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I look down at my hands. I don’t want to see anyone’s faces, not even Atom’s. I lived through it, just like everything else, but I remember the fear that shattered me every moment I waited for someone to come save me. Time moved differently when I was that age. Each minute felt like a lifetime of being forgotten. It’s not something a child overlooks as quickly as people want to believe.

“My father took her home, and while my brothers and sister made friends with her, my father came here. Spoke to you, Takahashi-san, and realized who she was. Not only to the family, but to you specifically.”

“What’s this?” Uncle’s fists are clenched in his lap as he demands answers from my grandfather.

“My father warned you then that if anything happened to her again, he would take her away from you, didn’t he?”

My eyes shoot up to look at Vinny, only to see him staring at Grandfather. Any playfulness from before is gone, with hard lines and a simmering rage under his skin shining through.

I look at Grandfather, but he still says nothing.

“Then my father died. And with it, your debt to him. Or so you thought.” Vinny looks at me, his eyes filled with regret. “I’m sorry.”

I shake my head, not understanding.

“When my father died, it took me some time to gain full control of everything. Even longer to go through all his old journals and read about each event he was part of. If I had known sooner, I would have paid right away.”

“Paid?” I say, then gasp for air. “You!”

He nods, confirming my realization.

“What ‘you’? What ‘paid’? Someone tell me what’s going on,” Atom says, looking from me to Vinny and back again as though he’s watching a tennis match.

“He… he….” I can’t say it.

“I paid her ransom the second time.” Vinny speaks clearly, and a tear I didn’t even know was on the cusp of falling slides down my cheek. “My father and Takahashi-san had a deal that Natalie was to remain safe at all times, or else he would take over a part of the family business. I didn’t know of this till I read about it after my father died. Once I did, I looked into who Takahashi was and found out about the second kidnapping. I immediately made the arrangements for her release, had my brother Danny’s team make an example of those involved, and took a chunk of the family business. Seattle is a lovely territory.”

“You said it was taken by another Yakuza family. You lied.” Uncle stands and stabs a finger at Grandfather, who finally turns in his chair.

“We did not need Seattle.”

“Need? What do you know of need? You sit around all day pushing paper and signing checks. You don’t know what the family needs. When you’re gone, I will take back our areas that you have given away.” Uncle spits on the ground and turns to leave, the other men following.

“I wasn’t done.” Vinny halts them with one simple sentence.

Uncle just breathes and nods for him to continue with an aggressive chin lift.

“The reason my father made this deal with your boss was that he’d found out his secret.”

“What secret is that?”

Vinny glances my way, then looks at Uncle once more.

“Natalie is a direct descendant of Takahashi-san. The only living relative, and by family decree stated in his father’s will and testament, only direct blood-related family can take over. Which means Natalie is now your boss and the head of the Takahashi family in the Yakuza.”

All three Japanese men who were standing start shouting in rapid Japanese with pointed fingers and waving arms.

“I don’t think I would be in charge of it,” I say as I lean over Atom just a little to look at Vinny, who only shrugs.

“Your grandfather controls more than just local companies. He also has his hands in companies tied to the Yakuza in Japan and Hawaii. He has roughly 51 percent of the shares, if we want to look at it that way. He controls the money, and as we all know, the person who controls the money controls everything.”

“Silence!” Grandfather yells, and everyone stops speaking. Vinny smirks, I notice, but I’m too stunned by yet another revelation.

Will it ever end?

A world in which I know something before everyone else seems like a dream world. Far-fetched, especially these days.

Good thing I’m used to trauma; otherwise, I’d be in the corner crying from all the things I’ve been told lately.