XXXVI

I woke up to the smell of warm soup. Ayami sat by my side before she helped me sit up and dropped the food in front of me.

"Eat that and take your medicine. Hurry up we're moving." She said and I nodded, doing what she instructed.

"What is going on?" I asked after taking my vitamins before she lit her cigarette and smoked.

"We're wiping the building and moving to another country." She said before puffing off as I jolted.

"Where are we going?"

"Singapore."

I couldn't go to Singapore, my family was here in Japan. I needed to find the chance to escape because if what Claire had told me when she was alive was true, they would be shipping me like a merchandise tonight.

I played with my fingers while being led to a new room. I was locked in as usual but this time I was locked with the last person I wanted to see him.

The masked man sat on the chair, resting his hands on the table that had a lot of dishes presented on it. He pointed at the chair opposite him and I hesitantly obeyed him before he took off his mask.

"Well since this will be your last time in Japan, how about eating Japanese food till your satisfaction." He said as he picked up his chopsticks as I glared at him.

"What's your name? Your real name?" I asked as he took a bite of tempura. He dropped his chopsticks and his green eyes met mine.

"If you eat then I will answer all your questions. The moment you stop, I will stop my answers."

"How am I sure you'll keep your word?"

"Because your Yuki. My only living weakness." He explained before I sighed. I picked up the chopsticks and went for the fried fish first.

"It is Nakamura. Nakamura Ray Yamada."

"Nakamura? That's a nice name for a monster." I whispered as I clenched my chopsticks tight.

"Why are you doing this? Why did you kidnap me?" I demanded as I stood up, my hand hugging my stomach protectively.

Nakamura kept quiet as he started to reason, his eyes giving me glances every once in awhile before he sighed.

"I'm doing this because I like this and it is my source of livelihood. Why I kidnapped you, that is two reasons."

"Which are?"

"Firstly, someone complained to me that she wanted you out of the picture."

"Who?"

"Your dear mother-in-law. But she regretted her actions the moment she found out your pregnant but I can't give you back." He said and my eyes widened in shock before I sat down on my chair.

"What's the second reason?" I asked as I clenched my shirt tightly.

"Because Haru took everything that was meant for me." He responded making my eyes widened. "How about I tell you a story on who I really am."

**Haru**
I was successfully discharged from the hospital but I couldn't go home because my mom had pleaded to see me and my dad. Of course my father refused but she begged me to come and I guess I gave in.

I entered my childhood home which looked like a desert compared to the last time I came here with Yuki. I entered the living room where I saw my mom sitting in a rocking chair as she knitted a scarf.

"Mom." I said as I sat opposite her rocking chair while she mindlessly knitted before looking at me.

Her eyes carried bags from days of exhaustion. Her hair was messy and she wasn't putting on any makeup. She looked older than she actually was and it pained me to see her dad eyes.

"Your father divorced me." She said and continued with her knitting.

"I heard. The media has been going crazy about it but dad doesn't want to talk about it."

"You must resent me for everything, after all everything was my fault."

"What do you mean?" I asked as I clasped my hands together and gave her my full attention.

"Your father hasn't told you?"

"Told me? About what?" I asked as I lowered my hand.

"About your brother. About your half brother."

I was in shock when I heard this before my mother paused her knitting and faced me.

"It was fifteen years before I met Rio. I was a wild and careless teenager who would do anything to get what I wanted. My family were so poor that they couldn't get me things I needed except basic necessities that we needed to survive. I was the only girl in the whole class who didn't have a phone, proper shoes or fashionable clothes and I couldn't afford a decent uniform so I involved myself in a very bad business." She confessed as she bit her lips, her eyes heavy with guilt as tears fell.

"What did you do?" I asked as my eyes softened.

"I lured innocent females mostly omegas to places where they were kidnapped and sold. I was paid heavily from the money those girls were sold out and buy whatever I wanted. It was doing this business that I made my first boyfriend..." She paused and then gave a bitter smile.

"His name was Nate Gates. He was a foreigner and the owner of the underground business that did this. Even with our age difference, he treated me with kindness and gave me everything I wanted including making me stop luring females because he didn't want me to be marked by the police. He spoilt and gave me what I wanted till I got pregnant with his child." She explained and her grip on the knitting pins tightened.

"Nate was mentally sick, he suffered from schizophrenia. He thought that everything he did was right so far as there was no one to tell him that and the moment someone did, he killed them. I was fortunately one of the people that he listened to. When my parents found out about my pregnancy, they kicked me out. Do you know what Nate did?" She asked and I shook my head.

"He made my parents suffer. He skinned them alive and wore their skin like it was leather as he made me watch the dogs feeding on the rest of their untouched flesh. That was when I knew that I wasn't safe." She said bitterly before she stood up and raised her shirt, revealing a large mark across her stomach.

"He didn't let me carry my son to term before he sliced him open from me and left me for dead. He never loved me, he just loved what I carried. He was infatuated with the fact that I created life with his seeds before he took my son and left."

"I was found by a stranger who called the ambulance and saved my life before anything. That person was Rio, your father but then he wasn't interested in any woman and luckily the police never told him about my health status. I tried to get my son back but Nate wouldn't let me so I turned my back on him."

"I faked my life, my story and then I married your father. And eleven years after I had my first child with Rio, I had you. You looked so much like your father that I was glad you didn't take any feature from me as I showed you love but it was insincere. I used you as an item to relief my guilt and ruined your life." She sobbed as she cleaned her eyes but tears kept falling.

"When you were away during those six months, your brother, Nakamura found me and we talked. I wanted to embrace him, love him and comfort him but I chose to make him a dirty secret of the past and had him kidnap Yuki. I didn't know Yuki was pregnant and even if he wasn't it wasn't right and it took losing Rio to see what a fool I was."

I listened to her story as my head startled to rattle with questions. I had a brother who was ten years older than me and all these years, my mother kept my father and I on the dark. Because of her mistakes, everyone else was suffering especially my son.

"I'm so sorry Haru. I'm a terrible person and I don't deserve your forgiveness that is why I'm turning myself in." She said as she fell on her knees and held my cold hands.

"All I ask is that you give this to Yuki when you bring him home. Let him see how truly sorry I am." She begged as she handed me the scarf which I collected and saw was complete.

"Also tell Rio that I love him and I always will." She said and then stood up before she cleaned her eyes.

The door opened and then we saw two police officers that came inside. They wore suits and didn't seem aggressive as they walked up to my mother.

"Mrs Yamada, we would do formalities but you gave a clean cut. Are you ready to go?" The police on brown suit asked as my mother nodded before walked in front of them. I was grateful that they didn't cuff as they moved.

"Mom?" She paused and used the opportunity to look at me in the eyes.

"Yes son."

"What was his name? The name of my brother?" I watched as a small smiled placed on her face before she closed her eyes and smiled more.

"Nakamura. Nakamura Ray Yamada." She said and then continued on her steps before she paused. "Oh and Haru..."

"Yes?"

"Tell your father, I love him and that he should live a happy life. The life I never gave him." She said before she faced the exit and the last I saw of her was her messy hair walking into the lights.


**Yuki**
I was in shock after the story Nakamura told me. His father was an evil man who loved him but abused him because he wanted to make him ready to inherit the business. His father was the reason he had that scar and he never had a mother.

"Haru was the reason I never had a mother, I never had a family because he chose to exist. He had everything I never had. A mother, a loving father, friends, a comfortable life. That was why I made it my mission to destroy him." He paused as I watched his hate filled eyes slowly softened.

"Until I saw a post of you and Haru walking with your son on the internet. I was charmed by your existence and then I started coming to your café but you never served the customers. The only time I saw you were opening and closing hours when you would step out and I felt your warmth. I wanted for claim you but then you were always surrounded that getting you alone was impossible and then my desire for you grew more when you married Haru."

"Then why did you try to kill me when you kidnapped me?"

"I sensed you were my weakness. Before I blended my father in a giant blender, he taught me that I should never have weaknesses and kill it or die trying."

"You don't love me! You just want the thrill of seeing Haru lose something precious to him like you did. Listen Nakamura, you can change, your a victim of long term abuse and if you just come clean to the police then everything will be alright. You'll have a family, you'll get help and you'll stop self-loathing. You'll finally get what you deserve...healing."

He stood up from his chair and flipped the table shocking me before he trapped me in my seat. His green orbs glaring at my blue ones as he pulled me into a hungry kiss which I didn't respond to as I hit at his chest.

He pulled away from my lips as he gently breathed on my ears before nipping on the earlobe and pulled away.

"There's no repentance because I've lost my soul."

Those were the last words he said before he left the room and locked the door slowly behind him.