It was a cold, snowy winter when King Alexander told Elizabeth this. If she couldn’t give him a boy to become his heir, she’d lose her life. Caressing her stomach, Elizabeth prayed that this time it would be a boy. Even though she had given Alexander three beautiful daughters that filled their lives with laughter and joy, but Alexander was getting old and impatient of no one will inherit his throne, the throne of the beautiful country - Almekia. She knew her life was in danger, so was the unborn child inside her. At that time, if you were a woman and you couldn’t give your husband a healthy boy to be the heir of the remaining, you would be spit on and your family would be ashamed to count you as a family, even if you were the queen.
“It has to be a boy, it has to be.” Elizabeth told herself over and over, sound as if she believed it, it would come true.
“It WILL be a boy.” Gloria whispered, her blonde hair was pull back into a bun, her green eyes sparkled with the strong will and belief of changing fate, she wanted to save her best friend’s life. The two women had been best friends since they were born. Gloria’s family was rich until her father was killed and his business was lost. When Elizabeth got married, she brought her friend to the palace with her as a servant, but she treated her like a sister, a sister she never had.
“What do you mean? I can’t control it, if I can, would I be in this situation in the first place?” Elizabeth’s emerald green eyes were filled with tears of uncertainty as she smoothed a streak of her blonde hair back in place.
“I can’t watch you die just because you can’t give birth to a boy, if we have to, we’ll trade.” Gloria’s voice was cold, as cold as the falling snow outside the huge glass window fogged by their breathing, except that snow melt, but the expression on her face seemed stiff or almost frozen.
“Trade? You’re not thinking about...” Elizabeth covered her mouth as she realized what Gloria meant by ‘trade’. There were tales of queens giving up their newborn baby girls and switched it with a boy that was brought from a poor family. “It’s...it’s...”
“I know, but this is our only chance. I’ll look for a baby the first thing tomorrow morning, at the break of dawn. When evening falls, I’ll return. If it’s a boy, it’s happily ever after, but if it’s the opposite...then you’ll have a boy anyway.”
“Gloria! It’s not right to trade babies! And that means I’ll have to deceive Alex!” Elizabeth tried convince her friend that it would never work, but somewhere in her heart, a voice was telling her it will work, so loud that she was surprise Gloria hadn’t hear it.
“And it’s right to kill you because you can’t have a son?” Gloria questioned back. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Gloria disappeared behind the wooden door of Elizabeth’s room, not giving her friend a chance to say anything else.
Falling onto her bed, Elizabeth closed her eyes, she really needs to think about the plan, think carefully...