The Substitute Heir

The kitchen was rowdy and chaotic as usual but this time, it was because of an important guest that was currently lodging in one of the VVIP rooms. Beth heard one of the kitchen staff say that it was the Grand Queen of Northem that was occupying the room. If the Grand Queen was there in the hotel, then they were in for the night. The hotel managers would see it as a huge opportunity to make more money and they would make sure that the employees worked hard to please her.

“Order for table six..”, she announced ringing the bell for the waiter who made the order to come and serve the dish.

“The customer is going to love this. It looks delicious”, the waiter commended her with a smile as he took the dish placing it on his tray.

Beth returned the smile muttering a 'thank you' as the waiter left to serve the customer.

She touched her stomach, rubbing her baby bump gently. It was almost her due date, three more weeks to go and she would be free from this weight. She loved her child no doubt but sometimes she wished that the baby would come out soon.

The manager entered the kitchen and immediately his eyes found her, he moved towards her direction With a frown on his face.

“You need to take a break Beth, for you and your child. I told you to stop coming to work”, he scolded her.

Beth sighed, “what I need now is to be working. Like I’ve told you before, I’m fine and am not even due for another couple of weeks. No need to fret”, she reasoned dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

While they were talking, she felt a sharp pain in her belly. “Ahh!...”, she screeched.

“What is it Beth?” , the manager asked holding on to her arm.

Beth tried to steady her breath taking it in slowly. She was far from her due date so it probably was a false labour. She raised her hand up dismissing the Manager’s concern but as she wanted to claim that it was nothing, another cry left her lips.

Her water broke, splashing on the floor of the kitchen. She paused looking down at the floor. No way why is this happening now.

“Tell me that’s not your water?”, someone asked behind her.

“sh*t!”, she cursed. “the baby is coming”.

The baby was coming and she wasn’t prepared. The contractions were painful and she was mostly slipping in and out of consciousness as they rushed her out of the kitchen to the hospital. She didn’t know why but her memory took her back to the first time she heard the news from the doctor that she was pregnant.

“Congratulations , the test results shows that you are pregnant, a month and three weeks pregnant Ms. Beth”, the doctor informed her as she was sitting down in front of his desk.

she looked sad at the news that he had delivered to her. In all his years of practice, this was the first time his patient was not happy that she was having a child.

“That’s not possible sir”, Beth objected.

She had been a widow for two months now , loosing her husband in a car accident, so it was basically impossible that she was with a child.

The doctor frowned when he heard what she said. “I don’t know why you think this is not possible Ms. But the test results don’t lie, you are pregnant and you know this too, that’s why you came to the hospital”. He emphasized.

The reason she had come to the hospital was not to confirm if she was pregnant or not. She came because she felt sick and dizzy all the time and so thought it was a simple flu that drugs could cure, only to have this thrown at her.

The doctor had ordered a pregnancy test and she had agreed to do it only to prove to the doctor that he was wrong but apparently, the doctor was right.

“I lost my husband two months ago and I haven’t had any sexual affair with any other man since then.” She confessed.

The doctor offered her a sad smile, “am sorry for your lose but the earlier you accept this, the better for you and your child”, he told her standing up from his seat and leaving the room to attend to another patient.

She took the time to comport herself, closing her eyes as her brain tried to process what the doctor had told her.

Christ!, She couldn’t believe what was happening. Could it be that she conceived the last time she slept with her husband before his accident. There was no doubt that he was the father of the child.

They had been married for two years and had no issue and now that he was gone, she finds out that she was with a child.

“Am I really pregnant”, she whispered to herself leaving the hospital that day.

Reality dawned on her five months later when the baby bump started to show that she was indeed expecting a child. How was she going to cater and fend for a child in her present situation. She was barely surviving as it was right now, working two jobs a day to feed herself, pay her rent and fend for her needs, and now she has to think about a child too.

How she was going to fend for the child was not the only problem at hand, rumors started to surface all around Morro, a small community where she lived that she had been having an affair with multiple partners while her husband was alive.

One particular rumor speculated that she killed her husband when he found out that she was pregnant For another man.

The hate and disgusted looks she received from her neighbors and even the community members was heartbreaking. No one wanted to associate with her, an adulterer as they claimed.

It was because of these rumors going around that she decided to leave Morro and move to another city to start up a new life. At least there, nobody knew who she was.

Not majorly for herself but for her unborn child, she has to start thinking about her child’s future. She needs to think about the environment where she was going to be raising her child. This was the last gift that her late husband left for her and she was going to cherish it.

Ur was the capital city in the kingdom of Northelm; far from Morro and it was the only place she knew she could run to where no one was going to recognize her and wouldn’t judge her for being single and pregnant.

It took her a month to plan her move and gather the required money that would cover her relocation expenses. She burnt everything that connected her to the town of Morro the day she left.

Starting a new life had not been easy for her but she was determined and that was how she got a job cooking for a five star hotel. For the first time since she lost her husband, things started to look good.

Beth was aware of the fact that she was being rushed into the delivery room. She saw the doctor and nurses scrub in; preparing for her child’s birth. The lights in the delivery room blinding her sights.

“Push…”, the command she had been waiting for came and with all her might, she pushed and pushed until she heard a cry.

“thank you…thank you…thank you baby…thank you God!” , Beth chanted.

“It’s a boy…”, the nurse announced bringing her son over to her. A son, her little boy.

She had held back from checking her baby’s gender during the hospital visits, so it was a surprise to her that the baby was a boy.

She held him close to her chest establishing contact with her son and enjoying the feeling of being a mother, a feeling that her late husband could have been here to experience.

Tears flowed down her eyes as she pressed a kiss to her son’s head. She was going to love him just as she had loved his father because to her, this was the best gift she could have ever received from him.

“Ahh…”, a sharp scream left her throat again. What is happening, she thought. The pain came again and this time, it was more than enough to render her unconscious.

Beth heard another nurse shout, “Doc. she is dilating!”, causing the doctor to rush towards her.

She could not see the doctor’s face but his pause was a cause for alarm, “twins?!, She’s having twins?!. How come it was not stated in her medical records”, the doctor yelled.

She was having twins?, she thought panicking before everything turned pitch black as she passed out.

When she woke up hours later, she was told that only one child made it through the delivery, the other one was born dead, a still birth.

She sobbed feeling the loss of her child, She had been careless and ignorant of the fact that she was carrying twins, thereby causing the death of her child.

Beth heard a soft cry, turning to the child bed beside her, the soft sound coming from the child lying in it. Her son, her little prince.

“Ah!...”, A woman shouted out in pain tapping the bed to wake the man who was lying down next to her. Her husband, who could sleep through a tornado was snoring lightly beside her while she was experiencing this excruciating pain. He was a heavy sleeper so she wasn’t surprised that he was yet to wake up.

She couldn’t believe that this was happening now. Of all the times it could have come out, it was now, at night when everybody had retired to bed.

“oh my goodness…you just couldn’t wait”, she whispered.

She drew in a slow breath as she panted. Her first experience had been easy and smooth going, within the blink of an eye it had ended. She was sure that this one was going to make her work for it’s worth.

Outside was pitch black and even though she could not see the time on the wall clock hanging in the room, she knew it was almost midnight.

“ahh!... “, she screamed again hitting the bed furiously for her husband to wake up, all to no avail.

“Now