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A pulsating silence filled the cabin.
His body didn’t move, but she saw a flicker in the depths of his eyes, turning them the green of a stormy ocean.
“Do you have pictures of them on you?”
She’d thought he’d deny it was his son, or at least question her outrageous suggestion that he might have been the father.
He did neither. Instead he’d responded in a forthright manner that astounded her.
“I have a packet in my wallet. The photo of Melissa is her junior year high school picture. The rest are pictures of my son taken on every birthday in case I ever found his father and he wanted to see them.”
One dark brow lifted. “Your son?”
“Yes. I adopted him.”
“You never married?”
“No.”
Her hands trembled as she opened her purse and pulled the packet from her wallet.
He got up and reached for it.
She held her breath while he stood there with his legs slightly apart, studying each photograph with an intensity that held her spellbound.
The likeness of his son to him couldn’t be disputed.
“What day was he born?”
“February 27. He’ll be thirteen on his next birthday.”
He examined the pictures for a long time. “What did you name him?” His voice revealed a husky quality that indicated he was deeply moved. Another surprise.
“When Melissa had an ultrasound and found out she was going to have a boy, she named him after you.”
His gaze shot to hers. “I have several names.”
Darrell’s mouth had gone dry. “I know. I saw the long list on the Internet. You told her you were Phil from New York. So Melissa called him Phillip.”
A haunted expression crossed over his features, making the thirty-three-year-old monarch appear older than he was.
“Now that I see her picture, I do remember visiting a dude ranch in Colorado Springs in June thirteen years ago. A college girl a little shorter than you with hair several shades darker than yours worked there.”
“Yes. That was Melissa. She was a room maid for the summer. Except that she wasn’t in college. She was only seventeen, and had another year of high school ahead of her.”
His lips thinned.
“Don’t worry,” Darrell murmured. “I’m sure she lied about her age. She looked older and couldn’t grow up fast enough. She said you’d both been drinking and got into a sleeping bag under the stars. That’s when you parted with the ring.
“Knowing Melissa, she probably begged you to let her put it on. Especially after you told her you were really a prince.
“I thought the whole story was bogus. But two weeks ago when I consulted a heraldry expert who identified your family’s coat of arms, I had to take it seriously.
“The Internet articles and pictures of you helped me with the rest. Not only was one of your names Phillip, I read that you were the prince of Bris before your coronation six years ago. Suddenly everything fell into place. But like all fairy tales, her glorious interlude with you came to a bitter end.
“When she reported for work the next day, you’d already disappeared without a trace. All she had of you was the ring. Before she died, she begged me to find you. After the funeral, I hid it away.”
His jaw hardened. Darrell could feel the tension emanating from him.
“How you must despise me.” His deep voice throbbed with self-abnegation. “Under the circumstances, why didn’t you tell the police what you’ve just told me? It was the perfect opportunity to expose me.”
Though she didn’t want to feel any compassion for him, there was something innately honorable about him owning up to his past behavior without offering excuses.
She hadn’t expected it of him. She hadn’t expected to have a positive feeling anywhere in her body for this man who’d made her sister pregnant, indirectly bringing on her early death.
Darrell rubbed her eyes with her palms.
“The last thing on my mind was creating a scandal for you. What happened between you and Melissa has happened to millions of couples since time immemorial. The difference is, not every child turns out to be the son of a king.
“Phillip wants his father more than you can imagine. Lately he’s been angry over the fact that you’re out in the cosmos someplace, unaware he’s alive. He’s wishing with all his heart and soul that he had a dad like his friends. He’s become quite inconsolable.
“But now that I’ve found you, I realize it was a mistake. I had no right to disrupt your life even if my son is suffering. He wouldn’t be the only child in the world to grow up without a father.
“The problem is, after raising him from birth I love him too much. The saying about a mother rushing into a burning building to save her child is truer than even I knew until now.”
She lifted her head and stared up at him with glistening eyes. “In this life there are some things that happen which are better left alone. This is one of them.”
“How can you say that?” he asked in a low voice. “I’m responsible for her pregnancy. I wish I’d known of Phillip’s existence from the beginning.”
“It would only have complicated your life. While I was checking out of the Hotel Otter, I overheard the desk clerk telling a tourist that there’s going to be a royal wedding at the end of July. I heard him say you were marrying a princess named Isabella.
“Learning you’ve been betrothed for several years, that news made me glad I hadn’t been able to talk to you. Please be assured neither you nor your intended bride will ever see or hear from me again.”
Alex moved as if to speak but Darrell rushed on, not giving him the chance to interrupt her. “If you’ll wait before flying back to Bris, I’ll drive home and ask one of the agents to bring the ring to you.”
She jumped to her feet, “Forgive me for forcing you to fly all this way. I’m so sorry—” she whispered before rushing out of the cabin and down the stairs of the jet.
“Please take me to my car, then follow me home. I have something of the king’s you need to return to him before he leaves the airport.”
The agent looked surprised, but he helped her in the car and instructed the man at the wheel to go back to the main airport’s parking lot.
A half hour later Darrell was still trembling as she pulled into the driveway of her small, two-bedroom condo. The agent’s car pulled in behind her.
She dashed in the house and hurried up the stairs to her closet. The ring was inside a little velvet pouch she kept in the pocket of an ancient winter coat she’d never thrown out.
Within seconds she’d run back outside and handed it to him through the car window. He nodded to her before they drove off, taking all incriminating evidence with them. Only then did she realize the king still had the pictures of Melissa and Phillip.
That was all right. Whatever he did with them, it didn’t matter. She had duplicates.
So…it was over. Phillip’s father would remain Phil from New York. End of story.
The pilot buzzed Alex. “Your Majesty? We’re ready for takeoff at anytime.”
Alex’s hand closed around the ring the agent had brought to him moments ago. “Thank you. I’ll get back to you in a minute.”
He’d laid out Darrell Collier’s photos on the desk in front of him. As he studied each one, his father’s voice seemed to call out from the grave. “Always remember that one day you’ll be King.”
One wild night thirteen years ago he’d rebelled against the rules governing his royal life with this the result.
He actually had a son from his own body named Phillip.
Alex was a father!
Dear Lord—how could he just fly back to Switzerland as if nothing had happened, his secret safely hidden forever?
Maybe an ambitious king with no soul, or an unscrupulous man with no moral conscience, was capable of it. Ms. Collier had made a promise he would never hear from her again, that Phillip would never learn his father’s identity. Alex believed her.
But he knew himself too well. There was no way he could turn his back on his own flesh and blood no matter how the reality would impact his personal or political life. The knowledge that he had a son living in Denver, Colorado, would eat him alive.
Phillip hadn’t asked to be born.
He was the innocent product of an irresponsible twenty-year-old and an underage teen! By some miracle Darrell Collier had been there to mother Phillip and do the job Alex should have been doing all along.
Twelve years without a father.
Alex couldn’t imagine it, not when his own father had been such a dominant force in his life.
Without hesitation he buzzed his pilot. “I’m not leaving Denver yet. Stand by. I’ll get back to you as soon as I know my plans.”
He then rang the agent who’d brought him the ring. “Get everyone ready. I have a visit to make to Ms. Collier’s home.”
After a strange silence, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_aa96029f-fc3a-5c46-91cd-37a3f8bd4441)
DARRELL got in her car and drove over to the Holbrooks’s to pick up Phillip. En route she phoned to tell him she was on her way.
It was ten to six in the evening when she pulled up in front and honked. Phillip was waiting for her, and came out the door with his sleeping and duffel bags.
Hugs from him had been on short ration over the last year, but he actually gave her one after getting in the car. It melted her heart.
She’d been away three days, the longest separation they’d ever had. Over the years the two of them had enjoyed her airline perks. They’d gone on many vacations to fun places around the U.S. and Hawaii. But the trip to Bris had been for her eyes only, which meant Phillip had to stay with his best friend. Many weekends she’d let Ryan sleep over at her condo while his parents were out of town.
“How did it go while I was away?”
“Okay.”
“Tell me about the swim meet.”
“I didn’t place.”
Then he didn’t try hard enough because he usually took more firsts than the other guys on the team!
“Oh well, There’s always next time.”
“How come you didn’t take me to Chicago with you?”
She drew in a deep breath. “I couldn’t. It was an exhausting business trip. But I have an idea. After we get back to the condo and I freshen up, how would you like to go somewhere for dinner? You name the place.”
“Why do we have to go out? Can’t we just stay home?”
To her disappointment, he was more truculent than usual. She reached out to squeeze his arm. “Sure we can. I’ll fix us some tacos and we’ll just hang out.”
When he didn’t respond she said, “I don’t know if I told you Danice was transferred to Washington D.C. She’s invited us to spend the Fourth of July with her. That’s the day after tomorrow. We’ll watch the fireworks from a boat on the Potomac. It’ll be fabulous. What do you say?”
“I’d rather not go.”
Darrell moaned inwardly. “How come?”
“Danice treats me like a little kid. I hate it.”
Danice was her good friend, but right now Phillip didn’t care how he sounded. She started to feel panicky. His depression was definitely worse.
“Here we are,” she said unnecessarily as she pulled into the garage of their condo. “Take your clothes into the laundry room and we’ll get a wash started.”
“Mrs. Holbrook already did mine.”
“That was nice of her.”
When Darrell reached for her suitcase and saw the Zurich tag on the handle, she tore it off and stuffed it in her purse before entering the hallway.
She was convinced he was suffering more than usual because he’d just come from Ryan’s, whose father was known as Mr. Dad.
Phillip only had a mom. Life was unfair.
It was unfair.
Darrell no longer had a sibling. With her grandmother already passed away, Darrell had been virtually alone when she’d taken on the role of mother to raise Phillip.
Over the years she’d dated off and on. She’d even come close to marrying her boss earlier this year. But he was too soft on Phillip who needed a strong hand. Darrell had feared her son would always be in the driver’s seat after they married, so she’d stopped seeing him except in connection with her work.
Since then she hadn’t dated anyone.
“Phillip?” she called to him. “I’ll be upstairs changing, then I’ll come down and fix us a meal.”
“Okay.”
The condo felt like an oven. On the way up to the bathroom she turned on the air-conditioning to cool off the house.
