Page 24 of Crossed By the Stars
“Matsuda-san,” I said, waving her to a chair. “I’m surprised to see you.”
She took a seat and looked back at my two employees in the doorway.
“I was hoping we could talk in private, Mori-san,” she said.
“Thanks, Ashton and Nyra. That will be all for now.”
Nyra shook her head in the negative, and Akari noticed.
“Your security is worried about me?” She seemed surprised. “Would they like me to leave my purse outside? Scan me for weapons?”
It was said with sarcasm, but before I could reply, Nyra responded, “Yes.”
Akari pulled an envelope from her purse and then handed the bag over to Nyra without question. She let Nyra scan her with a security wand like was used at the airports. My cheeks burned. It seemed over the top but also exactly the kind of safety net I felt in need of at the moment. Ashton was frowning. I knew I’d have to tell him something soon, but I had to tell Violet first.
When the door finally shut behind my employees, I turned to Akari, taking her in better than I had the day before. She was beautiful with long, black, shiny hair and dark-brown eyes rounder and fuller than mine. Her chin was squarer than my pointy one, and her skin was so pale you could almost see the veins in them. But she had a quiet grace you only saw in professional dancers. I tried to recall if she’d been a ballerina in her youth, but I had no real memories of Akari. Our circles had rarely crossed, and when they had, she’d always been outshone by her brother and her mother. She was more like her father in many ways. He ruled the Pacific operations forOtosanwith a strong but silent hand.
Akari sank into one of the brocade chairs, crossing her ankles and keeping her shoulders back. She sat perfectly straight in a blue suit that was expertly tailored but simple. No extra frills. No fancy buttons. Plain, as if she was trying to be invisible. Blending in instead of standing out.
She handed me the envelope, and I took it, sitting in the chair opposite her instead of the one behind my desk.
“It’s an invitation to thechakai,” she said, even though I’d already guessed.
“I’m sorry you felt obligated to provide one because of your mother,” I told her.
She assessed me from head to toe as if she’d never seen me before. I waited, unsure what she wanted or why she was there when she could have had the invitation sent by mail or courier.
“Hahainsisted, even when I told her you wouldn’t come,” she said quietly. It was as clear as it had been yesterday on the street that she didn’t want me there. I couldn’t blame her. She was only there to do her duty as a daughter.
“Thank you for bringing me an invitation.”
She still didn’t rise to leave, and I couldn’t understand what was making her stay. The silence became some sort of power struggle, one I didn’t care to play, so I broke it with a question. “Can I be honest?”
“It is always better, is it not?”
“I don’t understand why she would want me to come. Not after…” I trailed away, looking down. I couldn’t say it. I’d hated her brother with a violence that had sent my entire body shaking every time we’d been in the same room. He’d terrorized me, made me feel powerless, useless. Being forced to acknowledge him as my fiancé had almost tipped me over the edge, had almost cost me my life and my friends theirs.
She looked down, long lashes concealing her emotions, but I read the tightening of her fingers on the arms of the chair. “Hahais correct with one thing. It is up to the women to restore balance.”
Her voice was emotionless and her face expressionless. Her brother had been an expert at the same thing, presenting a calm that may or may not be felt.
I reached over and placed the invitation on the desk without opening it.
“I’ll consider it,” I told her, knowing I wouldn’t go. There was no way I was going to subject myself to my father’s world any more than I had to—especially not with death threats on my doorstep. I had no desire to bring balance to any of them.
When I said nothing else, she rose and started for the door. With her hand on the doorknob, she looked back. “I wonder…do you know about our parents? DoesAne-san?”
I frowned at the deferential reference to my mother. “What do you mean? Your father has worked for mine for decades.”
She shook her head ever so slightly. “I meanHahaandOyabun.”
My pulse quickened. She couldn’t mean that her mother and my father were having an affair, could she? It was a ridiculous thought. While I was almost certain my father hadn’t been faithful to my mother, I couldn’t imagine him entangling himself with hisshateigashira’swife. It would breed discontent and disloyalty.
Akari inclined her head. “I can see from your reaction that you did not know. I suppose I am the only one who does because I am aroundHahaso much.”
She left silently, the door barely making a clicking noise behind her.
My brain whirled with my father’s words of an uprising in the ranks and with the consequences of what Akari had implied. I went to the window, and I saw her exit the building. There was a dark sedan waiting for her at the curb, one that looked very much like the one my father had been in two nights before. From the driver’s seat, Kaida emerged with her short, bleached hair shimmering in the sunlight that was just peeking through the clouds. She opened the back door for Akari, who disappeared inside.
