So many things were done in this house...
I turned away.
...but that was the only thing done right.
Chapter Seven
If I thought putting an end to an inevitably nasty divorce and custody battle would end the tension in the Kim Manor, I was laughably mistaken.
A week passed since that day Micah, Rhodes, and Alex cornered me in the hall. The day that, despite all the evidence debunking their existence, I became a ghost.
The guys didn’t talk to me, they didn’t look at me, they didn’t even sneeze in my direction. The only three people in the house who had a kind word to say to me were Lily, Nurse Reynard, and Omma—the kindness from the last person on that list being the most shocking.
Maybe it was the meds, maybe it was the morphine, maybe it was her final days ticking down faster and quicker than she was ready for, but in all the years I’d known this woman, I’d never heard her laugh or joke this much in my life. Even though she spent pretty much every day stuck in another time—alternating between telling me to put my dolls away, or break up with my worthless tenth-grade boyfriend that I hadn’t seen in years—she still had a smile on her face for most of the day, and that smile was for me.
“Do you remember Mrs. Park? The one with the grandson she was constantly bragging about? Going on and on about how he was going to be a doctor saving lives, and not a silly little lawyer playing with briefs.” I divvied up the cards for me and Omma, laying them on her lap desk.
She dipped her chin in a slight nod, and just the strain from those slight muscle movements made her cringe.
“I saw her and said grandson in town yesterday morning, and guess who lost his medical license for selling his scripts, and is now living in Grandmammy’s basement growing and selling shitty weed?”
“You... don’t say?” she rasped. “But, shitty or not, I wouldn’t mind... a little of that weed right now.”
“Omma!” I cried, setting off another bout of her whispery, rattling laughs. “Very naughty, young lady, I’m surprised at you.”
“Excuse you...” She raised a shaky finger, tapping the card she wanted me to flip. “I lived many lives... before you two came along. By the way, Sarang... where is Soo Min?”
I stilled, seeing Reynard’s reflection in the lacquered headboard.
The nurse was humming to himself—sorting Omma’s pills into her caddy, and logging her meds into his chart.
“Nurse Agassi?”
“Hmm, yes?” He raised his head, then frowned. “Wait, Nurse Agassi? What’s with the formality? I told you you can call me Reynard.”
“Reynard,” I corrected. “And you can call me Sue, but would you mind giving us a minute in private?”
“No problem.” He left without an issue, shutting the door behind him.
I waited until his footsteps retreated down the hallway before responding. “Sue’s on a boat trip, Omma, and she’s loving it. She’s spending every day deep-sea fishing.”
“Fish?” She pulled a slight frown that smoothed away with her drooping eyes. “Soo Min hates... fish.”
“She’ll be back soon. Until then”—I laid my hand over hers—“I’m here.”
She smiled, her fingers slipping out from under mine to fall on the duvet. “Sweet girl. I... missed you.”
I let her drift off to sleep, only staying long enough to put away the cards and lap tray.
That was the first time she asked for Sue. I knew it was coming, but still the lie felt strange on my tongue. It felt stranger that it had taken me a whole week to tell it. Those drugs Reynard had her on were something magic, letting Omma live in all her happy, carefree, time-traveling memories awake and asleep.
I left Omma’s room and almost ran into Alex coming down the hall.
He sidestepped me and strode on without a glance in my direction.
I sighed. “Wouldn’t mind some of those happy, time-traveling pills right now. If I did, I’d go back to the last time I saw you happy,” I whispered after Alex. “Strangely enough, it was the last day I was truly happy too.”
Shaking my head, I put my morose thoughts aside long enough to head to Sue’s room, get changed, then slip through the drafty halls to the old servants’ back-door entrance.
