Page 137 of Tabloid Princess

He didn’t come back for ages. I lay on Daisy’s bed, after checking with a nurse it was okay. I couldn’t not be with her, not touch her.

I never wanted to remember those minutes when they’d put me in that room and I thought she’d died.

Never.

“Look who I found.” Oliver walked in, Nana behind him.

I cried the moment she stepped through the door. “This is all my fault because I insisted on walking this morning to make a point,” I sobbed.

Nana shushed me and came up to give me a tight squeeze. “You talk utter nonsense.”

I wiped at my face and shifted off the bed so Nana could get close to Daisy.

“They are keeping her asleep just for a while,” I explained.

“Oh I know, Oliver told me all about it.”

“Oliver?” I raised an eyebrow.

He stood at the door, hesitation on his face. Our words from the kitchen, the phone call from the States, hung between us. His eyes told me he wanted me to take them back, to make them go away.

“Nana, could I have a moment with Oliver?”

His shoulders slumped.

“Sure. I’ll go and find us some coffees. Oliver, would you like one?” She asked hopefully.

He searched my face. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

When she left, I sat on a chair one side of the bed while he perched on the one opposite. Between us lay my daughter, my entire reason for existing.

“I want to thank you for getting me here so fast.

“Leia, please don’t talk to me like I’m a stranger.” His hand reached for mine across Daisy and for one moment of weakness I tangled my fingers in his. “I can see what you are about to say and I’m going to beg you to stop.” He took a deep, shuddering breath. “In the car on the way here. All I could think about was what life would be like if something happened to Daisy. I care for her on an unprecedented level.”

“Unprecedented enough that people will always think she’s the girl out to destroy the monarchy at the whim of her gold digger mother. It would be like Lady Jane Grey all over again. Apart from I wouldn’t be going to the scaffold with my daughter—I’d be hung out to dry by the press every day.”

“Then I’d give it all up for you.”

My mouth hung open and I stared at him wordlessly while I contemplated his wild statement. “Oliver. No. I’d never live with myself. I’m not worth that.”

“And I don’t know if I can go back to my life without you both.”

“You need to. For Daisy. If you care for her the way you say you do, then you need to leave us. I’ll get us out of London for a while, until everything calms down. Soon we will be forgotten about.”

“Not by me.”

“And I won’t forget you. I was angry before. I said some horrible things. But you hurt me, Oliver. You didn’t mean to, but you undermined me from the start. I’ve battled too hard to let that happen to me now.”

He hung his head. “Well at least my brother didn’t fuck this up for me. I managed it all by myself.” I hated the bitterness in his words; it tanged like burned coffee.

“I think you should go. I’m sure your staff can get you out of here without anyone else seeing.”

He nodded, his eyes shifting to Daisy’s pale face. His Adam’s apple bobbed, but he didn’t say anything else. He stood silently and walked around to my side of the bed. Leaning down he placed a lingering kiss on my cheek.

“Goodbye, Princess Leia.”

“Bye.” My word choked.