My Most Precious Human novel Chapter 150

I sat on the bed motionless, thoughts spinning inside my head. I was forcing the air into my lungs as if I was squeezing it in through a thin straw. An insufficient level of oxygen made my head spin.

"That can't be true. The child isn't his." Those two sentences played on repeat inside my mind, protecting my heart from breaking into pieces.

My mantra worked slowly, soothing my heart rate and loosening my chest. The logical part of my brain restarted.

"I need to call Sariel…" I mumbled to myself.

I stared at the phone for more than a minute before my trembling hand managed to pick his number from my extremely short list of contacts. I made the call. Hearing the waiting signals was tormenting. I was taking long breaths, trying to exhale them slowly, but it didn't ease my anxiety. He didn't answer. A heartbeat later, I called again… and then again. I might have been irrational and too demanding, but I thought that I was going to fall apart if I didn't hear his voice. I gave up after the twelfth unanswered call. I wrote a text instead.

"Is Elora carrying your child?" It took me a while before I gathered the courage to press send.

I waited for any kind of reply for a few minutes without any results.

I wrote another message, "I'm begging you. I need to know if she is pregnant with your child."

No response. I told myself that I was being unreasonable and that he could have been in the middle of a life and death battle, but it didn't lessen the pain nor ease my anxieties. I stared at the phone, silently praying for a response. I knew that I wouldn't focus on anything until he wrote back.

I called Martha again after I forced my brain to function, constantly taking deep breaths to steady my heartbeat.

"Hi…" I muttered weakly.

I regretted hanging up on her before, but after her news crushed me, I wasn't in a state where I could continue our conversation.

"I'm sorry, Lilith," she wept as if she wanted to share my pain. "I didn't mean to drop it like a bomb on you, but I did exactly that. All I know is that King Sariel loves you and that it was stupid of me to let you doubt him and believe that he could cheat on you…"

"I called… him," I squeezed through my throat.

"And?" I could hear her holding her breath.

"He didn't answer my call." I swallowed and immediately started rationalizing. "He may not even know about Elora's pregnancy. He's in the middle of the fight, leading a huge army against bloodthirsty creatures. It is only natural that he didn't reply right away… right?"

"Of course!" Martha burst into nervous laughter, which quickly faded as she paused in hesitation. "Except for the fact that degenerates are incredibly allergic to sunlight… So the fights would mostly happen at night time…"

I was so focused on finding an excuse for Sariel that my mind ignored the obvious. It was still at least two hours before sunset.

"But… I'm sure he has other, important things to do. Managing an army must be time-consuming," Martha quickly added.

"It is, isn't it?" I forced out a chuckle, hoping to prove myself that I wasn't mortified by Sariel's lack of reply. "But… I can't stop thinking that if Sariel and Elora had never slept together, Sariel could easily accuse her of treason… What could she possibly gain from telling a lie?"

Martha cleared her throat. "Well, first of all, the King cannot announce that he has never slept with his own queen. They would question his manhood, you know?"

"Fucking politics…" I cursed under my breath.

I knew she was right. It wouldn't matter that it was a strictly political marriage. The nobles approved of Elora's being on the throne because she was supposed to give birth to a perfect heir. If Sariel stood before them announcing that he hadn't been even trying to make Elora pregnant, it would mean political suicide, not to mention that everyone would question his ability to produce offspring. Of course, the case would be different if the DNA tests proved that the child wasn't Sariel's… but it would require time and his presence at the castle, which was quite impossible since he was in the middle of a war.

"Don't worry, Lilith." Martha's smiling voice felt like a balm over my troubled heart. "The King will call you, or text you back, and then everything will be better." She tried to coax me, but I could sense something wavering in her tone.

I bet she was restless like me. She wanted me to be with Sariel like no one else in the world, and I knew that if I got hurt because of him, she would hurt too.

"It will be better. I just need to wait," I said, shoving a smile into my voice.

"That's the spirit!" she sang. "Now, don't sit with the phone in your hand. I know that it is your only day off before heading toward your father's pack territory, so use it to relax," she advised.

"I will," I promised as I ended the call.

I put the phone on the bedside cabinet, struggling to let it go, but I told myself that I was doing it for my sanity. I needed to prepare myself for the battle. My life could depend on my focus. I didn't have the time to deliberate about how screwed up my love life was. I knew it all, but I was still unable to think about anything aside from Sariel and Elora's pregnancy.

Shoving away the urge to constantly check my phone I walked out of my room. I went for a walk, wandering across Sagreville's streets. Despite the promise I made to Martha, I couldn't relax. My breath was shallow, and I was on the edge of losing my senses. The waiting was unbearable. I was passing by a grocery store when I heard a familiar voice.

"Hello, little Princess," Nera chuckled, walking towards me with filled shopping bags.

"Hello, Nera." I stretched my lips as far as I could to give her a smile, but I probably wasn't convincing at all

She narrowed her eyes, searching through my face until she handed me one of her bags and tossed, "Walk with me."

I had no better things to do, so I shrugged and followed her. She led me to her home, which was a small wooden house built right by the forest. She told me to bring the shopping bag into her kitchen. Once I did, she ordered me to sit by the large wooden table standing in the middle, and she started cooking.