Page 127 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 2

“You with him right now?” she asked, her voice dropping to something quieter.

“Yes. Well, no. He just left to go to the store. But I’m at his lakehouse.”

“His lakehouse.” She said it like it was a foreign concept. Like I’d just told her I was on the moon. “Truth, what the hell is going on?”

I sat up slowly, leaning back against the headboard, and tried to organize my thoughts. This was going to be messy no matter how I explained it.

“After my appointment with Dr. Beaumont yesterday,” I started, “Amai showed up. And… things went left.”

“What do you mean ‘things went left’?”

I hesitated, then decided to just rip the band-aid off. “Mama, you know that man you kept saying looked like Amai? The one you saw yesterday?”

“Yeah. What about him?”

“That’s his brother.”

Silence.

Complete, absolute silence.

And then?—

“His WHAT?”

I winced. “His brother. Kaisen. He’s Amai’s younger brother.”

“His brother.” My mama’s voice was flat, disbelieving. “You telling me that man who was all up in your face. The one who looked just like the man whose baby you carrying. Is his BROTHER?”

“Yes.”

“And you just now finding this out?”

“Yes, Mama. I didn’t know. Amai didn’t know he was coming around either?—”

“Oh, HELL no.” My mama’s voice rose, sharp and cutting. “I KNEW it was some bullshit somewhere! I smelled it the second I saw that man! What kind of Flowers in the Attic, Blue Lagoon shit y’all got going on?!”

“Mama, it’s not like that?—”

“Then what is it like, Truth? Because from where I’m sitting, it sounds like you caught up in some twisted family mess that you got no business being in!”

“It wasn’t like that,” I said, my voice firmer now. “Amai didn’t know what his brother was doing. Kaisen… he did something. Something bad. And Amai’s trying to fix it.”

“Fix it?” My mama laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Baby, you can’t fix crazy. And if his brother is doing sneaky shit behind his back, that whole family crazy.”

I wanted to argue. Wanted to defend Amai and tell her she didn’t understand. But part of me, the part that was still trying to process everything, knew she had a point.

“We just needed a break,” I said instead. “That’s why we’re at the lakehouse. Things have been… chaotic. We needed some space to figure things out.”

“Figure things out,” my mama repeated slowly. “Truth, baby, listen to me. I need you to hear what I’m saying right now.”

I closed my eyes and braced myself.

“You leaning back in this shit,” she said, her voice hard. “And you need to sit the fuck up and stop reacting. You need to start putting your foot down and speaking up. You hear me?”

“Mama—”

“I don’t care how fine that man is,” she continued, cutting me off. “I don’t care how much money he got or how good he treats you. Don’t let no nigga play with you. You understand?”