The Addition (The Selection)

Chapter Twelve

I suck in a sharp breath as Marlee's hand slips into mine. "America, I'm going to get King Maxon. I don't care what you say," she tells me before running out the door. I sit there with my mouth hanging open, staring at the doctor. He avoids my eyes and stares at the floor instead.

"I'll wait until your maid comes with the king to tell you more he mumbles. I nod and stare at my hands. I run my fingers over my wedding band, the feeling that Maxon is already there helping to calm me down.

The door opens within a few minutes and Maxon rushes over to me. "America, is everything okay? Marlee told me it was an emergency," he tells me as soon as he sits in the chair beside me. I go to nod but knowing that everything is no longer okay, I shake my head.

"Maxon, I'm having a hysterical pregnancy," I say in a voice just above a whisper. His face falls. He looks over at the doctor.

"What?" he says, his voice quiet. The doctor cleared his throat and nodded. He picks up a paper from the folder and hands it to us.

"I'm afraid it's true. Queen America's desire to have a child and need to produce an heir has caused a chemical change in her body. She's going to have the symptoms of pregnancy without actually being pregnant," he explains to us. I look at Maxon who is reading over the paper.

"What kind of symptoms?" I ask him. He points towards the paper.

"There's different kinds but from what I've gathered, it's going to be one of the worst kinds. Your stomach will continue to grow for the five months or so and around the time you were supposed to have the baby, you'll have labor pains," he tells me. I gasp.

"I. . . Thank you," I tell him. I stand up from the table and run out the door. I hear Maxon follow me as I go. I don't pay attention to where I'm going or even where I'm at when I do stop. I just know that Maxon's arms are there around me.

I sob into them, feeling the world crashing around us. We had finally accepted it. We finally knew it wasn't going to ruins us, knew that we could move on, but of course that brief serenity had to end.

"America, it's going to be okay," Maxon whispers in my ear. I look up at him. His face is calm. It's the same expression he wears when we're faced with a hard job in front of the public. In fact, it's more emotionless than calm.

"What are we going to do, Maxon? I'm already beginning to show! The country will know and then what will they think? That their queen is in poor health? Or is crazy? It could cause so much panic, Maxon!" I say, much more coming out then I meant to release. Maxon sighs and tucks a hair behind my ear.

"We'll work past it," he tells me. A tear slips from my eye and he wipes it away. "We always do."

It takes me several more moments to realize that we're in the gardens. Once I have finally assured Maxon that I'm okay, he disappears back info the palace. I follow him inside a few minutes later.

I make my way back upstairs to the top floor of the palace. I return to my room for a few moments but my thoughts begin to wander. More specifically it wanders to Maxon and those bears with his name on their feet.