Scheming Heart (Available on Amazon Kindle)

Chapter 42

CLAUDIA

The scandal about Violetta Ricci's pregnancy spread like wildfire in the country and Alfonso's one-time interview with the leading newspaper makes the story spin out of control when he denied that he's the father of her child.

For days now they were dominating the headlines on every newspaper in the country. From the outlandish speculations and unbelievable invasion of their privacy. The paparazzi never missed the opportunity to get the latest news about these two ex-lovers they even resorted to camping out outside their residence surveying them twenty-four-seven.

Even I was thrown into the chaos. I tossed the tabloid on my dresser table and massaged my pounding temple. I didn't know how they managed to get this information about me and my apparent association with Alfonso. I am not sure if they also knew about my pregnancy and Alfonso is the father of this child in my womb.

Gianna advised me not to go to the office today since they were paparazzi outside our home and Papa didn't waste his time threatening them to sue their asses if they didn't stop harassing our family like this. But until Papa managed to get a restraining order from the court we could not do anything about those paparazzi swarming outside our home waiting for me to go outside and ambush me with an interview.

Thankfully, my pregnancy wasn't that hard I only felt slightly nauseous in the morning and nothing serious but I was sometimes emotional without any real reason I just felt like crying for the smallest reasons.

Just like now, I want to cry because I miss Alfonso like crazy. It's been four days since the last time I saw him. He cannot come here freely because he's still trying to protect me from the media and he doesn't want me to be the subject of nasty gossip he feared that it might affect our baby when that happens.

Although, I understand his sentiments I don't think how long I can keep with this kind of setup and not be able to see him. I already missed his warmth his devilish smile and our conversations telling me that everything would be okay.

Telephone conversations weren't enough for me anymore.

I held my hand in my slight bump. "I miss your Papa already, little one," I informed our child with a sad smile on my face. "What do you think we should do about it?"

I slowly stood from my dresser chair and peeked outside my bedroom window. As expected were outside with their camera ready to capture anything once someone came out of our door. It would be impossible for Alfonso to come here and these paparazzi would capture everything from their lens.

A brilliant plan formed inside my head and a slow smile spread on my face. For the first time since this news broke out, I could feel that my gloomy mood was slowly fading away, and hope sparked in my chest.

That's right. If the prince couldn't come to our castle I, the queen, might as well come and visit him. Because that's what you do when you miss someone, right? So I walked away from the window and changed my night dress into one of my best outfits. For the reason that if I couldn't help to be photographed by those people outside, I might as well look at my best when I appeared in tomorrow's paper.

I was nearly done dressing when my sister barged into my room. There was an immediate disapproving look on her face when she saw me fully dressed. "Where are you going?"

"Outside," I said simply, checking my appearance on my dresser mirror making sure that everything was on point.

Gianna closed the door firmly behind her and advanced further inside my room. "You are fully aware that paparazzi were outside our house waiting for you, correct?"