“He ended your arrangement early,” the voice on the other side of the line repeated.

“Yes,” Lilli answered Kazuo Nakamura, her arms crossed in front of her as she sat on the second floor landing of her other “fake” apartment. The shared Osaka Charm residence that the voice—Miyuki, apparently, had arranged.

A heavy sigh came from the other side. “It is disappointing Miyuki is no longer with us. I have no way of verifying if you tell the truth. It is not good thing to lie to me, I hope you understand this.”

No he did not have any way of verifying the truth of her claims, and thank goodness for that, Lilli thought, fretting her lip. Because she was lying out of her ass to one of the most powerful men in the Japan. As No had told her on more than one occasion, she wasn’t exactly an actress born, and she had no doubt that if the older Mr. Nakamura could see the way she was cringing now, he’d know she wasn’t even remotely telling him the truth, despite their agreement.

But lying was the only way. The only way to protect both No and her brother. “I’m sorry, but as you probably know, our contract would have ended soon anyway. Your son said he had other business to attend to today. Something about a meeting with you and a pitching robot? I had the flu all week so he and I didn’t really talk much.”

“And he did not tell you anything? About any business deals? Possibly with an American?”

Lilli could hear the growing suspicion in Kazuo’s voice loud and clear on her end of the line. And she could barely keep the quaver out of her voice when she replied, “He’s a super private person, Mr. Nakamura. And kind of quiet. We haven’t talked much at all during the last few months.”

“Yes, this is what the others have told me as well,” Kazuo Nakamura grumbled. “But I had hoped you would be different. That he might confide in you, perhaps even keep you on.”

Lilli’s eyes widened. She knew Kazuo still wasn’t 100% convinced what she was telling him was true. But any concerns she had about that were immediately overshadowed by what No’s father had just said.

Others??? Did he mean other women? Apparently Miyuki hadn’t been a one-off. And Lilli had to wonder just how many girls No’s messed up father had bribed and blackmailed to spy on him. But somehow she managed to keep her voice neutral as she said, “Sorry to disappoint you, but, well, you know how he is when it comes to women. He gets bored and then it’s on to the next.”

That seemed to have done the trick as far as convincing Kazuo to believe her was concerned. After a brief and disappointed pause, the older man sighed and said, “I see, well…thank you for your services, Ms. Tucker. You have kept your part of the agreement, I will keep mine. I will present Mr. Tucker with a new contract after tonight’s game.” Then she heard a soft click and the line went dead.

It had worked! Lilli supposed she should be feeling pretty triumphant right about now, but Kazuo Nakamura calling by her real name stung. Especially coming as it did on the heels of sixth months of pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

She just couldn’t stop feeling guilty for even pretending to betray the man who’d dropped everything to take care of her for seven days—even if it had been the only way to extract herself from this situation without damaging either his or her brother’s career. And the realization that she would likely never set eyes on No again…though nausea hadn’t been one of her symptoms before, she now had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.

But Lilli didn’t have time to grieve and feel sorry for herself, she reminded herself. There were still a few more things she needed to do in the shared Osaka Charm apartment before she disappeared out of No’s life forever.

Pocketing her old phone that she’d retrieved from the planter, she used her key to slip back into the apartment—which was miraculously empty—to find and change into one of her old outfits: a pair of jeans and a scoop neck t-shirt with a roller skate on the front. She hoped to God No still had the place under surveillance as she placed the NTTdotcomo phone and the red envelope on the coffee table in the living room. Lilli quickly scribbled “Please give to Riyu” on it and then beat a hasty retreat, locking the door behind her and pocketing the key.

On her way back down the steps, she made the rather expensive decision to hire a taxi back to the reinforced concrete townhouse she shared with Doug and Ruby in Toyonaka.

When she arrived, the house was empty. Doug must have decided to take Ruby with him to the game. But after being away so long, Lilli was shocked at how messy the place was. Ruby’s school books and supplies were scattered everywhere. Dirty plates and dishes overran the sink. And she didn’t even want to talk about the floors. It looked like no one had touched a broom, mop, or vacuum in the six months she’d been gone.

Oh well…

Lilli sighed, a 90s era ditty about “back to life, back to reality” looping around in her head as she rolled up her sleeves and began her usual cleaning routine. First, pick up Doug and Ruby’s shit and put it where it needs to go. Second, start a load of laundry. Third, sweep and vacuum…then mop and deep clean everything from the dishes to the bathtubs.

Cinderella was definitely back from the ball.

Lilli tried not to think about the Prince she’d left behind. Or about all the messes she hadn’t had to clean up over the last six months. But those days were over. She’d left Ana Granger behind, and she hadn’t taken a cent of the money No had paid Osaka Charm.

She turned on the TV, flipping to the Hawks game where she eventually spotted Doug in the dugout, waiting for his turn at bat. Her brother, Doug Tucker, Lilli reminded herself. She was Lilliana Tucker—not Ana Granger, the woman who had somehow let her very first (and last) client sweep her off her feet.

But hours and several filled trash bags later, No was still on Lilli’s mind as she dealt with the pile of Osaka Times English language newspapers stacked on the front porch, Doug apparently too lazy to carry it to the recycling bin inside the house. After giving the pile a closer look, Lilli realized it was far too big to fit in the indoor bin. She eventually decided to carry them to the larger recycling bin up the street.

Why the hell did her brother even bother getting the local paper? It’s not like any of them actually read it. In fact, the subscription had belonged to Doug’s wife who’d been using it to improve her English. And then she died. But Doug didn’t have the heart—or, let’s face it, the organizational skills—to cancel it. Lilli decided to bring this up with her brother when he got back home. It was way past time for Doug to cancel this never-read newspaper and move on with his life.

Move on…

Suddenly, Lilli experienced a paradigm shift. Or at least that’s what she thought happened because it felt exactly the way her college therapist had described it to her years ago.

Because here she was grumbling about Doug’s inability to move on with his life. But what in the hell was she doing? Here in this house? Taking care of her brother and niece and cleaning up the mess that had apparently just been waiting for her return? She was doing precisely the same thing as Doug. And this was not how she wanted to live anymore.

It was time to move on. Not just to a new job, but to a new place. Maybe… yes, maybe It was time to leave Japan altogether.

I need to go back to the States, she thought to herself. Go back and finish what I started before I let myself to get sucked into my brother’s life. She hadn’t completely lied to No about wanting to go back to school, just about her field of interest. She’d been thinking about applying for a pediatric nurse practitioner program before she left Seattle, and perhaps it was time to revisit that idea now that she’d decided to return to the States.

Because the townhouse was messy. Like, really messy.

But it hadn’t burned to the ground. Doug and Ruby had both survived just fine without her. Survived, and were apparently at a game together. The truth was, what Doug needed wasn’t a live-in sister to parent him. What he needed was an occasional babysitter and a maid.

Hell, the way Doug attracted women, Lilli wouldn’t be surprised if Ruby had a stepmother within a year or two.

Yes, she decided. She would move back to the States, but as one last act of kindness, she’d cancel the newspaper subscription for Doug because she knew he’d never—

Lilli glanced down in mid-thought and saw something that immediately wiped all remaining thoughts right out of her head. Later, she’d say it must have been fate. Because if she hadn’t pulled the top newspaper off the pile in order to find the subscription cancellation details, she would never have seen the previous day’s edition just beneath it. The one with the front page headline stating, in bold type, “Fired RoTeku Employee Commits Suicide By Train.”

The first newspaper dropped out of her hand as she grabbed yesterday’s edition and dropped to a seat on the front steps of the townhouse. Like most suicide news in Japan, the employee was never mentioned by name. But thanks to a few telling details like “an assistant in the robotics division of Nakamura Worldwide,” and the awful feeling in her gut, Lilli put two and two together and quickly realized the victim’s identity. Miyuki. Definitely Miyuki.

She will need to be dealt with.

Lilli recalled No’s words from that night outside the Italian restaurant with a sinking feeling of horror and anguish.

Tears sprang into Lilli’s eyes at the memory of the cheerful young woman who’d visited her daily, sometimes preparing scrambled eggs with fish and green onions—strange but somehow yummy—after watching her take her piru.

She couldn’t begin to accept that Miyuki was dead and No was responsible. But what else was she to think?

The nagging ring of a phone pulled Lilli out of her semi-catatonic state and brought her to her feet. She knew that ring. It was her old phone, the one she’d just retrieved at the Osaka Charm apartment. In a daze, Lilli quickly dashed away her tears and ran into the house to fish her phone from her purse. The front panel was lit up with Doug’s number.

He must be calling to tell me about the five-year contract, she thought to herself.

Lilli shoved the numbness and shock and grief as far into the back closet of her mind as she could, took a deep breath, and accepted the call.

“Hi, Doug. We’ve got to talk...”

“Aunt Ana, is that you?” a high-pitched voice said in heavily-accented English. “Is it you? Papa said you are on vacation.”

“Ruby?” Lilli answered. A stupid thing to say, because who else would it be? And she knew exactly what was going on by the tone of Ruby’s voice. They’d been down this road together, more times than Lilli cared to admit. Doug must have had a relapse.

“Yes! It’s me! Please help!”

“Calm down, honey. What happened? Tell me where you are.”

“I don’t know! I don’t know!!” The little girl broke off in what sounded like a hysterical sob but then took a deep breath and continued. “Daddy was happy. He said he had good news for when we got home, but then he start talking strangely, and falls asleep. We drive off road. The car is upside down now, and Papa…he’s bleeding! Really bad, and he’s not moving! And there’s glass everywhere. And my leg, it’s—I don’t know word. It looks bad. Like zig-zag but I can’t feel it…”

Oh, no. Oh God, no!

In spite of the fact that Lilli was totally losing her shit on the inside, she forced herself into nurse mode.

“Ruby,” she said, keeping her voice steady and even. “Stay calm. Everything is going to be all right. Listen very carefully to me. Here’s what I need you to do…”