Royal Pain || z.m. [Book 2]

•eleven•

The following morning, Genevieve was feeling much better than the day before. Her body didn't ache as much due to the intake of medications she was prescribed to take, but her head continued to pound. She was still feeling greatly upset about the loss of her child and felt like crying every time she would remember. Everyone in the castle checked on her and then left after giving her a few words of comfort and a sympathetic smile. Genevieve knew they were only trying to make her feel better, but it wasn't doing much to lighten her mood. But what she did want currently, was to be with her husband and grieve with him. But she had no clue where Zayn was.

Genevieve was lying down in an inclined position, where her back was against the headboard and many pillows surrounded her for support. She had woken up a while back with a severe headache but only to be found she was all alone in the bedroom. Her mind raced to come up with ideas of his possible whereabouts, but she wasn't successful. Genevieve had shortly fallen asleep again after Zayn's abrupt leave the previous night, so she didn't know if he had actually returned from Wellington or not. But she thought she was being silly for thinking of her husband to stay overnight at another castle.

King Yaser and Queen Trisha had been in the bedroom earlier to check up on Genevieve. The princess asked them if they knew where Prince Zayn was, but neither of their highnesses knew either. So they too grew concern about their son's disappearance. Niall was also asked and he also stated the last time he had seen the prince was when he rushed out of the castle last night. Genevieve tried contacting Zayn's phone but he never picked up or replied to any of her texts. Getting more worried only caused the princess' headache to worsen, so she temporarily gave up on concerning about the prince and just waited for him to walk past their bedroom doors.

Suddenly the princess' cellphone pinged indicating she had just received a text message. Genevieve took a hold of her phone and was very confused on receiving a text from Princess Aria so early in the day, in fact just getting a text from her for that matter. It was a text wishing her a good morning and she also noticed the text had an image attached to it. Curiosity taking the best of her, Genevieve went to check it.

Once the phone's screen changed, Genevieve was stunned. Her body froze in place and her head pounded even more. Tears started to collect in her eyes as her heart began to sink even more. The princess couldn't believe what she was seeing. Aria had sent her a picture of herself in bed cuddling next to her husband, who was still fast asleep. Both of them seemed to be bare as the comforter only covered them from below their shoulders. Aria was shamelessly smiling and looking straight at Genevieve from through the screen.

Princess Genevieve felt like throwing up as her breakfast and medications she had taken earlier, began to churn inside her stomach. As much as she didn't want to continue staring at the picture, she couldn't manage to tear her eyes from it. She felt hurt and anger but she also felt powerless. Tears began to uncontrollably stream down her cheeks as her body shook from silently sobbing. Genevieve couldn't understand what was going on. She felt like she was trapped in some nightmare but sadly she knew very well she wasn't. The princess felt so many things within from the different events that had taken place in the past twenty-four hours.

But Genevieve's main concern at the moment was, why did Zayn cheat on her? Why with Aria? She began to wonder if her husband truly loved her or was she being lied to all this time? Was Zayn looking for the right opportunity all this time?

As multiple questions bombarded into Genevieve's mind and anger boiled in the vessels of her frail body, she was snapped out of her thoughts immediately when the door suddenly burst open. She looked up to find none other than, Prince Zayn standing before the bed panting heavily looking absolutely distraught.

"Gene-"

"Don't say anything." the princess' expressions hardened again as she glared at her husband.