Page 117 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 3

“You’re romanticizing this,” she said, her voice muffled. “You’re young, and you think love is enough to fix everything.”

“And you’re scared,” I shot back. “You’re scared that if you let yourself believe we could have something real, it’s gonna hurt worse when it gets taken away.”

She spun back to face me, her expression raw. “Of course, I’m scared! You think I’m not terrified every second we’re in here? You think I don’t know what Amai’s capable of?”

“Then let me help you.”

“You can’t help me, Syx.” Her voice broke. “You can barely help yourself.”

The words hit harder than I expected, and my shoulders dropped with a sigh.

“You think I’m using you,” I said quietly. “For comfort. For distraction. For something to hold onto while we’re stuck in here.”

Yaya didn’t answer.

“Maybe I am,” I admitted. “Maybe we both are. But that doesn’t make it fake.”

She looked at me through the glass, and I saw the war playing out behind her eyes—the part of her that wanted to believe me fighting against the part that knew better.

“I don’t know if we have a future outside the Landry family,” she said finally. “I don’t know if either of us do.”

“Then let’s figure it out together.”

“How?” She laughed but wasn’t shit funny. “How are we supposed to figure anything out when we’re trapped in here?”

“We start by surviving,” I said. “And then we take it one step at a time.”

Yaya opened her mouth to respond, but the sound of a door opening somewhere in the distance cut her off.

We both froze.

Footsteps.

Heavy. Deliberate. Getting closer.

Yaya’s countenance tumbled into something dark. “Syx!”

“It’s okay,” I said quickly, even though my heart was pounding. “Just—just remember what I said. Give him something. Anything.”

The footsteps stopped.

A door opened—closer now, just outside the corridor leading to our cells.

And then I heard his voice.

“Syx.”

Amai.

I turned toward the sound, my body tense, every instinct screaming at me to protect Yaya, even though there was nothing I could do.

The door to the observation area opened, and Amai stepped inside.

He looked at me first, his expression unreadable, and then his gaze shifted to Yaya.

The conversation was over.

Amai didn’t say anything else.