The truth was, I’d finished the project earlier that afternoon. But I knew Victor monitored my phone, and this was the perfect cover story for me going to bed way earlier than usual. I probably would send the renderings bright and early tomorrow.
I’d just be at the airport.
After sending that text, I went upstairs and grabbed my old undergrad backpack, so that I could fill it with the few things I’d need to go to Texas.
An old memory from fifteen years ago hit me like a Mack truck.
I remembered packing just like this, my heart bouncing like a basketball inside my chest as I prepared to run away from home to be with Victor.
Regret soured my stomach in the present. What would have happened if I had stayed in our apartment that night? If I had taken my father’s punishment without question as I had for the eighteen years before that moment? It would all be so different now.
But I shook the thoughts away. No time… No time for bitterness and regret. I had to get out of here.
The master bedroom was right above the carport. So even though I was pretending to be asleep, I knew exactly when the time arrived to make my escape.
The buzz and electric rattle of the gate opening told me that the night guard had arrived. I held still while I listened to the voices below exchange a few lines in Cantonese. Just a few short lines. Good. Maybe the day guard wasn’t a total tattletale about what happened earlier.
Soon after that short discussion, there came the electric clamor of the gate opening again, along with the sound of a car backing out. The day guard leaving for the night.
Okay, this was my chance. I’d tiptoe downstairs and sneak out through the back door, then around the left side of the house while the two Audis were do-si-doing on the right side.
I quietly slipped out of bed and grabbed my backpack.
But then, just as I began to head toward the door, a click sounded in the dark, right before the whole room flooded with light.
I looked toward the door and froze.
Victor. Victor was standing there.
I stared at him. And he stared at me, his shrewd gaze so obviously putting together that I was about to sneak out.
I braced, not sure what he would do. Threaten me for sure. Maybe even worse. He could not only keep me from seeing my mother but also make me submit to one of his punishments.
If he truly wanted to break me, that would be the perfect tactic.
The silence stretched on for what felt like centuries.
Then he raised his hands to sign, “You’ve already packed. Good. We leave for Texas in the morning.”
Part IV
Dawn’s Husband!
20
VICTOR
This was about punishment. That was what Victor told himself as he and Dawn climbed out of the car that had driven them from the airport to a non-descript house in Plano, Texas.
There was no other plausible explanation. The chance to expose the marriage Dawn had gone out of her way to keep secret had to be the reason. It was the only way to explain why he not only reversed his decision about her going to Texas but also paid for a private plane ride into a small airfield in nearby McKinney that morning.
They found her mother outside the house, gardening of all things. She was trimming back the flowering bushes below the house’s porch and didn’t appear to have heard them pull up.
Gyeong Kingston.
Victor had never actually seen her before. Back in Japan, Gyeong had simply been a character in Dawn’s many stories of family life. Back then, he’d known her as the woman who’d set Dawn’s strict bedtime and study schedule. Before their marriage, Gyeong had merely been a name on a list of people Victor could use as leverage against Dawn. And after he revealed that Dawn wasn’t attending med school, her mother had become a series of strident emails and texts…before eventually going quiet.
But as they walked up the sidewalk, she became more and more real to Victor.
Perhaps to Dawn, too. She’d been so determined to get here, yet her steps slowed as they approached Gyeong from behind. It appeared she was reluctant to alert her mother to their presence.
Most likely, Victor had something to do with that.
Dawn had been grateful for the ride—not so much for his announcement that he would be tagging along.
“How am I supposed to explain you to my mom?” she’d asked early that morning before they boarded the plane. “The woman’s a guilt-tripping genius. Do you have any idea how bad it will be for me when she sees you?”
“I don’t care,” he’d answered.
That had been a lie. He did care, but not for the reasons Dawn thought.
In order for him to feel okay about his concession, he’d had to make it part of his ultimate revenge.
