CHAPTER 29

          Michaela was more than thankful for having an opportunity to get out of the palace later that day. The meeting with the men and women she was working with to organize the Carpathian branch of the MD Foundation had gone well.

          It had provided some much-needed distraction from the anxiety of waiting for the test results, from the stifling solitude that came from being in a huge building surrounded by people who basically never talked to her.

          But most of all, she needed a distraction from her earlier revelation. She didn’t want to be in love with Maxim. She was saving all her love for their child. She didn’t want to have her emotions tangled up in loving him, not when he was only going to hurt her.

          She didn’t want to be like her parents. Didn’t wa