I became overwhelmed with sadness. Father had always been controlling. He manipulated my life to great lengths. I did not like it. I wanted to be my own man. Make my own decisions, but I was trapped in my position.
“I will not,” I said. “I plan to marry her if the baby is mine or not!”
“You will do as you are told!” he said, slapping me across the head. “You will not disobey me. I am your father! Your king! Bah! You make me ashamed. You should be ashamed of yourself, boy. Defy me again and there shall be consequences!”
“Why will you not talk to me, father? Why can we never discuss things?!”
“We are discussing things! I am talking, and you should be listening. That is how we discuss family matters. Until you act like a man, you will obey me! Do you understand?!”
“I still have questions. I want to know---“
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” he screamed.
“Yes,” I said dutifully. “Will you accept the child as a member of this family? Or will you consider him a bastard forever?”
“That remains to be seen,” he said, reserving judgment for a later time. “One day, my son, you will be king. You will understand the decisions I make. You will make the same decisions for your family, for your subjects and for your country. Never forget that.”
Father had a way of upsetting me a great deal. I was trying not to cry. I looked away from him. No matter what I seemed to do, no matter what achievements I made, to him I was nothing. Just a child who needed constant supervision. Was it any wonder I flew around the world to get away from him?
“I don’t want to see you in any more pictures in the tabloids,” he warned. “Not until this matter is settled. We will either announce a wedding or congratulate Prince Byron on his. There are no other options. Understand? Do this for me, son. Do this for your family. Then, in a few months, all will be forgotten.”
“Yes, father,” I said a little bitterly.
I’m not sure if he heard or if he was merely waiting for me to capitulate. Aaron came into the room to tell him that his limo had arrived.
“Thank you, Aaron,” he said. “See to it that Dominique spends his time here, won’t you? See that he is relaxed and safe.”
“You mean trapped,” I corrected.
“I mean, safe from the paparazzi,” he corrected. “Good to see you, Aaron. Dominique, I will call you, huh?”
“Yes, father,” I acknowledged. “Have a nice trip or meeting or wherever you’re off to. I know you mean well.”
Father made a noise acknowledging my response. It was probably not the response he wanted, but at least we both knew where we stood. Now it was up to me to prove to him I was man. Responsibility was never my strong suit, but perhaps it was time that I grew up.
If the baby was mine, then I would marry Savannah, if she would have me. If it was not, perhaps it was better for Byron to do the right thing. I would not want my adopted son to be treated like trash in my Royal Family. If he was mine, I would fight for him! I would not allow father to speak to him disrespectfully. Bastard or no! He would be my son! You can disrespect me father, but never my child!
Aaron will still standing at the door watching me. I guess he noticed my distress. I was muttering some of this under my breath.
“Your highness?” he began. “Perhaps a snifter of cognac to settle the nerves?”
“Or two or three,” I suggested. “Yes, please. Bring them forth.”
Aaron brought the snifter and I poured myself a stiff drink. I took a second one and poured one for Aaron.
“Drink with me,” I said.
“My Lord, I cannot,” he said in shock. “I am on duty.”
“This is your duty now, come. I shall promise not to get you drunk,” I said.
He took the snifter and we clinked glasses. He twirled and smelled the cognac, then took the entire drink.
“Hmmm,” he said pleasantly. “Quite good.”
“I have never asked Aaron, but---“
“Two, sir,” he said. “I have two children. A boy and a girl.”
“Were you ready?” I asked.
“No, sir. No one is,” he assured me. “You will be fine. Ms. Kelly is a fine woman, I think.”
“My father does not think so,” I said, taking a sip.
“He is from another time,” explained Aaron. “Things were done differently. He does not expect you to do things the same way, but you should respect the old ways. There is wisdom in the traditions. Some of them, anyway.”
“I do not know what to do, Aaron,” I said. “If this is not my baby, I may want to marry this girl. If it is my baby, I don’t know if I’m ready and I don’t know if she will marry me in any case.”
“Look into your heart, my prince,” he said. “And hers. You will find the answer. Thank you for the drink.”
Aaron patted me on the back and returned to his duties. He has two children and yet, he takes care of me. It should be the other way around. I am his prince. I need to take responsibility. Perhaps it is time that I stood up on my own, regardless of what my father says! Maybe that is what he’s been waiting for me to do all this time.
Chapter 11
Savannah
The life of a Royal is pretty sweet, I have to say. Breakfast in bed, servants to beat the band and a life of leisure--- After breakfast, a shower and a change of clothes, I was luxuriating in the embassy gardens drinking tea and reading on my phone. It was heaven, until the phone rang. Travis was calling. I assumed the tabloids finally made their way to his desk.
“Hey, Travis,” I greeted.
“What the fuck, Savannah?! What the fuck?!”
“Calm down,” I said.
“You calm the fuck down! You’re pregnant? Are you pregnant?! You’d better tell me, or I swear to God, I’ll have someone break into your doctor’s office to find out for sure. We can fix fat, but we can’t fix pregnant!”
“Okay, I’m pregnant,” I admitted. “It was an accident.”
“You stupid bitch!” he ranted. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?! Do you have any idea?!”
“We used protection and it failed, it was like a two percent chance,” I said. “Calm down, just push production back nine months.”
“Nine months?! The studio will never push it back that far back! We are fucked, Savannah. You fucked me! Although I guess you didn’t actually fuck me, since I know the baby’s not mine.”
Travis was losing it. It wasn’t uncommon in Hollywood. We were all artists. We all had our breaking points.
“I honestly didn’t want this to happen, Travis!” I snapped. “Now grow the fuck up! Do you think I wanted to wreck your movie on purpose?!”
“I think you’re an irresponsible, reckless slut that opens her legs for anyone, apparently!”
“Whoa! You’re out of line, Travis! If anyone’s a hack, it’s you! I’ve seen that piece of shit vampire movie you directed!”
“Yeah! Another movie where I got fucked by my lead. Only with her, it was a drug problem. You’re supposed to be kicking ass! Not sporting a baby belly!”
“If you can hide the fat, you can hide the belly!”
“Spoken like a true actress who doesn’t know shit. We can’t smash up your baby inside a corset! Or else, the bastard will be as dumb as you!”
“Fuck you, Travis! You stupid pig! The studio only made this movie because of the video game. You think they really care about the script you shat out?!”
“Oh, wow! Oh, wow! The truth comes out, huh?!”
“Yeah! You know I worked on this movie for money, not the joy of working for a guy whose last movie sold fewer tickets than he has I.Q. points!”
“Listen to who is calling my movies bad!” he laughed. “Your movies are so stupid, they’re an insult to stupid people. Duh! Look at my breasts! I’m a bimbo who can barely act and slept with the casting director.”
“Yeah, your movie’s a piece of shit! It’s trite! The dialogue is stupid, the plot makes no sense--- It’s just an ex
cuse to get screen time with my bare naked tits which apparently have to carry the whole God damned movie!”
“You think you had no dialogue before this phone call?! Wait until you get the rewrite! You’ll be lucky if you’re in a scene and credited as an extra when I’m through with it!”
“Go ahead! Then explain to the studio why they paid all that money not to see my tits! You fucking idiot! Just put a table in front of me for a few scenes.”
“We can’t do that for every scene! You’re supposed to be an action star!”
“Rewrite it so I’m pregnant then.”
“You can’t be pregnant and be an action star!” screamed Travis. “I don’t even know if there’s a legal liability to do the stunts!”
“You can always switch me out with the stunt double.”
“What is this? Old Star Trek?” he snapped. “As usual, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t have you with a baby bump in one shot and nothing in the next. Do you even know how movies work, you stupid bitch?!”
“I know more than you, you piece of shit! I’ll bet I can shoot it!”
“Oh, yeah! That’s just what the studio wants,” he said sarcastically. “A first time director managing a $200 million dollar fiasco!” he snapped. “If I have any pull left in this town, I’m going to use it to make sure you never work again!”
“Go ahead! Being in one of your movies is practically the same thing!” I countered. “Maybe this way, I won’t have to say your stupid dialogue and your stupid off color jokes, while listening to your idiotic direction!”
“Here’s a direction! Go to hell, Savannah!”
He hung up. I had had it with Travis. You want to talk about a self-centered narcissist, then he was the poster boy for it. Not only did I have to audition for that idiot five times to get the part, he sends me a “final” draft of the script and just as I’m done memorizing it, he sends a completely new script! He had no respect for the artistic process at all. Screw it! I’m glad to be rid of him!
As was typical, ten minutes later, my agent, Ronnie called.
“Hey, Ronnie,” I greeted. “Don’t hate me, okay?”
“What did you do, Savannah?” she said. “Travis just chewed me out over the phone. He’s threatened to fire you and all my other clients. This is bad, babe. Real bad. What happened?”
“I got pregnant,” I said. “It was an accident.”
“Okay, good, I can spin that,” she said, immediately working the angle. “Who’s the father?”
“Um, I’m working on finding that out.”
“Are you kidding? Babe, you have to find the father. I can’t spin this without some facts. Who are the potential candidates?”
“I guess you didn’t see the tabloids…”
“No, I’m looking now and--- Holy shit, is that a prince?”
“Yes,” I said proudly.
“Well, if you were going to get knocked up, I’d definitely choose him,” she laughed. “Who’s the other guy? Not your gardener, I hope.”
“No, he’s another prince,” I said. “It’s definitely going to be a prince either way.”
“Well, it looks like you have a fall back if your career goes south,” she laughed.
“Do you think the studio will let Travis fire me?”
“Hmmm, I don’t know,” she mused. “They really liked you for this role but shooting around your pregnancy would be tough and mildly dangerous. No, if Travis has any say, but his star is on the wane. Yours is on the rise. We’ll see who wins out.”
“Youth before age,” I said. “I like those odds.”
“Yeah, in this town,” she agreed. “Just don’t do anything until I call, okay? Lay low. Don’t let anyone see you. Think you can stand a few days with the trainer?”
“I kinda have to stay in the embassy until this paternity test is done,” I said. “I want to know the second I can.”
“Right, we can plan from there,” she agreed. “Okay, kid, stay well until then. I’ll hit you up if I hear anything.”
“Thanks.”
I went back to reading the Internet for a short time, but I started tearing up. This is exactly what I feared. My whole career could be dead now. I’ll be kicked off the top tier and reduced to playing “the mom” in TV-movies-of-the-week on the Hallmark Channel. Dammit! I worked too hard to be a movie star!
But Dominique and Byron were both very dreamy. Would it be so bad ending up with one of them? At the very least, I would be comfortable. Perhaps I could get one of them to produce a movie. Something where I could really act and not have to get naked just to sell some tickets. Something that wasn’t based on a video game or a YouTube video!
I flipped through the websites and social media. The Internet was abuzz and we were trending on Google. Maybe the exposure would outweigh the trouble. Maybe the studio will just figure I’m far too famous to fire now. Single mother and all--- There’s some sympathy there.
I tried to call Naomi, but she didn’t answer. I hoped at least she was keeping her mouth shut. She was my best friend, but she had a way of blabbing important stuff to the wrong people sometimes. I needed someone to talk to. Someone that I could relate to or would understand the situation.
After a few minutes of trying to read, I couldn’t sit still anymore. I had to talk to someone. I found Dominique’s room, but he wasn’t there. I walked to the other wing where I found Byron’s room. It had vaulted ceilings with columns and paintings that went up and across the ceiling. It was like living inside an antique. Maybe Byron could lend an ear. He was pretty upset the last time I saw him, but--- He had a stake in this too.
Chapter 12
Byron
Savannah came to my room crying. I could hardly understand what she was saying, so I sat her down and got her some tea. I still felt awful about how I had treated her.
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “I was fine when I started to walk up here, but I just started to think about everything that’s happened and then I couldn’t stop crying.”
“Sh-sh, it’s okay,” I said, rubbing her back. “I’m sorry about how I acted earlier. It was childish. I just was a little freaked out, as they say.”
“No, it’s fine,” she said. “This whole thing is a shock to everyone.”
“No, my behavior was unfit for a prince,” I insisted. “I should have embraced this news. An heir for me would bring me great joy.”
“I’m glad you had a change of heart,” she said, drying her tears. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do about this movie.”
She told me about her argument with her director.
“You exaggerate,” I dismissed. “You’re a big star. He cannot simply end your career!”
“You don’t understand!” she cried. “A few years ago, there was this actress, a friend of mine. She got pregnant from a movie producer. He blackmailed her into never working for anyone else or he’d take the child.”
“She could fight him in court.”
“No! You don’t understand, it’s the money these people have.”
“Well, I understand that!”
“Then you don’t understand how little money everyone else has,” she cried. “My friend ended up broke. She’s lived under his control for years now. Like a prisoner! I could end up like that or worse. Totally penniless! Acting is all I know!”
“Oh, now-now,” I said, hugging her. “You’re very smart, you can figure things out. Besides, I have some connections in L.A. Friends at the studio.”
“I don’t know, Byron,” Savanah said. “These things are pretty delicate. And you don’t know Travis. He’s nuts sometimes. Anything can set him off.”
“Nonsense, he’ll be reasonable,” I assured her. “Don’t you worry about it. Here, let’s get you a nice warm bath so you can relax.”
I took her into the bathroom and drew a bath. What could better, huh? Nice bubbles, warm water, some candles--- I know what the ladies like! And I know what I like, she took her clothes off right in
front of me. That was a nice little strip tease, let me tell you!
Holding her hand, I helped her into the water and she got comfortable. This is how you pamper a woman. This is how you woo her to be yours!
“You like?” I said.
“I like,” she said, finally relaxing. “Thanks, Byron.”
“Now you relax, I’m going to step out for a bit and take care of something, all right?” I said. “I’ll be back soon. And what was that director’s name again?”
“My director? Travis Banyon, but--- Wait, don’t get him fired.”
“It is fine, it is fine,” I assured her.
I stepped out of the bathroom and shut the door. I was furious. How dare this Travis Banyon push Savannah around. What kind of man threatens a woman? I should destroy his career! Then the shoe will be on the other foot!
No. I will take the direct approach. I shall call him.
It took several minutes of calling and searching, but eventually I got his number. I left a message.
“Travis Banyon,” I said. “This is Crown Prince Byron Bianchi. “I am great friends with the head of your studio and I am considering financing your next film or not. You know with my considerable wealth, I could possibly buy the studio so you might consider rearranging you schedule for my friend, Savannah Kelly.”
I hung up. Such monetary threats from my family are not to be taken lightly. We could very well buy the entire studio and then where would Mr. Loudmouth director be, huh? Sure enough, several minutes later he called me back.
“Ah, Mr. Banyon, you got my message,” I said knowingly.
“Look prince,” he said with disdain in his voice. “I don’t know what you and your buddy are trying to pull, but Savannah Kelly signed a contract. She’s gonna honor that contract or get blackballed in this town.”
“You would fire a pregnant woman?! What kind of man does this?!” I said, disgusted and outraged.
“A busy man,” he said bitterly. “My career will go down the toilet if this movie is late. Tell her to drop out and then we have no problem.”
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