A Marriage Meant for Kai

Chapter Six-Rex

I still couldn’t understand it.

Three days had passed since that phone call.

Three days since Mian had said the words that had completely disrupted my understanding of the world.

“I’m going to marry you.”

I had heard those words.

I had understood them.

But I still couldn’t make sense of them.

How?

How did a man like Mian make a decision like that?

He was twenty-four.

A doctor.

Educated.

Successful.

He had a career ahead of him.

A future.

A life.

He had probably spent years building the life he wanted.

And yet, somehow, he had decided to give all of that up—or at least change everything he knew—to marry a stranger.

Me.

Because of my son.

I sat behind my desk, staring at the same document for nearly ten minutes.

I hadn’t read a single word.

My mind was somewhere else.

Mian.

That was where it kept going.

I couldn’t understand him.

Was it pity?

Was he simply too kind?

Was he trying to save Kai?

Was it selflessness?

Or was there something else?

I couldn’t decipher it.

Not even a little.

I had met him for less than an hour.

Yet he had apparently decided that I was worth marrying.

Not because of who I was.

Not because of my money.

Not because of my name.

Because of Kai.

My son.

I leaned back in my chair.

It was insane.

Completely insane.

Who willingly gave up their life for someone else’s child?

Apparently Mian did.

And that bothered me more than I wanted to admit.

Because I didn’t understand that kind of love.

I had spent five years with Kai.

Five years.

Mian had spent less than forty-eight hours with him.

Yet somehow, Mian had seen something in my son that I had been too blinded by grief to see.

He had seen a little boy who needed his father.

I had seen the boy who had taken his mother from me.

That was the truth I never said aloud.

I hated myself for it.

I didn’t hate Kai.

Never.

How could I hate my son?

But grief was a cruel thing.

I had been an orphan.

I had grown up without parents.

I knew what loneliness felt like.

Then I found her.

My wife.

My family.

The first person who had ever made me feel like I belonged somewhere.

She had become my home.

And then she died.

The day Kai was born.

I lost the only person I had.

And every time I looked at Kai, I remembered that day.

I remembered the hospital.

I remembered her face.

I remembered being told she was gone.

I remembered holding a newborn baby while feeling like my entire world had been ripped apart.

Kai hadn’t caused it.

I knew that.

Logically.

But grief didn’t care about logic.

And I had spent five years allowing my grief to become a wall between me and my son.

Now someone who had known Kai for two days had somehow decided that wall wasn’t acceptable.

That person had chosen my son.

And I couldn’t understand it.

⸻

Since Kai had been discharged, things hadn’t really changed.

That was the uncomfortable truth.

I was still busy.

Still working.

Still taking meetings.

Still leaving the house early.

Still coming home late.

The only difference was that now I noticed.

I noticed when Kai wasn’t downstairs.

I noticed when his bedroom door was closed.

I noticed when the house was too quiet.

I noticed the absence of a nanny.

We still hadn’t found one.

The agency had continued sending profiles.

None of them worked.

Some candidates didn’t want the hours.

Others didn’t want to work for me.

One had politely declined after hearing how often I traveled.

So Kai remained under the care of the household staff.

They were good people.

They cared about him.

But they weren’t his parents.

And apparently, that mattered.

Mian had made sure I understood that.

I hated how much his words had stayed with me.

“Your son needs you.”

I knew.

I just didn’t know how to become the man he needed.

And now Mian was offering to step into the gap.

For some reason, that made me feel both relieved and guilty.

Relieved because Kai would have someone.

Guilty because Mian shouldn’t have to sacrifice his life for my inability to be a father.

I stared at the city outside my window.

He was giving me another chance.

That was what this marriage would be.

Another chance.

A chance to continue my life without worrying that Kai was completely alone.

A chance to know that someone would be there when I couldn’t.

A chance to keep working.

And that realization made me feel like the worst person alive.

Because a part of me was relieved.

I was relieved that someone else was willing to take responsibility for the thing I couldn’t.

But Mian wasn’t a nanny.

He wasn’t an employee.

He was a human being.

He had his own life.

And I was asking him to give it up.

Or at least part of it.

For me.

For Kai.

For a family that didn’t even exist yet.

How could he do that?

⸻

The next morning, I called him.

He answered on the fourth ring.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.”

There was a brief pause.

“Mr. Sullivan.”

“You can call me Rex.”

Another pause.

“Okay. Rex.”

Hearing my name in his voice was strangely different.

I cleared my throat.

“We need to talk about the wedding.”

There was silence.

Then—

“The wedding?”

“Yes.”

“Right.”

He sounded almost nervous.

“How are we going to do this?”

I asked.

“I don’t know.”

I frowned.

“You don’t know?”

“No.”

I stared at the phone.

“You agreed to marry me without knowing how we’re going to get married?”

“I didn’t exactly plan this.”

I almost laughed.

Of course he hadn’t.

Nothing about this was normal.

“Do you have any idea what you just agreed to?”

“Yes.”

“Do you?”

“Rex.”

His voice was calm.

“I know what marriage means.”

“Do you?”

“Yes.”

I fell silent.

He continued.

“I know it’s a big decision.”

“A very big decision.”

“I know.”

“And you’re still doing it.”

“Yes.”

I closed my eyes.

There it was again.

That certainty.

That calmness.

Like he had already made peace with something I couldn’t even understand.

“What do you suggest?”

He was quiet for a moment.

“I’ll talk to my father.”

I frowned.

“Your father?”

“Yes.”

“Does he know?”

“No.”

I sat up straighter.

“You haven’t told your father?”

“Not yet.”

I couldn’t believe it.

“You agreed to marry a stranger before telling your family?”

“When you say it like that…”

“That’s exactly what happened.”

He sighed.

“I’ll tell him.”

“And?”

“I’ll invite you and Kai over for dinner.”

I looked toward the window.

“Your family?”

“My father and my brother.”

“Daniel?”

He laughed softly.

“You remembered his name.”

“I remember things.”

“Good.”

There was a pause.

“After dinner, we’ll figure out the rest.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me.

“Fine.”

We ended the call.

I placed the phone down.

Then stared at it.

Again.

How could he do this?

How could someone make a decision this enormous after knowing someone for two days?

I had spent five years raising Kai.

Five years.

And still, I wasn’t capable of giving him what Mian was willing to give after forty-eight hours.

That thought bothered me.

More than anything else.

It made me wonder whether Mian’s love was somehow bigger than mine.

Not romantic love.

Something different.

A kind of love that made him see a child and decide that the child deserved better.

A kind of love that made him willing to sacrifice his own future.

I didn’t think I could do that.

Not even for Kai.

And I was his father.

I looked down at my hands.

For the first time, I wondered what Mian had seen when he looked at my son.

Because when I looked at Kai, I saw my wife.

I saw grief.

I saw the worst day of my life.

But Mian looked at him and saw a child.

Just a child.

A little boy who was sick.

A little boy who was scared.

A little boy who needed someone.

Maybe that was the difference between us.

Maybe Mian wasn’t sacrificing his life because he pitied Kai.

Maybe he simply understood something I hadn’t.

Kai deserved to be loved without conditions.

And perhaps Mian was willing to give him that.

I stood from my desk.

I walked toward the window.

The city stretched endlessly beneath me.

I had built all of this.

Every building.

Every company.

Every dollar.

Every piece of power.

I had built my world with my own hands.

And yet, when it came to my son, I had failed.

Now a stranger was walking into my life.

A twenty-four-year-old omega doctor who had looked me in the eyes and told me I was being a bad father.

A man who had barely known my son for two days.

A man who was willing to marry me simply because he believed Kai deserved someone who stayed.

I didn’t understand him.

I probably wouldn’t understand him for a long time.

But for the first time in five years, someone had chosen my son.

And perhaps that was enough to make me take the first step toward becoming his father.

Even if I didn’t know how.

Even if I was terrified.

Even if the man who was about to become my husband was still a complete stranger.

Mian had chosen Kai.

Now I had to figure out how to choose him too.