It wouldn't be until the next week that Klara started worrying about her late period.

She was supposed to have it several days ago, but it never came. She continued to vomit, yet forced herself to go to work, sneaking around so she could throw up without raising suspicion that she was taking excessive bathroom breaks to avoid doing anything.

Her nausea went on for too long for it to be the flu, but she didn't want to confront the obvious. It wasn't until she fainted, being kept from collapsing by the forty year old Syrian woman from the mail room, when she finally had to face reality.

"Klara, I know it's none of my business, but your work has declined in quality significantly since you met the prince. I understand that he has taken an interest in you... outside of the office , so I can't fire you for now, but don't think his interest will last, your job is not secure as you seem to think it is." Klara's boss warned her in a following one-on-one meeting.

Great, not only was she possibly knocked up, her boss knew she fucked the prince and was threatening to fire her the moment the prince lost interest. So much for Viktor's promises about her job security.

Her pencil skirt fitting too snugly, especially against her belly, was the final straw. All of the nagging thoughts churned through Klara's mind for hours until she elected to leave work early, not giving a damn that her boss threatened to fire her.

She walked to the nearest pharmacy to purchase a pregnancy test, wrapping her coat tightly around her to keep the winter chill from biting at her. The walk was only a quarter of a mile, but halfway there, she noticed a man following her, she wouldn't have noticed him in any other scenario, plenty of suited men with earpieces in this city, but something about this one forced her to pay attention. She did not openly acknowledge him, she kept walking until she reached the pharmacy. She picked out a brand she recognized from America, a pack of three so she'd be certain. Though the text was in German, the familiarity of an American brand was welcome, even if it was essentially meaningless.

She checked for the suited man when she left the store. She didn't initially see him until a few minutes on her walk home. It creeped her out, he had to have been waiting for her. She kept walking, continuing to not acknowledge him, she did not need this, she was already going through enough. He turned another direction a few blocks from her apartment, in the direction of another business-y, affluent part of Vienna. Klara let out a sigh of relief before weakly climbing the steps to her apartment.

She dropped her keys and purse on the floor upon entering, making a b-line to the bathroom, her legs seemed as though they were dragging the rest of her, forcing her to face facts.

She did the first test.

Positive.

She could still be in denial. False positives were entirely possible, she still had two more tests.

The second and third, however, were also positive.

"Oh no." Klara started crying. "Oh no no no no no." She mumbled repetitively to herself as she shed off her too-tight office clothing, shrugged on a nightie, and fished her phone from her purse on the floor. She fumbled with the device, almost dropping it on several occasions. There was only one person she could count on at the moment.

"Klara, you never call this early."

Right, it was 9 am over there, Klara could hear Braeden and Paisley in the background, the others were probably at school.

"Lil." Klara cried into the phone, unable to bite back her tears.

"Klara? Are you hurt? Talk to me."

"No, I'm not hurt..."

"Did the GQR guy leave you?"

"No... I'm pregnant, he's the father."

"It's going to be okay-" Lil tried reassuring her, perhaps it would have been okay if the father was any other man.

"No, Lil, you don't understand, there are some things I haven't told you about him." Klara fessed up.

"What's up with this guy?"

"He was my employer."

"Like, your boss at the accounting firm?"

"No, one of the royals."

"Oh shit!" Lil seemed truly taken aback, and why wouldn't she, her younger sister got knocked up by a literal prince.

"He told me he was sterile." The bitterness seeped out of Klara's voice. "He lied to me!"

"Which one did you sleep with?"

"Prince Viktor."

"Hang on, let me google him, I've only heard about the one who was killed recently." Klara waited, listening closely to the background noise to try and determine what was going on. "Klara! This guy is older than dad! Dad is literally going to kill him!" Lil scolded her.

"Lil!" Klara blurted in exasperated embarrassment, her sister had to let her know yet another issue with her getting knocked up that hadn't even crossed her mind yet.

"He looks great, don't get me wrong, but damn Klara, you pick the weirdest men to sleep with. First a punk guy at our high school when you were having your emo phase, then a tree hugging socialist, now an Austrian prince who's almost fifty?"

"From what I'm seeing on google, he has no wife or children. Did you hook up with anyone else since leaving Johann?"

"No, just him."

"You have to tell him."

"I don't know how." Klara said truthfully.

"Klara, I'm looking at the royal family tree on Wikipedia, given the lack of kids listed under any of the younger generation's names, something tells me this Prince Viktor guy would be thrilled and take good care of you and the baby."

"I haven't even been at my job for a year, oh god, they're never going to promote me now."

"Klara, you are worried about the wrong things. That baby is gonna need their daddy. Also, you do not want to go through this pregnancy alone. I get super hungry and super horny when I'm pregnant."

The difference in priorities between the sisters couldn't have been made clearer. Klara, however, knew her sister was right.

"I remember, Lil, I was the one who got to listen to you bang Mark after he'd sneak in with McDonalds while I was trying to study." Klara knew her sister was right, all the more reason to sneak in a barb.

"And to think, a prince could literally get anything you craved. Lucky." Lil said with a laugh.

"Lil, how am I going to keep helping you with your debt if-"

"And they say I'm the dumb sister, you're literally a prince's baby mamma. You're set for fucking life if dad doesn't kill the guy." Lil was, once again, right, but it chipped away at Klara's pride some more. "You have to call him, right now, and don't give me any bullshit."

"Okay."

"I love you, call me when you get this baby stuff worked out with Viktor."

"I love you too, bye."

Klara hung up, staring at her phone screen until it locked, seeing her reflection stare back.

Her sister was right, she had to call him.

What if he actually did think he was sterile and it wasn't just a lie?

Klara unlocked her phone again, went through her contacts, clicked on Viktor's name, and held the phone to her ear, the dial tone was torturous.

Earlier, Viktor also experienced emotional upheaval.

He had a member of the Verrat tracking her since he realized she could be pregnant. The latest update he received was that she bought pregnancy tests.

When he received the text, Viktor was in his study, shortly after a meeting he had with Danilov and Adalind Schade about the resistance. The influence of the resistance solidifying, and now he potentially had a baby on the way, and had to get Adalind's child, it was intense, so much to take all at once.

Viktor rested his elbow on the desk and pinched the bridge of his nose. His clear blue eyes welled up with tears.

If all went well, he was finally going to be a father. After decades of pain, of envy, of shallow pursuits of power and pleasure, he finally was getting what he wanted the most. He bit back sobs, tears ran down his cheeks, a few dripping onto the wood of his desk.

"Oh god..." Sobs escaped, joined with ragged breath. His mind raced. Would the baby be a boy or a girl? Whose eyes would they have? He imagined a baby boy who was the mirror of him, or a daughter who was the sweetest little cherub with large, pretty eyes like her mother.

He shakily poured himself a drink, he needed to calm down, he needed to be ready to make sure Klara was with him as soon as possible. He already laid out some of the groundwork when he realized there was even the slightest possibility of her being pregnant.

His phone rang, it was Klara, he couldn't have answered it faster.

"Klara." Viktor's voice was hoarse from his sobbing.

"I need to speak with you in person as soon as possible, it's serious." Klara was openly weeping into the phone.

"I'm sending a car immediately." Viktor feigned no confusion, he didn't have the clarity for it, he needed her with him as soon as possible. "I won't ask for details, not until you get here."

"I'm so sorry for being like this, I just-"

"Don't apologize. Just try and relax while you wait." Viktor said to try and calm her. "I'll see you soon." Viktor said before hanging up and immediately scrolling through his contacts, making one of the most important phone calls of his life.

"Justice Stalzbourg... Yes, things are happening faster than I anticipated, come immediately."

Viktor opened his laptop, signing in, staring at the screen playing the hidden camera footage obsessively, watching Klara dress herself in something barely more appropriate, a longer nightgown with her peacoat shrugged over it, apparently not having the willpower to do her hair. His focus only shifted away from the screen when he saw her stuff a few things in her purse and leave her apartment for what (she did not know) would be the last time.