Mastered by His Touch-Complete Box Set (14 page)

Chapter 3

"Kiri!" said my mom when she opened the door. "Oh my god, you're here!"

I threw my arms around her. As I did, I felt tears welling up.

"I love you, Mom," I said.

"Oh my darling Kiri, you're here," she said. "I love you, my child."

We stayed hugging like that for about a minute. Then I closed the door behind me.

"You should go up and say hello to your grandparents and great-grandfather," she said.

"Yes," I said. "But can you and I talk alone first?"

"Yes, of course. Your father is at work. Jessica is shopping. What are you doing here, Kiri? The last I heard you were going out to dinner with a man."

I wiped the tears from my eyes.

"Yes," I said. "He took me to an art gallery in Manhattan after we ate."

"He took you to an art gallery in Manhattan? I thought you were in Boston."

"Yes, we were in Boston. He flew us here in his private jet."

"Private jet? Oh my, I'm beginning to like this man. I give you my permission to marry him immediately."

I laughed.

"I'm so happy you're here," she said and hugged me again. "Can you stay?"

"I have no plans at the moment," I said. "I'm not even sure if I work at the bank anymore. I'm not even sure I know my own name anymore."

At that her eyes squinted and she shook.

"Come have some tea," she said.

My mom hustled me into the kitchen where she made some green tea.

"Is everything okay, Kiri?" she said. "How did you get here?"

"I took the subway from Manhattan," I said. "I spent the night at the Plaza Hotel."

"The Plaza Hotel?"

"Yes, the man I was with has a Private Residence there."

"You must marry him tomorrow."

"Mom, I've been having these... flashbacks."

"Flashbacks? What kind of flashbacks?"

"Well, they're related to the man I've been seeing... Caden. Well, seeing is not the right word. He was a customer at the bank... but yesterday I spent the entire day at his place."

"I hope he didn't take advantage of you. Although I'm sure he did, seeing as you spent the night at the Plaza Hotel. I don't understand men."

Ha, how do I respond to that? Hmm, I'll just skip over it.

"Mom," I said, "I think I knew him from a long time ago."

She poured some green tea into the cups I grew up drinking from. God, it felt so good to be home. I sipped the tea.

"Go on," said my mom.

I took a deep breath. Time to lay it all out.

"Mom, you always told me I was adopted as a baby. This man says he knows for a fact I was adopted when I was five years old."

My mom shook a little. She put her hand up to her mouth and stared at the table. She reached out for my hand. I gave it to her. We stayed like that for at least a good solid minute. Tears formed in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Kiri," she said. "I never told you because you snapped out of it. You finally became a happy little girl and I didn't want you to go back. I wanted to keep you happy. So I lied."

"Snapped out of what?" I said.

"You were a very disturbed little girl. You were brought into the hospital by a nice older couple. You wouldn't speak. You just stared. Your big eyes just stared forever and ever. At nothing."

"The hospital where you work?"

"Yes."

My mom cleans on the night shift at a children's psychiatric hospital on the Upper East Side.

"I'm so sorry, Kiri," she said. "I should have told you. What kind of flashbacks are you having?"

"I'm on a sinking boat in one," I said. "A boy in a little dinghy rescues me. Then I'm on another boat, a sailboat, with an older couple. The lady has red hair and she bought me a teddy bear."

"Mrs. Decoud," said my mom. "She was indeed a very nice lady. Still is, in fact. She called a while ago to see how you were doing. Maybe about two years ago."

My heart leaped out of my chest.

"She called? She called here?" I said. "You still talk to her?"

"No, not regularly," said my mom. "But every couple of years or so she calls to check on you. She always thought it best that she not see you, seeing as you made a full recovery from whatever condition you were in. She didn't want to remind you of whatever it was you had been through. She lives on Fifth Avenue. She's in her eighties now. Her husband passed away about five years ago."

"Mr. Decoud," I said. "The man on the sailboat with her."

"Yes. I met him only once. Very distant and cold man. I don't know the details of where they found you. I think it was in Bora Bora or Pongo Pongo or one of those South Pacific places with the odd name. And somehow you had lost your parents."

The tears returned. My mom went to a kitchen drawer and pulled out a box of tissues. She brought them to the table, took one, and blew her nose.

"All I know is they brought in this little angel of a girl and I fell in love with her... with you. I would visit you in your hospital room and try to get you to talk. For the longest time, you wouldn't. You just kept staring at nothing. Staring and staring and staring. Then, magically, one night while I was trying to get you to play a game with me you started laughing. We couldn't believe it, Mrs. Decoud and I. We were so happy! Then you picked up the crayons that had sat there untouched for so long and you started coloring in the coloring books we had bought you. That's the moment I knew I had to do whatever it took to take care of you."

"So you adopted me?"

My mom put her hand up to her mouth and started to cry again. I got up and put my arm around her.

"It's okay, Mom," I said. "You don't have to tell me all the details."

"No, you need to know," she said. "I've been holding it in for too long and you're a grown woman now. You need to know. You see... I... we... your father and I... adopted you illegally."

"How did you do that?"

"Mrs. Decoud was so happy that you responded to me. You would only snap out of it when I came by. Not the nurses. Not the doctors. Only me. She didn't want anyone else to adopt you and the system here is so complicated that chances are you would have ended up with someone else. So she and her husband paid somebody off."

"Paid somebody off?"

"The Decouds are very wealthy. They gave cash to somebody. That's how they got you here in the first place. Your father and I  named you Kiri Thanwarattanamangkul. Somehow a fake birth certificate was filed. Mr. Decoud got mad and insisted we give you any name besides your real one. So we picked Nadia. That's why your birth certificate says Nadia but we always called you Kiri. All I know is you came home with me and you've been my bright little shining star ever since. You came back to the world and you laughed and smiled. You started to play with the other kids. You went to school. But whenever Mrs. Decoud came by..."

She blew her nose again.

"Go on," I said. "Whenever Mrs. Decoud came by..."

"You would drift back into the trance," she said, "like you were in a coma or something. So eventually Mrs. Decoud stopped coming to see you because whatever happened to you was tied in your little brain to seeing her. So we all just decided it was best to leave the past in the past and never mention it. I never said anything because I love you and I wanted you to be happy. Whatever happened to you will always remain a mystery but so be it. As long as you're alive and happy."

I hugged my mom again and began to cry. We both just stayed like that for a while.

"I'm going to use the bathroom for a minute," I said.

I went in and splashed some cold water on my face. Then I fixed up my eyes.

When I came back out to the kitchen, my mom had a package out on the table.

"Is that what came in the mail the other day?" I said, sure of the answer.

"Yes," said my mom. "It was sent by FedEx from Boston. A company named Bane Development. Maybe I shouldn't show it to you."

Bane Development. Where had I heard that lately?

"Why?" I said.

"Because I think it relates to what we're talking about. I'm not sure, but I think it does. Kiri, this man... how is he involved?"

"Well, remember I said that before I met up with Mr. and Mrs. Decoud, I was saved from a sinking boat by a boy?"

"Yes..."

"Well, he... Caden... is the boy. He was eighteen then. He's thirty-six now. I just figured out last night that he's the boy in the flashbacks I've been having. But he was taken away by armed guards and I never saw him again. Until recently when he walked into QV Bank."

"That's how you met him? He just walked into your bank?"

I gave her a shortened version of what happened, leaving out anything that might worry her. Especially the part about the FBI and the bank robbery.

"Mom," I said, "do you think it would be okay if I went to see Mrs. Decoud?"

"Oh Kiri, I don't know," she said. "I haven't seen her myself in about fifteen years. She's very old now. But... I guess so... I mean, why not I suppose? I mean, I hope it wouldn't shock her too much to see you."

"It's a chance I have to take. You said she lives on Fifth Avenue?"

"Yes, right across from the Park. I'll get the address for you. Are you going today?"

"Well, mom, I can't fully explain, but time is of the essence. Now tell me, what has been going on here? What were you so upset about on the phone yesterday?"

"Well, I've been getting a lot of strange phone calls. One was from a building inspector who was trying to get information from me about our family. I immediately hung up and called the Building Inspector's office. They had no record of any call being placed."

"That's strange."

"Yes, and then I saw a man standing around outside. He bothered me. Your father went out to talk to him and he said he was waiting for somebody. But he waited a long time."

"What did he look like?"

"He looked Irish. He had very creepy blue eyes and a red crew-cut."

Agent Henderson! Shit, I've got to get out of here!

"Mom, will you do me a favor and don't tell anyone I was here?"

"Why, yes, of course. But why, Kiri?"

"Because I... just because. It's important. Now, what about the package?"

"Well, this is the strangest part. This came in the mail. I think it has something to do with where you came from. I tried calling Bane Development. I've left several messages but nobody has returned my phone call."

Gingerly, I opened the FedEx box. I gasped when I saw what was inside.

The locket!

I picked it up and examined it. I flipped it open and there was the old brown-and-white picture of the woman who looked like me.

Yep, no doubt. This is the same locket that Caden had put in the safe deposit box. The safe deposit box that was robbed last night.