the arrangement | ethma

15

Emma

I didn't think it would happen this quickly.

I stared down at the two pink lines in such disbelief that I took three more tests just to be sure.

I was pregnant.

I felt the urge to throw up again, so I ran to the toilet before it could come up from my stomach. Ethan lightly knocked on the bathroom door as I threw up a second time.

"Everything okay in there, Emma?"

"I'm okay," I said. "You can come in if you want."

The door slowly opened, and Ethan had a worried look on his face as he walked towards me, his hand gently landing on my back as he sat down next to me.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling sick?" he asked, his hand rubbing up and down my back.

"Ethan," I said.

His eyebrows softly furrowed. "What?" he asked.

"Ethan," I said, holding up the pregnancy test.

Shock filled his face as he slowly took the test from my hand. "You're—we're—is this real?"

"Of course it's real," I whispered, tears already forming in my eyes. "Ethan, we're gonna have a baby."

He pulled me into his arms, holding me as we sat together on the bathroom floor. "I'm going to do everything I can to keep you and our child safe. Everything forever. No matter what."

"I found out five minutes ago, and I already love this child more than anything I've ever loved before."

Ethan pressed his lips to my cheek, his thumb stroking back and forth across my stomach. "Me too," he said. "You are a very close second."

Both of us laughed, and he kissed me on the lips as I looked at him. "I love you, Ethan."

"I love you too. And I'm always going to do my best to give you everything you ever need. I promise."

I leaned my head on his shoulder. "I'm so lucky to have you," I whispered. "I think you're the closest I could ever get to a normal life."

"Emma," he said. "We don't have to be associated with the royal family if you don't want to be. We could live a quiet life somewhere. We'd still have the same amount of protection; the same amount of security. But we'd be as far away from the life of the royal mafia as possible. We'd still have to only go to places that are associated with the family, because it'd be dangerous not to, but we don't have to be involved in the family if you don't want to."

"But will we still be able to visit them?"

"We can be a part of the family without being associated with the royal mafia, Emma."

"I really don't want our children involved with the mafia," I said. "I want them to live an easy life."

"It's settled," Ethan said. "Grayson will take over for my dad instead of me. Our children won't be directly in the line for the throne."

"You have no idea how much that means to me," I said. "I've always wanted to get out from this system. I've always wanted to give my future children as much as a normal life as I could."

"Me too. Now, we'll have to come up with a statement both for the public, and for our families. I'm actually really happy you brought this up, because I've been thinking about it for a long time. Before we even got married."

I looked down at my stomach, covering Ethan's hand with mine. "I love you so much, little baby."

-

Ethan and I discussed the places we could live. We could stay on New York Island, we could go to Europe. We could live on California island. We could even go back to the states.

Ultimately, we decided to go to Europe. Ethan and I both absolutely loved Paris, and both of our families have a lot of safe spots there.

We had one of our personal assistants help us with writing the statements, both for our families and for the public.

Meetings upon meetings, conferences upon conferences, we got everything set.

Ethan and I were no longer involved with the mafia. We were still on very good terms with both of our families.

We were really lucky that they very much understood why Ethan and I were disaffiliating with the mafia, and they still very much welcomed us as family members.

They gladly accepted that we just wanted to live a normal life. In fact, Lisa's brother did the same thing when he was married. Her sister became direct heir to the throne because her brother didn't want to be involved.

Before we knew it, we were living in a penthouse in Paris. Of course we came home for Lia and Kristan's engagement celebration. I was so happy to see my little sister. Well, both of my sisters. My brother Thomas too. He was growing so fast. Nearly 15, and he was already as tall as our father.

Lia was glowing with happiness, and I was so glad for her. Maybe I wasn't in love with Ethan when we were engaged to be married, but I was more in love than I could ever dream of.

Lia and Kristan had been in love pretty much since diapers. I had the honor of seeing that develop over the years. Their little crushes on each other when we were young were adorable.

Now they were getting married.

My baby bump was growing by the second, and I was six months along. Ethan and I visited his family too before we went back to Paris.

Living in the most romantic place in the world, with my love was the best thing to ever happen to me.

My mother and sisters even came to visit us here.

That was a very fun two weeks.

Ethan and I were doing great, and our little girl in August of that year, and she was beautiful. We decided to name her a more French name due to living in Paris, so we named her Camille.

Camille Grace Dolan.

She was perfect.