Page 17 of Sheikh's Quarantine Triplet Baby Daughters

The startled look she gave him... that was strange again, and Samyar started to grow concerned.

“Hey, it's all right. You're heading into the clinic? Are you worried you've been exposed? It's all right. I'll go with you if you want.”

The palace did everything it could to quarantine, but accidents happened. Even when they didn't, the virus was everywhere in the news right now, and even the smallest little tickle in the throat or innocent cough could spur a fit of paranoid hypochondria.

To his surprise, Diane drew herself up to her full height, looking at him straight on. Her eyes, so dark that he had always thought they could see straight to his soul, captivated him, and for a moment, he forgot how to speak at all.

“I'm not worried I'm sick,” she said, her voice soft but true.

“Then... why are you going to the—”

Suddenly something clicked in his head with the force of a hammer dropping on an anvil. It sent sparks flying and Samyar was spinning through space, his heart bounding in his chest, covering vast distances in the most wild joy he had ever known.

“You're... you're...”

For some reason, the words were hard to say, and instead, he glanced down at Diane's belly. She was wearing a light and flowing top in some silky material, but now he wondered if there was a roundness there that hadn't been there before.

She took a deep breath, cupping one hand over her belly.

“I am. And I'm going to the doctor. And yes. They're yours.”

“They?”

Samyar hadn't realized how loud his voice would be until Diane flinched from it. He reached for her instinctively, wanting to tell her he didn't mean anything by it, but she stuck her chin up proudly.

“Yes. They. Dr. Ramamurthy tells me that given everything the tests say, it's a multiple birth. Maybe just two, but probably three.”

“Three… triplets,” Samyar repeated, and then he couldn't stop himself. He reached for Diane, pulling her into his arms in a tight hug.

“We're going to have children,” he said with awe, but she was still in his arms. “Diane?”

“We had unprotected sex during one of the scariest times in our living human history,” she said. She looked up at him with a wry defensiveness, but at least she didn't back away.

“We're still having children,” he said firmly. “That is a blessing. Are you going into the doctor for a check-up now?”

“Yes. Apparently a pregnancy like this is considered a higher risk. I have to go in regularly the whole time.”

Samyar took a deep careful breath. He was not a man who demanded. He was not a man who gave orders expecting to be obeyed simply because of the condition of his birth. He was very close to doing that now.

“I would like to come with you,” he said. “Diane, no matter what passed between us before, no matter how I have hurt you, everything in me needs to be with you now. Please.”

She looked at him, her mouth falling open slightly, and then she clamped her jaw shut. There was something tremulous in her expression, something that told him how close she was to simply breaking under stresses he couldn't begin to imagine.

“I would like that,” she said, and he pulled her to him again, resting his chin on top of her head and letting his eyes drift close.

No matter what came next – and recent times had told him that there was no predicting some things – they would have this.

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