Tokyo Ever After: A Novel (Tokyo Ever After #1)(78)

Glory

Plot twist!

Noora

If they didn’t do it, who did?

I think it over. The articles cited a palace insider. I’d naturally assumed it was the Shining Twins. But it could have been someone else in the family.… I flinch at the thought of a certain person. The only other person who had such unfettered access to me. It’s as if I’ve been punched in the gut.



* * *



Twenty minutes later, I’m at my Auntie and Uncle’s house. I circle around and, lo and behold, Yoshi is in the front yard sunning himself, ridiculous drink with an umbrella on a nearby table.

“Stay here,” I tell my guard. “You’re not going to want to see this.” Reina is also on hand. I give her a jerky wave. As I approach, Yoshi smiles. I see through it.

“I heard you were back. Come, sit. Have a drink.” He gestures to the chair beside him. His chest is covered in some type of oil and completely hairless.

“No, thanks. It’s not even noon.” At my harsh voice, his smile fades.

“You’re in a mood,” he says.

“Why’d you do it?” I ask, hands balling into fists.

“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.” He settles back on the lounger, tipping his chin to the sun.

“Why did you sell those photos to the tabloids?” I was supposed to be safe with him.

“Oh. That,” he says softly. A long time passes. The sun heats my head. The air smells of pine and suntan oil. “Why does anybody do anything? Money.” He shrugs. “I needed income besides that provided by the imperial family. Do you know that, as a prince, I really don’t have any marketable skills?”

I release a long breath. It helps that he doesn’t deny it. That I won’t have to strangle the truth out of him. “I thought you were my friend.” The hurt is evident in my slouching shoulders, in my wavering voice, in my watering eyes.

Yoshi sits up, takes off his sunglasses. He hangs his head. “I am your friend. Or at least, I was your friend. I didn’t plan to like you as much as I did. I wish things were different. But…” He shakes his head. “You don’t know what it’s like growing up here. What a burden it is—someone always telling you what to do, where to go. It’s no life at all.” He slips on the sunglasses again, shutting me out. Polished, carefree Yoshi is back. It’s a neat trick, this mask he wears. I thought it was a cover for a soft inside. But now I see. He’s just a sad, lost boy who will do anything to get what he wants. “Besides, I did you a favor. You said you wanted to go home.”

My stomach turns with nausea. Absolutely sick. He hurt me. He hurt Akio. Lives were ruined in his quest for a payday. So he could afford—what, an apartment? A private chef? “That was my decision to make.”

“Izumi.” He tsks. “What’s done is done. My valet is packing as we speak. I’ll be moving out as soon as my new apartment can be cleaned and furnished.” His eyebrows draw in. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry. If the circumstances had been different…”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, too.” It’s for different reasons. I’m sorry I trusted him. I’m sorry he’s such a spoiled brat. I start to walk away. I’m not letting him off the hook. I’m letting myself off the hook. He’s the one who has to live with himself. My conscience is clear. I don’t really want to be anywhere near him right now. Only … A question bubbles up. “The letter. Did you deliver it?”

I know the answer before he says anything. Yoshi shakes his head once. “But I didn’t sell it to the tabloids either. I could’ve gotten a lot for it. You want it back?”

I swallow, feeling the empty space in my heart where I kept Yoshi. “Throw it away,” I say. Delivered or undelivered, it doesn’t matter. What would have changed if Akio had gotten my letter? Nothing. He lost his job, his legacy, and the pride of his family. I hurt him. Badly. I still have everything, and he has nothing.

Yoshi’s jaw clenches. “Reina!” he yells. “I need you. Come lotion my back.”

Reina’s scowl is ferocious as she walks toward us. She’s seen everything. Probably already knew all her boss’s dirty little secrets, all the games he’s played. I wonder if she’s as disgusted by him as I am. I think she is. I think I know a way to punish Yoshi.

“Reina,” I say loud and clear. She peers at me. “Have you ever thought of working for an aspiring self-actualized princess who makes lots of mistakes but keeps life interesting and would never sexually harass you?”

Reina swallows. Ever so carefully, she places the tube of lotion down. “Your Highness, are you offering me a job?”

I jut my chin out. “Think about it.”




WOMEN NOW!

Her Imperial Highness Princess Izumi, The Iron Butterfly



June 21, 2021

Hounded by the tabloids until they exposed her alleged affair, HIH Princess Izumi fled Tokyo. Now, she’s back, and she has something to say. In an unprecedented interview, HIH Princess Izumi sits down with executive editor Yui Sato to discuss her childhood, finding out she’s a princess, discovering her culture, learning a second language, falling in love, and a future full of possibilities.

It began with a book about rare orchids, Her Imperial Highness Princess Izumi says. She sits straight, legs crossed at the ankles, hands folded in her lap. She cuts a regal profile, even though her upbringing was not. There are hints to her sun-drenched California roots—a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, a reddish highlight in her hair, a genuine warmth radiating from within. She is grounded yet bubbly, almost effervescent, especially when describing her mother and friends back home. “My friend was the one who found the inscription in the book.” It was a poem from her father, The Crown Prince of Japan. He penned it eighteen years ago to Princess Izumi’s mother, Hanako Tanaka.