Ruthless Empire (Royal Elite #6) by Rina Kent

Cole.

Standing on wobbly feet, I wash my mouth out and head back to the seat. Cole follows me with that furrow in his brow. I let my head drop between my hands, breathing harshly. The seat creaks when Cole settles beside me and inches closer.

“Silver, what is it?”

All right, this is it. The moment of truth.

Meeting his dark greens, I murmur, “I’m pregnant.”





36





Silver





Cole stares at me with that unnerving silence that nearly splits me open.

Nothing changes on his face.

Absolutely nothing. Almost like he’s in numb state of mind.

Out of all the times he could’ve been blank, this is the worst. Why does he have to be so unreadable?

I’ve known him forever, so I’m usually able to reach behind that mask and get a glimpse of what he’s hiding.

Not now though.

Peeking at him through my lashes, I watch with bated breath, waiting for his reaction.

He says nothing.

Not even a word.

Maybe he hates me. Maybe he’s disgusted with how I’m ruining his future with this news.

The flight attendant comes to our side again, her presence interrupting our non-existent conversation. “Are you okay, Miss? Can I get you anything?”

“No, I’m fine,” I murmur.

“Water with honey,” he says. “Lime, too, if you have it.”

She nods before disappearing to where she came from.

So he does have a voice. He just doesn’t use it to speak to me. He continues observing me as if I’m an alien who’s come to occupy the planet.

“Are you going to say something?” I meant to snap, but my voice comes out quiet, almost scared. “Anything?”

“Did you go to the doctor?” he asks.

“No.”

“Then how do you know you’re pregnant?”

“I took a test.”

“You should go to the doctor.”

“I can’t just go to the doctor, Cole, okay? What if someone recognises me? Sebastian Queens and Cynthia Davis’s daughter at the OB-GYN. Do you realise how scandalous that would be? I couldn’t even go buy the freaking test and had to order it online.”

“Would you stop thinking about the scandals and your parents and start thinking about yourself?” Cole snaps. Whoa. He never snaps. “This is your health, your life. You’re carrying a baby inside you. Do you think that’s a game? Or that they won’t eventually find out?”

Tears sting my eyes and it takes everything in me not to break down right then and there. I feel like a kid being yelled at for idiotic behaviour.

“You think I haven’t thought of that? I have. For weeks. I suspected this for damn weeks before I finally took the damn test, Cole. I’m the one living with this reality day in and day out, picturing all the possible scenarios and hating the fact that I might have to kill this life. So don’t sit there telling me I’m not taking it seriously, because I am. More than you’ll ever know.”

He narrows his eyes. “You’ve suspected it for weeks and didn’t tell me?”

I lift a shoulder, staring out of the window.

“Why?”

Because he could say the words that scare me the most. That I should abort.

Instead, I say, without facing him. “Because I hate you.”

“Silver…” he warns, seeming to rein in whatever emotions he could ever show.

“Just forget it, okay? I’ll figure it out.”

He grabs me by the chin and spins my head around. My eyes are filled with tears and it’s taking superhuman power for me to keep them at bay.

“We will figure it out. Both of us are responsible for that life.”

“Cole…” A tear slides down my cheek and he wipes it away with the pad of his thumb.

“You thought I would abandon you?”

“No, but I thought you would be against it.”

“It’s already happened. I can’t exactly be against it.”

I pull away from him. “So if it hadn’t happened, you would be?”

“No, but you would be.”

“What?”

“If it were up to me, you’d be fucking mine in front of the entire world, and yes, I would be planning to put a football team worth of babies inside you so you’d always be glued to my side. But you constantly think about your parents and your image and everyone else’s fucking opinion, so it’s you who won’t let anything happen. Not me.”

My lips tremble as I face away from him again.

Damn him.

He lifts me up just so he can bring me down soon after.

The attendant delivers the cup of water he requested. He takes it from her hand and thanks her.

I don’t miss the way she speaks in sultry words when she says to call her if he needs ‘anything’. I’m going to tell Lucien to fire her.

What? Flirting must be against her code of work ethics.

When Cole offers the glass to me, I refuse to drink.

“Drink it.”

“No.”

“Stop acting like a baby,” he says.

“Oh, wait. Is that because I have a freaking one inside me?” I mock. “No thanks to you.”

“Drop that attitude and drink the fucking water, Silver.”