Chapter Forty-six
Rain
“I don’t want to see anybody,” I tell Tia after she scans my appointment list and reports back that I have no critical one.
“Yes, sir. Black coffee?”
“No,” I wave her off, refocusing my attention on my triple-monitor setup.
My fingers fly across the keyboard as I dive into the web of code before me. Despite working on projects everyday, I still have a lot of work to do each time. There’s a new hackathon coming in a few months, and I want to finish all the work in progress before I go for it.
I check the submitted result for the last website we created, to collect database queries and user experience. The six thousand ratings sit at four point seven eight even after three months, which is pretty good. I just have to report back for frequent updates to avoid crashing.
As I work, I have no idea how many hours have dissolved into the day, not until my intercom buzzes.
“Sir, there’s a matter at hand,” Tia’s panicked voice rings through.
“Yes?”
“This lady won’t stop insisting on seeing you. I told her you’re not receiving visitors, but she just won’t leave.”
I tilt my head, trying to think of who it can be. Tia won’t refer to Hazel as a lady. “What’s her name?”
“She isn’t telling me her name. She just said that if I told you that you’re her friend’s-husband-in-law, you’ll understand.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose in realization mixed with frustration. What in the living hell is that woman doing here? “Kang Su-mi?” I ask, almost crossing my fingers that it isn’t her.
“You got it!” her voice echoes into the receiver. “Should I come in now or what?”
“Let her in,” I order.
“But sir, you said—”
“Do you want me to leave her with you? I can assure you, you don’t want that. So just let her in.”
“Yes sir.”
After a few seconds, my door flings open and Kang Su-mi walks in with a malicious smile, her black hair swinging behind her head as she moves my chair from its normal position, takes a seat, and crosses her leg. “What’s wrong with the employers in your company? They wouldn’t let me in.”
“It was one person, and she was doing her job. What are you doing here?”
“Be nice,” she pins me with a look. “And I’m here to talk to you about something you long for.”
“Hazel?” I blurt without thinking.
“What? No! Easy with the obsession, man. It’s something different, but equally interesting. First, it starts with a story,” she says the last part with the dramatics of someone narrating the monologue in a book.
“I don’t want to hear it. You can leave, because I don’t have all day.”
“Are you sure?” Her face brightens with mischief. “Think about the information you’ll miss out on, and how curiosity will eventually eat your inside out.” One glance at my bored expression, and she straightens. “You’re boring, but you won’t break me. I can’t just drop the punchline like that, I need to have a plot and suspense too. So deal with it, or send me out of your office and I’ll call Hazel.” She raises her brows at the end of her speech as if saying ‘dare me’, and I clear my throat. I’m sure I can manage a few minutes with her.
“Ten minutes.”
“Got it!”
Kang Su-mi opens her bag and holds out different photos in her hand. She drops one with a guy in it and points. “This is Greg. He worked at Eat Right for three years. He likes Hazel a lot. Almost obsessed, in fact.” My jaw ticks as I glare at the ugly looking guy in the picture.
“Are you here to annoy me or what?”
“Calm! Greg left Eat Right about three weeks ago, saying he found a better job. You know what also happened three weeks ago? Tea For You ’s release about you and Hazel.” She places another photo on the table before I can fully register what she’s trying to say. This time, the guy is in a Lexus with two other people. “He bought a car,” she drops another photo. “And this is him in a bar two nights ago. Does that tell you anything?”
“Yes,” I reply curtly. “It tells me that you’re stalking a man.”
Kang Su-mi kisses her teeth in disappointment. “No. Okay, look at this.” She drops down two photos. One, a counter at a food restaurant, and the second, the picture of Hazel that was sold to Tea For You . “Imagine a restaurant. If this picture was taken from somewhere here, the angle would look just like this, right?” I nod, starting to join the puzzle. “This is where Greg works. Plus this guy with him in the picture is the boyfriend of a co-worker. I called him and he confirmed that Greg has been spending so much money lately. Which makes sense, because Tea For You would not pay pennies for pictures that can bring them millions.”
Apart from the respect I now have for Kang Su-mi for finding this out, anger fills my chest. My fists curl till it turns white and my teeth grit against each other as my eyes burn into the photos spreaded on the table. This is the person who took pictures of Hazel and I, invading our privacy and selling it to bloggers who bought it for a few hundred thousands.
I don’t know what’s more insulting; this scrawny looking guy being able to walk around my house, or the new information that my photos are worth as little as a used Lexus.
“Say something. If I sent a letter to Hazel through a bird, she would have responded faster.”
Without a word, I pick up my phone and dial a number. My anger simmers, threatening to spill over with how full it is. Each ring is a representation of my blood ticking in my head.
“Rook, I need a few of your men. I have someone they need to take care of.” He tells me he’s on it and wants me to send name and picture.
Kang Su-mi’s eyes widen in terror. “Are you talking about what I think it is?”
“There are different ways to take care of someone.”
“Well I know you don’t mean taking him on a vacation. Are you going to hurt him? Like real bad?”
“Thank you for this. You can leave now.”
She shakes her head adamantly, earning an angry sigh from me. “No. I’m not leaving until I know what you’re going to do to him. It doesn’t sound like you called the cops like every normal person would.” She gasps and lowers her voice. “Are you planning to kill him? Don’t do that. He’s a nice guy sometimes.”
“I just want to make sure he never does this again. Did you tell Hazel?”
“Obviously. It’s more about her.”
I breathe a laugh as I stare at the woman in front of me. “I had actually thought it was you who did it. Congratulations on letting yourself off the hook.”
A gasp tears from her throat as her hand flies to palm her mouth. “You thought I sold pictures of my best friend to a magazine company that could potentially ruin her image in the public eye?” Hurt flashes in her eyes and my stoic face cracks a little bit. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have voiced it out loud.
You shouldn’t . My conscience chastises.
“I just thought. People can think.”
“This is the height of it, Rain Dacosta. I’m telling Hazel. Your ass better gets ready for a divorce,” she cuts, already fighting with the keyboard on her phone.
“Ten thousand dollars.” That’s the closest and easiest form of apology she can get from me.
Her eyes widen for a split second before amusement glints in them. “Forty thousand,” she bargains.
“Twenty thousand.”
“Deal.” A triumphant smile spreads across her face as she takes the pen and sticky note on my table, scribbling her account number on it. “Let’s not fight, okay? We’re a family.” I open my mouth to argue and her eyes squint. “You have something to say again, Rain Dacosta?”
“You can leave.”
“I was gonna.” I watch as she takes a few steps, then spins back around to face me. “By the way, I’ve decided. If you don’t stop calling me Kang Su-mi and call my first name like every normal person would, I’ll just call you by your full name too. Bye-bye, Rain Dacosta!” With a flippant wave, she turns and walks out, leaving me shaking my head in frustrated resignation.
Forty minutes move by slowly and painfully before I receive a message from Rook. He’s one of the hit men who used to work for my Dad.
ROOK: My boys found his location.
ME: Send me his address. Let three men get there before me.
My legs bob impatiently under my work desk as I wait for the address.
He likes Hazel a lot.
He clearly doesn’t just ‘like’ her if he secretly took pictures of her at work.
Anger roars loud in my ears as I imagine different ways to get Rook and his men to hurt him. I’m not going to sue him—what damage will that do? I need to inflict a big injury on him so he knows not to mess with me or anything that associates with me. In this case, the worst case possible, my wife.
I’ve been thinking of hiring a bodyguard for Hazel since the public release about our marriage, and this is just the perfect excuse for it. My life and my business is not a joke and it’s risky to be out in public unprotected. I was taken off-guard for this one, but I’ll be damned if I let another harm come to Hazel.
My message theme beeps and I check, the asshole’s full address appearing on my screen. I fling the door open and step out, catching Tia’s flinch as she scrambles to hide the snack she’s munching on. I don’t bother to ask why she’s eating after lunch time, I have more matters at hand. Instead, I stick Kang Su-mi’s note on her table.
“Send twenty thousand to that account. I’m leaving.”
Shock highlightens her features. Of course she’s surprised. I’m leaving work before closing hours when I basically used to spend my life in the office.
“For the day?”
“Yes. Cancel my schedules if I have any.”
I don’t wait around to hear her response, as I settle in the car, ordering Joe to the address.
“Listen man, I still don’t know what you’re mad for,” Greg rambles, his words slurring together. His eyes are glassy and unfocused, and one of the men with me finds a syringe that he confirms is ecstasy.
He’s dropped to his knees by two sets of hard hands, his face gutted as they twist his arms at odd angles. The third man searches around his cramped apartment, rifling through drawers for more photographs.
This guy is unsettling. He has an excessive number of pictures of women—it’s not normal. Zoomed-in shots of their eyes, lips, breasts and ass. He’s utterly obsessed. But I’m unsure if the fixation is with his camera, or with women.
Every glare I shoot his way earns me an unbothered eye-roll. He still hasn’t grasped the gravity of me coming here myself, which is fun. I like people who are clueless until the very end. “It’s just pictures,” he says, attempting to shrug, but still pinned down. “She’s in public. Someone else would have taken them anyway.” I raise an amused eyebrow. So we take unsolicited photos of people just because they are in public? I learn new things everyday.
“She didn’t want her pictures taken.” I’m surprisingly calm for the scene I painted in my head on my way to him. But then again, I don’t plan on touching him.
“Like I said, it’s public. You’re a public figure. Do you know how many unsolicited pictures of you people have in their hands? Perhaps chain your wife at home if you’re the jealous type.”
My eyes darken as I walk up to him and fist his shirt. So much for not touching him.
“See if this is about the pictures I sold to that magazine company, you can’t blame me. I saw an opportunity and I took it. Sue me to court and I’ll pay the fine.”
My lips lift in a smirk. “That’s too easy. How about I make you pay with something else?”
Greg’s eyes narrow as he scans the room, his expression disoriented, like a man stepping into sobriety. I release my grip on his shirt and adjust my wristwatch, looking at one of the men holding him down.
“What should we do to him, sir?”
“I don’t want to see him anymore.” I declare. The sentence is a coded one that means something darker underneath.