Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 96404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
“Of course I did.” Akira stands with the graciousness of a warrior and beckons Ren. “Come help me.”
“Don’t you have servants?”
Before Father can reprimand him for talking back, Akira’s voice hardens. “What’s the need for servants when there’s you? Get up.”
Ren grinds his teeth and curses under his breath before he jerks up and follows Akira out of the room.
As soon as the door slides closed behind them, I speak to Father without looking at him, “He’s getting you premium ginseng herbals. Act surprised.”
“That is very generous.”
“You don’t deserve it,” I mutter.
“What did you just say, Naomi?”
I lift my head and meet his gaze. “That you don’t deserve it.”
His lips twist. “You’re being ungrateful.”
“For what exactly? For making me into a mafia princess, forcing me to get married or else you would’ve sold off my half-sister when we’re your own fucking flesh and blood, or threatening me with never allowing me to see my mom on her deathbed? Or maybe it’s making me believe that you were a father worth waiting for all these years?”
Kai shakes his head at me as he keeps eating. Screw him and his boss.
My father slams his chopsticks on the table. “Stop being a little American bitch and lose that tone.”
“What tone? The one that tells the truth?”
“The one that disrespects me. Remember, Naomi, you need me.”
“As much as you need me. My marriage is bringing you more profit than you could’ve ever dreamed. Don’t forget that.”
“And don’t forget that you have a duty toward me.”
“Duty?” I scoff. “You don’t even know the meaning of that word. You lured my mom, knocked her up, and neglected her so you could marry for money and status. Not only did you find me for the sole reason of using me in your schemes, but even your legitimate daughter isn’t safe from your tyranny.”
“Riko is the one who chose to escape me, not the other way around.”
“Because she realized how much of a dangerous person you are. She didn’t want me to be raised in your world.”
“But you ended up in it anyway, so keep your head down, clamp those lips shut, and follow the rules.”
I open my mouth, about to give him a piece of my mind, but Akira and Ren return, carrying the box of ginseng. My father puts on a perfect show, acting flattered and happy.
After dinner, Akira suggests taking us on a tour of his pond. My father readily agrees and I take my time finishing my tea before I get up.
My husband, Dad, and Ren go out first, and I’m about to follow with Kai, but he touches my arm. I halt when he communicates with his eyes that I should stay.
He still has his hair long and tied at his nape. The sharp lines of his jaw have turned more callous, and his eyes no longer appear human. Probably due to the number of killings Father makes him do.
Oh, and his last name is Takeda, not Collins like when he impersonated being a PI seven years ago.
“What is it?” I murmur.
Kai might have thrust me into this life, but he’s been more my ally than my enemy in the last seven years.
After all, he was the one who came to save me during that red night. He was only sixteen when Dad put him there to watch me from the shadows.
Back then, when he saw Sam—my mother’s boyfriend at the time—coming at me, he didn’t hesitate to barge in and kill the bastard. It was his first kill, he told me, and it was bloody and gory and so damn messy.
According to Kai, Mom stabbed the asshole’s corpse a few times when she found me in shock with blood covering me.
Sam’s blood.
That’s why it was always the red night in my head.
It’s also when I met Father and some of his men, but I don’t remember it, because I blocked those memories out of my head.
But the moment he called me Ojou-sama again, I knew that we go way back. The familiarity struck me harder than I would have imagined.
I guess that’s why Kai and I have some sort of a hate-love relationship.
He’s an absolute dick for what happened seven years ago, but sometimes, it feels like he’s looking out for me in his own screwed-up way. I know not to take it for granted from someone as detached as he is.
“It’s about Mio.”
My breath hitches at the mention of my much younger half-sister.
I learned about her existence when my mom was dying, and I felt like I was given a chance to have another family member and do better. I’ve tried to meet with her on the rare occasion she goes to Japan, but we’re mostly on different continents and Father keeps her under a strict guard.
“What about Mio?” I ask Kai.