You sign the contract, agreeing to marry the king along with all the other terms. Marriage an heir, and pretend not to notice the women he drags into our bedroom. Schlatt is much older than you, and certainly not the fairy tail prince you had imagined as a little girl, but he would do.

“I won’t love you,” he tells you just before signing.

You look up from the document, “I understand.”

You marry him, you put on the most believable smile you can muster up and marry him in the extravagant cathedral. He slides the ring onto your finger and kisses you firmly, and suddenly you’re the queen.

For months the only time you see each other is to have sex before you finally miss your period. It’s almost as if he forgets you are pregnant until he sees you in the hall, hand on your belly mere days before you give birth to his child. The day finally comes and he watches as you scream in agony as his firstborn enters the world.

Schlatt finds himself reaching for your hand, brushing his thumb over your knuckles as your baby is born. To your surprise, it’s a girl. A wave of disappointment hits him, he watches the girl writhe a scream in the arms of her mother who lies shushing and exposed.

“You did well,” he tells you. For a moment you look up from your baby to tell him, “thank you, my lord.”

“What’s your price for another?”

You stroke your daughter’s face, “spend time with your child, just an hour a day.”

By the time she is one you start trying again for a boy, an heir. Schlatt wants a boy and the kingdom will need a king. Before you know it you’re pregnant again with what you hope is a boy. Alas, Schlatt watches as a girl emerges from you and screams just as the first had.

This time he asks, “mind having another?”

Months later you birth a boy, his heir. There’s a strange feeling of disappointment.

“Another,” he commands. Each time you decide your price and each time it is Schlatt playing daddy. Two hours with the kids, dinner every evening, and sharing a bed.