Surprise held her still as a Red Cross volunteer pushed a cart full of books and magazines past the open door.
“Me?” Lilah asked. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely,” Shannon said, tucking a limp strand of blond hair back into her hair clamp.
Carlos, her husband—how strange that word still felt—shot her a quizzical look before squeezing her hand with encouragement. Standing, she smoothed her dress. While she’d met Enrique just before the surreal wedding ceremony in his room at the island clinic, there hadn’t been much time for “get to know you” chats.
A lump lodged in her chest as she realized this could be her only opportunity to speak to him.
She scrounged for composure as she walked closer to the ICU room in front of the nurse’s station. Tapping on the door, she waited, the low murmur of staff mingling with the beep, beep, beep of medical equipment.
Through the glass window, she saw the critically ill king with a nurse sitting vigil. Enrique raised a hand, IV taped in place, and waved her into the room weakly.
The nurse excused herself quietly and shifted her post to the hall side of the window. Lilah stepped deeper inside the ICU unit.
“Shannon said you wanted to see me.” She wasn’t sure what to call him. “Your Majesty” seemed awkward given they were relatives.
“You may call me Padre, like my boys do,” he said in a raspy voice as if reading her mind. Or perhaps he was just an intuitive man. “Sit.”
Sit? She stifled a smile at his brusque order, so like his son. Lilah settled into the chair beside his bed. “What did you wish to speak to me about?”
“You are a lawyer. Look at this.” He pointed to a folder on the bedside table.
Curious, confused, she opened the manila folder and found… “Your will?”
“I want you to read over it,” he insisted.
Clasping the papers to her chest, she studied his eyes for some clue as to why he’d made such a surprise request. “You must have the best of attorneys. Why are asking me to review it?”
“Do not worry. I am not suffering from diminished capacity,” he said with a wry grin, his eyes sharp in spite of his critically ill state.
“Your sense of humor is certainly still intact, even if it is a bit twisted.” She tapped the folder. “I will read your will if that’s what you wish.”
“I do.” He nodded once. “And before I go into surgery I want to dictate an amendment. I need you to witness it.”
The legalese of a king’s last will and testament had to be intense. There hadn’t been a class on this in law school, and it wasn’t something she’d come across in Tacoma, Washington. “Again, I will advise you that you have attorneys in place who are far better versed in your holdings and unique situation.”
“Are you going to ask me about the amendment?”
“You will tell me when you’re ready.” She pulled the pen clipped to the top of the folder and found a legal pad underneath the typed pages.
“You are a patient woman, a necessary quality when dealing with Carlos.”
She met and held his eyes. “I hope your decision to have the surgery gives you both a second chance.”
“He did not leave me much choice when he told me about the baby you are carrying. I never thought I would live to see Carlos’s child.” The old man’s dark eyes blurred with unshed tears. “While nothing can erase what happened to my Beatriz and to Carlos, there is healing in knowing my decision to send my family away did not cost Carlos everything.”
Lilah struggled to process that, but her brain was still stuck on the first part. He knew about the baby? She and Carlos had agreed to wait until after the surgery to tell his family. Hadn’t that meant waiting to tell his father too? Perhaps she’d misunderstood Carlos.
And she really hoped she’d misunderstood Enrique.
Ungluing her tongue from the roof of her mouth, she sought clarification. “He told you about the baby to persuade you to have the transplant surgery?”
A smile kicked into one cheek, a laugh rumbling the old monarch’s chest until he began coughing. A tear trickled free and he brushed it aside with an impatient swipe. “He certainly did, the very second he set foot on the island. I have to admit I did not think anything could convince me, but Carlos, he is every bit as Machiavellian as his father. Now let us go about writing that child into my will, even though it is my heartfelt hope that I will survive this procedure.”
And Carlos hadn’t once mentioned to her that he’d twisted the king’s arm. If he’d even hinted as much to her—if Carlos had shared anything of his heart and his feelings about his father’s grave condition—she might have been able to overlook the fact that he was walling her out emotionally. But she hadn’t been given access to Carlos’s heart any more than ever. It was like he was still staring at her across that kitchen with the scent of frying bacon in the air and his cold, cold eyes warning her what they shared hadn’t meant all that much to him.
As they’d flown to the island, she’d wondered what he wanted from her. Now she knew.
Bottom line, he’d used her.
The wary optimism she’d been feeling since exchanging vows faltered at Enrique’s words. Had every one of those proposals been about fulfilling a dying father’s wish to see his son settled? About giving Enrique a reason to hang on?
She’d thought the lack of love talk from Carlos meant nothing. That his actions spoke louder. And, sadly, that was true. With Enrique’s revelation still fresh on her ears, she knew. Carlos had only married her to ensure his father would have the surgery, that he would fight to live.
How ironic. She wasn’t so different from her mother, after all. In spite of all her best intentions she’d allowed herself to be blinded by her feelings for Carlos. And God, yes, even with hurt and anger coursing through her, she couldn’t deny how deeply she loved Carlos Medina. Her husband. The father of her child.
She also couldn’t deny the truth staring her in the face. Her marriage was a sham.
Nine hours later, Carlos sagged back in his seat in relief as his father’s surgeons left the waiting area. The procedure was a success. Both his father and Antonio were in stable condition. Enrique wasn’t out of the woods, but he’d made it over a substantial hurdle.
Eloisa cried tears of relief on her husband’s shoulder. Even reserved Duarte was smiling, hugging his fiancée hard. Shannon was already sitting with Antonio in recovery.