Page 164 of Pregnant By A Rich Demon 2

“Raven, please.”

“Please what? Please don’t be mad that some man manipulated my sister? Please don’t be pissed that he wormed his way into your life, knowing damn well he was connected to all this mess?”

“I don’t know if he manipulated me!” The words came out louder than I intended. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out.Because when I was with him, it felt real. It felt—” I stopped, my chest tightening. “It felt safe.”

Raven glanced at me, her expression softening slightly but still hard around the edges. “What do you mean?”

“I mean—” I rubbed my face, trying to find the words. “Amai is intense. He’s overwhelming. When I’m with him, everything is heightened and chaotic and I can’t think straight. But Kaisen was different. He was calm. Steady. Consistent.”

“Consistently lying to you.”

“Maybe. I don’t know.” My voice cracked. “But what if he wasn’t? What if he genuinely cared about me and just—just didn’t know how to tell me the truth?”

“Truth.” Raven’s voice was gentle now, but firm. “Listen to yourself. You’re making excuses for a man who knew exactly what he was doing. He knew you were carrying his brother’s baby. He knew you were vulnerable. And he used that.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Then what do I know? Tell me. Because from where I’m sitting, it looks like you got played by two brothers who both want something from you.”

The words hit me like a slap.

Because she was right.

I didn’t know what Kaisen wanted. I didn’t know if his affection was real or if it was strategic. I didn’t know if he’d pursued me because he genuinely cared or because I was a pawn in some family power struggle.

And that uncertainty was eating me alive.

“At the clinic,” I said quietly, “when Dr. Beaumont told me about the sperm—about how they used two specimens—Kaisen was there. He drove me. And when I found out, when I realized one of them might be his?—”

“He didn’t look surprised,” Raven finished.

I nodded, blinking back tears. “He didn’t look surprised. He looked—I don’t know. Guilty, maybe. Or scared. But not surprised.”

“Because he already knew.”

“Yeah. I think so.”

Raven was quiet for a moment, her eyes fixed on the road. When she spoke again, her voice was softer but no less intense.

“So what happened after that? At the clinic?”

I swallowed hard. “Amai showed up. And when he saw Kaisen with me, when he realized Kaisen had been—” I stopped, the memory flooding back. “He lost it. He stabbed him. Right there in front of everyone.”

“Hewhat?”

“He stabbed Kaisen. In the side. There was blood everywhere. The nurses were screaming. It was—” I closed my eyes. “It was terrifying.”

“Jesus Christ, Truth.” Raven’s voice was tight with anger and fear. “And you went with Amai after that? You let him take you to some cabin in the middle of nowhere after hestabbedsomebody?”

“He wasn’t trying to hurt me,” I said, even though I knew how it sounded. “He was—he was protecting me. From Kaisen. From whatever’s going on with their family.”

“Or he was isolating you so you couldn’t figure out what’s really going on.”

I didn’t have an answer for that.

Because maybe she was right. Maybe Amai had taken me to the lakehouse not to protect me but to control me. To keep me away from Kaisen. To make sure I didn’t have time to think clearly about what was happening.

But when I was with him—when he held me, when he looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered—it didn’t feel like control.