He hesitated, then decided to answer truthfully, “They’re both dead. My mother passed away when I was young, and my father died a few months after your family left Japan.”
Gyeong made a tutting sound. “Dawn said you were her same age. So you were so young! Eighteen! Just a baby still, and there you were, with both your parents gone.”
A strange sorrow gathered in his chest at her words…along with a new guilt. Yes, they had been young back then. Easily manipulated. Not only by their parents but also by each other. Had he been punishing Dawn all this time for something he might’ve done if his father had put him in the same position?
“You know, I liked art too when I was a girl,” Dawn’s mother said. “I was always getting in trouble for drawing on walls and counters. Blank paper wasn’t as easy to access for me back then as it is now, you see. I thought my artwork was beautiful. But my mother beat me every time she found one of my drawings, and that made me stop. Dawn was smart. She kept her art on paper. But I was still so scared for her future…”
She looked into the past Victor couldn’t see as she spoke and signed, but then she came back to the present to say, “Byron told me that she got a job in Pittsburgh. They liked her thesis project so much, they said she could come work for them as soon as she was done with grad school.”
Every cell in Victor’s body stilled. What? She already had a job lined up? When had this happened?
“I never imagined her getting paid for art the first time she got to that school of hers,” Gyeong said. “But she did it. I’m so proud of her. You know, maybe I will tell her that when she gets back.”
She smiled toothily at Victor. “If you have children with her, maybe you could be as proud of them someday as I am of her.”
Something cracked in Victor’s chest. Something that made it feel as if his heart would spill out if he allowed her to continue with the subject.
So he decided to introduce a much colder topic.
“I’ve made you a reservation for when you are discharged from the hospital. At the East Winds Center. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?”
Gyeong stilled. “Yes, that’s where all the country singers go. And the news anchor on Channel 5 after he got into that car accident. It’s very expensive.”
“There is a spot waiting for you, all expenses paid. And a shuttle will take you to all of your chemo appointments.”
Gyeong was very quiet for a long time. And when she spoke, her voice seemed weaker than before. “This place… it’s too expensive for me. I don’t deserve it.”
Victor merely signed back, “Thank you for the hot pot.”
Gyeong went quiet for a long time. Then she tentatively asked, “If I go to this place, do we have to tell Dawn or Byron?”
He owed this woman nothing. She was the wife of the man who had ruined his life. Yet he found himself immediately signing back, “No, we don’t have to tell them.”
Her mother teared up. But she nodded. “Okay, then I’ll go.”
She let out a watery laugh, “I had a feeling it was bad when they told me I might have liver cancer, and I went straight home to pour myself a drink.”
“If you’re scared of being alone, I can fly you to a place in Rhode Island,” he offered. “There are facilities like East Winds in every state.”
Her mother shook her head. “No, I was just scared before. Darrell will be back. He always comes back. And I want to be here when he does, no matter what I said the last time we—”
Her phone lit up on the bedside table, interrupting whatever she was about to say next.
Gyeong picked it up, and her eyes widened when she read the text. “He got my messages. And he’s coming now. He says he’ll be here in less than fifteen minutes!”
She raised her gaze back to Victor, her expression shrewd and careful. “If your marriage to my daughter is complicated, this might be the time to go to the house and get your things. My husband’s here now, so I won’t be all alone. And I won’t tell him anything. I promise.”
She grinned at Victor with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “I like the idea of finally being the one with the secret.”
Victor did not return Gyeong’s wicked smile.
This was about revenge, he reminded himself. And Dawn’s father was here now. Not embedded deep undercover. Here was the chance to relight that dynamite and throw it at his unsuspecting enemy. Darrell would not be as accepting as his wife. Just the opposite. He’d be horrified when he found out his daughter was back with him. This was the perfect opportunity for Victor to reap what he’d come to Texas to sow.
