But apparently, there was no need to make such plans. According to the phone's app, she was still in the bathroom. Just a few hundred feet away from where Victor and her father sat now.
He glanced at Darrell Kingston. Dawn’s father was also on his phone, texting with his eyes intent on the screen.
Perhaps he thought if he ignored Victor long enough, he would simply go away. But there wasn't a chance in hell. He would stay here as Dawn's plus one, and he would clap loudest of all when Darrell received his award. He wouldn't leave this ceremony until a huge shadow had been cast over Darrell's so-called lifetime achievement.
But then, Dawn’s father surprised him by suddenly setting his phone aside and addressing Victor out loud. "You know, she told me that if her whole MFA degree weren't riding on her making that thesis presentation of hers, nothing would've made her miss my big night. But here she is. At my award ceremony, not getting the MFA she's been working on for seven years."
Darrell shook his head at Victor, as smug smirk forming on his lips for some reason. "Looks like you royally fucked my daughter."
"No, you are the one who did that," Victor answered, keeping his signs cold and precise. "The moment you decided to use her to take down Red Diamond."
Dawn's father made a considering sound in the back of his throat. "Maybe you're right about that."
He glanced in the direction of the event space's doors, then back at Victor. "So, you suckered my daughter into marriage. How did you pull that one off?”
Darrell answered his own question before Victor could. “I'm assuming you threatened me. Maybe Byron too. And her mom. You probably even threw in that best friend she had in college. Pretty much everybody and anybody she loves. Isn't that how that fucking monster who raised you taught you to operate?"
How dare he talk about his father. Victor had to fight within himself not to leap across the table and beat Darrell into a bloody pulp. Knowing Dawn's father, he would use it as an excuse to make yet another crime lord arrest at his own Lifetime Achievement award ceremony.
So instead of fighting with him, Victor informed her father, "Whatever she has lost, whatever punishment she has received for what she did, it is well deserved. You should count yourself fortunate that for some reason, she doesn't blame you for the heavy price she has had to pay for playing the part you assigned her."
Her father merely shrugged and smiled. "I suppose she's grateful to have a dad still. Unlike some people whose father rotted in jail because his son decided to think with his dick."
Darrell was good. Victor had to give him that. But he refused to let Dawn's father bait him into losing control of his emotions.
However, Darrell didn't need a response from Victor to keep going. "You know, Victor, my man, I'm glad you did this."
He moved into the chair that Dawn had abandoned and slapped Victor on the arm as if they were best friends. "I was worried when I figured out that you had her in your grips again nine years ago. And I felt some kind of guilty about not handling that myself. But I was too far undercover to risk coming up here to put a stop to whatever you had going on with her. From what I could tell, you were only visiting her once a year, but I worried that would be enough for you to get all the way inside her head again."
Victor inwardly frowned at this new information. He'd been watching Darrell for so long. It never occurred to him that Dawn's father was watching him back.
Darrell shook his head and let out a wry laugh. "Let me tell you, I'm still getting over what all I had to do in Japan to get her away from you. It was a hell of a time convincing her to go along with my plan after I arrested you. You should've heard the way she cried over you, boy. 'I love him. I don't care what his father did. That's not him!' She had lost her whole damn mind. She was ready to throw away her future, trying to protect you. If I hadn't talked some sense into her, doctored some of the tapes, and covered up that secret relationship she had going with you, she would've been rotting in jail along with the rest of Red Diamond. And I doubt your father would've cut a plea deal to make sure she didn't serve any time."
Victor stilled, every drop of blood in his body freezing over. Somehow he still managed to sign, "You're lying. She knew all along. She was playing your part all along."
"Believe me. I wish I was lying." Darrell sucked on his teeth and screwed up his face. "Half the reason I gave up undercover work and damn near retired my own ass was because I knew I'd have to do something to extract her from your grip again, especially after you pulled that stunt with Doll and made her part of your fan club. I'd figured I'd have to make you hurt me in some way. Rile you to the point that you wounded Dawn's poor old dad."
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….
Now, I'm living in the present.
And my new present includes a critical visit to the compound of Luca Ferraro, the Ferraro don. But the Ferraros are a lot different than how I remember before Dad moved us all to Japan when I was fourteen.
Back then, they'd been the Italians who demanded an envelope of cash every month from my Korean grandparents. I think maybe they had a nice house in Elizabeth or some middle-class burb like that.
But as this guy named Matti drives Byron and me up the winding driveway of Luca Ferraro's place in Alpine, New Jersey, I can see they've seriously stepped up their game. My hands itch for my sketch pad as I gape at their large multi-building stone and dark wood estate.
And that instinct to capture everything I’m seeing on paper only becomes worse when we go inside. A guard in a black suit escorts us through a two-story A-frame foyer into an open-plan great room, kitchen, and dining area space.
The entire downstairs is sparsely furnished, with only a wrap-around couch in the great room and a round table with chairs in the dining area. But my animator's eye is totally impressed with the dynamic walls.
Done up in dark grey textured tiles, they feature everything from bookshelves to several tactile wall art pieces, which keeps the living room from looking like a minimalist nightmare.
The floors are also dynamic. No carpets anywhere, but there are a couple of paths made out of pearly raised dots. They blend into the interior way more subtly than the neon yellow tactile flooring at the Rhode Island Design School.
Thanks to missing my MFA presentation, I'm no longer a grad student at RhIDS. And I only know enough about interior design to do rough background sketches for my dreamy animation work before handing that part of the project over to a specialist. But I've got enough real-world knowledge to guess someone commissioned a team of specialized designers to put together this living room. The space radiates with both power and strong intent.
I get the same sense that I got when I first entered Victor's apartment in Japan—that it's a reflection of the people who live here.
I glance over at my brother as the guard leads us into the living room. I still don't love that he's apparently on the Ferraro Family payroll, his dirty cop paycheck as steady as the one he gets from his department. It feels like he's walking in Dad's footsteps, though I'm still not clear on whether or not he's doing some kind of undercover work.
It feels like Byron’s playing a dangerous game. But maybe he was right about me coming here for help with my Victor problem. These are the only people I've ever met who floss as hard as he does.
About a minute after we sit down, a cute kid with long curly hair and light brown skin shows up. "My mom is getting ready. She said to tell you she'll be right out."
Then she drops her voice to say, "Today is the anniversary of the day my parents got married—the second time, not the first. Don't forget to tell her happy anniversary!"
Okay, that sounds like an interesting story.
"We for sure won't," my brother assures her. He sounds totally pleasant as if we've just stopped in for a Sunday visit. He really does take after our dad.
I want to smile at the little girl, too, but it curdles on my mouth.
If I'm reading the skin tone right, she's multiracial. Like Byron and me. Like the baby I'm carrying right now. She's almost the living embodiment of why I'm here. Unlike my brother, I can’t smile like there's absolutely nothing wrong.
I cast another look at Matti, the older Jewish guy who brought us here. Matti and my brother say this woman can help me, but I don't know. There may be no help, I think despondently, especially when it comes to Victor.
The woman we're here to see shows up just a few minutes later, and I immediately understand how she managed to Meghan Markle one of the oldest Mafia families in America. She's, like, stupid gorgeous. It's as if the words "ethereal" and "striking" decided to have a human baby. And for whatever reason, that baby was like, "you know what I'm going to do with all this beauty? Go into divorce law."
Byron stills beside me when she walks into the room, but Matti must be radiance immune. He just stands up with an "Amber, thanks for meeting with us."
She has a rock the size of Rhode Island on her wedding ring finger, and that makes me look down at my own finger. My ring of black onyx sandwiched between two raised bars of stainless steel is plain in comparison but way more ominous.
"This ring makes me your owner…I own you now."
A chill runs down my back, recalling Victor’s words to me on our wedding night.
But if Amber, unlike pretty much every other lawyer I've tried to consult with, agrees to take my case, I might be free of him soon. Outrageously beautiful Amber Ferraro, whose sneezes are probably worth more than what I can afford to pay her.
"Hello," she says like she's a normal person and not possibly an angel who fell to earth. "I'm Amber Ferraro."
I just stare at her, wondering, not for the first time, why Victor chose me, a chubby RhIDS animation student, as opposed to somebody like her. If I looked like Amber, maybe I could understand his obsession with me, but—
"Hey, Dawn, you're really quiet,” Amber says. “Can you give me a voice cue, so I know where you are?"
My skin heats with embarrassment, and I want to disappear into the couch. Wow, I'd been so busy staring and comparing myself to her, I'd totally forgotten to answer her question, even though Matti had told me, like, three times she was blind before we got here.
Feeling rude, I lean forward and say, "Hi, I'm Dawn."
But then I stop—because wow, she already knows that. Ugh. Could I be any nerdier?
"Thanks for meeting with me," I finish lamely.
"No problem," she answers, settling into the seat directly across from us on the large wrap-around couch. "Now tell me about this soon-to-be ex who's got you so worried you think Matti's not up for the job."
"It's not that we don't think he's good enough," Byron says beside me, hitting her with his best flirtatious smile, even though she can't see it, and, c'mon Byron, she's the wife of a major crime boss. Could you pick a worst person to flirt with?
"It's just the more juice, the better with this guy," Byron explains. "He's not going to let my sister go easily—especially now that she's pregnant."
"You're pregnant," Amber says, tilting her head thoughtfully. "So you'll need a custody agreement after the child is born. And I'm assuming this is a bad guy we're talking about if you're here talking to me. Not just your run-of-the-mill rich asshole.
"Exactly," I answer. "He's bad. Really bad."
"Chinese Mafia out of Rhode Island," Matti explains.
"Actually…" Byron clears his throat, shift
ing uncomfortably. "He's located in Rhode Island right now. But technically, he operates from all over."
Matti shifts to turn to the both of us, his face clouding over with new consternation. "So, this is an international case? Why didn't you tell me that at our initial consult?"
"I'm sorry," I answer for the both of us—even though withholding the real details about Victor's background had been Byron's idea, not mine. "We were afraid we'd only have one shot, and we wanted to double our chances of representation by making sure both of you were in the room when we told you my husband is…um…Victor Zhang."
Amber's expression doesn't change, but Matti's chin drops as if I've sucker punched him.
"You don't mean Victor Zhang, the head of The Silent Triad?" Matti prompts with a sickly look. Like his breakfast won't stay down if my answer is yes.
But unfortunately, I have to reply, "Yes, that's him. I'm really sorry."
I swallow, wishing that I had a different answer for him…and this baby I'm carrying.
"Who's The Silent Triad?" Amber asks into the hushed silence that follows my second, even more heartfelt apology.
"Nobody," Matti answers, jumping to his feet. "Because we're not taking this case. Sorry to have bothered you about this, Amber. If I'd known—"
"Matti, sit down," Amber snaps, cutting him off. Though, how she knew he was standing, I have no idea.
Nevertheless, she waits with a stern look until Matti sits down again. He crosses his arms over his chest, like a kid in time out.
"We're not taking this case," he tells Amber while glaring at me. "Luca isn't going to let you. I can guarantee you that."
Her face narrows as if Matti's challenged her to a duel. "We'll see about that," she answers. Then she directs her gaze back to me and repeats her question. "Who's The Silent Triad?"
Byron answers before I can. "The Silent Triad is an international criminal organization with branches on every continent but Antarctica. Victor Zhang is one of their three dragonheads."
Victor: Her Ruthless Owner: The VICTOR Trilogy Book 2 [50 Loving States, Rhode Island] (Ruthless Triad) Page 24