This was about proving that Amai didn’t have everything figured out. That the perfect son, the untouchable Demon, the man who controlled every variable—he’d missed something.
He’d missedher.
And maybe—just maybe—I could give Truth what she actually wanted.
Not a contract.
Not a transaction.
But a man who saw her. Who wanted her. Who chose her for reasons that had nothing to do with biology or legacy or empire-building.
I deleted the note.
Slipped my phone back into my pocket.
Walked out of Amai’s office and back down the hallway.
Syx was still on his game, still oblivious.
“Yo, I’m out,” I called.
“Aight, bro,” Syx said without looking up. “Tell Amai I said what’s good.”
“Will do.”
I walked out the front door and got into my car.
Sat there for a moment, hands on the steering wheel, staring at nothing.
Truth Renois.
Twenty-seven years old. Full-figured and beautiful. Broke and desperate and stronger than she knew.
She was about to carry my brother’s baby.
Or maybe mine.
I started the engine.
I didn’t have a plan yet. Not a full one.
But I had her name. Her face. Her story.
And that was enough to start.
Chapter 13
TRUTH
FIVE DAYS LATER…
The exam table was cold beneath my bare legs.
I’d been sitting here for twenty minutes in nothing but a hospital gown that opened in the back, my feet already in the stirrups, waiting. The paper crinkled every time I shifted. The fluorescent lights overhead were too bright, making everything feel overexposed and clinical in a way that made my skin crawl.
I knew Amai was in the waiting room.
Dr. Beaumont had told me after they got me settled in the room. “Mr. Landry is here,” she’d said, like it was routine. Like men showed up for embryo transfers all the time.
