Page 154 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 3

Saroya was quieter about it, but I caught her eyes cutting toward the neighbor’s house—the one with the wraparound porch and the security gate dressed up to look like decoration instead of what it actually was—and then back to mine, doing the same math the rest of them were doing.

Truth got out last. She stood by her car door for a second, arms crossed over her chest, not moving toward the house yet. I watched her face, waiting to see which way this was going to land. Whether the size of it, the weight of it, was going to make her feel small in a way I didn’t want her feeling ever again.

“You good?” I asked.

“I’m processing.”

“Take your time.”

Raven wasn’t taking any time. She was already halfway up the front walk, craning her neck at the windows on the second floor like she was casing the place to rob me, but she hadn’t decided to commit yet.

“I would never leave,” she announced to no one in particular. “They’d have to drag me out. I’d be squatting. I’d fight the police.”

“Raven.”

“I’m serious, Truth. If this was mine, I’d change my name and start a new identity right here in this driveway.”

I almost laughed. Didn’t, because I didn’t want her to think I was laughing at her, but I filed it away—that easy, loud want she had for something bigger than what she’d been given—and hoped to God it was contagious. Hoped some of it had rubbed off on her sister standing three feet away, still not moving, still deciding.

“Come on,” I said, holding my hand out to Truth. “Let’s get y’all inside before the mosquitoes figure out we’re standing still.”

She took my hand. That was enough for right now.

Inside, the house did what it always did to people seeing it for the first time—swallowed the conversation for a second while everybody’s eyes adjusted to the ceilings, the light fixtures, and the fact that sound moved differently in a space built with real intention behind it. Honor let out a low whistle. Saroya just shook her head slowly, muttering something to herself that I didn’t catch.

“So,” I said, turning to Truth once the door shut behind us. “I’ve got people coming to break down the bed and discard it. The new one is being brought tonight and put together until I can order another custom one.”

“You’re just going to toss out a twenty-thousand dollar bed?”

“You don’t want to sleep in it, so what am I supposed to do with it?”

“Put it in another room, Amai.”

“Every room in this house has it’s own aesthetic. Nothing gets moved around from room to room.”

“I can’t believe how easily you just toss stuff out. You can donate it, Amai. Someone could use that bed.”

Honor’s head snapped toward me so fast her earring swung.

“Send it to my house,” she said immediately. “I don’t care whose ass been on it. Amai clearly took care of that thing—custom, right? That’s a quality bed. I could use a quality bed. Maybe that rich aura will rub off on Terrance broke ass.”

“Honor.” Truth said her name tired, the way you say a name when you’ve been saying it your whole life for this exact reason.

“What? I’m just saying. Waste not, want not.”

“It’s fine,” I said, and meant it, mostly because watching Truth’s face go from mortified to resigned was its own kind of entertainment. “Give me your address. I’ll have it delivered and set up.”

Honor blinked. “Wait—for real?”

“For real.”

“I was joking, Amai.”

“I wasn’t.” I shrugged. “Y’all are basically family at this point. Might as well start acting like it.”

That landed somewhere in the room and sat there a second, quiet, before Raven broke it by saying, “Family” under her breath, like she was trying the word on for size and deciding she liked it.

“Actually,” I said, before Honor could get too comfortable with the win, “I was going to have it tossed anyway, but Truth has helped me explore other options.”