Unlike the muggy heat of the Caribbean, we’d sailed overnight and entered the slightly crisper air of America. New York glittered on the horizon with the Statue of Liberty barring entry to the harbour to anyone who didn’t deserve passage.
I didn’t have much time before I had to dress and prepare for the day. I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I’d do it a hundred times over if it made it easier for Elder.
Keeping my thoughts on cellos and music instead of what today entailed, I scurried along the polished deck, smiling at staff and waving at Jolfer in the bridge. I found who I was looking for as I rounded the stern and skipped to a stop. “Selix.”
He looked up from where he wrote in a manifest, ticking off some maintenance check. The Phantom was a living, breathing thing, and I’d come to respect the toil and time it took to ensure her rigging, instruments, and every-day upkeep was impeccable.
Lowering his clipboard, he scanned my hastily tied robe, arching his eyebrow. “You’re up early this morning.”
I blushed a little as the neckline gaped. I’d become used to clothes, and no longer hated them, but I still wasn’t as modest as I probably should be. Skin was skin. But I clutched the robe tighter, re-cinching the belt. “I was wondering if you could help me with something.”
“Help? With what?” He cocked his head. “Shouldn’t you be asking Elder?”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s for him, and I want it to be a surprise.”
Selix stilled, looking over my head toward Elder’s quarters. His loyalty sometimes meant he didn’t sway from the status quo.
I rushed, “I know his cello is gone. And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss his music.”
“What’s that got to do with me?” He crossed his arms, the clipboard slotting against his chest.
“I want to replace it.” I brushed back whipping hair from the ocean breeze. “I have money given to me by my mother. I received notification last week that the account was available and in my name. I-I want my first purchase to be for Elder.” I shrugged. “After everything he’s given me...it’s nothing in comparison. But I want to do something nice. Something that he wouldn’t expect.”
“So you want to buy him a cello?”
“I do.”
“It’s not a simple matter, Pim. Things like that are personal. He’d want to test them.”
“But I want it to be a surprise.”
Selix sighed. “You know what today is, right?”
I nodded. “Yes. That’s why I want to do this...so at least he has something nice when we get back home. Just in case...”
He rubbed his face. “Yeah, okay.” He shot me a smile. “You’re annoying, but you treat him well. I like that.”
I blushed again. “So...you’ll do it?” I had no idea how much cellos cost or where he’d have to travel to get one. I hadn’t exactly been in the market for one before, but I trusted Selix to achieve the impossible.
“I’ll do it.” He placed the clipboard on a giant spool of rope “I’ll go now so I’m back for when you guys are ready to leave.” He came closer. “What’s your budget? Those things aren’t cheap.”
I stood taller. I wanted to say he could have every penny in the account, but that would be unfair to my mother. That money was essentially to make her feel better. For her to know I would never again be trapped by anyone. But it would also be hers when she was released. And no way in hell would I blow through it like some ungrateful brat. “Buy two of the best ones you can find.”
“Two?” His eyebrow quirked. “Why two?”
I moved away, aware time was short and Elder would be waking any second. “So he can choose which he prefers, of course.”
“You’re as crazy as he is.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He chuckled, brushing past me. “I’ll send the bill to you if I find something decent.”
“You’re the best.” I blew him a kiss as he headed off to arrange a speed boat or submarine or whatever method of transportation he needed to race ahead of us, dock, and shop before Elder and I were ready for today’s appointment.
Today wouldn’t be fun.
His mother’s forgiveness wouldn’t be as easy as buying a cello, but at least if everything went to crap, I’d be able to give him a tiny piece of something he’d lost.
Then it was up to other people to give the rest.
I just had to hope that one day, they would.
* * * * *
I swear time wasn’t uniform.
I was almost positive an allotment of minutes could change, depending on how enjoyable or unwanted a situation was.
Years as a slave...an eternity.
Months at sea...a single second.
And now, as Elder clutched my hand while we stood on the stoop of a nondescript, cookie-cutter house in Brooklyn, I swore time had systematically sped up to deliver us to this moment, then slowed to decades now we were here.
I didn’t speak—it wasn’t my place.
My place was holding his hand and supporting him.
Selix slouched with his arms crossed behind us, guarding the black car. He’d given me a nod when we’d docked as he returned from my errand.
He’d bought what I’d asked—not that I’d seen them—and, hopefully, Elder would appreciate my gifts rather than hate them.
“Christ, why is this so hard?” Elder muttered under his breath as he reached up and knocked on the black-painted front door.
I squeezed his fingers, staying silent. His question didn’t need an answer.
He knew.
This was hard because his family had shunned him for years, and he was a sucker for punishment. Any other person would’ve walked away by now. Anyone else wouldn’t have put up with the cold shoulder for so long.
But Elder...he never stopped blaming himself and living in their disgust. This was his past, and it had so many unfinished threads.
Footsteps sounded inside the dwelling, responding to his knock.
I froze as Elder’s fingers vised around mine.
The front door swung open.
A man I didn’t recognise blinked, glanced at me and Elder, then scrunched his nose in confusion. “Can I help—” He did a double take, his forehead wrinkling as shock took hold. “Holy hell. Mik? Is that really you?”
Elder swallowed, jutting his hand out to shake. “Hello, Uncle Raymond. Nice to see you again.”
Instead of taking his hand and accepting Elder’s hello, he pushed forward, forcing us back off his stoop and closing the door behind him with a worried glance inside. “What are you doing here? You know she doesn’t want to see you.”
Elder sighed painfully. “I know, but I have news. I need to tell her in person.”
Raymond rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not so sure about—”
The door swung open behind him. “Ray, what the hell are you doing lurking— ”
Elder sucked in a breath, his full attention locked on his mother. “Okaasan.”
“No.” She growled, moving to slam the door. “Go away.”
Unlike before in Monte Carlo when Elder stood by and let his mother dictate his replies and stayed subservient to her pain, he slapped a palm against the door, keeping it open. “They’re dead.”
His eyes blazed, not wasting breath on apologies or requests for her to listen.
His mother turned white, her hand still on the door, flimsy and loose. “What?”
“The Chinmoku who killed Kade and Otōsan. They’re dead. Finally.”
His mother stumbled backward, landing in a cane chair with shoes neatly placed on a rack beside it. “You killed them?” Her tone was accusing and grateful all at the same time.
Elder moved into the foyer and fell to one knee in front of her. He didn’t dare touch her, but he murmured, “I swore to you that I’d avenge them. It took longer than I hoped, but it’s done. You’re safe now, and I’ll respect your decision not to see
me again but I had to let you know I kept my promise even if I was the reason they’re dead in the first place.”
His mother stilled, her eyes filling with tears.
Elder shifted closer, bowing his head and whispering things in Japanese.
I wasn’t privy to what he said, but his mother’s face shattered from hatred to sorrow. She bent over, wrapping her arms around her waist as tears fell swift and fat, plopping onto the dark red dress she wore with white cranes on the front panels. Immaculately dressed with greying black hair tied into a bun—a woman coming apart before her son.
Her tears looked healing as well as agonising, but even in the depth of her grief, she didn’t reach for Elder, didn’t embrace him, didn’t apologise in turn for all the harsh cruelty she’d thrown in his face throughout the years.
But Elder didn’t need any of that.
Whispering a little longer in his native tongue, he stood and pressed a kiss against her hair then backed away. Crossing the threshold, he jumped as Raymond, with equally greying hair and smart corduroys, rested his hand on Elder’s shoulder. “Thank you.”
Elder gritted his teeth. “I understand she’ll never forgive me, but at least, our family is safe now. I had to tell you in person. I’m sorry for the years of uncertainty and the pain I brought upon us.”
Raymond shook his head. “Time is a healer, Miki-san. You were young. We all make mistakes. It’s not the mistakes that should be held against us or define who we are but how we deal with them.” Dropping his hand, he smiled. “You went above and beyond to repair what was broken. Your mother might not be able to move past her grief right now, but eventually, she’ll learn to see that you are her only remaining son and you fought for her safety every day of your life. She does love you. Probably too much and that’s why she has kept her distance.”
Elder nodded, unconvinced. “Regardless, I can accept her need never to see me again now I know she’s safe.” He bowed. “Goodbye, Ojisan. Thank you for giving her the family I stole from her.”
Elder took my hand and pulled me with him away from the house. I didn’t ask questions or pause to wait if his mother only needed time to cry before running out with arms outstretched and love scripted on her heart.
We reached the gate, trading quaint garden path for street curb. I looked back, expecting to see the front door closed and no grieving widower watching her son disappear.
Instead, I gasped as Elder’s mother clutched the frame with a hand balled over her heart. She never took her eyes off Elder and he froze to the spot as he met her gaze.
They stared for an eternity.
They stared for a lifetime.
And then, finally, after so much bitterness and heartbreak, she nodded.
A single nod, a simple bow. A motion that spoke of heaviness and pain and years of bottling up emotional tragedy.
A thank you. An apology. An acknowledgment that she no longer needed to live with ghosts.
Elder nodded back.
And then we left as if that soul-tearing moment hadn’t been years of struggle to reach. As if there was nothing to celebrate now the ice had cracked and a thaw had finally begun.
It’d happened so fast.
We’d sailed all this way for a ten-minute visit.
I wanted to do something to encourage love to sprout and laughter to fall, but I didn’t know how. This wasn’t my place, and I didn’t want to make it worse by interfering.
Elder seemed satisfied with what his mother had granted.
I had to be, too.
As we climbed into the car and Selix jumped into the driver’s seat, I snuggled close to Elder who hadn’t relaxed at all.
He sat stiff and poised as if shell-shocked that his mother had finally shown a different side to her cruelty. Disbelieving it had truly happened.
Wrapping my arms around his middle, I pressed a kiss to his throat. “I know she loves you.”
My voice broke his spell.
Gathering me close, he returned my kiss, placing a delicate one on my hair just as he’d done for his mother. “Thanks to you, Pim, I no longer need her forgiveness to be happy. We’ve spent so long apart now that I can live the rest of my life without her in it as long as you are with me. At least I can die knowing she’s safe and I’ve done my best to fix what I broke.”
Family were fragile creatures, and I didn’t know if his mother would reach out again or be satisfied with this ending.
All I could do was be his new family for as long as he wanted me.
* * * * *
We didn’t return to the Phantom that night, or the next, or the next.
We spent a week exploring New York, eating in a variety of restaurants, staying in different hotels to sample all styles of architecture and lifestyle in the city.
The first two days exploring, Elder was quiet, his mind still on his mother. I’d dreamed of a happier reunion—of her leaping into her oldest son’s arms and promising never to be distant again. I still flinched in hope whenever Elder’s phone rang—hoping it was a belated apologises or invitations to talk and share.
But no call came, and we continued living as two. Well, three technically.
Selix was always by our sides, exploring and delivering sarcastic quips on locals and tourists alike.
The week flew by and New York showed us her best, but as much as I loved the bustling, vibrant metropolis, I was ready for the rock and sway of the ocean.
On our second to last night in the city, we went to dinner in an exclusive club reserved for Wall Street officials.
Elder was invited by a client who’d ordered a yacht earlier last year and wanted to introduce him to some cashed up friends who wished to order something similar.
Just like with the meeting with the prince in Morocco, I listened proudly beside Elder as he took control of the meeting with his effortless charism and skill, scribbling amendments on blueprints before scanning them back to his workers at the warehouse. Unlike Morocco, this time I talked if a question was asked. This time, I was confident to converse with men in four-thousand-dollar suits and wives in fifty-thousand-dollar diamonds.
I was no longer afraid of this world—they were just people, and I was with Elder. And he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me.
His new clients were courteous and kind and ensured I was included in conversation while Elder was asked about delivery time-frames, budgets, and recommendations on what he believed would best suit their needs.
Elder might’ve stolen a colossal amount of wealth, but he’d made his own through hard work, great vision, and determination.
By the time desserts were finished and after-dinner coffees sipped, Elder had secured three new commissions with a price tag of a hundred million dollars each.
As we left the restaurant, he slapped Selix on the back. “It’s official, Selix. A few more instalments to my debt and all of this is ours.”
“Yours, not ours,” Selix immediately responded.
Elder chuckled, stalking forward to open the car door for me. “Ours. I’ve already had the necessary paperwork drawn up. The moment that final instalment is paid, I’m signing over fifty percent of my company to you.”
Selix slammed to a stop. “Is this your way of telling me to fuck off? That you don’t want me sailing with you anymore?” His eyes flickered to mine, mirroring my uncertainty.
Elder laughed again. “Hell no, you’re family as much as Pim is. I never want you to leave, but I also don’t want you to keep up this employee act.” Elder waved at the car. “I can drive myself, you know. I have staff capable.”
Selix huffed. “You know why I do what I do, Prest.” Pain shadowed his features, sending messages and stories that I didn’t understand. All I knew was Selix had suffered heartbreak in his past, and perhaps looking after Elder was his way of soothing those wounds.
“I know, and you can continue doing so if you wish.” Elder lowered his voice. “But the company wouldn’t exist without you. I wouldn’t exist without you. It’
s time you had your own piece of what we created together.”
“We’ll see about that.” Selix huffed again and slid into the driver’s seat. “Let’s go home.”
“On second thought.” Grabbing my hand, Elder pulled me from the car then laughed at his old friend. “We’ll take a walk in Central Park before we leave. Consider this your night off, Selix. Go be reckless.”
Before Selix could argue, Elder slammed the door and strode off with me in his grip.
I trotted beside him, looking back as Selix gripped the steering wheel looking as if he’d chase after us.
“Was that wise?” I asked, wincing as Selix flipped us the bird as we crossed the road to the park.
Elder chuckled. “It’s time he learns.”
The farther we moved away from streetlights and Selix, the more nerves filled me at walking on our own. After being hunted by the Chinmoku and being kidnapped, my wariness wasn’t exactly on the lowest setting.
Considering Elder had come to New York to find closure with his mother, the week here had been good for him. He’d shared tales of his life living on the streets. He’d pointed out stores where he pilfered a hot dog after not eating for two days. He regaled me with stories of snatching wallets from prams as new mothers strolled past.
He wasn’t proud, but he was honest, and New York was more than just a city to visit but a ghost town of past choices.
Stepping into the night-shrouded park, I tensed even as pretty path lights shooed away the darkness and the occasional dog walker or jogger made it a welcoming place.
Elder noticed my nervousness, raising my hand to kiss my knuckles. “Don’t worry, Pim. I’ll take care of you.”
“It’s not just that,” I whispered. “It’s just...it’s hard to believe it’s all over.”
“I know. I’m struggling to believe it, too.” He looked over his shoulder. “Even now, I feel like we’re being watched even though I know it’s just paranoia.”
I copied him, glancing into the shadows and the manicured paths and hedges. My skin prickled as if eyes were on us.
Someone is watching.
A twig snapped, sending me closer to Elder’s comforting bulk. “Are you sure we’re safe?”