own it before it’s swept under a rug.

He groans lightly and opens his eyes, blinking at me. “Magnus?” he asks, his voice hoarse.

“It’s me,” I tell him, grabbing his hand softly. “I just wanted to say hello.”

His eyes close but he smiles. “Well hello to you too. How long have you been there, watching me snore away?”

“Long enough.”

“I have to say, with your condition, that must have been very boring for you.” He opens one eye and spears me with it. “What brings you here today?”

I take in a deep breath. Suddenly I’m afraid. I’m afraid that he’ll lose respect for me. I’m afraid that he’ll think I’ve regressed in some way.

“What is it, Son?” he asks. “I can tell it’s something big. Do I need to call for a nurse?”

I shake my head. “No. No, I think it’s okay. It’s okay because everything turned out okay in the end. Just, uh, remember that. That everything is fine now.”

He sighs, his chest rising and falling. “Well that’s good. Fine is good. They say greed is good, but fine is good too.”

Hmmm. He may be a little loopy.

“Ella left me.”

Boom.

There it is.

“She what?” he says, moving around to get a good look at me. “What are you talking about? I thought you guys were writing up your thank-you cards just yesterday. Oh, and by the way, don’t bother with Prince Hans of the Netherlands, I didn’t care for the way he way he looked at your mother at the wedding.”

I ignore that. “We were doing that yesterday. After that, well…a bomb went off. It wasn’t pretty.”

“Well what was it?” He pauses, watching my face carefully. “Magnus, what did you do?”

“Heidi Lundstr?m came to our door.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Yeah. Oh fuck was more like it, but yeah, oh dear works. She told me she was pregnant with my child and had a paternity test to prove it.”

His eyes widen. “Oh, fuck,” he says after a beat.

“There you go.”

“I can see why Ella might have left,” he surmises. “What did you do?”

“Well I pulled my lovely hair out and commenced losing my mind. She said she was four months pregnant, she had the stomach to prove it, and the paternity tests, which she left in my care.”

He frowns thoughtfully. “Wait. How on earth did she get your DNA for a paternity test?”

“She said her father had it on file.”

“That’s simply not true.”

“I know. I know that now. Thanks to Ottar who took the documents and examined them closely. Heidi isn’t very smart, and she isn’t very thorough. Conniving yes, but that’s not the same thing. They were forged.”

“What about her stomach?”

“Well aside from wanting to punch her in the gut to find out, I’m guessing she was just sticking out her stomach. The bump was there but it wasn’t huge and it’s not like I got a chance to inspect it.”

My father shakes his head. “This is unbelievable. I’m sorry you had to go through that Magnus. But surely this isn’t the end of the world if Ella knows it was all fake.”

I sigh and rub my hand down my face, suddenly so tired. “She doesn’t know because she’s not talking to me. According to Jane, she’s in Liechtenstein, but Jane hasn’t been able to talk much to her either.”

“So, did you tell Heidi?”

“I marched right down to the prime minister’s office and told him.”

My father grows silent. Then, “You what?”

“I know it’s not the protocol with dealing with him, but he has to know what his daughter is up to. And I refuse to be bullied and intimidated by him. I am your son. One day I will be king. There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, but there should always be respect, and that man has no respect for me. But I think he does now.”

I can tell my father is thinking the worst. That I went into his office and embarrassed myself. But I didn’t.

I go on. “I owned up to my mistakes, but I refuse to own up to things that aren’t of my own making. I chose Ella and we are married and that’s the life I want to pursue. The man I was before isn’t gone, but I feel the king in me is stepping forward. People can deal with that however they wish, but it’s the new truth.”

My father sighs. “Well then. I see.”

I swallow hard, feeling pained for bringing it all up. “I didn’t want to make you upset, but I had to be honest with you and let you know. I’m sorry for the things I’ve done in the past, I’m sorry it took me so long to live up to my potential. But it’s better late than never.”

“Oh, Magnus,” he says to me. “You’re my world, you really are. My world, my son, my heir and you’re exactly who you’re meant to be and where you’re meant to be. I’m very proud of you for standing up to him, and her, and I’m grateful that you chose to tell me the truth when I probably would have had no idea. I don’t like to rule like that. Ignorance is no way to run your life, let alone a country.”