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Chapter 11:
The First Surprise

"It's too loose, tighten it."

Weiss sucked in a breath as the gown tightened around her waist, almost squeezing the air out of her. It was slightly difficult for her to breathe, but she wasn't going to complain, it would only backfire on her. She glanced over to her mother, who had been asked to survey her wedding dress, and their eyes met briefly. She looked away quickly as the woman spat out another order, the faint smell of whiskey floated around the room, but as far as she could tell, the elder Schnee was sober despite reeking of alcohol.

"The sleeves are slacking off of her shoulders, this should've been fixed hours ago!"

"But, ma'am, all of this will be altered before her second fitting. . ." Weiss shifted her attention to the maid who stood beside her, momentarily caught off guard when the middle-aged woman dared to speak to her mother. This was really going to end well. . .

"The wedding is next week, everything has to be perfect. So remove the dress, fix the sleeves, add more lace, and for the love of the Gods tighten the corset!" The older woman snapped, her hands waving in frustration and the maid reluctantly pulled her gown tighter, whispering an apology to Weiss when she just barely managed to bite back a whimper of discomfort.

Just down the hall, Weiss heard her father hollering for her mother and she glanced over to the woman. Her mother's face now lacked emotion and her eyes were cold, "Do what I told you to do." She muttered bluntly to the maid before stiffly walking out of the room, leaving Weiss alone with the staff. Her eyes trailed to her reflection in the mirror and she heaved a sigh; in another situation she would have said that she loved it, her reflection glowed with radiance and beauty, but she couldn't bring herself to enjoy the image that was staring back at her.

The corset was loosened and the air returned to her lungs, causing a sudden wave of nausea to barrel over her. Weiss leaned against the desk, clutching her chest as the pressure slowly disappeared. "Ms. Schnee?" The elderly woman asked worriedly, "Are you alright? Should I fetch a doctor?" Weiss shook her head and closed her eyes, "What's the matter, are you not feeling well? We could-"

"Leave me." Weiss ordered quietly once she was able to breathe properly again and the nausea had subsided, she opened her eyes and glanced at the older woman who seemed hesitant to leave, she offered them a small smile, "I'm fine, really. I probably just ate something bad."

Weiss waved her hand to dismiss them and the women left the room and she undid the wedding dress, sliding it off of her shoulders and folding it neatly.. After placing it back on the bed, Weiss took a step back and observed the gown, releasing an annoyed huff when she noticed a familiar snowflake etched into the chest of it. This was not the dress she'd wanted. . . The design was elegant and breathtaking, yes, but it screamed 'Schnee'.

"Of course it would," she thought out loud, willing away her nauseousness, "why wouldn't it? 'Only the best for my precious little girl'," she mocked her father, gritting her teeth and snarling at nothing in particular, "I didn't want this!" Weiss let out another annoyed huff and tossed the corset onto the bed, she grabbed her clothes, changing back into them before stepping outside of the room.

Just as she began to head to her bedroom, a voice caught her attention. "Ah, I was just about to check up on you." She glanced up to see Klein coming down the hall, "I was informed that you're not feeling well?" The middle-aged man asked worriedly and Weiss offered a smile, Weiss replied with a quiet 'I'm fine' and started down the hall, "Ms. Schnee," she glanced over her shoulder, "your fiance requests your presence." He seemed to hesitate on the word 'fiance', "If you're ill, I could tell him that you're unable to meet with him."

She shook her head, "I'll be fi-" Weiss paused, closing her eyes, she knew exactly what he wanted "yeah, that would be best, thank you, Klein." Weiss had overheard her father and Liam discussing an engagement ring the night before, Liam wanted to see her that he could present the ring to her and she would be asked to toss the other one away.

She couldn't do that. It'd probably cause another heated argument between herself and her father, but she really couldn't bring herself to care anymore. What else did she have to lose?

Weiss didn't spare the man another look and continued down the hallway to her bedroom, trying to keep her breathing under control and bottle everything up again. Her hand shook as she placed it on the door, her eyes glanced to see that it'd been cracked open and she frowned. Who would've came into her room. . .? She'd specifically ordered the staff to stay out, certainly they wouldn't disobey an order, right? Weiss pushed the door open and cautiously stepped inside, she scanned her bedroom for anything out of the ordinary. Everything seemed fine.

'That's weird.'

Weiss shrugged and closed the door, she quickly changed into her nightgown and locked her door before closing the curtains. She didn't feel like meeting Liam, she didn't feel like doing anything at all. She'd put on a brave face and had forced herself to get as far as she was now, she kept everything bottled up and she could feel it bubbling to the surface each time she stepped out of her bedroom. She felt her chest tighten and the woman released a shaky breath, "I can't, I can't do this. . ."

The wedding takes place next week? That was too soon, it was right around the corner! Everything was moving too quickly. . . Weiss sagged down next to her bed, she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head against her bed, she closed her eyes.

Knock knock. "Ms Schnee?"

Go away! Just leave me alone! Weiss opened her eyes and glanced towards her door. "Yes?"

"Mister Greer is waiting for you." The woman on the other side of the door informed her, "He wishes to see you as soon as possible and won't take no for an answer." Of course he wouldn't, men didn't seem to understand the definition of the word 'no'.

She wasn't doing this today. "Tell him that I said I don't feel well." It wasn't a complete lie. . . She still felt nauseous and fatigued. "Bring my dinner up to my bedroom, please. . ." Relief washed over her when she heard the woman walking away. Weiss had no intentions of leaving her bedroom for the rest of the day, she couldn't push through it and put on an act anymore. The next coming week, she would be marrying a man she didn't love and would be expected to provide him an heir.

Bile rose up in her throat and the woman swallowed hard, trying to dismiss the image from her head; she would shove Myrtenaster through Liam before he even began to think of laying his filthy hands on her.

"Her appearance is perfection, but her physique. . . I do hope the children inherit most the Greer family genes."

Weiss had never been self-conscious about her build before men began to court her, they would always compare her to her mother and her sister, but would find her general appearance 'beautiful'. Though, they always said that it would be better if she looked like the rest of her family so that she would be more desirable. At first, it didn't bother her too much as she'd convinced herself that she wasn't finished growing.

Their words still rang in her head. . .

"Perhaps it would be wise to consider an implant? Certainly your family could afford such a thing."

"Your sister is just. . . Wow! So, um, what happened to you?"

"Hmm. . . Not much to look at, but you are definitely beautiful. I suppose I could settle for this."

A small smile came to her lips when she remembered Ruby's words to her, she'd washed away her insecurities with three simple words; "You look gorgeous." Ruby hadn't cared about sex appeal, she only cared about Weiss and she showed it as often as she could, "Don't listen to those voices, Princess, it doesn't matter what they think. I love you."

She would never hear those words again. . .

"What did I do?" Weiss whispered to nobody in particular, "What did I do to deserve this?" She'd just wanted a life with Ruby, with her friends, she wanted a life where she had freedom, that's all she'd asked for. Was it too much. . .? Was she being greedy? Did she take it all for granted? She must have, why else was her happiness stripped away from her? "Was it really necessary to take my baby as well?"

Weiss lifted her head when she heard another knock at the door, she rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to ask who it was and what they wanted this time, but she was cut off. Her blood turned to ice when she heard her father, "Open the door, Weiss." He wasn't happy. . . She could hear the rage burning beneath his practiced, worried voice. Cautiously, Weiss stood to her feet and approached the door, her hand shook as she placed it on the door knob.

Deep breath. . .

Weiss opened the door with a soft 'click', her eyes trailed up to meet her father's eerily calm gaze and her chest grew heavy. She immediately glanced behind him when she heard Liam speak and irritation boiled inside of her at the sight of him, "Your butler informed me that you were not feeling well, so I brought the doctor. . ."

So why was her father here?

"I was concerned, so I decided it would be best to accompany them. I asked Mister Greer to come with me," he looked back at the young man, "certainly he must be worried about his fiancee." Liam met his glare and Weiss noticed him stiffen ever so slightly, he nodded once and Jacques turned back to Weiss. "Let's see what the problem is here. . ."

He walked inside of her bedroom and Weiss just barely managed to bite back a growl as Liam followed him in. Get out. This is my room. You don't belong here. Get. Out. Hesitantly, she took a seat in the nearest chair when the doctor gestured for her to sit down. "I'm fine, really." Weiss muttered as the man removed his Stethoscope and pressed the end against her chest without warning. Bastard. After a minute, he withdrew it and met her eyes. "Can I go now?" She highly doubted it. . .

"How have you been feeling recently?" The man asked curiously, furrowing his brows as he examined her, causing more frustration to boil inside the young woman. Weiss glanced towards her father and Liam, hesitant to answer in their presence; one word wrong and her father would be furious. . . "Do not lie to me, Ms Schnee." Weiss fixed her gaze on the man again and her chest tightened at the same time nausea took over.

Depressed. Angry. Miserable. "Well," she started carefully, gripping the armrests tightly. Her grip relaxed, "I do feel kind of unwell, but I probably just ate something bad." She could feel her father glaring at her, clearly offended, "For some reason, everything smells rather strange, now that I think about it. . ." She'd smelled breakfast cooking somewhere in the mansion when she'd followed Klein to the spare bedroom, she'd also rejected the meal as the smell made her nauseous. "That's normal when you're ill, though." She was pretty sure.

The man squinted, "Do you feel as though your senses have heightened?"

"Maybe a little?" She wasn't sure. . .

The doctor glanced back at the two men in the room, "Would you mind waiting outside?" He asked politely, ignoring the brief scowl on Jacques' face, "It's important." Without a word, the CEO and Liam walked out, Liam casting a worried look in Weiss' direction in which Weiss responded with a slight sneer. The doctor snapped his fingers to get her attention when the door closed, "Alright, Ms Schnee, I want you to answer honestly."

Was she not already?

"Is there any chance you might be pregnant?"

Oh he had to be joking. "Please tell me you're not serious," the woman muttered bluntly, "I know very well that you were informed of my. . . My miscarriage." Weiss almost choked on the word, just barely managing to get it out as she concealed the despair rising up inside of her. My baby. . . Perhaps if she had rejected the hunt, she would still have the baby, Ruby would be alive to help her raise their child.

"Well, yes," the man replied cautiously, "but from what you explained to me and what I've seen for myself, you're experiencing pregnancy symptoms. Morning sickness, nausea, mood swings, not to mention you don't look like you've eaten very well for the last few days."

She couldn't take this. . .

"Maybe it's just my body refusing to accept that I lost the baby. . ." Weiss shrugged, turning her head away from the doctor, "I know I'm not pregnant, there's no way."

"Actually," she glanced back to the man, "there is a possible way. . ." What kind of sick joke was he playing? Hadn't life already caused her enough pain? What the hell did he want from her?! "Perhaps, you were expecting twins. . .? You lost one baby, but not the other. Sometimes this is mistaken for Vanishing Twin Syndrome." He definitely wanted something, but what? Did he want to watch her drown in her own grief like everybody else? Weiss could feel her body beginning to shake.

The man continued to speak, "A miscarriage while carrying twins is often mistook as Vanishing Twin Syndrome, but that is when the vanishing baby disappears and is absorbed by the mother and it's twin. A miscarriage is never experienced as the body and the other baby absorbs the vanishing one. For an actual miscarriage, sometimes women experience a miscarriage for one baby and the other makes it to full-term and lives a healthy life." The doctor smiled at her, "This means you could still possibly be pregnant. I do not expect you to believe me just from an assumption, maybe you should pick up a pregnancy test next time you're in the city."

"Good."

The man left and Weiss rose from the chair, peeking outside of her room and sighing with relief when she noticed that her father and Liam were nowhere in sight. She closed the door and locked it again, thankful to be alone for once. Weiss' eyes trailed towards the suitcase she'd set in the corner of her bedroom and carefully approached it, she knelt down and unzipped the front pocket. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check. . ."

She'd be lying if she said she hadn't been hoping the experiment would work, so she'd went ahead and purchased a box of test strips the day after she and Ruby had discussed it. Weiss flipped the box and scanned the expiration date, "They should still be good. . ." She whispered, opening the box and removing a single strip, "I'll prove you wrong." She dropped the box back into the front pocket and zipped it shut, Weiss stood and quickly made her way to the bathroom.

A small part of her hoped that the assumption was true, but it couldn't be, he probably just wanted to give her false hope. Weiss closed the bathroom door with her foot, something she'd picked up from living with Ruby for so many years, "There's no way. . ." She whispered to herself.

Thirty minutes later, Weiss was leaning against the door with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms wrapped tightly around them. Tears were burning at the edges of her eyes, a few escaping and rolling down her cheeks, she blinked to clear her vision and lifted the strip again. Two bright pink lines stared back at her, causing grief and pain to tear at her heart.

"How?"

What I explained through the doctor is something I have been researching since chapter 4.

A woman can be carrying twins and miscarry one while the other makes it to full term, and sometimes a woman will be expecting two babies and one will suddenly vanish, that's Vanishing Twin Syndrome as no miscarriage is experienced.

No, I did not suddenly spring this on you all. I have been dropping small hints everywhere since chapter 8, I've tried not to make it too obvious or too subtle, I'm not good at this though. XD