Page 37 of The Billionaire’s Paradise (My Billionaire #4)

The morning was still. Too still. So still I should have sensed something was coming.

Cal left just after eight, dressed sharply and moving with the kind of focused tension that always meant lawyers were involved. He kissed me on the cheek, promised he wouldn’t be long, and slipped out the front door where a car was waiting to pick him up.

“Hal’s pushing this land-use thing through today,” he had said earlier over coffee. “It’s a quiet legal meeting at the courthouse, just procedural stuff. Some locals might show up, but it’s mostly paperwork.”

A short time after Cal left, Nakoa pulled into our driveway in Tutu’s clunky old car, looking unusually formal behind the wheel.

Kimo sat stiffly in the passenger seat, tugging unhappily at a tie he’d obviously been forced to wear, while Leilani and Tutu sat in the back.

Tutu was wearing one of her “serious dresses”—the kind with shoulder pads and a brooch shaped like an endangered bird.

“We have a few things to attend to,” Tutu said vaguely, as she helped Leilani out of the car and handed me a tote bag packed with donuts, belly oil, a water bottle, and something that appeared to be a pineapple wrapped in a baby blanket.

“You’re leaving her with me?” I asked. “This close to show time?”

“You’re a responsible adult, aren’t you?”

That was debatable.

Tutu rolled her eyes. “Just don’t panic. You have everything you need.”

“But I panic all the time.”

“Yes, but you panic quietly ,” she replied. “It’s a quality I admire.”

Leilani kissed her grandmother on the cheek. “Tell me where you’re going?”

“Just a little business,” Tutu said breezily. “We need to go pick up Kupuna Mahealani and Uncle Koa first, but it’s nothing for you to worry your lovely baby brain about.”

And with that, they were gone.

I picked up the tote bag as we watched them drive away. “God, these donuts are heavy.”

“That’s not the donuts. That’s Baby Pineapple -Head. I thought you could use some practice swaddling a newborn, albeit a prickly one.”

“I can’t wait!”

The house was quiet.

It was just me and Leilani.

Everyone else had taken Mr. Banks out for a gentle stroll along the beach. The doctors had said the sea air would do him good—as long as he didn’t try to swim, sprint, or start a debate about Cold War espionage with any tourists.

And so, it was just us—me, Leilani, and the baby-shaped fruit.

And—for a few golden minutes—the quiet felt like a gift.

Leilani was out on the lanai, barefoot, in a long, floaty cotton dress that made her look like some kind of benevolent pregnant island queen. One hand rested protectively on her belly. The other stirred a mug of peppermint tea.

I joined her with my own cup and settled into the seat beside her, letting the sound of rustling palms and ocean waves fill the spaces between us.

“Wow, the house is never this quiet,” she said. “Feels weird. A good weird, I mean.”

“I know,” I murmured. “It’s nice, isn’t it?”

She smiled. “Suspiciously so.”

I glanced down at her belly. “May I?”

She nodded, and I reached over, resting my hand gently on the curve of her stomach. It was warm, alive, firm, and so ready to hatch.

“Hello in there,” I said. “We’re all very excited to meet you, but please don’t rush.

Especially not right at this moment… while we’re here all alone.

I know I’m supposed to be a responsible adult, but if you could just hold off until there are other responsible adults around, that would be greatly appreciated. ”

Leilani chuckled. “It’s already like a watermelon in a straitjacket. I don’t think it’s staying in much longer.”

“You’re handling it like a goddess.”

“I’m handling it like a woman who is deeply motivated by shaved ice and back rubs.”

“Both reasonable motivators.”

She leaned back, eyes closed, letting the sun hit her face.

“I think about it sometimes,” she said quietly. “What it’s going to be like. Handing this baby over to you and Cal.”

I looked at her, my heart tight.

“We think about it too,” I said. “All the time. It doesn’t feel like we’re just waiting for a baby. It feels like we’re all… building something. Together. You know you’re always going to be a part of this baby’s world. A big part.”

She opened her eyes and smiled, and for a long, golden moment, the world was soft. Settled .

Neither of us knew what was coming next.

But we both felt ready. As ready as we’d ever be.

Or so we thought.

With a shuffle and a groan, Leilani moved to pulled herself up off the lanai. “And surprise, surprise, I have to go pee again.”

I helped her up and watched as she did her waddle through the doors and over to the bathroom.

When she returned, I saw her pause as she passed the kitchen counter.

Cal had left a number of blueprints and plans on the countertop. He had been poring over them all morning and said he wanted to go over them again when he got back from his meeting.

I watched now as Leilani stopped.

Her brow creased.

And she picked up one of the maps.

“What’s this?” she called out to me through the open door to the patio.

I headed inside, shrugging. “Some development thing. Cal said he was reviewing site maps before the meeting this morning. Why?”

She didn’t answer right away.

Her eyes were scanning the page—blue lines and notations and stamped text that meant nothing to me, but apparently everything to her.

Her shoulders stiffened.

I reached the counter just as she said, quietly, “This is Hālaulani Valley.”

I blinked. “What?”

She looked up at me, the map trembling in her hand.

“This land,” she said. “This parcel of land. It’s my family’s land. My great-great-grandfather’s. This is where our ?āina sits. This is what my father has been fighting for.”

I frowned, peering down at the map. “Are you sure? ”

“I’d recognize it anywhere. That ridge line—look, that’s the old mango grove.

And here, see this? This is where the stream splits and flows into the lagoon by the sea.

We used to catch crayfish there when we were kids.

” Her voice was rising now, her breath coming faster as she glanced at the other plans on the counter.

“Oh my God. They’re planning to develop it.

A resort, roads, a beachfront promenade…

a superyacht marina? They’re going to destroy it. ”

My blood turned cold. “Cal didn’t say anything about…” I couldn’t finish the words. My head started spinning.

Leilani looked at me, confused and pleading. “Matt… please tell me he doesn’t know it’s our land. Does he?”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Somewhere behind the thudding in my chest, pieces were clicking into place.

She held the blueprint up again, hands trembling. “He wouldn’t do this. Not to us. Not if he knew.”

“No,” I said quickly. “No, of course not. Cal’s not… he wouldn’t keep something like this from you. From me. It’s Hal. Hal’s been running the show. Cal’s just been reading whatever Hal puts in front of him. He’s meeting with him right now about the land -use.”

Her eyes widened. “My family are going to the same meeting. My father has no idea Cal will be there, he would have said something before now.”

“And Cal has no idea they’ll be there either.”

She dropped the map and gripped my arm tight, her voice full of urgency. “Matt, if Cal’s in that room with Hal… and Tutu and Nakoa and Kimo show up…”

She didn’t have to finish the sentence.

We both knew what that would mean—

The family of our dreams would be torn apart before the baby was even born.

I grabbed the car keys off the hook by the door.

Leilani was already sliding on sandals .

We didn’t speak.

We just ran.

We bolted through the main doors of the courthouse, Leilani waddling with surprising momentum and me scanning wildly for a reception desk, a sign, anything .

A bored woman sat behind a plastic divider, sipping something from a giant sippy cup and typing with one hand.

“Hi, sorry—where’s the land-use meeting?” I panted. “Croft Enterprises. Calvin Croft. Hal Chambers… possibly dressed as a villain.”

She blinked. “Room 204. Second floor.”

“Thank you!”

We were already moving.

The elevator took so long to arrive that I thought time had stopped, so we took the stairs instead—Leilani one intense, determined stomp at a time, me practically dragging her arm while apologizing profusely.

She didn’t seem to mind, although she looked like she was ready to personally sue the elevator company if it came to that.

At the top of the stairwell, we charged down a corridor, turned left, backtracked, turned right, then found a door labeled: Land - Use Review, Private Meeting.

We pushed through the door without knocking.

Inside, a conference table sat beneath flickering fluorescent lights.

Cal stood at the far end of the room, leaning over a blueprint spread out across the table.

Hal sat beside him, smug and polished in a bone-colored blazer, and a lawyer in a charcoal suit blinked up at us like we’d just walked in on a board game.

Three heads turned at once.

And Cal froze.

“Matt?” he said, confused. “Leilani? ”

His eyes flew to her belly, then to me, then back again. “Oh my God. Is it time? Are we having a baby?” And then logic caught up. “Wait. Did you come here to get me on the way to the hospital?”

As if he already knew what was going on, Hal leaned back in his chair, looking irritated but not surprised. “Well. This just got interesting.”

Leilani clenched her jaw and glared at him. “You knew all along, didn’t you.”

Cal looked between us, completely lost. “Wait. Stop. Will someone tell me what’s going on?”

Leilani didn’t answer. She simply moved determinedly toward the table, breathing heavy from the stairs, from the weight of everything . She stared down at the plans spread before him.

Then she said, low and measured, “Please tell me you didn’t know.”

Cal’s brow furrowed. “Didn’t know what? What’s going on?”