Page 39 of LA Reign

“Okay. I’ll see you then,” I say as I force a smile.

I am sitting at my desk a few hours later, still reeling from the news Dr. Kelly gave us earlier. I made some calls and organized as much as I could for the fundraiser, but I can hardly focus on anything. I thought being here would help. I thought keeping my mind occupied would be for the best. Turns out I was wrong, and now I feel like I’m incapable at work as well as at home.

All I want right now is Alejandro. I want him to tell me that everything is going to be okay and that what we found out today doesn’t change anything between us. I shake my head in annoyance at my own stupidity. I should have taken him up on his offer to do something together. We could have been hiking in the hills, surrounded by nature, or snuggled up in bed together watching a movie. We could have been comforting each other, not on different sides of the city, both alone with our thoughts and our fears.

Hugo stands up and stretches his legs, and I realize the poor guy has been sitting in my office for the past two hours without so much as a drink. He’s been a silent presence, alert but fading into the background as I made my calls and stared at my screen. Now, though, I know I’m not going to be able to get much else done.

“Hey. How do you fancy finishing work early today?” I ask him.

He flashes his eyebrows at me. “That depends. What exactly do you have in mind?”

“Nothing that will get us into trouble. I just…I just want to go to the hotel. I’ll wait in the suite until Alejandro has finished with his meetings, and you can go visit your mom. I know she’s still a little under the weather.”

He frowns, thinking it over. Doing his own risk assessment. “I’ll have to take you up to the suite, make sure you’re safe.”

“I wouldn’t expect any less,” I say, smiling at him.

“Okay. Whenever you’re ready then.”

I close down my computer and pick up my purse. “I’m ready now. Let’s go.”

Forty-five minutes later, Hugo and I are waiting outside Alejandro’s hotel suite. Four armed guards stand in the hallway, smartly dressed, but their suits do nothing to hide the bulk of the guns beneath their jackets and the no-nonsense way they stare at their surroundings. It should make me feel safe, but it actually has the opposite effect. Are things really so bad that the King of LA needs all this protection?

“Is the boss in?” Hugo asks, nodding at them in recognition.

“Yeah. He’s in his office with his father.”

“I’ll just let Mrs. Montoya inside then,” Hugo says and they step aside to allow him to open the door.

“Of course. Good afternoon, Mrs. Montoya,” the head guard, Lorenzo, says respectfully, and I nod in greeting.

Hugo sees me inside safely, and I thank him for taking such good care of me. He gives me a wave as he leaves, the door closing firmly behind him.

I haven’t seen Alejandro’s father Mateo for a few weeks, and despite the circumstances, it would be rude not to say a quick hello. Besides, if I pop in and say hi, it will let Alejandro know I’m here. After that, I’ll leave them to it. I walk toward Alejandro’s office. The door is open and I can hear their voices drifting through into the room. I don’t mean to eavesdrop, but there’s no way I can avoid it. Mateo is strident, his words carrying clearly.

“So, you’re telling me she can’t even have children?” I hear him say. “I’m sorry, mi hijo. It seems I chose you a defective model.” I freeze where I stand, my heart clenching in my chest. I am under no illusions about how my marriage to Alejandro came about. But hearing it described so clinically and coldly? That hurts, especially when I now think of myself as being part of the Montoya family.

“Papa!” Alejandro says, shocked.

“What? I know you love her, son, but I’m just being honest. I would never have chosen her for you if we’d known that. She tricked you, hijo. What good is she to you, to this family, if she can’t even give you an heir?”

My mouth falls open in surprise and anger. I know this is a private conversation and that I should walk away, but I can’t. I stand there, waiting for my husband to tell his father that he is wrong. That there’s no way I tricked him, that I didn’t know. That I’m not defective and that my value to him and to this family is so much more than my ability to reproduce.

I wait for him to stand up for me. For us! I’m so sure that he will. I hold my breath, not even wanting to miss a word. I wait, and I wait some more.

But the next words don’t come from him, they come from his father again. “Your mama is going to be devastated, you know that? She likes Alana, we all do, but this is a big problem. It’s not too late. You could get the marriage annulled, find yourself someone who can give her some grand-babies. Who can provide us with the next generation of Montoyas.”

I hate everything I’m hearing, and even more than that I hate what I’m not hearing—Alejandro telling his father to go to hell.

My devastation is now complete. I might never have children, Alejandro is not defending me, and the family I had started to feel so comfortable with is poised to reject me because I can’t carry a baby. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so betrayed or so alone.

Tears are pricking my eyes as I turn on my heel and run from the room. I pause at the door and wipe the tears from my cheeks. Alejandro’s guards will never let me leave if they see me crying. Like Mateo, I suppose, they are only loyal to Alejandro Montoya.

I’m not a queen. I’m nothing in this world.

I take a deep breath, plaster on a fake smile, and open the door.

“Everything okay, Mrs. Montoya?” one of the guards asks me.