The Ambassador Ch 12

It was a month after Queen Amberley came to my door when it happened. I was with the twins getting ready to go to their first professional football game when I got the call. The call that started the worst day of my life.

"Princess America? This is Nina Pendolo, I'm a nurse at the Roman Pediatric Hospital. I'm so sorry to tell you this, but your son is here."

"Nic?" I was so shocked that I couldn't move.

"Yes, ma'am. He was in a car accident." Why was he in the car? Oh, the soccer game. Nic was going to meet us there with his friend. "Ma'am, it doesn't look good."

"How bad?" My heart pounded, my hands were clammy, and I started having trouble breathing. I put my hand on my stomach, trying to calm myself for the baby.

"Internal bleeding. Broken femur. Broken ribs. They're taking him for a brain scan now. You need to come down here."

I shook my head, trying to clear it, "Of course."

"Should I call his dad for you?"

"No. No. I'll do it. He should hear it from me."
"Okay, ma'am."
"Nina! What about the other people in the car?"

"I can't disclose that information, ma'am."

"Please, Nina."

Her voice got lower, "They're dead, ma'am."

(*&*)?

Nic was gone by the time I got there, his siblings behind me. I had come in, a running doctor almost running into my swollen stomach.

Nina met me in the hallway, a brain surgeon covered in blood following behind her.

"Princess. I think you should sit down," the surgeon said, and immediately I burst into tears.

"No. No. NO, not him."

"Princess!" they both tried to catch me as I fell to the ground. Falling hard from my own dead weight.

The last thing I heard was my children screaming and a voice yelling, "Ami!"

(*&*)?

I woke up in a hospital bed, beeping surrounding me.

My eyes opened and immediately found Ben.

"Ben."

He was immediately by my side, smoothing my hair, "Bambino. It's okay. It's all going to be okay."

I looked down my body and saw too much of my feet. Tears reached my eyes, remembering this God-awful day.

"What happened?"

Ben paused for a second, before reaching for a wheelchair, "Let's get you in here. I'll explain everything."

We were rolling down the hallway, me wrapped in a hospital gown and a robe.

"First of all," Ben began, "Marlee is with the kids. Your mother is helping her, your siblings are coming back to Rome as soon as they can. That front is taken care of. Nic…" he paused, trying to collect himself, "There was a bleed in his brain and there was too much damage. He didn't make it a half hour through the surgery.

"The baby... When you fell, the baby got hurt and became distressed. They were forced to take the baby out."

"It's too soon," I whispered, "The baby… he was just five months. He can't…."

Ben rolled me into a room full of incubators and machines. "This is our baby, Ami. This is our baby boy."

He was tiny, So tiny that his arm was about the size of my pinky finger. He was as red as his hair, his Singer hair, and hooked up to so many machines it seemed cruel.

I couldn't take my eyes off him, even as I started to tremble, "How long? How long do we have with him?"

"Another hour. At most."

"An hour?"

"He has less than a two percent chance of surviving it through the night."

My hand went to my mouth, trying to cover up my sobs.

Ben's hands brushed my hair out of my face, smoothing the tears away from my cheeks. "Ami…Ami. Those tubes are just prolonging the inevitable. He should die comfortably. He should die in your arms."

"But, if the tubes are keeping him alive…."

"You should have the chance to hold your child, Ami. I got to hold him for just a second before they took him. You should get that chance too."

I shook my head, dissolving into tears before nodding.

Within minutes, a doctor had unhooked my son and placed him in my arms. I held him carefully in my arms as he looked up at me. His breaths came out as wheezes, but his death was peaceful. Like he had fallen asleep. And he would wake up soon.

But he wouldn't.

And as I sat in a wheelchair, holding my dead infant son and thinking of the other laying in a morgue, I couldn't help but wonder if I had been cursed.

(*&*)?

I hugged myself as Ben welcomed the royal couple and thanked them for coming, but I couldn't say anything. Do anything. I just stood there in my black, sleek dress with my hair immaculate. A façade to hide the crumbling soul beneath the skin.

"America!" a familiar voice called, and a man ran past the line of people that had come to the funeral. Maxon broke decorum, rushing to me and enveloping me in his arms.

I finally broke down, burying my now red face into his neck as my shoulders shook. His fingers carded through my hair, breaking away the image I had tried so hard to portray.

"I can't imagine," Maxon whispered, not letting go, even as the cameras snapped away. "It will be okay. Maybe not now, not soon, but it will eventually be okay."

I nodded, even though I didn't believe him.

"I have to stay here," Ben said, and I turned and looked at him. His face was blank for the cameras, but his eyes spoke volumes of the hurt and envy. "Maybe you could take Ami inside for me? The kids would probably do better with their mother by their side."

"Are you sure?" Maxon asked.

But Ben's face had cleared. He leaned down, wiping a tear away from my cheek before kissing where it had run. "Yeah. Whatever she needs."

Then, Maxon led me away from the most selfless, caring man I knew.

(*&*)?

"I don't even know what to do with her at this point," Maxon sighed.

I propped the phone up with my shoulder as I helped Edylinna into a dress, "You should probably start by apologizing."

"I did!"

"Obviously not if she's still mad at you!"

"It's not my fault that she's irrational!"

I laughed before sending Edy downstairs, "It kind of is, Maxon."

"Okay, I'll give you that. I did get her pregnant, but this is just beyond a pregnancy thing."

"Maybe you shouldn't a married a total bitch then."

"Oh, just a half birch then?"

"I resent that."

He laughed before cussing, "I have a meeting in ten minutes."

"Do you need to hang up?"

"No, I'm on cellular. We're just going to take a little trip."

"I love trips. Edy and I are going to go on one today."

"Yeah? Where to?"

"The dentist. Don't tell her."

"She's got to get cavities filled?"

"No, thank God. Just a checkup. The cavities come later this month."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Ben convinced me to do a big birthday party for the twins. We've invited their whole grade to an amusement park."

"Wow." The line was silent for a while, "DO you…do you think that since you and I are, you know, friends now that I could maybe get them something?"

"Like a birthday present?"

"Yeah."

"I don't see why not. Just nothing too big, okay? They only met you twice."

(*&*)?

Transcript of The Late Show. Hosted by Galan Skyward.

Skyward: So, everyone by now knows that Princess America Glowdonio of Italy and Prince MAxon Schreave of Illea have struck up a friendship ever since the funeral of two of Princess America's sons. The two have quite a history together, from almost marrying, cheating on their spouses with each other, to rumors of her twins being his. Until recently, if anyone had said they would be friends and just that I would have laughed. Many people would have laughed. America and Maxon would have probably laughed. Yet, they're proving everyone wrong. Princess America, a woman known for her social media, has also gotten out prince into social media. And one of his first Tweets was this: " AmiGlow still won't answer the phone because of the birthday gifts I got her kids. But her daughter answers every time to thank me for the pony."

This prompted Princess America to respond with this: " PrinceMax should watch what he sends to my kids, considering he's about to have one of his own. What's that I hear? A DRUM SET?! #gottostartthemyoung #bestauntever?".

And apparently we aren't the only ones amused. Princess America's husband later tweeted: "I have two more children than I originally thought. But they're up for adoption if anyone is interested."

(*&*)?

When I saw the footage, I knew instantly what was going on, why Maxon had sounded off on the phone, why he hadn't been thrilled about the baby. The look, the tiredness, the hunched shoulders spoke of more than a couple sleepless nights.

"She's suffering," I whispered to Ben, not wanting to say the words any louder, almost fearing that someone would hear them, even though we were in our own house.

Ben looked over at me, brushing my hair out of my face, "Yeah. She is. We should help."

I looked at the couple on the screen. Maxon looked reasonably thrilled as he showed his heir off to his nation, but Kriss showed none of her husband's fake enthusiasm. She was barely able to keep herself up.

"Yeah. Yeah, we should."