Chapter 815 - Her Thoughts
He was a child back then and did not understand much about what was happening around him but his brother\'s troubled face was still clear in his mind.
After a while, the screams stopped and the nanny brought out the baby who was born, handing her child over to the King who embraced her lovingly.
The sniffling baby stopped crying when she was in his arms and cooed, making Draco eager to see how his little niece looked.
To make it easier for him to see, King Ophire had sat on the chair and when the baby opened her eyes, they were mesmerized by how beautiful her blue eyes were.
Her eyes resembled her father\'s, bringing a smile to their faces as they admired how adorable she was.
At that moment, the King had named her Felicia, the name of the first and only Princess of the Rosenhyde family.
"Meanwhile, I was bleeding to death inside that room." Queen Zena\'s words snapped him out of his reminiscent daze.
Prince Draco widened his eyes as he had never heard about such a thing taking place.
From what he had recalled, the physician had stated that the Queen was weak and would need her rest so they should not disturb her.
Therefore, after seeing his niece\'s face, Draco who was exhausted and sleepy decided to get some rest.
He promised to come by and visit his sister-in-law later hence had no clue about what had taken place after he had left.
Now that he thought about it, he had not been allowed to meet her for a few days after Felicia\'s birth.
What the young boy was not informed about back then was that Queen Zena had faced a lot of complications during the birth of the Princess.
She had massive blood loss and her body was gravely injured while struggling to give birth to her second child.
The King was aware of this and had asked his physicians to take good care of her.
He even stayed by her side, watching over her every night until she was able to recover her strength.
He was the best husband she could have ever asked for and even if their marriage had started off as a political one, she was glad that she had met him.
His caring attitude and kind heart had caused her to fall in love with him and that continued even to this very day.
Thankfully, he loved her just as much but there was something that she had kept hidden from her husband who had been nothing but loving and supportive until now.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, Queen Zena raised her head and glanced at the younger brother of her husband.
"My body was severely injured during Felicia\'s birth." She announced something which only a few people were aware of.
She had instructed her maids, the nanny who had helped deliver the child, and also the physicians who had been there that night to keep their mouths shut.
Therefore, until now, no one knew of the consequences of the damages she had endured that night.
"I might never have another child in this life." She whispered the news she had gained from the physician who looked after her health.
Felicia\'s birth had caused her body to weaken to the extent that she would be unable to conceive another child.
Even if by some miracle she did get pregnant then either the life of the child was at risk or hers would be.
The chances of both surviving were almost nonexistent.
This news had caused Queen Zena a lot of agony as she wanted nothing more than to give her husband that big and happy family he most certainly deserved.
However, he often said that he was content with the family that he now had but she could tell that sometimes he wished for more children.
After all, she was also brought up in a royal family where more children were always desired so she could understand his thoughts well.
She had three brothers and five sisters so she knew that the more children a King had, the greater his prestige was among his citizens.
Not to mention that the people of Rosenhyde believed that the Kingdom would flourish if the King\'s family flourished.
Therefore, from the moment she learned that she could not help him any further, her resentment at this news was insurmountable.
Her heart also began to turn cold towards the child who had caused her to suffer this grievance.
She loved the smile on her husband\'s face when he interacted with their children but at the same time, she could not bring herself to smile at Felicia in the same way.
Each time she looked at that child, she was reminded of the fact that she might never become a mother again.
This pricked her heart and since she could not bear to feel that pain, she often avoided staying close to her.
When Prince Draco learned the truth about the Queen\'s circumstances, he could not utter a word to deny what she had said.
There was no way that he would be able to understand even an ounce of mental and physical agony she must have gone through.
She almost died but she had made sure to give birth to her child safely.
Yet after all the struggles she had gone through, an unimaginable tragedy had struck her.
What she had gone through was not something he could dismiss as he was not the one who had endured that trauma.
He was also aware of his brother\'s desire to have a large family so he could understand how disheartened she must be feeling.
"I\'m sorry. I did not know." He muttered and bowed his head towards her.
If he could not help lessen her pain, the least he could do was be respectful of it and not disregard what she had gone through.
Queen Zena only shook her head as he had been a child back then and even now, he wouldn\'t be able to understand much.
"Did you know that I picked that name for her?" She let out a slight chuckle when she thought of how things had been before Felicia\'s birth.
Excited and eager, the pregnant Queen had gone through so many books to find the perfect name for her child.
This was when she had come across one book about the history of Rosenhyde where a kind and intelligent Princess was born to the King in his old age.
The king had only sons so when a daughter was finally born, they had celebrated her birth for a whole week throughout the Kingdom.
Felicia, the name that meant happiness was something that had struck close to her heart and she decided to give that name to her child who would bring happiness to their lives soon.
"If the baby was a girl then she would be called Felicia and if it was a boy then Felix." She repeated the same words she had said to her husband who was watching over her while she was still pregnant.
Prince Draco smiled when he saw the genuine happiness that was evident in her eyes.
"You still love her, don\'t you?" He questioned and witnessed her freeze in the next second.
Queen Zena felt many emotions every time she looked at Felicia and somewhere in there was the one she felt the most for her.
However, she still shook her head to deny what the young prince had said.
"She is better off not being close to me." She muttered in reply and believed it to be true.
Seeing Felicia only reminded her of her failures, her inability to fulfill the wishes of her loving husband which caused her to channel her negativity towards the child.
Even though somewhere deep down she knew that the child was blameless, she could not suppress those emotions whenever the child was around.
Her anger, her frustrations, and her animosity would always find a way to pour out when Felicia was before her.
Therefore, she actively tried to avoid her lest she said something that would end the menial relationship that still existed between them.
Queen Zena had never revealed her innermost thoughts to anyone before.
The servants assumed that she was a horrible mother who hated her daughter so she tried to prove them right sometimes.
Only then would Felicia maintain her distance which would be the best course for both of them.