Chapter 40. What really happened.

Anthony's POV

"Carla, she....she's dying." Ariel manages to croak out whilst the tears running down her eyes as she hugs her brother for some comfort.

I see Daniel and Ariana stiffen visibly at her words as panic overtakes Daniel's usually blank face and Ariana looks hella shocked.

"How...? What happened?" Daniel speaks after a long moment of silence in a barely audible voice such that I had to strain my ears to listen what he's saying. Ariana gives a gentle squeeze to his hand which is clasped on hers.

"I dont know...she just... when Giovanni and Anthony bought her here...she's on the brink of death. Giovanni had found her lying near their packhouse unconscious and when he checked the pulse, it was slow so he had bought her here and Anthony accompanied him. None of us have any idea what had exactly happened." Ariel narrates the tale rather emotionally while I lean my back more against the wall as a strange unsettling feeling settles in my gut.

Why does this all seem so familiar?

My mind wanders back to the time when I had brought an unconcious Ginivieve from the fort--where Claire had killed her--only to be informed that she's dead. Although in this case, Carla isn't dead, yet.

The strangest thing is that for some honorific reason, I vaguely feel responsible for Carla's condition when I, myself, have no clue what exactly happened to the woman for her to be dying. I don't even know why I'm suddenly so bothered by the thought of Carla dying when it had been my initial plan to kill her in order to take revenge from Daniel which role had later been replaced by Ariana since he'd fallen in love with her.

But, to be honest, Carla is somewhat tolerable woman. She wasn't that bad either. There were moments when I had felt at ease around her which is rather strange considering Gini was the last person before her who I'd felt at ease and Carla wasn't or could never be Gini.

My reverie comes to an abrupt stop as the doctor finally exits the room after consulting on Carla.

Daniel is the first one to step forward to enquire the doctor about Carla's condition as he pulls Ariana along with himself, clutching onto her hand firmly as he walks along with her to stand right in front of the doctor.

"How's she?" There's an urgency and explainable worry in his voice a brother would only know.

I can tell how he's feeling right now. As a brother, I would have felt the same way if Anne were in Carla's place.

The doctor has an evident worried look on his face, "Princess Carla's situation is very critical. There are 0% chances of her surviving. Her organs have all melted down due to the wolvesbane and silver solution in her system. Her wolf has lost it's contact with her human form as well. I'm sorry but she won't make it out alive."

My heart sinks at the declaration. Daniel staggers on his footing trying to hold onto his tears while a tear slips down Ariana's eyes. Ariel is back to being the sobbing mess she was before Daniel and Ariana showed up as she hugs James who looks equally sad. Giovanni.... he looks completely lost as if he'd lost his will to live.

My heart clenched into a knot as I think about what I had found out just when we were bringing Carla here. She had been Gio's mate all along and I didn't even know. Only if I knew earlier....things might have been different. Gio is, by far, my only remaining true friend. Although I've been a jerk to him ever since Gini died, but I still cared for him.

I'd also cared for Carla some or the other way which confused me more than anything and the thought of her dying brings this fresh wave of pain I'd only felt when Gini died....

My head snaps towards the doctor as suddenly all of his words registers into my head, "What do you mean by there was wolvesbane and silver solution in her system?"

Everyone looks my way probably wondering why I'd suddenly made my presence know but I'm least bothered as my attention stays focused on the doctor.

"There's a high possibility she consumed it," the doctor replies matter-of-factly.

"Why the hell would she drink silver solution or wolvesbane willingly when she knows it can kill her?!" Daniel barks at the doctor who looks scared out of his pants.

"I think someone had conspiringly made her drink it. To kill her," Ariana mutters gazing up at Daniel.

My eyes automatically fleets over to Kiana and I see her smirking while no one's noticing. The smirk drops instantly as she catches me looking at her which confirms my suspicion. How dare she! I had warned her....

Before I could react to the conclusion, the doctor speaks up again. The words that leaves his mouth leaves me shaken,

"There's one more thing. Princess Carla was pregnant. Sadly, I couldn't save the baby and she can never be pregnant ever again."

Everyone around go still and I feel like something precious has been snatched away from me as sudden realisation hits me like a splash of cold water. She'd been pregnant...with my child.

The last person she's been with was --no doubt--me. I can't believe I've lost my child who I never knew existed. I should've known about Kiana's scheme. I should've kept an eye on her. Heck! I should've stopped her from conspiringly making Carla drink the wolves bane and silver solution. It's all my fault.

Now I know what she was hiding yesterday from me....

■¤FLASHBACK¤■

During the marking ceremony...

.

"What do you want to talk about?" I ask Carla as I walk beside her through the isolated hallway after she successfully convinced or should I say buttered her brother to let her have a talk with me.

"You know that I don't actually want to talk to you," she gives me a blank look continuing to walk beside me.

"Really? I thought you said otherwise to your brother," I smirked as she continued to act indifferent.

I know it was a tactic to stop me from uttering about Carla and my supposed relationship but it's fun to tease her anyway.

Carla halted on her steps, turning sideways to face me, "Anthony, can you please not tell anything about us to Daniel? This is the only time I'll be asking you something."

I tried to take a look of her face which was hard considering she was constantly avoiding any eye contact with me as her head bent low to stare at the tiled floor.

"Why don't you want to let him know? He'd know it eventually." I said still trying to take a glance of her face.

Carla's head snapped up to look at me with her grey eyes widened in shock and realisation, "What do you mean? Do you know about...."

I furrowed my brows at the way her face contorted in anxiety. What's she stressing about?

"It's obvious Daniel would know sooner or later considering Ariana will be soon by his side. She knows about us and might say it to Daniel, anyways. What were you talking about?" I question raising a brow.

Carla breathes a sigh of relief at my words which causes my brows to furrow further. Why does it seem like she's hiding something?

"What did you think?" I press on the question while she looks back at the floor muttering a 'nothing', probably avoiding my question.

For some reason, the way she is avoiding my presence brings a strange jolt of regret in me which I try to push away. It's just because she'd always been carefree and lively around me that now when she's being aloof, it's kind of making me feel weirded out, right?

"Carla, I'm sorry about everything I did to you." I finally utter the words which I had been intending to, ever since I saw her running out of the packhouse with a heartbroken expression after she over-heard Ariana's supposed confrontation.

Carla stared back at me without a word before blinking her eyes rapidly and looking away.

"I don't know whether I can forgive you so easily, Anthony. You knew that I loved you truly, then why did you play with my emotions?" Her voice came choked in the end as she looked up at me.

A stray tear rolled down the side of her eyes which made my heart hurt at the sight of it. I so badly wanted to wipe it off but I couldn't. She wouldn't have been this miserable if I hadn't used her for my own means. Carla didn't deserve this. Neither did Ariana. This is one of the reason I want to keep them both out of my revenge.

"I don't want to force you for your forgiveness. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry," I said with all honesty.

Carla nodded without a word before her eyes suddenly snapped up to mine, "You mentioned something about Ariana getting back with Danny? Are you gonna let her be back with him?"

There was a sudden excitement in her voice which bought a smile to my face looking at how quickly her mood had changed.

"You'll know very soon," I replied before walking back towards the ballroom, the smile still intact on my face.

¤■END OF FLASHBACK■¤

It will be the last time I'd spoken to Carla and the thought itself made my heart ache even more.

Why the fuck everything wrong happens with me? I never got my father's or mother's love ever since I was born. My mother thought of me as an abomination. My father wanted to just keep me at a far distance from him which would have --as he might think-- tampered his so-called image. Richard, my step-father, was the only one who truly cared but even he died few years later. My love, my everything, Ginivieve left me five years ago. I freaking lost my child. I'm going to lose Carla soon as well...Fucking delusional fate. I have a horrible fate. I wouldn't even call it as fate since its pure badluck.

"What do you mean she was pregnant?!" Daniel was the one to snap out of the shock first as he snapped at the doc, "Who's the father?!"

"I'm afraid I don't know, your highness..." the doc muttered in a very low and frightened voice. Poor him.

Ariana's eyes briefly met mine as if asking 'you're the father, aren't you?'. I wanted to inform to her and Daniel both that I was the child's father but I caught myself on the last minute. Carla's only last request from me was to not reveal to Daniel about our relationship. I owe her that.

So, I just gave a simple nod to Ariana but made no effort to voice it out while Daniel was still fuming with part anger and part despair due to the likelihood of losing his sister. I'm thankful Ariana didn't bring it up either and instead tried consoling Daniel.

I wish I could do something to cure Carla. I wish I could heal her wounds.  But I cannot. Carla's wounds in the organs are internal and my ability to heal only works on external wounds. Wait a second, I can do one thing....though I can't risk asking it in front of everyone.

So, when everyone went in to see Carla, I silently and without anyone's notice pulled the doctor with me towards the empty hallways. Once he was in front of me and gave me a questioning look,

"Are all the organs melted? What about the heart?" I asked with urgency.

The doctor frowned at me but with a glare his way, he cleared his throat and thought better not to mess with a pissed off Alpha in question as he replied, "No, the heart is fine as of now since princess Carla is part royal and the one's with royal bloodlines, their heart is not so easily destructible even with wolves bane or silver. But all the other organs have failed working. She'll die soon."

"Stop saying she'll die, you dimwit!" I commanded him in my Alpha tone as he visibly cowered back.

"Here's what I want you to do..." I took a deep breath and exhaled it, "Look, since her heart is still working, that means she's alive and we still have time to save her. I've done medical studies myself and I'd expected you to suggest this, but since you didn't, let me inform you, we can do an organ transplant surgery."

The doctor looked taken aback by the suggestion as he mulled over it, "We can do that...but transplanting all organs can cause the other person to die. Who would willingly die? We won't have the donor by the end of the day and-"

"I'll be the donor." I cut off his meaningless talk abruptly.

This is all my fault that Carla's in this condition right now. And I can't just see her die in front of my eyes.

My life was never really precious to begin with. I might as well save hers.

___________To be continued___________

How's the chapter?

I know, that was a long wait and the chapter isn't that great or something:(

There's Food Fest, Exibition and Cultural Fest, all together in my college and with that comes a hell lot of preparations to do. I get pretty tired by the time I get back from college and then there's tution which makes me even more tired. By the end of the day, I'm like a walking zombie and the moment my body hits the bed, I'm as good as a dead meat😓

There's also exams coming up in 10 days and I haven't learnt a word😭 Though, the cultural fest and other fests will end by Wednesday. Thanks to the heavens! I'll get a week holiday for Christmas, yippee!!! Although there's exams right after the vacay😭😭

By the way, the above were partly the reasons I couldn't update and there's also this thing that I've changed this chapter like thrice since I didn't know what to write even though I know how this story is gonna end or what's going to happen next. I was kind of stuck in a writer's block. Thankfully, I'm finally over it and have written the chapter!

Okay, enough of my nonsensical blabbering😝

Goodbye:)

Have A Nice Day ^.^