Okay, this was my chance. I’d tiptoe downstairs and sneak out through the back door, then around the left side of the house while the two Audis were do-si-doing on the right side.

I quietly slipped out of bed and grabbed my backpack.

But then, just as I began to head toward the door, a click sounded in the dark, right before the whole room flooded with light.

I looked toward the door and froze.

Victor. Victor was standing there.

I stared at him. And he stared at me, his shrewd gaze so obviously putting together that I was about to sneak out.

I braced, not sure what he would do. Threaten me for sure. Maybe even worse. He could not only keep me from seeing my mother but also make me submit to one of his punishments.

If he truly wanted to break me, that would be the perfect tactic.

The silence stretched on for what felt like centuries.

Then he raised his hands to sign, “You’ve already packed. Good. We leave for Texas in the morning.”

PART IV

Dawn’s Husband!

20

VICTOR

This was about punishment. That was what Victor told himself as he and Dawn climbed out of the car that had driven them from the airport to a non-descript house in Plano, Texas.

There was no other plausible explanation. The chance to expose the marriage Dawn had gone out of her way to keep secret had to be the reason. It was the only way to explain why he not only reversed his decision about her going to Texas but also paid for a private plane ride into a small airfield in nearby McKinney that morning.

They found her mother outside the house, gardening of all things. She was trimming back the flowering bushes below the house’s porch and didn’t appear to have heard them pull up.

Gyeong Kingston.

Victor had never actually seen her before. Back in Japan, Gyeong had simply been a character in Dawn’s many stories of family life. Back then, he’d known her as the woman who’d set Dawn’s strict bedtime and study schedule. Before their marriage, Gyeong had merely been a name on a list of people Victor could use as leverage against Dawn. And after he revealed that Dawn wasn’t attending med school, her mother had become a series of strident emails and texts…before eventually going quiet.

But as they walked up the sidewalk, she became more and more real to Victor.

Perhaps to Dawn, too. She’d been so determined to get here, yet her steps slowed as they approached Gyeong from behind. It appeared she was reluctant to alert her mother to their presence.

Most likely, Victor had something to do with that.

Dawn had been grateful for the ride—not so much for his announcement that he would be tagging along.