Page 102 of Roberto

Even in my drunken state, I was lucid enough not to leave any incriminating details.

“I don’t know what’s happened in your past, or bad experiences you had with… those kinds of people… but Ipromiseyou, it’s not like that with me. My family – we’re trying to do something different. That’s why I’m here in Hong Kong, so we don’t have to do our old business anymore. But even then, my brother changed everything when he took over the company. We’retrying,Mei-ling. I’m not like whoever hurt you in the past. I promise. Please, just call me… we can work this out if you’ll just call me.”

I reluctantly hung up the phone.

Then I drank some more and waited.

She never called back.

43

Idon’t remember a lot from that first night. I blacked out at some point, so I only had fuzzy memories about what happened.

I do remember becoming enraged and throwing a bottle at the wall.

I found confirmation the next morning: shards of glass littering the floor and the stink of scotch.

Goodscotch, yes – but the smell still filled the room.

I’d also screamed a lot. I deducedthatas soon as I woke up, because my vocal cords felt like they’d been shredded.

As I sat there on the edge of my bed, still drunk and dressed in my clothes from the day before, I stared at my cell phone in despair.

Mei-ling hadn’t texted or called.

And I felt a horrible certainty that she never would.

I was helpless…

Powerless…

Heartbroken.

But unlike the previous night, when I had been consumed by impotent rage, I knew I had to go about things differently.

I had to take backcontrol.

It’s what I did in every situation.

I have an analytical mind. When presented with a challenge, I simply reviewed potential courses of action until I found a viable solution.

Over the next few minutes, I came up with a plan.

In retrospect, it probably wasn’t agoodplan.

But I was still drunk…

And helpless…

And heartbroken.

Not to mention obsessed.

And a man who’s both heartbroken and obsessed isn’t the clearest of thinkers.

In fact…

He’s downright dangerous.

---