“No, I’m totally in,” I assured her. “I was just thinking about logistics for the move up to Pittsburgh.”
“Oh, good.” Lucy let out an audible sigh of relief. “Once we saw your stuff, we really had our hearts set on you.”
Okay, well, that filled me with all sorts of warm fuzzies. Yinz liked me. They really like me!
But then she said, “Just make sure to keep up all of your grades. We pride ourselves on only hiring animators with MFAs. And I would hate to rescind a job offer, especially for someone as talented as you. But, ironically, the working-class founder of Yinz is kind of snobby that way. Luckily, you’re graduating from RhIDS. He won’t even let us interview candidates from the no-name schools.”
She laughed, and I weakly laughed with her.
Working with the elite of the elites sounded like a dream come true. But if I didn’t do my thesis presentation, it wouldn’t happen.
I had to figure out how to change my thesis presentation date since asking Victor to give me a reprieve wouldn’t work. Just the opposite. He probably relished the thought of ruining everything I’d worked for as much as I relished the idea of finally getting out from under his thumb.
I could barely pay attention in my Advanced Character Design seminar after that. Maybe I should ditch the rest of today’s classes, I thought as I walked out of the classroom. I could pick up an order of Chicken Gang Jeong and Seoul Beef Soup from my favorite Korean restaurant and maybe catch up on all those watching assignments for my World Animation History elective.
The buzz of my secret phone interrupted those thoughts. I fished it out of my Aggretsuko tote and found it lit up with Byron’s number.
I frowned. Byron never called me. I was always the one who called him.
“Hey Ronny, is everything okay?” I asked as soon as I picked up.
In my heart dropped when he answered, “No, everything’s not okay. It’s mom.”
18
VICTOR
In his study, Victor was sitting behind his desk when one of his men knocked on the door and walked in with an announcement. “Excuse me, Boss. There’s a woman here to see you. She said her name is Nora Kuang.”
Victor never used sign language with anyone in their triad, save for Han and Phantom. But neither of them were here now. Phantom was handling some “personal business, don’t ask” in New York. And Han had returned to Hawaii for a second time to finish cleaning up a mess the 24K had made. Han hadn’t been happy about the assignment when Kuang first sent him down to Oahu the previous summer. It involved the fallout from a sex trafficking ring bust, the one place where Han drew the line.
But Kuang had called it a special favor, and an alliance was an alliance. Kuang knew how they felt about that business. And he wouldn’t have asked Han to do this if it wasn’t important. So Han was now taking care of Kuang’s issue in Hawaii.
That meant Victor could only communicate with his men through text messages and notes, which he wrote out on a notepad app these days as opposed to scratch paper.
Victor pulled out his phone and typed into the notepad app, “Send her in.”
A few moments later, Nora Kuang came through the door. She’d worn a pretty dress when they’d met a few weeks ago. And she was still just as beautiful, but she was dressed much more casually in jeans and a bright graphic T paired with a blazer.
“To what do I owe this pleasure?” Victor asked, standing to greet her.
“Oh, I was just in the neighborhood visiting one of my friends,” she answered. “An American pop star. Baba told me you lived in the same neighborhood, so I decided to swing by.”
Victor almost asked which pop star. When they first bought a house down here, Westerhaven had been dotted with mostly family estates. But since then, more celebrities had decided to make it their home.
However, he had a feeling Nora hadn’t come here to exchange celebrity gossip.
“Can my man get you anything to drink?” he asked before motioning for her to sit in one of his desk chairs.
“No, thank you,” she answered, taking the seat he’d proffered with a demure smile.
Victor dismissed the man who had escorted her up to his study.
But as soon as the door closed behind him, Nora said, “Actually, I will take something to drink. Perhaps some of that whiskey in the decanter behind you.”
Inwardly, Victor lifted an eyebrow. He inhabited a world filled with power plays. So he had to wonder if she had purposely waited until his man left to ask for a drink. Perhaps she wanted to see if her future husband was willing to serve her.
He wasn’t.
But there was no need to argue that point. At least not before the wedding.
