74. Square One.

[Claire]
"My child, you're back." Nana rushed to me and pulled me into her arms.
I wanted to push her away from me, I wanted to step out of her embrace, I wanted to scream at her and tell her to stay away from me but I couldn't.
I just stood there limply in her arms, my hands falling to my side lifelessly, I was tired of fighting and being angry.
I let the tears fall freely as she comforted me.
"It's alright, it's going to be alright now that you're home." She consoled me like she knew what was happening.
"How did you do it?" I asked, lazy to leave her arms. "How did you live for so many years with the secret and the love of your life in the same house, how did you keep sane?"
"It was very difficult at first dear, I couldn't shout to the world that the both of you were mine, but the burden got easier to bear with time." She patted my back.
"You didn't continue your affair with dad, did you?"
"No, I couldn't bring myself to, I told him that I couldn't because you were more important than anything, our relationship would have complicated things." She said,
"I fell in love, mom," I said and she froze.
"You just called me, mom." She pulled away to look at me then she hugged me back. "It's alright baby, I understand the pain you're going through but I assure you that it will pass."
"You're my mother, you've always been my mother even when I wasn't aware of that, you've always sacrificed yourself for me," I said and hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry, child, I'm sorry I couldn't tell you who I was, but I always loved you and I always will." She said,
"It's alright mom," I said and pulled away from her, I took two steps towards the house and the sun suddenly blinded me.
I groaned as my vision turned blurry and then I fell into a deep darkness.
"Claire!" My mother yelled as my eyes closed.
***
"What happened?" I groaned, opening my eyes one after the other.
"You fainted." I looked into the concerned faces of my mother and my father.
"Dad!" I tried to sit upright but his hand on my shoulders stopped me.
"You have to rest." He said.
"When was the last time you had something to eat and rested properly?" My mother asked, carrying a tray in her hands.
I hadn't eaten anything since the day before, I just felt sick to my stomach, I couldn't get anything to stay down and I couldn't sleep, I was in a terrible state.
"I made you some soup, it will help if you have stomach issues and you have to take a lot of water, you look so pale, you must have been dehydrated, I'm sure that was why you fainted." My mother said sitting down beside my bed.
"Try to get some rest, Claire." My father said, his expression was hard.
"What is going on?" I asked them, looking from my father to my mother and then back.
"Nothing is wrong, why would you think that there's—"
"Nana!" I glared at her. "Now is not the time to lie to me or keep another of your mysterious secrets."
"It's not a secret." My father sighed. "You just look too weak to talk about that now, I promise I'll tell you later when you get better." He said.
"It's my scandal, isn't it?" My eyes watered as he nodded his head. "How is it affecting the company?"
"Nothing that I can't take care of." He said.
"Tell me, please," I begged.
"The company's sto—"
"Can you both please discuss this after she eats some food and gets some rest?" Nana said.
"We'll talk about this again tomorrow." My father planted a kiss on my head and left the room.
"Don't cry, child, concentrate on getting your strength back, whatever is happening is just a setback and I'm sure that you can overcome everything." She said, "Now open your mouth."
I felt and tasted nothing as Nana shoved spoonfuls of soup into my mouth, my anger towards Jean began to intensify but I knew that no matter how mad I was at him, I could never do anything to harm him.
***
"I will find a solution to all of this father, I promise you," I said after listening to all the issues the international scandal had caused the company.
"A simple solution would be to marry Ivan and merge the two companies." My father said, tapping the end of his pen against the table.
"Indeed." I nodded. "That would have been a swell plan for the girl that I was, but the girl I'm becoming now does not need a man to take care of her problems."
"It's been two months, Claire, the scandal has already blown over but the company is having a hard time recovering from the impact, I'm afraid we'll have to file for bankruptcy if the impact tarries."
"Trust me, I'll take care of it father," I said and turned to look outside the windows. "What smell is that?" I asked clutching my stomach and rushing out of his office and then down the hall to my office.
I did not stop till I was securely in my office bathroom and my head buried inside the toilet bowl.
I retched my guts out before I got up and flushed the toilet, I stared at my reflection in the mirror and I frowned.
Something was definitely wrong with me.
I'd lost a significant amount of weight and I was almost looking like my father's secretaries, I'd also been getting very nauseous of late and I'd been vomiting almost every morning.
It only took a whiff of a foreign smell for my stomach to knot up and then cause me to retch.
I held my stomach and squeezed my eyes shut as I fought another bout of dizziness.
"Stella," I spoke into the intercom weakly. "Come to my office, now."
"Yes, ma."
A few minutes later she pushed my door open and walked in.
"You sent for me, ma?"
"Yes, Stella, cancel all my appointments for today and schedule an appointment for me at the hospital," I said.
"Alright ma, but what's wrong with you?" She asked full of concern.
"Nothing for you to worry about Stella, I'm just going for a routine checkup," I told her.
"Okay, ma." She sighed out of relief and left my office.
My phone buzzed immediately after she left and I grinned when I saw an incoming video call from Sophie and Michele.
"Hey, how's our working-class woman." They laughed as I accepted their call.
"She's doing fine." I smiled and placed my phone on a tripod stand.
"You look stressed, are you working yourself hard?" Michele asked.
"What can I do, the company has a lot to recover from."
"It's annoying how you're still struggling and the palace has recovered from the scandal." Sophie frowned.
"I'm not worried, I know that we'll get through this soon." I smiled weakly.
"Something else is wrong, what is it?" Sophie asked studying my expression.
"I think I'm sick," I announced and they both gasped.
"What do you mean by that?" Michele asked.
"What are your symptoms?" Sophie asked.
"I have nausea and dizziness, I can't seem to keep anything down, I vomit a lot and I've lost considerable weight," I told them.
"What, oh my that sounds horrible," Michele said sadly.
"Wait, nausea you say and vomiting?" Sophie asked.
"Yes."
"When was the last time you saw your period." She asked and I froze.
If I'd been holding my phone in my hands it would have slipped out of my hands and fallen to the floor.
I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen my period, it was never regular and I was never one to calculate my flow days, I just always left it to chance but one thing I knew was that I hadn't had my period since I got back from Denmark.
"I haven't gotten my period since I got back from Denmark," I said.
"What!" Michele gasped. "Baby, you need to go buy yourself a pack of pregnancy kit or make that twenty packs." He said.
"That won't be needed, I can't be pregnant, I used the pill, it has to be something else." I reduced my voice because I didn't want to risk anyone hearing what we were talking about.
"He's right, Claire besides I did tell you that the pill wasn't a one hundred percent guarantee," Sophie said.
"I have a doctor's appointment later today," I said, tears welling up in my eyes.
"That's better, call us once you get there, we'll be there with you," Sophie said and I nodded.
"Stella!" I screamed, not bothering to use the intercom and she rushed into my office immediately. "When is my appointment?" I asked her.
"It's around noon, ma."
The hands on the clock seemed to tick slower as I waited for noon to come, I felt so anxious I could barely sit still, I just kept pacing the length of my office.