Fifty Words for Rain(113)

Nori looked at her in stunned silence. Her thoughts were turning like the heavy cogs of a very old clock. Then, finally, it clicked. “Absolutely not,” she said.

Yuko clucked her tongue, and it made a sticking noise. “Of course you will.”

“No.”

The ghost narrowed her eyes. “You were always such an obedient child.”

Nori felt her temples start to pound. “I am not a child anymore. And you do not command me.”

Yuko looked truly bewildered. Clearly, she had not been prepared for a fight.

“I’m offering you everything,” she pointed out, jabbing her finger in Nori’s direction. “More than you ever could have dared to hope for. You’ll never want for anything as long as you live. You’ll have everything that you need, always.”

Nori reared up like a viper about to strike. “I need nothing from you. It is you who needs something from me.”

“But—”

“I have my life,” she snapped. “Not that you ever bothered to ask. I have a man who loves me.”

She felt childish, insisting that someone loved her. But it was something her grandmother had never deemed her worthy of.

“A boy, you mean,” Yuko scoffed. “I know about the music teacher. I am embarrassed for you, since it is clear you don’t have the good sense to be embarrassed for yourself. I know everything, girl. Don’t think you escaped these eyes of mine. Not for a moment. Everywhere you went, my eyes were on you.”

Nori’s knees knocked together with rage, but she held her tongue. This had gone on long enough.

“My answer is no,” she said, with all the dignity she could muster. “It’s done.”

“I am offering you a destiny.”

“I don’t want it.”

Yuko sighed. “Then again, it was not meant to be yours, was it? It was meant for Akira-san. And now I must go to my grave, knowing what happened to him. Knowing I found out too late to stop it.”

Nori froze. The world around her ground to a screeching halt.

“What are you talking about?”

Yuko smiled, and it was full of smugness. “Oh, come now. You must have suspected.”

No. She had not.

“It was an accident,” Nori said, and her voice cracked. Her composure was gone, flown away in that instant. “You couldn’t have stopped it. It was an act of God.”

“Oh, my dear girl. Have you been paying any attention at all?”

The room went cold.

“You would never have hurt him,” Nori said defiantly, standing on the one thing she was certain of. “Never.”

Yuko’s eyes were hard. “It was not the intention. He was meant to be in Vienna. The spies assured us—”

Nori gripped hold of the bedpost to stop herself from collapsing. “Spies?”

“Yes, spies,” the old woman spit. “Don’t be a fool, girl. Half your kitchen was in my employ. The yard boy too. Did you really think we’d let you run around unattended? Children in charge of the nursery?”

Nori lost the power of speech. She could only stand and watch in horror as the threads of her world unraveled.

“He was meant to be gone, safely abroad,” her grandmother went on, in a voice devoid of feeling. “Don’t you understand, girl? It was all a trap, from the very start. Hiromoto was our man. It took next to nothing to buy him off. Don’t you think it odd that he would single you out for favor? For recognition? He was following orders. The household spies promised us Akira-san would be safely away. Hiromoto’s job was to wait for the perfect moment to get you alone. Don’t you see? And the driver too, of course. He owed us a fortune—more than he could ever pay. He was promised his debts would be cleared and his family would be unharmed and well kept. He was willing to die to carry out his duty. Ah, think, girl! Remember! It was no accident at all, but only made to look like one.”

She leaned forward, sweating and panting with the effort. Her voice was low and weak, but Nori knew that every single word was true.

“From the first, the only person supposed to be in that car was you.”

Nori doubled over.

It all made sense. The horrible truth grabbed hold of her heart, squeezing and squeezing until she could feel nothing but searing pain.

“You killed him,” she whispered.

“Don’t insult me,” Yuko snapped. “I would never do something so sloppy. It was your grandfather’s doing, all of it. I had no hand in it. I would’ve stopped it. I tried to stop it when I found out, but I was too late, and now I will go to hell with that black sin on my soul.”

She pointed a bony finger at Nori’s heart.

“You provoked him beyond all reason. He couldn’t bear to see Akira-san reach manhood still trapped underneath your bastard heel. He wanted to free him.”

“He killed him,” Nori sobbed. Her resolve was broken. Her heart was broken. Her mind was broken. “All of this. All of this for your hatred of me. And look what it has brought you. You have destroyed your own line, you have sealed your own fate. Mother, Akira. Me. You have burned it all to the ground.”

“But that is why you must take your place!” her grandmother cried. “So that there can be meaning. So that all of it will not have been for nothing!”