A decent—not good—but decent night of sleep did nothing to improve No’s mood. Or sense of reason. He woke up just as angry as he’d been when he went to bed. And just as determined to have Ana submit to him.

So when Mrs. Santos knocked politely at the door of his home gym to say she’d just finished serving breakfast to “Miss Lilli” and her niece, he climbed off the treadmill. Whipping his hoodie over his bare torso, he made his way up the sub-basement stairs that led directly into the open plan kitchen. No was fully prepared to do battle, but as he got further up the stairs, he could hear a battle already raging. Albeit one carried out in low voices.

“C’mon, Aunt Ana!”

“Ruby, I said no.”

“My appointment next week. You have to ask your rich boyfriend—”

“He is not my boyfriend,” Ana interrupted, her voice dull and weary.

“Then why we here?”

“Because you asked a complete stranger to bring you to this house, that’s why! And now that stranger is going to take you to school, so…”

“I’m not leaving until you ask him!”

“Ruby, we really can’t do this now. Mrs. Santos just said Dallas is bringing the car around for you…”

“So you ask him for car to take me to school so you don’t have to drive, but you can’t ask him for something I really need?”

“You don’t really need—”

“Yes, I do! I do!”

“Ruby, please. You’re becoming obsessed about the prosthetic, and it’s not healthy for your brain.”

“I don’t care brain health. You ask him. He obviously rich!”

“Yeah, obviously. But that doesn’t mean he’s my personal piggybank, Ruby.”

“So you get car to drive me to school, and what I get? Nothing?”

He couldn’t see Ana from his vantage point on the other side of the kitchen’s corner wall, but he could easily imagine her annoyed expression as she answered, “It’s not like that, Ruby.”

“Then what it like, huh? Because you got rich boyfriend and I don’t get anything I want!”

“Ruby, it is NOT like that. We are not beggars, and we’re going to leave here soon. As soon as I figure a few things out—”

“Just ask him! I don’t care you like beggar. Ask him!”

“I can’t! And even if I did, he probably wouldn’t help—,” Ana broke off, obviously too frustrated to continue on. Then in a very weary voice she continued, “This guy is rich, but that doesn’t mean he’s nice.”

“Why not? He want you do things with him, right? Like girls Papa bring home sometimes?”

Silence. Dead silence.

Then the girl said, “Do it. I don’t care. I need this, Aunt Ana. I need this!”

“No, you do not need this,” Lilli answered with what sounded like gritted teeth.

“Yes I do, you stupid bitch!”

Smack! The unmistakable sound of a hand hitting flesh cracked out across the kitchen. And No chose that moment to risk a peek around the corner.

Ana and the hafu girl he didn’t have the chance to meet with yesterday were sitting at the kitchen’s long red oak and granite table. No wouldn’t have needed someone to tell him they were related. Though the small girl’s skin was several shades lighter than Ana’s, and she had eyes that bespoke her Japanese heritage, they both wore identical expressions of shock and horror.

“You hit me!” the girl said, glaring at her aunt, as if she were some sort of criminal.

“I…I…” In the end, Ana lowered her head, as if she were truly ashamed of herself. “I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have hit you, but…I lost control of myself. I’m sorry….”

The girl’s eyes flashed triumphantly. As if she’d won this encounter, even though she’d been the one who’d gotten slapped. But before she could respond to Ana’s apology, Mrs. Santos poked her head around the corner on the other side of the kitchen. “Miss Ruby,” she called out, oblivious to the overwrought scene that had just taken place. “Your car is here.”

No moved back into the shadows, waiting a careful moment at the bottom of the sub-basement stairs—the set that led directly into the kitchen—until he heard the click of the front door behind the girl. That was when he rushed up the other set of stairs, which led directly to the front door’s entrance way. Offering a polite bow to a rather surprised Mrs. Santos, he opened the front door and dashed through.

Less than a minute later, he slid into the back seat of the Cadillac Escalade Montana-san had chosen as his company car, startling Ana’s niece with his unexpected arrival.

However, the girl had clearly received some basic training in Japanese manners. Because as the car pulled away, she bowed as a girl her age should when an adult enters the same space.

But just a few moments after they drove through the property’s front gate, she asked in Japanese, “Are you my aunt’s boyfriend?”

“Are you her niece?” he replied, answering her impertinent question with one of his own.

“Yes, I guess so,” she answered with a grumble. As if being related to Ana was a real hardship. “She came to live with Papa and me after Mom died.”

“How kind of her.”

“Yes, I guess…” Then Ruby stared out the window, giving him the universal sign of children everywhere that they no longer wished to talk.

But unlike Ana, No wished to continue his conversation with the obstinate girl. “What is it you wanted your aunt to ask me?” he inquired. “Is it the same thing you wished to meet with me about yesterday?”

The girl’s eyes widened. “You heard that?”

He tilted his head at a sardonic angle. “You did not do a very good job of keeping your voice down, Ruby-chan. Or cloak your name-calling.”

The girl’s cheeks heated red under her pale brown skin. “I know. I shouldn’t have called her that. I shouldn’t have yelled. My mother taught me to be respectful. But sometimes she makes me so angry, and I didn’t think she’d hit me. She has never hit me before. Even when I called her names.”

With a pang, No found himself wondering just how often they’d had this conversation. Lilli had sounded weary, like the argument was making her more and more tired by the second.

“But this morning was different,” he observed.

“Yes,” she answered with a miserable look. Then she said, “She keeps saying you are not her boyfriend, but why did you tell me to pack a suitcase and come to your house if this is true?”

“It is a very complicated story,” he answered. “One I do not wish to tell a child.”

“May I ask why you are here in this car with me?” Her eyes scanned his clothes. “You do not look as if you are going to work.”

“I am not,” he answered. “But I overheard your conversation with your aunt and I wished to know what you were arguing about.”

The girl’s eyes cut away. “You should ask her.”

“I am asking you.”

“I do really not wish to embarrass her any further.”

So the child did have some sense of familial fidelity, even if it was hardly there at all. “Admirable, but you called her a vile name in my presence. I think we can safely say you have already embarrassed her.”

Ruby’s cheeks reddened again. “I didn’t know you were there!” Then off of No’s censuring look, she said, “I didn’t mean to, I was just trying to…”

She stopped again, but No prodded, “Trying to what?”

“Get her to ask you to buy something for me.” She peeked across the seat at him. “A leg.”

She tapped on her prosthesis which, had she been wearing the typical Japanese school girl uniform as opposed to jeans, would have been completely visible.

“I was supposed to get fitted for a permanent leg yesterday. But I don’t want the leg the insurance company is trying to make me take. I want the blade one with special technology. You know, like the kind athletes use?”

“What are your aunt’s reasons for not granting your request?”

“The legs are really expensive,” Ruby admitted, her stubborn chin quivering. “She can’t afford one. But you can, right? That was all I was trying to tell her, but she wouldn’t listen to me! She kept saying she couldn’t ask you, when I know she could.”

No pondered the situation, then gave Ruby a thoughtful nod. “You are right, I can afford such a leg.”

“I knew you could!” Ruby crowed.

“But if your aunt had asked me to buy it for you, I would have said no.”

Ruby’s face fell. “But why?”

“Because you do not seem like a child deserving of such a leg. You have little respect for your aunt. And you demand much of her without even offering anything to her in return. Why would anyone, including me, want to buy you this leg?”

Ruby, who he suspected had been coddled by most of the adults in her life since her mother’s early death, looked nothing short of crestfallen.

“You don’t want to give me a better leg, even though you can afford it,” Ruby repeated, as if No were speaking to her in a foreign language she didn’t really understand.

“No, I don’t. Not without some form of payment.”

She frowned, “What kind of payment?”

He considered her for a while before saying, “Every morning I go downstairs at 5am to begin my workout. If you are serious about earning the leg you want, you will meet with me at 4:30, before I begin my training.”

Ruby frowned. “So you want me to work for you?”

“Yes.”

“Doing what?”

The girl had much to learn. “Your first instruction is to come to my home gym at 4:30 tomorrow morning. You will receive more instructions upon arrival.”

Then before she could ask any more questions, he asked Mr. Montana in English to pull over to the side of the road.

“Perhaps I will see you tomorrow morning, Ruby-chan,” he told the girl with a bow.

She bowed back, but somehow looked more confused by his abrupt departure than she had when he stepped into the car in the first place.

Fortunately his Portland assistant was very responsive. Another car slid into the space in front of him soon after Montana-san drove away. He stepped inside without waiting for the driver to open the door and rode back to the Lake Washington house in silence.

Thirty minutes had passed since he’d left the house, spoken to Ruby, and returned. He knew there was a slim chance Ana would still be at the breakfast table. So he wasn’t all that surprised when he arrived at the kitchen’s south-facing entrance to find it empty.

However, she also wasn’t in her bedroom. Or the nursery. Or Ruby’s room. He performed a quick sweep of the garden...but no Ana. The more rooms he searched, the angrier he got. Had she somehow escaped? He was fairly certain it wouldn’t be possible. Especially considering she’d only had thirty minutes to work with.

No strode angrily into his office to contact his off-site security team when he finally found her.

She was seated on the couch closest to the windows wiping tears from her eyes. In her hands, she held the tablet he’d given her last night, the one with her contract on it.

When Ana finally noticed him hovering nearby, she sniffed. Then she said the last words he expected to hear, “Okay. I’ll do it. I’ll have your baby.”