“The time to protect you will soon be over,” Raymond explained at the colossal party he threw to celebrate Victor’s birthday at their gated estate in the Jardine’s Lookout area of Hong Kong. “And the time for you to prove yourself will soon be upon us.”
His father had never been a great signer. But Victor had noticed that his hands appeared shaky as he told his son this.
“Father? Are you in good health?” Victor asked.
“Do not worry about me,” his father answered out loud. “Worry only about your future. These next few years will not be easy, I’m afraid.”
Victor could almost see the ghost of his mother standing behind Raymond as he spoke. It was a warning, but to Victor, it sounded like an opportunity. He was tired of hiding and ready to prove himself, as his father said.
Yet, those words continued to swirl in his head….
Not sister’s job to protect brother.
He worked hard every day to forget them, but whenever his mind quieted, it seemed they were always there.
“You nervous?” Han asked out loud two weeks after Victor’s birthday party.
He couldn’t sign as he was currently driving them through Hong Kong’s busy streets to one of the Red Diamond’s massage parlors in the Kowloon district. Technically, the Lamborghini Han drove was Victor’s. His father had given it to him for his birthday. But since Victor didn’t know how to drive, Han had been ferrying him around the city.
Victor was grateful. He appreciated Donny’s service, but he knew his specially assigned guard reported everything he did back to his father. He could trust Han to keep all his secrets, and that was becoming increasingly important.
Especially tonight.
That afternoon at lunch, Victor’s father asked them to meet him at a Red Diamond massage parlor Victor had never been to before. He’d also told them to wear white. That could only mean one thing.
Someone would be initiated into the Red Diamond tonight.
Most likely him.
Victor adjusted the sleeve on his white suit, prolonging his answer. He was nervous. But not for the reason Han would assume.
Not sister’s job to protect brother.
They came to a stoplight, and Han looked over at him. Probably mistaking Victor’s lack of answer as concern that Han wouldn’t be able to see his signs while driving.
But now was as good a time as any to make his announcement, Victor supposed. “Han, we are friends.”
“Brothers,” Han insisted, as Victor would have if Han asked him the same thing.
“We are brothers,” Victor duly edited. “Brother, I need your help. Again.”
The light turned green, and Han shifted into drive to move forward. But as soon as he saw an empty spot, he pulled over and put the car in park.
Han turned in his seat to face him and signed, “Anything. You know this.”
And Victor raised his own hands to tell his chosen brother about his decision.
One their father would not like.
7
DAWN
I didn’t hear from Victor during the winter break, so I guess that meant he wasn’t coming back to Japan.
I tried not to feel too disappointed. I had better things to do than miss a boy who was way out of my league anyway.
Things like my secret application to RhIDS.
I spent most of the break working on it, which was more challenging than it should have been. I couldn’t risk completing the RhIDS special assignments in the apartment with my mom. She never knocked when she came into my room. And the few times I had tried to ask her to, she’d grilled me about what I was doing in there that required she alert me before coming in.
That question was diabolical on a couple of levels. One, I couldn’t answer it without lying because, two, she was right. As far as Mom knew, I was only applying to a couple of state schools back in Jersey and a few East Coast women’s colleges with great scholarship programs.
My mom would flip if she knew I was spending most of my free time working on the portfolio I hoped would get me into RhIDS.
So the library it was. I didn’t lie exactly. But I also didn’t correct my mother when she congratulated me on spending so much time attending to my studies.
I mean, who was I hurting? I was still going to apply to all those other schools. And the chances of me getting into RhIDS’ new animation program were pretty much zero. I figured what my mother didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her…or make her flip out so bad she set all my art supplies on fire.
So yeah, I missed Victor. But I kept myself pretty occupied without having our Thursday tutoring sessions to look forward to every week.
Still, the thought of never seeing him again made me a little sad when we returned to school after the big break.
There were a few new students in our classes. Mostly the progeny of fathers who had transferred to the Japan flagships of their international corporations. Their parents had moved them here without regard to disrupting their kid’s school year by putting them into a school system that ran from April to March instead of September to May.
