Chapter 6
6
Bryce - 32 years old
T here it is again. My phone just won’t stop vibrating in my pocket. This is the seventh time in a row the caller has been trying to reach me. No doubt, it’s the same person—all seven times. With no time in between? Definitely.
Bobbing my right leg up and down, I glance at the clock under the projector, checking the time. 07:30 p.m. I wonder who could be calling me right now? Knowing that it can’t be Birdie’s school at this hour, I let it go to voicemail once again while I listen to the presentation one of my business development representatives will be pitching next week. It has been a long fucking day. Thank the heavens that the day after tomorrow is Saturday.
As much as I tried to fight it, I ended up becoming a corporate slave after all. No wonder Dad is proud of me, despite everything that went down.
Just as she is about to get to the part where it gets a little technical, Luisa, our office manager, plants a soft knock on the glass door. “Sorry to interrupt, but Bryce, your sister called. She said it was important,” she says in German.
“Alright. Thanks for the heads up.” I excuse myself and go outside to a quiet corner in the open space office that we share with the whole company. Observing the engineers that are still here working overtime, I dial Lily’s number and wait for her to answer.
“Bryce, I’ve been trying to reach you the whole time.” She cuts right to the chase. Her voice. It sounds different. She sounds panicked. Did she have one of her anxiety attacks again?
“I was in a meeting. Technically, I still am. Did something happen to you guys? To Nick?”
“Haruki is here.” My body goes rigid, as if someone implanted a steel rod on my back. “She’s in my apartment.” Lily is going on and on with her story, but my brain has tuned her out. My eyes also decide to blur out the engineers huddled up together with their laptops in front of me.
Haruki is here.
Haruki. Haruki. Haruki. Haruki.
A name that I haven’t heard in a long time. The last time the name slipped out of my mouth was when I told Lily about our marriage. I couldn’t tell her about everything that went down, and she didn’t need to know that the real reason my dad went ice-cold on me five years ago was because I told him he should call the family lawyer because of something I did. She wasn’t ready then; she had a lot on her plate. But I had to give her something. I had to let her in on a part of it with the way I returned all brooding and fucked up. So, I told her about me and Haruki. Enough so that she would get the gist. Lily never asked again after that, and I never offered anything else. Whatever blanks she filled in herself, she never shared her thoughts with me.
Cutting her off, I answer, “I’m coming home.” After all these years, I still can’t shake the feeling. Wherever she is…that’s exactly where I want to be. Even if I’m fucking dead to her.