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Back VICTOR Save as PDF
Chapters (44)
  1. Cover
  2. PART I
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. PART II
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. PART III
  17. 13
  18. 14
  19. 15
  20. 16
  21. 17
  22. 18
  23. 19
  24. PART IV
  25. 20
  26. 21
  27. 22
  28. 23
  29. 24
  30. 25
  31. PART V
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. PART VI
  39. 32
  40. 33
  41. 34
  42. 35
  43. ALSO BY THEODORA TAYLOR
  44. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

As it turned out, Victor was right. The news came down a few hours later. Mom made it through surgery. They still had to send some tissue samples in for further testing, and she’d need to do some chemo to be sure. But Dr. Kim was “fairly confident” that he had gotten it all.

Cue more tears when my mother woke up, and we got to tell her the news.

“You’re magic,” she insisted to Victor. “The next time I need luck, I’m going to fly to you in Rhode Island and rub the top of your head!”

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Victor didn’t live in Rhode Island, and I guess Victor didn’t either. He didn’t correct her.

That wasn’t the last surprise he had in store for us.

Someone from the Audiology appeared with a knock on the door a couple of hours after mom woke up. “Is now a good time for your consultation?”

“What consultation?” Mom and I both asked at the same time.

That was how we found out that Victor had arranged for her to be fitted with a waterproof processing unit for her implant.

It had taken months of appointments to get my mother and brother outfitted with their first implants back in the aughts. But my mom’s was done by the time the nurses came through with mom’s first post-surgery meal.

Victor. This was all Victor.

My entire chest tightened with confusion as I stared at him. When did my monster morph into a prince?

And why.

23

VICTOR

“You’re the Chinese boy, aren’t you?”

Victor jolted in his seat when Gyeong asked him this question. Her daughter had just gone downstairs to the cafeteria to get food for them. It would be the first meal they’d eaten all day. Dawn had been too nervous to consume anything while her mother was in surgery.

Gyeong had lain down and closed her eyes after she finished eating, and he had thought she might be asleep. But no. Victor wondered if she’d been waiting all these hours for a moment alone with him so that she could ask him this question.

She mistook his hesitation to answer for confusion.

“The Chinese boy,” she reiterated. “The one Dawn was secretly dating in high school?”

How much did Gyeong know about her husband’s job? He had assumed wrong once before with Dawn. Nonetheless, he answered, “Yes, I’m the Chinese boy.”