“Did you see her body?”my mum asks, eyes narrowed at Markus.
“Of course not.No one did.”His face pales, his eyes darting between the three of us.
There’s more.He’s holding back.Fenrir glares at him, holding his stare until Markus’s shoulders drop.
“The rumour was that Noa panicked.She thought her baby was going to die, so she’d tried to cut it out herself with a shard of broken mirror, and that was why there was so much blood in the bedroom and why no one was allowed to see her body; he had it privately cremated.”Markus looks at the floor as I digest this horrific fabrication of events.
“Bullshit.All of it,” Fenrir interjects.“Devall murdered Noa when he found out she had slept with someone else to get pregnant.He cut her face open, and she choked on her own blood.She died in this house, and her body was probably burned by Devall himself somewhere in the woods.Noa tried to warn us that Devall was here, and that was when she took over Hayami’s body.”
Everyone looks at me, and I know I have to speak.It’s my turn to explain.
“He’s right.She came into my body.She shot him.”
The room spins.I close my eyes, remembering the moment she flew at me, her face feral, her eyes blazing.I was so scared, but not of her.I was scared of what I might feel, and what she would show me.
Even though she was transparent, the figure of lucidness, she hit my body like a ton of bricks.And then it was like someone taking over the controls.I wasn’t myself anymore.My thoughts were not my own.They were hers.I felt it all.
The rage, the hatred, the burning desire to avenge my death and the death of my unborn child, to kill the man who had ruined my life and was about to do the same to his daughter.I knew I would never get this chance again.So, I took it.
Noatook it.She fired the gun.
Markus clicks his tongue and shakes his head.
“She isn’t lying,” Junko says.“I felt her presence the last time I was in this house.I thought it was something else, a legend from my homeland, but when I walked through that door and Barrett said her name, it all fell into place.It was Noa.She came into my body and tried to warn me of the man I’d married, of what he was capable of.”She glances at Markus, who still looks sceptical.“Don’t you remember the night you found me in the woods with a knife in my hand?”
“You were sleepwalking,” he begins to argue with her.
I interrupt, saying, “I don’t care whether you believe us, Markus.I get that this all sounds so fantastical that it can’t possibly be true, but it is.Itiswhat happened.”
Markus crosses his arms.“I don’t know what the hell I saw.I don’t even want to try and understand what happened here, because I don’t think my head will ever accept it.But I’ve worked with Mr Devall long enough to know that some things are not always easily explained.But my question is, what do we do with the dead body in the entranceway?And what the fuck are we going to tell everyone else?”
Fenrir straightens like a soldier standing to attention.“We tell them the cell service went down.You came here as backup when I reported that there had been an intruder on the grounds.We don’t name the man; we don’t affiliate him with any gang.We say he was a crazed stalker of Hayami’s and that he threatened her life.That’s why we brought her out here.He arrived at the house at the same time as Devall, and in the scuffle, he was shot.”
“That could work,” my mum says, nodding at Fenrir and then glancing at Markus, who doesn’t look convinced.
“It’ll work,” Fenrir confirms with a snap.“People will believe what we tell them to believe.”
“But what about the repercussions?What happens to the business?”Markus asks.
And for some reason, they both look to my mum.
She sits up and arches her back as if this is the first time anyone has noticed her since she married my father.
“Normally, it would go to his heir.”
She glances at me, and I close my eyes.That’s the last thing I want.I’m not a gang lord, a criminal, or a tyrant.I have no qualifications for the role, and my mother knows this.
“I think I speak for my daughter when I say she wants nothing to do with her father’s empire.So, it’ll be up to me to decide what happens from here on in.”
Markus stares at my mum, a hard stare that I’m sure she must feel under her skin.
“I’m not sure how that’ll work,” Markus begins, but my mum is ready, as if she’s been thinking about this for longer than the twenty minutes since I killed my father.
“That’s my concern and not for you to worry about.”She looks sharply at Markus, then softens a little.“Barrett’s death will send shock waves through the city.People will be stunned.And what better time for us to declare peace and an end to the bloodshed and the corruption?”
“What about the Castros?”Markus asks.
“The Castros will be happy that Barrett is dead.They’ll take it as a win, even if it wasn’t at their hands.Hopefully, once they realise we’re no longer a threat to them, they’ll leave us alone.But right now, they aren’t my main concern.My daughter is the priority.”
