One week later and Daman sat in what was his grandmother's office and felt every bit of the word overwhelmed. Trying to keep the island in one piece, dealing with his grandmother's funeral, addressing the nation and trying to get his wife to answer his damn calls.

Daman went back into his bedroom and laid on the bed trying to calm himself. His mind was racing, his emotions were erratic and his heart ached. He'd hurt Hera so badly. He'd hurt her knowingly and now he was finding it difficult to live with himself.

A knock made Daman snap out of his sorrowful thoughts and Ikbal entered the room. "Sir?" Ikbal started softly knowing Daman was going to lash out at any minute.

"What?" the duke said aggressively and huffed a breath annoyed at the disturbance.

Ikbal faltered a little but never let it show. He was miserable this past week just as the duke was since he was the bearer of all of Daman's anger.

Clearing his throat, Ikbal hesitated knowing Daman was going to get angry. "The princess of Ajmal is here."

Hearing that, Daman stood up as fast as a lightening strike and not even caring to be graceful as his anger washed over him and he bolted out the door. Walking fast, Daman bypassed the staff who were all terrified of him lately.

Reaching the lounge, Daman grabbed Amaani harshly by her forearm not caring that he was rough with her. He dragged her into an unoccupied room and promptly shut the door as heaps of staff stared at him wondering what was going on.

The duke let go of her arm rather abruptly and Amaani nearly fall to the floor.

"You cunning, shrewd, little bitch," Daman said with rage coating every word. His eyes were fixed on her and arms crossed in front of him preventing him from doing something that a man shouldn't.

The princess was shocked at his outburst but she couldn't really say that she didn't expect it or deserve it for that matter. "Daman..." she began with a softness in her voice trying to reduce the tension of the situation. "Look, habibti, whatever Lailli told you, none of is true. She's just sour that she got fired and.."

"For god's sake, Amaani! After everything, you're still trying to justify yourself!" Daman started yelling and officially reached the peak of his anger. "You can go and get fucked for all I care now. You were never who you said you were. What you are is a spoilt, ugly, entitled little girl! Grow up, Amaani. The disgust I have for you is incomprehensible. Just leave and get lost," Daman scoffed out and slammed the door behind him forcefully as he could making his way back to his bedroom.

4 days ago, much to Daman's interest a sobbing Lailli came over to him and asked to speak to him in private. She looked traumatised and Daman noted the scratch marks she had and bruises present. After much coaxing, Lailli had finally revealed that Amaani was a bitch in every sense of the word. If she didn't get her way, then hell broke loose.

After much guilt, Lailli also spilled out what she had come there for. To show him Amaani's bank statements with transactions going to Hera's ex. Lailli had broke down and revealed that she was the one tasked to organise the pictures and voice notes that were meant to divert him from Hera and that Amaani had orchestrated this master plan about being pregnant. But now she'd had enough of the bratty princess and finally mustered up the courage to leave after tolerating her abuse for so long.

Daman felt anger like no other when he also found out that Lailli, upon Amaani's orders, went ahead and emailed Adam the warehouse and port agreements followed by the old adoption documents. Lailli had thought Adam would find them and confront the situation, but they didn't know that he already knew. However, what they didn't anticipate was Chardonnay finding the emails.

The duke was perplexed as to how Lailli, an ordinary assistant was able to conjure up such private documents but then again, she showed him Amaani's bank statement where transactions all added up to millions were present. She was buying people off in order to get rid of Hera.

As much as Daman was pissed with the situation, he knew that he was the cause of everything towards Hera. He needed to get to her but couldn't leave the islands no matter how much he tried. The institution was fed up of him not being present during a situation like this and had opted to take his passport away for a month. Daman indeed threw a fit when that happened almost trashing the whole boardroom in anger. However, the institution wasn't even fazed and threatened to take his passport away for an additional month if he didn't cooperate. They reinforced the fact that he was the duke by blood and he had responsibilities towards the nation. Leaving right now was not an option for him as he was the only one entitled to cooperate with the prime minister.

Hera wasn't even doing him a favour by not answering his calls, by not responding to his texts, WhatsApp messages, Instagram dm's, emails.. hell he'd even tried posting a letter the old fashion way but no response. He knew he deserved it.

Then the truth about his grandmother was revealed. The day Hera and Daman had come from Bahrain to introduce Hera to his grandmother, was the same day she found out that she had a malignant tumor in the brain that had turned cancerous but it was too late. Donia had kept it hidden from everyone for good reason and Daman was mad at himself for being a selfish grandson not even bothering to take the initiative to ask how she was.

Hence, she arrived in London wanting to see Daman get married fast knowing that her time was limited. Daman couldn't get it off his chest knowing that the last in person conversation he had with her in London was asking her to leave. However, after a few days, her anger had calmed down and she assured Daman on the phone that it was alright and she was simply glad to see him before she returned to the islands. He didn't know it would be the last call ever with her.

Daman was numb in his emotions regarding that aspect. He still didn't have the opportunity to properly mourn for his grandmother. The funeral was done and he was continuing the business aspects as normal whereas inside he was falling apart every minute. But he knew that a time would come when he would break.

For now, though, he needed to talk to Hera. He needed to save his marriage and for that he'd do anything for it.

* * *

2 weeks later amidst Daman's extensive efforts to contact her and even going as far as sending people looking for her, Hera left work in a frenzy only to arrive back to Tina's apartment where she was staying temporarily. Hera called out for Tina again being the only support that she had and Tina was there for her every step of the way.

Now Hera sat on the bathroom floor dry heaving and sobbing while Tina rubbed her back in hopes of alleviating the uneasiness. "It's going to be fine. You're strong, Hera." Tina whispered soothingly and offered continuous words of encouragement to her friend who desperately needed it.

Again, a painful sob wrecked through Hera as she officially reached breaking point. "I-I can't believe this!" Hera said through tears that were pouring out like heavy rainfall.

"Tina, what am I going to do?"

"Get on a flight to the islands and speak to your husband to sort this out," Tina said calmly and enveloped Hera in a hug.

All Hera could do at that moment was stare at the 2 pink lines on the pregnancy test.