Page 24 of Science Project

“And I’m your son,” I growled, knowing that I was digging a deeper hole for myself, setting bigger expectations. “Your son who you should be proud of. After years of trying to get me to do it, after years of training me, you got your fucking wish. I killed a man.”

After standing, Mom headed for the front door, followed by Dad and the rest of her men. “But why, Akio? Why now? Why him?” She paused at the door, not looking back at me. “I don’t know yet, but I will find out.”

CHAPTER

FOURTEEN

NICOLE

At eight p.m., I parked in Akio’s driveway and turned off the car. I really didn’t want to be here just so I could get information out of him for my father, but Joe Santos wasn’t calling me back, and we did have a project to finish.

I peeked into the rearview mirror and dabbed some extra concealer over my bruises. Last time, he had literally sucked the concealer off my chest and thankfully hadn’t noticed the marks on me. But I wasn’t taking any chances.

Because … I couldn’t answer the questions he’d ask about them.

After finishing with concealer, I fished around in my purse for mascara, but came up empty-handed. I turned on the overhead light, tossing out the contents of my purse and cursing because I must’ve left it at school.

My lips curled into a frown, and I hoped that I didn’t look too bad. My eyes felt so bare without mascara, eye shadow, or eye liner. Stupid me had washed my makeup off after cheer practice, completely forgetting that I had to see Akio tonight.

Deciding that I couldn’t go back now, I exited the car and walked up the walkway to the front door, feeling so self-conscious. I didn’t even knock twice before Akio opened the door with a small smile on his face.

“I didn’t think you were coming.”

Besides the flash of the television screen in the next room lighting up the right half of his face, the other side was shaded by the darkness. Thank God Akio couldn’t see how terrible I looked tonight because there would be no way that I could seduce him or even get any information out of him like this.

After smiling at him, I kept my head down and walked into the other room, where To Your Eternity was playing on the TV. Akio went for the remote to turn off the anime, but I plopped myself down on the couch and grabbed the remote before he could.

“Leave it on,” I said. “It’s one of my favorites.”

But I would also rather use the light from the screen to work than him turning on the light.

“You’ve watched this one?” Akio asked with wide eyes.

“Looks like you have some catching up to do,” I teased. “You’re only on episode one.”

“What episode are you on?”

“I’ve finished it.” My lips curled into a smile. Memories flooded my mind—of when Hannah and I would watch anime every day, how she’d always turn it up loud while Mom and Dad fought so I didn’t have to listen to them, when she was still here to protect me, to take a punishment for me. God, I had been so selfish to let her go through all that alone. “I used to watch anime with my sister every morning.” Tears built in my eyes. “Before she died.”

Akio peered over at me. “What happened to her?”

I couldn’t look him in the eye. “Someone killed her,” I whispered.

But I would never let him know that it wasn’t just anyone. That it was my own father.

Not wanting to continue the conversation, I cleared my throat and looked back at the television. “Can you even see the screen without your glasses? Where are they anyway?”

Akio scratched the back of his head. “Oh, just trying out a new look. What do you think?”

“I like you with your glasses better,” I murmured, butterflies fluttering in my stomach at how adorable he looked with them on, always readjusting them when he was nervous around me. “They’re cute on you.”

Akio tilted his head away from me and bit back a smile. “Really?”

A small giggle escaped my throat, and I glanced away because I hadn’t meant for that to come out of my mouth. I hadn’t meant to admit that I thought he was one of the sweetest guys at Redwood Academy. “Maybe …”

When I looked back at him, he had his head angled toward me, and the screen was illuminating the left side of his face. His left eye almost looked …

I gently grasped his chin and tilted his face toward me, spotting a huge bump and purple bruise that he had been attempting to hide from me. My eyes widened. “Wh-what happened to you? Who did this?”

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