Chapter 10 #2
The city’s concrete and neon gave way to polished stone and iron gates as they left the touristy area for a residential neighborhood. Ethan approached a doorman and gave a name—not his own—and the doorman bowed and let them pass. An elevator in the quiet lobby carried them to the fifth floor.
Ethan unlocked a door at the end of a carpeted hallway.
She stepped inside, then stopped.
Floor-to-ceiling windows framed the city, which seemed to be sitting in a bowl ringed by mountains, sharp green ridges climbing into pale clouds.
The room had white walls, a gray sofa long enough even for Ethan to sleep on, a low dark table polished to a shine, and art that probably cost more than her parents’ house.
“Whose is this?”
“Ours for the night.”
It was so much…luxury.
Three days ago, she’d shared a thin pad with two women in a room overflowing with strangers. Today, she was here.
Maybe she’d actually died in her sleep and this was some sort of bizarre world between life and death. Except if she were dead, she wouldn’t need a toilet.
“Is there a bathroom?”
Ethan smiled. “Roam around and find out.”
It seemed wrong to roam as if she belonged. She left her shoes at the door and headed down a hallway.
The bathroom was weirder than the living room. The floor was marble and…heated? She wiggled her toes against the warm, smooth surface. There was a tub and a shower stall that would have fit three of her cellmates. She used the toilet, washed her hands, and stared at the woman in the mirror.
The old Mei Lin might have belonged here. The one in the mirror, with her sunken cheeks and dull chopped hair, definitely did not.
When she came out, Ethan was leaning against the sofa, arms crossed.
“This place is—”
“We need to talk.”
She stopped halfway across the room. “About—?”
“Where have you been?”
She looked down the hallway behind her. “The…bathroom?”
His face flushed red, and his jaw clenched. “Where have you been for the last six years?”
That question was even more bizarre than this luxury apartment. “What do you mean? Where do you think I’ve been?”
His mouth opened. Closed. He crossed the room, stopping a few feet from her. “Just tell me.” The words were quieter, though he wasn’t calm. He was fighting a battle to keep his emotions inside. “Were you in Fuyin this whole time? Gathering evidence?”
“What do you…?” Slowly, a fog lifted in her mind.
“Where. Have. You. Been?” Ethan dropped the words like landmines.
“You really don’t know?”
“How would I? You quit calling.”
The warden’s voice came back. “No record…. A clerical error.”
Six years, swiped off Mei Lin’s life like condensation from a glass.
If there’d been no record of her in prison, and there’d been no record of her arrest… Then there’d been no record of her. At all.
Even if Ethan had looked, how could he have found her?
The fog was lifting, but her world was spinning. She walked past him and lowered herself to the edge of the sofa.
They hadn’t known where she was. Not her parents. Not her brother. Not Ethan.
All those nights on that concrete bunk, cataloging the people who had forgotten her—she’d assumed they knew. That they’d weighed her against their own safety, or convenience, and chosen the easier thing.
But they hadn’t known.
Oh, Lord.
How had that never occurred to her? She’d been so desperate, so lost, so heartbroken, and all that time…
“Mei Lin?” When Ethan sat a few feet from her, the anger had drained from his face.
“You really don’t know?” She asked the question again, though the answer was already clear.
“I really don’t.”
“Did you…?” Her voice came out rough. She swallowed and tried again. “Did you try to find me?”
He didn’t say anything for a long time, and something cold slid under her ribs.
But on his face, she saw no guilt. His eyes were red around the rims. He was sitting very still, as if he couldn’t decide to move forward or back. Closer to the terrible thing or away from it.
Either way, the terrible thing was there.
But so was Ethan. He hadn’t abandoned her.
How she loved this man.
She sucked in a breath as that truth came back to her.
She remembered why she’d loved him, why she still loved him.
She’d fallen a little bit in love the first time she’d seen him, in that medical tent in Central America when she’d watched him playing with sock puppets and acting out a silly drama to make a little boy smile.
She had married him the day after he’d flown to China and proposed. They’d shared their vows under a gray sky in her parents’ backyard with neighbors for witnesses, and she’d never been happier in her life.
She didn’t know what the truth would do to them. Whatever happened, whatever damage the last six years had done, the most important thing in this world hadn’t changed for her.
She had loved him then, and she loved him now.
Tears blurred his image. Swiping them away, she scooted across the sofa and took his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
This time, he didn’t tell her not to apologize.
“I thought you forgot me,” she said. “I thought you decided I was not worth the trouble. I was angry with you, all this time, because you didn’t come for me.”
“Come where? If I’d known where…”
“Ethan. I was in prison.”
The color drained from his face. His eyes filled, and a tear slid down before he could blink it back.
“Prison.” He said the word like he was testing it out. “Since when?”
“The day we talked. The day you told me the visa wouldn’t be much longer. You told me you couldn’t wait. You called me sweetheart.” Her voice broke on the last word.
“This whole time? You were in prison for…” He swallowed, his voice rising. “Six years?”
“Until the day I called you.”
He pulled his hands back, then tipped forward and wrapped his arms around her, enveloping her. “I didn’t know. How could they not tell us?” He held her, then suddenly straightened. “For what? What was the charge?”
“When I was arrested, they said I stole from the hospital. I did not.”
“Of course you didn’t.” He was shaking his head. “But... Was there a trial? Why didn’t you call?”
“They wouldn’t let me. They just snatched me off the street and threw me in prison.”
“Is that…normal? Is that legal?”
“No. And no.”
“I don’t understand. Why would anybody…?” His words faded, and by the way his expression hardened, he was putting it together. “Was it that man, Lu Feng? Did he…orchestrate it?”
“I think so.”
“How?”
“I don’t know. Bribery. Money. I’m out because the new warden couldn’t find any paperwork on me. She said without paperwork, she couldn’t keep me.”
“Just like that.”
Mei Lin nodded.
“Did they even apologize?”
“This is not America. Officials don’t apologize to people like me.”
A thousand more questions lingered behind his eyes. Rather than ask them, he held her against his chest. “You’re safe. You’re here. For now, that’s all that matters.”
“Yes.” Except she had a question too. She leaned back to see his face. “Where did you think I was?”
His throat worked. “They told us…” He took a breath and started again. “They told us you were in quarantine.”
“For six years?” That didn’t even make sense.
His head shook slowly. He swallowed again. “About a month later, they told us you were dead.”