Gabriella sometimes wondered just what it would take for her to fall from grace and become the same as everybody else. It wasn't that she hadn't tried but rather that her attempts had only made her more of a saint. Her mother was convinced that she could do no wrong and that the angels were smiling down on her, while her father thought that she was his little princess and walked on air. They couldn't be further from the truth yet to Gabriella it seemed she was cursed to be this perfect little angel.
She'd been born as part of a set of two. The problem was that her twin sister was her complete opposite in every way and everyone had always known it. Lissa had been born screaming and grabbing attention and had remained that way ever since. Their parents had never been able to give her the attention she craved and neither had the media who followed her round hoping for a juicy story. But where Gabriella could do no wrong, Lissa could do right. It seemed like everything she did turned in to crap and yet Gabriella couldn't help but be jealous of her. Every time that Lissa achieved something it was huge and celebrated, when Gabriella achieved something it meant nothing because it was expected of her. Not that Lissa had many achievements or celebrations.
Gabriella had been trying for years to prove she wasn't this goody two shoes that everyone believed her to be but the more she tried, the harder she failed. She'd coloured on the walls when she was little and her mother had been proud as punch because she'd declared that Gabriella would be an amazing artist when she grew up and that design was still on the wall to this day. When she was a little older she'd gone out on her own when she'd known she wasn't allowed to and had gone to the river where she was definable you not allowed. She'd been certain she'd get in trouble then as she knew her father walked that way home and would undoubtedly catch her. But just a few moments before her father was due to walk past she had seen a young boy fall in to the river and had jumped forward to pull him out. Her father had walked past at that moment and rather than getting in to trouble she had been hailed a local hero and given a bloody medal. It had only gotten worse as she'd gotten older. She'd tried everything she could think of to try and tarnish her good reputation but it always backfired and she came out looking better than ever.
The problem now was that she had taken the exercise too far and now she was in serious trouble and she didn't see how the curse would be able to save her from this one. Her current situation wouldn't simply tarnish her reputation but would well and truly destroy it. She didn't know what to do and she knew that there was only one person who would be able to help her. Lissa had handled the weight of disappointment all her life and surely she would be able to help or at least offer some advice.
It had been a long time since Gabriella and Lissa had met up for dinner. When they'd grown up and moved out they'd gone their separate ways. Lissa had gone out of her way to shock and had succeeded admirably while Gabriella had faded in to the background since nothing she did shocked anyone. The different lifestyles had led them in separate directions and they weren't as close as Gabriella wished they were. Lissa had seemed surprised to hear from her when she'd called but had accepted the dinner invitation and that was all that mattered.
Gabriella had been sat in her lounge waiting for the doorbell to ring for what felt like forever. She knew that Lissa was expecting a dinner party or something fancy but the truth was that Gabriella needed her sister and she couldn't tell her what it was about until they were face to face. Her nerves were on edge and the waiting was driving her insane. She was just about to give up on her sister ever making it when the doorbell rang and she jumped to her feet in a hurry.
She rushed through the menial small talk and ushered her sister in to the lounge where she handed her a glass of wine and sat down watching her sister warily. Lissa seemed surprised by the suddenness but smiled all the same.
"Is everything alright Gabby?" She asked and Gabriella took a deep breath, forced a smile and spoke.
"I'm pregnant."
Lissa spat out her wine in surprise and stared at her sister in shock. Of all the things she might have expected that would have been the absolute last.
"I don't understand. You're..."
'Pregnant." Gabriella finished for her impatiently.
"I still don't understand. Did you get married?" She asked in confusion while gabriella let out a sigh of exasperation.
"Of course I didn't get married," she said. As if her sister wouldn't have known if she were married.
'Then I really don't understand. How the hell are you pregnant?" She asked. Gabriella simply stared at her. Really? Her sister didn't know how babies were made? She could certainly call bullshit on that considering the amount of times she'd walked in to their shared room to find different boys in her sisters bed.
"The usual way I imagine," she said dryly. Honestly, this wasn't going the way she had planned at all. She had thought that her sister of all people would be more understanding and helpful. She was worse than their parents would have been and Gabriella was dreading telling them almost as much as she was dreading telling the father.
"But I don't understand. Who the hell is the father? Where did you meet him? Why aren't you married to him?" She demanded. Gabriella considered them all to be good questions except the final one. Honestly, why did she think that pregnancy only happened after marriage?
She wasn't really sure how to answer the other questions though. How did you explain something you didn't fully understand yourself? She had been a virgin until the ripe old age of 29 and then just like that she'd given it up to some man she barely knew. It made no sense to her and she was sure that it would make even less sense to her sister who had apparently bought in to the Saint Gabriella spiel.
"As far as I'm aware you don't actually need to be married to make a baby," Gabriella told her sister dryly. She couldn't stay any longer and began pacing as she contemplated the predicament she had gotten herself in to.
"Most people don't need to be married to have a baby but this is you we're talking about. There is no way that Saint Gabriella can have conceived a child out of wedlock to an unknown," Lissa said.
It wasn't that she resented her sister but she'd constantly been compared to Gabriella since the day she was born and she was used to being found wanting. She'd gotten used to Gabriella excelling through life with ease while she fought for every little thing she'd got. Anyone else might have been pleased to see their sister get knocked down a peg or two but Lissa didn't hold any bad feelings towards her sister. She wasn't happy to see Gabriella facing such a challenge but rather shocked to her very core. It felt like the whole world had tilted on its axis and suddenly nothing made sense.
"I wish people would stop acting like I'm the virgin mary who can do wrong. I am just a normal person, same as everyone else."
Lissa chose to ignore that statement. Her sister might not see it but everyone else did. She was amazing but she was also leading a blessed life. It made no sense that she could have fallen so far from grace.
"What are you going to do?" Lissa asked instead of responding to the virgin Mary comment because if she was honest then she had always considered her sister to be just that.
"I have no idea. That's why I called you," Gabriella said in frustration. She honestly had no experience at what to do when she had disappointed everyone in her life.
"I guess the first thing that you should do is tell the father. So, who's the father?" Lissa asked. Gabriella hesitated at that. This was the one reason that she hadn't wanted to tell her sister about the baby but she'd needed advice. The problem was that she didn't know how to tell Lissa who the father of her baby was. How did you tell your sister that not only had you screwed up your life but that you had done it so spectacularly that even she would hate her for it.
"I can't say," Gabriella said. Apparently Lissa was more astute than she realised because her sister's gaze turned suddenly speculative.
"So it's someone that I know then," she said. Gabriella fought to hide the panic in her gaze at that.
"I didn't say that," she said but it was too late because Lissa was already compiling a list in her head.
"So it's someone that I've slept with," Lissa guessed.
"That doesn't narrow the list down much," Gabriella said snarkily to hide the fear she held that her sister was actually closer than she thought.
"So not just someone that I slept with but someone I had a relationship with," Lissa said. Gabriella couldn't believe how quick her sister was at this guessing game. She hadn't thought that she was giving anything away yet her sister had narrowed the list down to approximately five people.
"Don't be ridiculous," Gabriella said in what she hoped was a haughty tone as she attempted to divert her sister. It didn't work though as Lissa continued to look thoughtful.
"Well it's not Robbie since he's married with two kids now," she said and Gabriella wrinkled her nose at that. Robbie had been her sister's high school boyfriend and she hadn't been able to stand him then.
"It can't be Harry since he turned out to be gay," she continued. Gabriella winced as she realised that her sister was only a few names away from the truth. It didn't take long for Lissa to reach that name.
"Oh my god. Please tell me that you did not have sex with Blake," Lissa said. Gabriella gave up on denying the truth when it was inevitable that it was all going to come out.
"Fine. I did," she said and wasn't prepared for Lissa's laughter. Surely her sister should be pissed off that she had slept with her ex and was pregnant with his kid.
"Even when you do something stupid you manage to come up smelling of roses," Lissa said between laughter and Gabriella stared at her. What the hell was she on about? How was any of this good?
"What the hell are you on about?" Gabriella demanded and Lissa managed to pull herself together.
"You really did not do much talking with Blake before the big deed did you?" Lissa said with a smile. Gabriella had no idea what she was on about. She had been working for Blake for a while now and she thought she knew enough about him not to be taken unawares.
"If there was any one guy that mom and dad would be pleased to have knocked up their favourite daughter then Blake would be top of the list," Lissa told her, which made no sense to Gabriella at all. She knew her parents and she knew that anyone who impregnated one of their daughters would not be accepted in to their household under any circumstances.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Gabriella told her honestly.
"Seriously? You have no idea what Blake does for a living or anything about his past?" Lissa asked. Gabriella frowned and shook her head.
"I still don't know what you're talking about. Blake manages the company I work for and is technically my boss and as for his past, well he's always been fairly secretive about it but I do know that his parents live abroad on some small island or something. I think he said that they retired there or that they work over there, something like that."
Gabriella didn't like the look her sister sent her way. It was starting to dawn on her that something was seriously wrong, besides the pregnancy of course.
"Gabs, Blake doesn't manage the company, he owns it. And his parents haven't retired to some island or work there. They live there because they run the country," Lissa said. Gabriella frowned at that. How could she not have known that Blake owned the company? Surely someone would have mentioned that at some point over the past year she'd been working there. And what the hell did running the country mean?
"So his parents are in politics or something?" She asked. Just her luck to get impregnated by a guy whose parents were so far out of her league that it was laughable. She had never understood politics and she had certainly never wanted to meet any politicians.
"Or something. Gabs, his parents rule the country because they're it's royal family," Lissa said. Gabriella still didn't understand.
"I don't get it. Royal family? Are we talking like Wills and Harry? Or Beatrice and Eugenie?" She asked. Her sister laughed at that.
"Close. But his parents are like the King and Queen of the country. I hate to break it to you Gabs but Blake is a living breathing prince."