Page 8 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 2

Not toward me.

Toward his desk.

He slammed both hands on the surface hard enough to make everything on it jump.

“You forget your place!” His voice was a roar now, all that careful control shattered. “You forget who the fuck you’re talking to!”

“I know exactly who I’m talking to.”

“Do you?” He came around the desk, and for the first time in my life, I saw the full weight of what he was capable of. “You think that darkness in you is special? You think you’re the only one who knows how to hurt people?”

“I never said?—”

“That shit you did?” He was in my face now, his voice dropping to something quiet and deadly. “That violence you’re so proud of? That’s a fucking Disney movie compared to what I’ve done. You think you’re dark? You think you’re sinister?”

He laughed.

It was the ugliest sound I’d ever heard.

“Boy, Iinventedthat darkness. I perfected it before you were even born. Everything you are, every brutal thing you’ve ever done, you learned from watching me.”

“Then maybe you should have taught me better.” My voice was shaking now. “Maybe you should have taught me that family means something. That loyalty goes both ways. That you don’t sacrifice your son’s happiness for a fucking business deal.”

“I taught you how to survive.” Winston’s finger jabbed into my chest. “I taught you how to build an empire and keep it. Itaught you that weakness gets you killed and sentiment gets you buried. No one gives a fuck about your happiness when those things are on the line, Amai. Stop your fuckin’ whining and man up. We all have made sacrifices. There’s nothing special about yours. It’s just your time.”

“And look where that got us.” I knocked his hand away. “Elias and Silas are dead. Kaisen’s a fuck-up. And I’m standing here ready to go to war with my own father because he can’t let me have one goddamn thing that’s mine.”

“Everything you have is because of me!”

“Then take it back!” I was shouting now too, all the rage, pain, and exhaustion of the last twenty-four hours pouring out. “Take the territory, take the business, take the fucking name! I don’t care anymore!”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I mean every word.” I stepped back, my chest heaving. “I’m done, old man. Done playing your games. Done being your puppet. Done sacrificing what I want for what you need.”

He stared at me.

For a long moment, neither of us moved.

Then, his expression shifted into something cold and calculating.

“You think you can walk away from this?” His voice was quiet again. “You think you can just choose that woman over everything we’ve built?”

“Her name is Truth.”

“I don’t give a fuck what her name is.” He moved closer, and I saw it then—the real darkness he’d been talking about. The thing that lived underneath the expensive suits and the polished persona he presented to the world. “You force my hand, Amai, and I will remind you exactly where you came from. I will remind you that the same blood that runs through your veins runs through mine. And mine ran cold long before yours did.”

“Is that a threat?”

“It’s a promise.” His smile was razor-sharp. “You want to protect that girl? Then you better remember who you’re dealing with. Because I don’t lose, son. Not to Rahsaan. Not to Victor. And sure as hell not to you.”

The air between us was suffocating.

I could feel my pulse in my throat, my hands, my temples.

Could feel the violence simmering just beneath my skin, begging to be let out.

But I also knew—with absolute certainty—that if I stayed in this room one more second, one of us was going to bleed.