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“Congratulations. How far…” I give up rasping out questions while my mother glares at me, her face getting redder and redder the longer Hikaru and I talk.
Soon she’ll forget we’re in public, that she likes to maintain a certain image.
“I’m about to pop. Ooh! You should come to my shower. Obasan is in town with the entire gang. We’ve kind of made a family reunion of it. Oops!” She hits her head, reminding me of the same girl who never let anyone talk when something excited her. “Are you here because of a shower or are you going to be a dad?”
“Enough!” Aya yells. “Hikaru, we do not know this person. Remember who you are. Nakashima’s don’t associate with murderers.”
“Okasan—” I choke on the word.
“Don’t you dare. I told you the night I found out Fumio had died it should have been you. You were supposed to look out for him.” She grabs my cousin and turns. After taking two steps, she swings around. “I hope Hikaru is mistaken and you aren’t about to become a parent. You don’t deserve to be happy or to start a family when your brother can’t have one.” She drops Hikaru’s arm and advances on me, jabbing her finger in my chest while stabbing me with her insults.
My feet won’t move and my mouth won’t open to defend myself. Again. Like all those years ago. My grief at losing the one person who matched me so well we had the same DNA, slams into me again.
“If you are having a baby, I hope it dies before ever meeting you. Maybe losing your baby will finally make you understand my pain.” Aya takes Hikaru’s arm again.
Her shock softens her body, and Aya drags her to the exit. Hikaru doesn’t stop gaping at me, but what can she do?
“Shinji?” Lakeshia cups my face and turns me toward her. Furious tears sparkle in her brown eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I only caught the end of what that horrible woman said. I’m going to find her and teach her a lesson. No one wishes death on our baby. No one.”
I grasp her forearm, needing her touch, her voice, her everything to help me wipe away the last five minutes. “Don’t worry about her. I need to leave. Now.”
CHAPTER 40
Takeshi
Hurry home.
Lakeshia’s text has my heart racing. She’s not answering. Neither is Shinji, Riu, or the doula I recently hired.
What the hell happened? I left my wife and husband relaxing a few hours ago to do a task for Katsuo. Although I haven’t officially resumed my duties, he asked me to accompany Portia on a job today. He couldn’t join her while she cleaned his messy crime scene because he’s handling the fallout from dismantling the Giamettis. While he and Gio divvy up the enterprise, it was good to catch up with Portia.
But now I worry. And no one’s answering their goddam phone.
I stop the car in front of the house with the keys still in the ignition and the engine running.
“Lakeshia! Shinji!” I yell as soon as I bang through the entrance.
“In the sunroom!” Lakeshia shouts in response.
I run toward them, my heart doing its best to beat outside my chest. When I get to the doorway, Lakeshia looks fine. Worriedly pacing, but healthy. Not in danger.
I clutch my chest and forcibly calm myself. “What’s wrong?”
She spins around; her face dripping as she says one word and points. “Shinji.”
I follow her finger to Shinji’s huddled form. He’s motionless and staring into the backyard.
“What happened?” I crouch in front of him and hold his hands.
His skin is icy and he doesn’t respond to my touch.
“I didn’t see everything that happened, but a woman showed up while we were shopping. She said some evil shit about our baby. Shinji’s barely said a word since. And he’s been this way since we returned.”
I squeeze his hands. “Shinji, did you know the woman at the store?”
“She’s my mother,” he whispers.
I sit back on my heels, bowled over by his response. “Your mother’s alive?”
