The Secret Prince

Epilogue

Epilogue:

"So be truly glad there is wonderful joy ahead. Even though you have to endure many trials for a little while" ~ 1 Peter 1:6

It has been five months since the day that ruined my life. During my first week back, I returned to the station. No one was expecting me to show up, no one knew I was back at the time. I walked into the middle of a meeting, and once I walked through the doors I was in the arms of- wait for it- Charlie. It made sense, he has had a crush on me for forever. I never did set him up with Claudia, I was preoccupied with him.

They were pretty much expecting me to not return, everyone had heard about how this small town, New York City radio host was engaged to the King-to-be. I was already replaced, which I didn't mind. My intentions for returning to the station were to say that I was leaving. When I announced that and left the room, I was followed by- wait for it- Charlie. He knew that my statement about it just not working out was a complete and total lie; he knew how in love with Harry I was. There was no denying that, no matter how much I wanted to.

After Charlie begged me for thirty minutes, I took him back to my apartment and told him everything; Harry cheating on me, the fast engagement, and my pregnancy. When I finished, Charlie offered one thing; to help me heal. I could just see all of the love in his eyes for me, I was beginning to see that this man I have worked beside for a while now- was in love with me. So, I did what I thought was right; I said yes. Charlie offered to be my unborn child's father; a task that I know is difficult for every stepparent out there (remember, I have one? I've seen my step-dad struggle to try and win over Mitch; Mitch didn't always love him), however I am fairly certain that because Charlie is going to be around before my child's birth it would be easy to win my child's love by just showing them love first. 

I decided that I wasn't going to change my name, I wasn't exactly in hiding- sure, I didn't want to be found, but if Harry really wanted to find me it would be difficult; Charlie actually comes from money so we were able to afford to buy a couple of houses. Harry would have to travel to all four houses in order to find me, and we don't really spend months at a time in each house; we rotate between the four homes. We bought a cute little house in a small down northeast of Austin, a beach house in Northern California, a farm winery located in a small town in Sicily, and a house in Hawaii. As I have gotten further into my pregnancy, we have moved less and less. Since I am due to have my child any day now, we decided to stay in the beach house in Northern California.

Currently it is actually late-October, the month I was supposed to move to the UK originally. I left Harry and the UK in late-May, and I had been in the UK for three months (March until May). Harry and I had met in October of last year, and I was able to pick out the date where Harry and I conceived our child; Valentine's Day. He made the day so romantic for us, this was before we found out about his mothers illness, Harry had flown us to Italy where we spent the day in Venice where we rode gondolas and sat on the roof of a building looking at the stars. I know, it seems kind of trashy and weird to do it on the roof of a building; but it was so romantic I didn't really think about it at the time.

Basically since June, I have been with Charlie. I do have some feelings for him; but I'm not sure if I love him yet. We have kissed, and done about everything except the dirty, but I'm not sure if I love him. I am fully committing myself to our relationship, but there will always be that part of me that will always love Harry. We announced that I was pregnant to my family, and instead of trying to make them believe it was Charlies baby, because they would do the math and figure out that it didn't make sense for me to be three months pregnant and to be with Charlie for two weeks, we told them what was going to happen. My mother didn't really agree with it, but she knew I was hurt and I would do anything to make sure my child didn't live without a father figure. We didn't have to worry about telling Charlies family about my pregnancy because his parents passed away when he was sixteen and he was an only child. I was going to tell my baby when they were sixteen or eighteen about who their father is; I might tell my baby throughout their life who their real father is and let them decide what to do when they turn eighteen and graduate high school. But I can tell you this for sure; Harry will not be having anything to do with our- my- child for eighteen years; I do not intend for him to know for a while.

I have had absolutely no contact with Harry since the cheating incident. He hasn't tried contacting me at all. So I assume that George or Clancy hasn't told him about his heir to the throne. I also have not seen anything about a certain Lady, which is wonderful because the second I learn about her trying to start something political I would leak the story on why I really left the UK.

The last time I really heard anything personally about Harry was when I went to the bank to pay off my student loans from going to NYU; Charlie had gotten me to agree to letting him pay them off since his money is my money too. After waiting in a ridiculous line for an hour, I was able to sit down at a desk with an accountant. She looked at my files and told me I wasted my time coming out to the bank because someone paid off my loans for me already. When I asked who she told me, "I can't really tell who did it, other than their initials are H.W. and this person asked us to tell you how sorry he is. I'm sorry, but you truly wasted your time coming here today, ma'am." instantly I knew it was Harry (Harry Walters, H.W.?)

I have no intentions about traveling to the United Kingdom again; which sucks because I have always wanted to go to Ireland. Maybe some day I will get over my fear of being recognized. That's a lie, I get recognized here all the time because of Helena and her lessons that were mostly public to put me in the eye of publicity, but they learned to just take pictures from a ways away because I'll snap if any reporter comes near me. Sorry, I'm pregnant.

Charlie and I were both asleep when I had a weird feeling; it felt like I just peed myself. Wouldn't be the first time, I've done that a few times, when you are pregnant and you have to go... sometimes you just go. So I just dismissed it as me peeing myself in bed and went back to sleep, deciding I would wait for the morning to change the sheets since it was two o'clock in the morning. 

It wasn't until four when I woke up to intense cramps that I realized I didn't pee the bed; I was in labor. After working for a couple of minutes to wake Charlie up, we were rushing around the house to make sure we had everything packed up and ready to go, while Charlie drove us to the hospital I called my parents to tell them what was happening. Mitch, my mom, my step dad, and my father were all going to be on the next flight out here in the hope of making it before I delivered. 

After hours and hours of intense pain from my labor, my doctor told me I was ready to begin the process of pushing my baby out. My family was able to catch the first flight available and arrived about two hours ago; Currently in my room I have my mom and Charlie with me while I push. 

It was extremely painful, but after thirty minutes of pushing, my baby was born. Charlie and I decided that we didn't want to know the sex of my baby until birth; of course our doctor knew, we just wanted to be surprised. 

"Congratulations, it's a girl! What would you like to name her?"

I waited to answer my doctor until I had my baby in my arms, I smiled at her as she unconsciously cuddled into me, "Welcome to the world, Helena Antoinette O'Riley." 

She's only been born for ten minutes and she's the center of my world.