Page 32 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 4

Kaisen and Amai were standing in the foyer below me, not quite facing each other, but not quite turned away. Kaisen had his hands in his pockets. Amai’s weight was settled back on one heel, arms loose at his sides, the way he stood when he was listening but not conceding anything. Whatever they were saying was too low to make out.

I watched them for a moment.

They’d agreed to a truce. I was glad it existed. But standing there looking down at them in the same room, in what was supposed to be my evening, I didn’t trust it—not the way either of them probably needed me to. They had a definition of peace that started and ended with their own interests, and I knew that the way I knew the difference between weather and a storm. A truce between Amai and Kaisen Landry was not a resolution. It was a temporary arrangement that was destined to fall apart.

I started down the stairs.

They both turned at the same time, the way men do when they hear heels. For a second, the room was very quiet.

Kaisen’s whole face shifted. “Truth.” He said it like he needed to collect himself before he said anything else. “You look—” He stopped. “You look beautiful.”

I appreciated that he stopped there.

“Thank you,” I said.

I came down the last few steps and stood on level ground with them both, which was better. The foyer was big enough that I could stand equidistant and not feel cornered.

“I was just stopping by,” Kaisen said. “Security matter I needed to run past Amai. I didn’t know you all were going out.”

“We are,” Amai said. He hadn’t moved from where he was standing, but something in his posture had shifted—just slightly. Not aggressive. Just alert.

“I won’t hold you, then.” Kaisen turned back to me. “Could I talk to you for a quick second? Privately.”

The air in the foyer changed.

I looked at him. Not because I was considering it—I wasn’t—but because I wanted him to see my face when I answered.

“No,” I said.

“It’s nothing complicated. I just⁠—”

“I heard you,” I said. “And the answer is no. Whatever you need to say to me, you can say in front of Amai, or you can say it another time.” I kept my voice even. “I’m not stepping away to have private conversations. That’s not something I’m going to do.”

Kaisen was quiet for a beat. I saw something move through his expression and then disappear, the way it always did—like he had a second face underneath the first one that he was very disciplined about keeping out of sight.

“I understand,” he said. “I’m not trying to create a situation.”

“Good.”

The word landed clean, and I let it.

Kaisen nodded once, then looked between me and Amai like he was deciding something. Whatever it was, he set it down.

“I actually just wanted to ask you something,” he said, and his voice came out different this time. Quieter. Less managed. “The stuff I bought. For—” He paused. “For our son. I have it. I didn’t know if you wanted it, or if you wanted me to keep it, or⁠—”

He didn’t finish the sentence.

I didn’t need him to.

The nursery items. The crib, the bedding, the little gray elephant set. I’d heard about some of it secondhand and thought about it exactly once, then put it somewhere in my mind that I wasn’t visiting regularly. Hearing Kaisen say our son with that careful flatness—like he was trying to carry the weight of it without letting it show—did something to my emotions that I was not going to let happen in this foyer.

“I’ll think about it,” I said.

It was the only answer I had.

Kaisen nodded, and this time, the nod was slower, like he was absorbing something. “Okay,” he said. “That’s all I wanted to ask.”

“Time to head out,” Amai said.