88. His child.

[Claire]
My blood turned cold as he said those words from his mouth and my knees buckled, he caught me and time and steadied me on my feet.
I knew that I'd given myself away with my reaction but I still tried to deny the fact.
I felt so scared and the man looking at me looked very familiar but he felt very different.
I was afraid that he would try to take my child from me.
"Let me go." I peeled his arms from my body and I steadied myself as I turned my attention back to the stage.
Jake had just finished giving his speech and everyone was clapping. I was happy that I was a bit far from the stage and he couldn't see me, or he would have seen Jean grabbing me and I couldn't have had any excuses to give him.
"You know that we need to talk, Claire." Jean grabbed me by my upper arm but I stubbed his toe with my shoe.
"I told you to leave me alone." I said.
I immediately walked over to Jake and gave him a hug and two pecks on his cheeks as I sighted him, we said our goodbyes to everyone and then we turned to leave.
I didn't see Jean anywhere as I left and I sighed out of relief, I didn't know how he came to know that I was pregnant but I guessed if he knew, he already knew that the child was his and there was no way to spin that.
"Was he spying on me, is that how he found out?" I asked myself silently as Jake opened the door for me to enter the car.
"What was that earlier?" He asked me and my heart sank.
Fucking hell, he saw me with Jean.
"What?" I decided to play dumb.
"You said you're my girlfriend." He said and I sighed out of relief.
Oh, it was just that.
He was not looking at me but I could see the smile on his lips.
Oh no, that can't be good, I told myself as his grin widened, I couldn't have him getting the wrong idea about things.
"Oh that, I just thought it would be better given the situation." I lied immediately. "You talked about how that guy was your rival and I didn't like the way he was staring at you, I didn't want him to think any less of you so I said that."
Wow, amazing thinking Claire, I commended myself.
"Oh." His smile fell. "Thank you for that." A fake smile replaced it. "That guy really does think he's better than me."
"Yeah, he's such a smug bas—" I was literally about to go all out with my insults but I caught myself.
"How do you feel now, are you better?" He asked me.
"Yes, I really am and I really did enjoy myself, thanks for inviting me." His smile came back but it was such a shame that I was lying.
I truly wished I had not attended the reunion then I wouldn't have met Jean again and he wouldn't have found out about the child or he wouldn't have been able to confront me with that fact.
"It's my pleasure, I'm glad you agreed to come with me."
A few minutes later, he pulled up in front of my father's house and he dropped me off. I gave him a short hug and then rushed up the stairs to my house.
"Welcome back." My father smiled at me as I walked through the door.
I spotted Jean seated on the couch beside my father and my heart sank.
My face paled immediately and my vision blurred.
I staggered a hit but the aids were quick to rush to me and steady me.
"What is this?" I glared at Jean as they led me to the couch to take a seat.
I could not believe that he was in my house right now.
"I came to see my father in law, is that such a bad thing dear." He smiled at me.
"You make me sick." I spat out at him and he paused.
"I think we should all take a deep breath, you especially Claire, you need to take care of the baby's health." My mother stood up from where she was sitting and walked over to me. "Get us some tea please."
The maids walked off to go fetch some tea.
"You know Claire, I'm very cross with you." My father said and I frowned. "How could you not tell me that my son in law was the future king of Denmark?"
Smug fucking bastard.
If looks could kill, Jean would be fucking dead right now, I guess I better get used to calling him Luke because if I called him Jean then my parents would be confused and I didn't want to explain all of that right now.
"Father, you should not care about such things, after all when I met him, I thought he was just an ordinary palace guard." I glared at him.
"Yes, Mr Luke already explained all the misunderstanding." My father said and I frowned.
"You jerk, what fucking lie have you cooked up for my family to eat up?"
"Calm down, Claire, it's not good for the baby." He said, his eyes gleaming with what I'm sure was malicious intent.
He wanted to prove that he had power to do anything and sure he had proved that already.
Many men usually cowered when it came to speaking with my father but he just sat down and was casually sipping tea with the man.
"I don't know what he's told you father but I want nothing to do with him and so also my child." I said and cradled my belly with my arms.
"Now that's where you're wrong Claire, you do have a lot to do with me and you always will." He said. "First it's illegal to leave the country with the heir in your stomach, two it's illegal to run away with the countries heir, three it's—"
"You said all those things on camera." I looked down as hurt filled my voice. "You lied to me and deceived me, you have a fiancè."
"The child changes everything, I will not give up on my child." He said and my eyes watered. "I know that you are too upset to forgive me and I know that I've done something so horrible that you can't forget, but for the sake of our child, you have to put that aside because I will not let you keep me from my child and my son from his birthright."
"How do you even know that I'm having a son?" I hissed. "I haven't even checked its gender yet and I'm not even willing to do that."
"It doesn't matter, I just feel it in my bones." He said.
"Okay, and if it's a girl?" I asked. "Will you leave us alone then?"
"Never." Anger flashed across his face. "The child will take its rightful place, be it a boy or a girl."
"Are you married, Mr Luke?" My father asked.
"No." He answered.
"Then the way I see it, you should make her your wife, it will solve all the issues." My father said,
I watched my father's smiling face and I just knew that he was thinking about the benefits our marriage would bring to the company at an international level, also he wouldn't have to worry about a pregnancy scandal ever breaking out any more.
"That won't happen dad, I'm not willing to marry this man, besides I already have a relationship with Jake."
"Jake, Jake who?" My father joked. "Jake will understand, it's best for a child to grow up with two parents, you yourself should know the importance of that."
"Like you gave that to me?" I wanted to say but no words came out of my mouth and I just stared at my father speechlessly.
"That can be arranged, Mr Hamilton but I will not have your daughter unwilling, I'll wait to earn her love and trust back."
He really was a smooth talker.
"Nobody is getting married to anybody!" I yelled in anger. "Stop trying to turn this around, Luke, nothing of such will ever happen, I'm done talking about this, please leave my life and don't come back." I stood up from the couch and headed for the stairs.
"Claire." He stood up and followed me.
I increased my footsteps because I didn't want to get caught by him.
My father and mother sat speechless on the couch, watching me leave.
"Please, just listen to me." He pleaded.
"No," I turned back to look at him and that was when I lost my balance.
Fear gripped me as I wavered on the stairs, I was already about ten stairs up and if I were to fall, I didn't even want to imagine such a situation.
"Claire." Jean yelled as my feet slipped.