Listening to the footsteps behind him, he said, “I’ll do whatever you say. I’ll go to the police and I’ll tell ‘em everything. I won’t tell ‘em about this if you… if you don’t hurt them.”
“Head down,” Miki said as she lowered Riley onto the sofa.
Adam bowed his head and said, “I’m so sorry for what I did. I don’t expect you to forgive me. But I know you’re better than this. I know you wouldn’t hurt innocent people. You’re not the killer from the news. You’re a sweet, beau—”
Miki pressed her stun gun against the nape of Adam’s neck. He jerked his head up, limbs stiff and jaw clenched. Then he fell forward. His forehead hit the wall, then he landed on his side. Before he could regain control of his body, Miki struck the left side of his head with the crowbar, cutting his scalp open and knocking him into a state of deep unconsciousness.
PART III
19
CONFESSIONS
Hoarse breathing. Loud snorting. Stifled whining.
Adam awoke to weeping, a woman’s weeping. His eyes were open, the room was bright, but he saw nothing but darkness. He tried to speak, but even he couldn’t understand himself with the strip of duct tape over his mouth. His vision faded in slowly. He was staring down at himself. The left side of his bathrobe was splattered with blood.
He looked up and immediately closed his eyes. The light made his head hurt. The pain on the left side of his head was especially tremendous. His temple was cut and swollen. His eyelids cracked open to a squint. He saw triple, but enough to recognize his surroundings. In his kitchen, he sat at his regular seat at the end of the dining table. At the other end of the table, Riley’s highchair was swapped with another dining chair.
And Amber sat on that dining chair across from him. She was already awake, crying and babbling. Her arms were restrained behind her back with a pair of plastic handcuffs, and her body was duct-taped to the chair.
Adam tried to stand, but he was also taped to his chair. The duct tape around his ankles made it difficult for him to move. He blinked rapidly, hoping it would help him clear his vision. He went from seeing triple to seeing double in about thirty seconds, but it didn’t get much better after that. He mumbled something, but it sounded like a baby cooing. He wanted to shout: Where’s Riley?!
He tried to stand again, dragging the chair an inch forward. Amber hopped in her seat and screamed. The noise wasn’t loud enough to reach the street outside due to the rain.
“Looks like mama and papa are awake,” Miki said.
Adam stopped moving upon hearing her voice. Amber kept struggling, though. He looked over the bar. There was no one there. A flashing blue glow from the muted television lit up the living room. He gasped as Miki emerged from behind the bar. She was still wearing her mask. She held Riley in her arms, and Riley clutched a stuffed monkey in her hands. The toddler was finally calm. They had been playing on the living room floor as they waited for Adam and Amber to awaken.
Jugulars sticking out of his neck, Adam shouted at Miki. He wanted to say: ‘Let her go!’ But it came out as a ghoulish groan.
Miki stood behind Amber’s chair. Amber yelled at Miki, too. She looked over her left shoulder, then the opposite shoulder. She wanted to see Riley. She only cared about her safety.
Miki said, “Los Angeles. Manhattan Beach. Same address you had on your passport when we first met. I told you I’d show up at your door someday. It wasn’t hard to find you, but I bet you couldn’t find me.”
Adam screamed at her. Miki put Riley in her highchair. She caressed the girl’s cheek, then she stroked her dark brown hair. Amber started yelling at her, too. She was glad to see Riley, but Miki’s actions—despite being so gentle—set her off. No one wanted strangers to touch their children. Riley was agitated because of her parents’ screaming, so she began sucking on one of the stuffed animal’s ears.
Miki made her way to Adam. She leaned over the chair next to him and removed her mask, revealing her scarred face. Adam’s screaming came to an abrupt stop. It was as if he had just remembered what had gotten him into that situation in the first place. I did that to her, he thought. I’m guilty, but my family is innocent.
Miki asked, “Did you miss me?”
Adam lunged at her, dragging the chair forward a centimeter. His eyes were fixed on hers. She snickered and walked around him. She circled the table until she returned to Amber. She sat in the chair next to her, put her elbows on the table, then propped her chin on her palms and watched Amber’s effort to escape for a moment.
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” Miki asked.
Amber glared at her, nostrils flaring with each breath. She was curious about her scars and her connection to Adam. She didn’t recognize her, though.
Miki said, “My name is Miki Someya. I’m one of Adam’s close ‘friends.’ We met in Japan in 2017 during one of his business trips. Do you remember that trip?”
Amber kept glaring, then after about ten seconds, she nodded slowly.
Miki grinned and said, “Adam went home in such a hurry, didn’t he? And you probably weren’t expecting him to be home so soon, were you? What did he tell you? That his meetings were cancelled? He signed some deals and finished early? He missed you so much that he had to rush home to be with you?”
She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled at the idea. Only her laughter and the clattering of the rain played through the house. Sweat coated Adam’s forehead and cheeks. He was captivated by Miki’s speech. He knew where she was going with it, he just didn’t know when she was going to get to her point.
Amber remembered Adam’s trip to Japan in 2017. When she questioned him about his early return, Adam had claimed he finished his business meetings early and he had been eager to return home to Amber because he was homesick. She was suspicious about his excuses, but she shrugged it off since she didn’t have any evidence of mischief or misconduct.
Miki said, “Well, that trip was very… eventful. I wish I could tell you everything, but I think you deserve to hear the truth from Adam. I’d like him to… confess. If he does that, I will call the police, walk out the front door, and turn myself in.” She looked at Adam and said, “If he does anything else—fight, scream, lie—I will hurt you. You, Adam, your wife, your child… I will hurt all of you.”
Amber lunged at Miki, the chair’s legs screeching on the tiles. But she wasn’t trying to attack her. She was begging for mercy for her child. Accepting her helplessness, her anger turned into fear. She couldn’t fight Miki while restrained to the chair. She had to find the intruder’s sympathy.
Miki approached Adam. They gazed into each other’s eyes, as if trying to communicate without saying a word. Adam’s eyes said: ‘Please don’t do this.’ And Miki’s gaze said something along the lines of: ‘I’m really enjoying myself.’ She peeled the duct tape off Adam’s mouth and left it dangling from his cheek. He gasped for air, then he hissed in pain.
He looked at Riley and said, “I–I love you, Ry Ry. Everything’s… going to be okay. All right? O–Okay?” He turned his attention to Amber and said, “I’ll… I’m… We’re going to get out of this. Just… Whatever I say, whatever you hear, don’t believe it all. Think about something else.”
“Are you kidding me?” Miki asked with a smile of disbelief. “Are you already thinking about lying after everything I just said?”
Adam turned towards her so fast that he almost gave himself whiplash. Grinding his teeth, he said, “I didn’t say that, you monster.”