Page 10 of The Queen's Denial

I sigh and pull my covers around myself, feeling tired already over the conversation we’ve barely begun. “Lives in Japan with my mother. Parents are estranged from each other. Barely ever see them, which is fine because we decided a long time ago that I’d stay here with dad and mom would stay in Japan with Akihito. That’s his name, after my father, of course.” I raise an eyebrow at him, certain that he knows all this already, but I continue when he says nothing.

“I haven’t seen them since that picture was taken years ago for a publicity thing in Japan. Looks bad for my mom to live without my dad, so she kind of hides away with my brother, but it works just fine for my dad to live here and play the bachelor type, so that’s what we do.”

Andy gives me a side-long glance, as uncertain as he can ever really look, and I have the urge to roll my eyes yet again. I know what he’s thinking; it’s the same thing everyone else thinks about me when they hear this story. He feels bad for me because I never get to see my mom. He thinks I’m sad about it or something. But I truly don’t know her, so how can I care? She and my father parted ways a long time ago when she took my brother to Japan to establish a presence there.

My father still goes back and forth once in a while and speaks to her here and there, but they are like platonic friends at best. To me, she’s like a nice, if somewhat terse, acquaintance. I get generic birthday cards with luxury gift bags for my birthday each year. The last time I saw her, she smiled curtly, positioned me for our family picture as if she were one of the camera crew, and then told me to smile. We sat at a long table and barely spoke, and the one time I tried to have a conversation with her, she excused herself so that she could grab the ridiculously expensive, albeit delicious, black watermelon slices.

“You’re telling me they just… hide away? And they’re fine with that?”

I shrug. “I guess. I don’t really know anything about them.”

He studies the picture again. “He’s a lot older than you. I’m just surprised. In this business…”

I sigh. “It’s pretty obvious that I’m taking over after my father. From what I know, my brother has been in some kind of trouble or something, so I’m the next — and only — one in line. Lucky me.”

I say this like I’m not lucky, but I know I am. I love the fact that I’ll be the Yakuza queen one day. I plan to wear my favorite Halloween costume ever — a red and gold Medusa dress from a few years ago — to greet the masses the day after my arranged wedding, whenever it comes. I might have to lose the snake crown, though.

Andy’s eyebrows shoot up at my candor. “I guess I kind of knew that, but I thought your brother must be banished or in prison or something. I’m just surprised, Chi. He wants nothing to do with the business?”

I shrug again. “That’s what Papa says. I’ve spoken to him even less than I’ve spoken to my mom. And I can only remember about eight sentences that I’ve ever said to her, so… I don’t know; maybe I’ve said some ‘Hi, brother’s’ a few times in my life. He gave us a few sentences of description about his sparring room in Japan. That’s about it.”

Andy looks like he can’t possibly begin to understand how this works, and that’s just fine. I have always found traditional American families uncomfortably open and talkative with one another.

I remember watching TV one day when I was a teenager, and the young mother on the sitcom told her daughter that she was her best friend. My father gave a rare chuckle, and I knew why without even having to ask, because that chuckle was always reserved for things he found completely ridiculous. And really, I thought it was, too.

There is a critical line between generations in my family. We treat our parents with distant but unquestioning respect, and our parents in turn teach us and mold us into who we need to be to survive in this world. This relationship simply doesn’t work if we are constantly cuddling on the couch for movie nights and gossip. That stuff is reserved for friends and younger family members.

“So they’re just completely removed from everything here?” Andy asks, jolting me out of my thoughts.

I sigh into my covers and close my eyes, just about finished with this conversation and ready for him to stop talking. “My dad’s most trusted bodyguard lives in Japan. I think you know Daiki. He comes back and forth a bit, but he’s mostly there. He stays with them. I mean, we don’t hate them or anything.” I let out a huge yawn, but Andy continues to stand in pensive silence, so I continue when I’m done. “And like I said, it works for both of us. They live their little life there, and we live our big one here. It’s just how it’s always been.”

“Yeah, but they’re still just… not a part of any of this? No one even questions it? How does your dad keep his affairs out of the press?” He’s come to my Star Trek action figures now and is again preoccupied, which is likely why he asks the question so bluntly. He realizes what it sounded like a second after he says it and shoots me another side-long glance, but I don’t really mind bluntness. It’s my favorite mode of communication.

I raise an eyebrow. “I’m sure by ‘affairs’ you mean his personal business. My dad keeps his affairs from me, and we’ve lived together my entire life.” I decide to give him what he was obviously getting at. “Also, I’ve never seen him with another woman.”

Andy’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Damn. He can’t be that good at hiding it.” His eyes widen in thought. “You’re 24, right? It makes so much sense now.”

My nose scrunches up in thought. “What does?”

His mouth twitches, and I know he’s fucking with me before he even speaks. “Well, anyone would have a stick up their ass if they hadn’t had sex in over 24 years.”

I pick up the book I’ve been trying to read for the past two nights off my side table and throw it at him, but he catches it easily, and his gaze sweeps over the cover. “Where do you think I can buy a loincloth like this guy has? I’ve been looking around, but this one has great coverage while maintaining that shaggy-chic appearance.”

“Okay, maybe I should have let you leave before,” I mumble, throwing my covers over my head. “You can go now.”

He peels the covers off my face and gazes down at me. His smile has become charming, and I hate the way it melts a tiny fraction of my frozen heart. “I think I’ll stay for a while.”

Chapter 5

Chi

He’s gone the next day when I wake up. I look around the grounds for him and realize he’s either really busy today or he’s hiding from me. I’m getting sick of that shit. I know I gave him a hard time at the beginning — acted like the coy, evasive girl-next-door — but I’ve never actually had a guy do the hot and cold thing back at me before, and I don’t fucking like it.

But at least two can play this game, and I’m fantastic at it. Around lunchtime, I call up Mara and decide to break out of this place. If Andy really wanted me to take it easy, he’d make sure he was around to ensure I do, instead of using his guards to do it.

I pick her up in my Corvette, and we tell the guards that not only won’t Cas mind a woman recovering from a mild concussion driving around his seriously injured girlfriend, but their bosses will actually be angry about them trying to keep us here. Mara even reminds one of them of Cas’s “special punishment” if they touch her, and I don’t think I want to know what he does to them when they lay a finger on her.

We go for cheesy tots. I know they are one of Mara’s favorites because I called her out for not eating any of the food at a party I threw once but then caught her stealing a handful of potato puffs from one of the hot plates and shoveling them into her mouth in a dark corner. I order and pay before she can protest, and I smile as she licks the cheesy goodness off her fingers.

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