“He would have been very proud of you,” a gruff and heavily accented voice said behind her.
Gia’s head jerked up, wiping away her tears before she turned around to face her father.
“We are very proud of you,” her mother chimed in from beside him.
The dam she had put together with bits and pieces of her fractured heart broke. When her father moved to wrap his arms around her, her shoulders shook with sobs. Her arms instinctively went around his waist, even though she couldn’t remember her parents ever hugging her.
Arms enveloped her, closing in from every side—her mother at her back, her sister to her side, the girls at her legs, and her brother watching from the corner.
“We love you, Gia Huy.” Minh’s voice cracked, thick with tears.
When her sobs subsided, her breathing evened out, and they broke apart. Th?y Mai led the way into the living room, where she had started setting up for “family movie time.” Minh followed behind Tuy?t Mai, then her mother.
Standing before her, arms at his sides, her father delivered a message that had been on his mind. Frozen in place, she was grasping his words and their meaning when a small hand took hers, pulling her to the living room.
Even as the familiar characters came on screen, singing about their life without their parents, her thoughts kept going back to what her father had just told her.
Jake has some explaining to do.
Thirty-Two
JAKE
Kenji
Meet me at RR.
Jake sat in his car, parked in the Liens’ driveway, the phone weighing heavily in his hand. Putting the car in reverse, Jake pointed the car in the opposite direction from his house—to Raven Rock.
His plans to swing by the office for his laptop and then tackle emails were ruined. He hadn’t been able to focus on work while keeping a close eye on Gia. Until now, he hadn’t been willing to leave her side.
The winding roads and late fall scenery, usually so calming, failed to soothe him this time.
Whatever Kenji wanted to talk about, it couldn’t be good. And with Alex still in town, more trouble was definitely heading his way.
When will we catch a break?
Haven’t we been through enough?
He passed the Willowbrook Inn, spotting Silas’s truck in the parking lot. The lights were on inside. It looked like the inn was coming together nicely for its grand reopening this winter. Jakemade a mental note to check in with Diem and see if there was anything he could help with, like sponsoring the ribbon-cutting.
The parking lot loomed ahead, right around the bend. A pit formed in his stomach. There were no other vehicles he could see, but that didn’t mean he was alone. As he exited the vehicle, the hair on the back of his neck prickled with awareness.
He was definitely not alone.
Friend or foe?
Whoever it was didn’t want to be seen yet.
The answer finally came when he hiked up the trail leading to Raven Rock. As he was about to step out into the clearing, the sound of leaves rustling behind him stopped him in his tracks. Jake whirled around and saw an unexpected face smiling manically at him.
“Hiro.”
“What’s up, Jake?”
He looked around, expecting Kenji to step out from behind Hiro. “Uh… where’s Kenji?”
“I’m right here,” a voice sounded from behind him.
