Darrell broke off from his hypothetical plan with a smirk. "But turns out I didn't have to do none of that shit. The thing is, I care about my daughter. I don't want to see her hurt. But obviously, you don't give a single fuck about her. All that hard work? Everything she had riding on her MFA presentation? Did you care? No! You burned her shit all the way to the ground."
Darrell shook his head at Victor. "She thought you were this loving hero beforehand. But you showed her who you really are and ended whatever spell you cast over her. She's never going to forgive you for this. You had her again, and you lost her without me having to do anything. So, seriously man, thanks for doing my job for me. Good looking out. Here, let me order you a drink. We'll make a toast."
With those words, Darrell raised his hand to flag down one of the cater waiters.
Victor wanted to argue, but an ugly feeling came over him. Darrell was a user. A master manipulator and liar. His so-called Lifetime Achievement record bore proof of that.
But Victor didn't think he was lying about this.
And suddenly, everything became clear. Dawn had been telling the truth when she claimed not to know anything about her father's plans. She hadn't been playing him for a fool again. She had meant what she said. Including the part where she claimed to have truly loved him back in Japan.
His anger…his revenge….she hadn’t deserved it. From the start. And certainly not for ten years.
He looked at the app again. She was still in the same place. But this time, that fact brought him no solace.
She was still in the same place…the location coordinates read exactly the same. As did the number of feet. That meant she hadn't moved even a tiny measure of distance in the entire time her father had been talking.
Victor abruptly stood and headed for the event space's doors.
"Hey, where you going, man? I thought we were going to have that drink!" Darrell called after him with a laugh.
The room blurred as Victor rushed to the women's restroom near the museum’s front doors.
As he did so, he remembered her sheepishly telling him how she had barged into the boys' locker room back in Japan.
"I had to go in there," she'd signed in her terrible mix of CSL and ASL. "I had to make sure my brother was all right."
There was no similar hesitation on Victor's part before he burst into the ladies' restroom.
He ignored the sounds of women crying out that he wasn't supposed to be in here as he followed the dot on his phone to the last stall and pushed open the door.
It was empty.
But the dot on his app clearly stated she was there.
Another terrible feeling came over him, and he looked toward the metal bin where women were expected to throw their period paraphernalia. He opened it up. It must have been cleaned out right before the event because there were no pads or tampons.
Only Dawn's iPhone X.
"Sir, you're not supposed to be in here!" voices called out behind him before he could fully process what had happened. "We're going to have to ask you to leave."
Victor's jaw tightened, but he let the security guards escort him out, not just from the restroom but the entire party.
Dawn's father was standing near the entrance as the guards directed him to leave. Of course.
"See you later, Vic," he called out with a mocking wave before making his way back into the party with a man Victor recognized as a Texas senator.
So no, this wasn't the Providence Town Hall all over again. This time Dawn had really left. Disappeared, without a trace.
Victor waited for her at the Providence house, but she never returned home. Nor did she come back to RhIDS to finish the rest of her semester. He had his men look everywhere for her, but, they couldn't find her.
Victor was losing his mind. Her father's words kept echoing through his head. "You had her again, and you lost her without me having to do anything."
Where was she? Was it somewhere safe? Kuang still hadn't made his move, but he would someday soon, and it killed Victor to know she was somewhere unprotected. Hiding from him.
On day four of the search, Phantom finally called him on FaceTime with a break in the case.
"I got a lead on where she is," he told Victor without saying hello.
"Where?" Victor demanded. Wherever it was, he had to go to her now. Do whatever it took to make this right.
"I'll tell you, but I'm warning you right now…" Phantom shook his head ruefully on the other side of the FaceTime call. "You're not going to like it."
35
DAWN
I'd been wiling away my life in the past for so long, but now….
