A Fortunate Accident – Chapter 4

“Why are you arriving home with an apple pie?” Vivian asks, drinking her coffee with Jinzo and Ken at the kitchen table.

I slide the pie plate onto the counter and sigh. “I carried this pie on two trains, and pretty much every person who saw it hates me now, so enjoy it. It’s good hangover food.”

Vivian smacks her lips and runs her hand through her messy hair. “I think Ilaria is the only person in the house not hungover.” She stands up and joins me at the counter. “Where did you go?”

“Dad’s. This is his.” I wave to the pie.

“Aw, he made this for us? That’s so nice.” She leans past me to look at Jinzo and Ken. “Want a piece?”

“Yes,” they both say at once.

“He didn’t make it for us,” I correct her. “I stole it as payment. Cut me a slice, will you? I had to smell it all the way home, and now I’m starving.”

With a cup of coffee and a slice of pie, I sit at the table with a sigh. What I should do is slip into bed next to Saif upstairs, curl into a ball, and await the heavy rain of shit that’s about to fall on me. I am two days away from starting my new life as a plant tester on Rio, and my own mother, the very person who gave birth to me, wants to disown me.

My body, sensing I’m in a safe place, breaks down, and tears roll down my cheeks as I spear forkfuls of pie and shove them into my mouth.

My fucking father and his gorgeous, absolutely delicious apple pies.

“I wish this was awful,” I say, laughing through my tears.

Ken sips on his coffee and eyes me warily. “Rough night, Sky?”

Vivian slides into the chair next to me. “Are you ready to tell us what happened? Why your mother was here?”

“I don’t want to.” Can I stall until the end of time?

Stall, Skylar. It can’t be the end of the world if time stands still.

I need more time.

“But you’re going to,” Vivian says, reaching under the table and squeezing my knee.

“Fine. But it sounds insane the more I think about it.”

I close my eyes and remember the conversation with Mom word for word before I recite it back to them. By the time I’m done, Gus and Ilaria have joined us and Mat stands in the doorway.

Jinzo’s expression is like concrete. “She wants the Amagi back?” He rubs his face. “Of course she does, after all the hard work we put into it.”

“This is pure, vindictive bullshit.” Vivian’s voice is coated in awe. “Who does this?”

Mat’s hands move, painting out his words with USL. “Where’s Saif?” I’m glad I understand basic signs.

“I think he’s still in bed? He was there when I left.”

Mat disappears around the corner, and I sigh and deflate. “I don’t want to tell Saif.” I turn my watery eyes to Vivian, and my lower lip shakes. Her eyes widen. “Will you do it?”

After the last two weeks, I cannot look at him as he learns of a new way my family is screwing me over. We have a great connection, and I believe he’ll be good for me in many ways, but it’s still early days. And this added stress will not go over well with his family.

Vivian places her hand on my arm, nods, and leaves the table.

I lean over my empty plate, put my elbows on the table, and rest my head in my hands.

“I don’t know what to do,” I say, peering into the expanse of crust crumbs on my plate. “I can’t let them take the Amagi. It is the only thing I have left that’s mine. That I earned from the years of being their servant.” I sniff up and grab a napkin from the center of the table so I can blow my nose.

Ken and Jinzo glance at each other.

“We’ll look into it, Skylar,” Ken says. “I think the deed to the ship is yours, but I can’t be certain without opening up the records.” He sips his coffee and grimaces. “Perhaps after I get rid of this pounding headache.”

Gus sits down and hands Ilaria to Jinzo. “We have to remember that we’re all a team, working together. Your mother is acting like a lone wolf with only Dominic to back her up, right? Your father isn’t getting involved?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know about Miguel, though. And I think Juan will stay out of it as well.”

Gus nods. “That’s the pattern with abusive situations. Eventually, everyone will leave them, and they’ll be left with nothing but their lies.”

I stare down at my hands clasped together. “But… But what if it’s true?”

“What’s true?” Jinzo asks.

“What if it’s true that I’m the one to blame for all of this?”

“Skylar,” Ken says, his head tilting to the side.

“No, no. Hear me out. My memory has always been the best. I remember everything.” I close my eyes. “Too much.” I push out a long, shaky breath. “What if… What if my memory is so good because I made up my own memories? What if everything they’re saying is true?”

Everyone is silent, just staring at me.

I slam my hand down on the table. Ken jumps and winces. “Something has to be wrong. I must be wrong. My own father is wishy-washy on the subject and won’t back me up.”

“That means nothing,” Gus says.

“It will mean a lot in court,” I stress.

A throat clears, and Saif stands in the doorway with Mat by his side and Vivian behind him.

“You never came to bed last night.” He yawns and stuffs his hand in his pajama pants pocket. My icy heart melts a little, seeing his gorgeous hair, messy and wild. “You must be exhausted.”

He’s right. My eyes are made of paste, my throat is scratchy, and my heartbeat pounds in my ear, fueled by pure caffeine and not through any energy of my own.

“A little.” My voice is caught in my throat. It aches to be free, to confide in Saif, to hum in ecstasy, to mumble my fears into the sheets at night.

“Why don’t you come to bed and sleep, and we’ll deal with this later?” He holds out a hand. “Nothing more is going to happen today. You should rest.”

Gus jerks his chin at me. “Go on. If you’re having trouble sleeping, let me know, and I’ll bring you something.”

Putting a nurse in her network was one of the best decisions Vivian ever made.

I nod to him as I pick up my plate. Moving slowly across the room, I bus the plate and my coffee cup to the sink. My first instinct is to grab the kitchen towel and start cleaning, but Vivian pipes up from the back.

“Don’t clean up, Sky. Just go to bed.”

She knows I will clean the kitchen until I drop dead, but she doesn’t know why. She doesn’t know about the countless nights I spent scrubbing the Mikasa’s galley kitchen until it was so clean you could have surgery on the counters. If Dom found even a speck of dirt, I would pay for it in meals. I was so skinny until I learned all the divots and creases of the kitchen so well I could scour them in my sleep.

My hand shakes as I push the kitchen towel back on the counter and take a step away.

There. I don’t need to clean. Someone else will do it. Someone who isn’t me.

I keep my head low as I exit the kitchen, past Saif and Mat, and walk up the stairs to my room. Saif is behind me, his soft footfalls keeping pace with mine.

“Do you want to get cleaned up or showered?” he asks as we pass the bathroom we share with Ken.

“No. I showered this morning before I went to Dad’s. I snuck in and grabbed clothes. You didn’t budge.”

Saif chuckles. “I sleep like the dead. Sorry. If I had known —”

“It’s fine,” I say, opening the door to my room. Yes, it used to be a storage closet, it’s true. Vivian wasn’t lying. The room is absent a window and has one overhead light. We pushed a double bed against the far wall, and only a few centimeters worth of space is available on one side to get in and out. My clothes sit on open shelves, and one of Vivian’s cats, Pepper, is curled up between stacks of sweaters and shirts, snoozing away. I drop my bag next to the shelves and push it under with my foot. The door closes behind us.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Saif’s voice is quiet as I pull off my pants and toss them onto a shelf. “Vivian’s explanation was a little… vague.”

I yawn as I unclasp my bra and pull it out through my sleeves. Normally, I would enjoy this free time to have sex with Saif, but I’m too drained to give it a go, and it would be teasing him if I got fully undressed. I draw back the covers on the bed and climb in.

“I don’t know if there’s anything more to say.” I wrap the covers up and over my shoulder as I curl into a ball on my side. “My family is suing me. They want their ship back. I’m a horrible person who abused my brothers and sisters, even Dominic, for years, and I don’t deserve any happiness.” I yawn again. “The usual.”

I crack my eyes open before I fall asleep, and Saif is staring into the middle distance, not at any one thing. I’ve seen this look before. Shock, incomprehensible shock.

“Do you think you did?” he asks, and for the first time since we started dating, doubt fills his expression.

I close my eyes again and try not to cry.

“I don’t know,” I mumble, and I hate myself for it. ‘I don’t know’ is not something I often say when it comes to my own behavior or memories. I like to own what I’ve done and do better next time. “Do you want to come to bed?” I ask, my voice low, barely above a whisper.

“No… No, that’s okay. You rest.” He leans over and grabs clothes from his bag. “I’ll shower and head into the city. I want to make sure we have food and provisions for our trip to Rio, and I have a birthday present to pick up.” His smile brightens, but my chest fills with dread, and I sit up.

“No birthday presents,” I say sternly. When he opens his mouth to protest, I repeat, “No birthday presents. No birthday parties. No mentioning of my birthday ever. Understand?”

I hate that I even have to say it, but it looks like Vivian got into his head last night. She loves to throw a party for anything.

“Skylar, just… just let me do this for you,” he pleads.

“No.” I lie back down. “I haven’t celebrated my birthday in over twenty years, and we will not start now.”

I pull the covers over my head, and I fall asleep moments later.