I close my eyes and listen to the serenity inside of the room. I sneak a peek at Matteo. Since finding out about his secret I do not know how to approach him. I should kill him but if I do I will need to contend with Michael’s fury. He is here with the support of Michael, no question about it. 

Now that I am looking he really does look like Michael. They have the same chin and same nose. His face is slightly rounder. The fact that I never noticed until it was brought to my attention is the scarier thing. He was hiding in plain sight and everyone failed to spot it. 

They are still failing. 

“You said that he wanted you to succeed him...” I don’t want to say the rest. This means that he was clearly planning on never giving me a child. That would explain him ignoring me every single night or simply spending them in the study. 

“That I did say, your majesty. He never wanted a child.” 

“Then... did he lie to me?” 

“You worry too much. He never wanted a child but he is happy to have one. He simply worries too much because of his own father.” Is he afraid he will be a bad father? I can’t even fathom the idea. He is such a good man that being a bad father is out of the question. 

I lay my hand onto my stomach. 

I am carrying the heir to the throne. I should not focus on these dark topics but instead focus on maintaining my health for the child. I doubt myself too much as well. I should just trust that Michael loves this child. 

“Sometimes I wonder if he still hates me for our marriage.” I don’t know why but I feel like I can confide in Matteo. Perhaps it is because he has trusted me with his secret that I feel at ease. Despite my small uneasiness at his intentions. 

“I can tell you that he was not happy at the pope.” I don’t even need to ask about this. I am already aware that my father has been... generously donating to the church for some time now. Though he will never admit it to my face. 

“I will not apologize.” 

“Haha, I did not ask you to. I believe that you are the best thing to happen to him.” I seriously doubt that. He was an amazing person before I met him, I hardly did anything to change him. In fact, I probably did more to deserve his ire than anything else. 

“What made you follow Michael?” 

“Hm... You are asking touch questions. I guess there is something about him. I always believed that I was doomed to my fate, that my birth was my curse. But Michael refused to believe that. He told me that so long as one desires it he can make it so.” Matteo gets a glossed over look in his eyes. 

“So... you are simply a coward.” 

“I guess I am a coward.” He winces at my words but doesn’t dispute them. I am not sure if I should pity him or not. I can already guess what happened but it is none of my business. “But that was the past. One shouldn’t dwell in it too much. I find looking to the future to be a far more worthy past time.” 

I don’t see anything wrong with his words.  

One can change over time. I am no longer the same person I was a year ago. I have matured and improved upon myself. Though the past shouldn’t be completely ignored. It is an important part of why I am here. 

“Should you not be doing something else?” 

“What task could possibly be more important than protecting the future heir?” He gives me one of his grins. In the past I would have attributed it to him not being serious but judging by the content of his words he is probably serious. 

“I am assuming you are the one keeping the loyalist coalition together.” 

“You have caught me. Michael instructed me to ensure that the modernization faction doesn’t get into control again. He would not be happy to hear that Giovanni had taken over while he was away.” He just outright tells me. Does he not have any amount of caution in him? 

Giovanni is my father for crying out loud! 

Never mind. I will probably only incur a headache if I continue this train of conversation. I need not know of what is happening within political circles. That is not one of my duties as empress. 

“In fact... Where is my father? I haven’t seen him in some time.” He has been visiting me fairly often as of late. But I haven’t seen him in a couple of days. My mind strays to countless things but I try to calm myself. 

“I do not know. Shall I inquire about him?” 

“Yes, go ahead and do that.” I am hardly in the condition to be moving around and searching for somebody. Matteo leaves the room and I hear him instruct the guards outside to have the utmost caution against assassins. 

One strand of hair being injured is hardly deserving of a public flogging and execution. 

Perhaps merely a private flogging. 

A/N: Over 50 chapters. I am impressed with how far I have gotten. I was going over my previous stories that I worked on and realized most hardly made it to 10,000 words. This story is now, officially, the longest story I have written and I have done it in such a quick time period. I have probably written about 35,000 words over last month. I am excited to finish this one up and finally say I have finished one story.

As always, thank you for reading.