Gravitation Fan Fiction ❯ Because of You ❯ Chapter 25 ( Chapter 25 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: Chocho

Because of You

Sequel to: This I Promise You

Written by: Chocho

Disclaimer: I don't own Gravitation or the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Summary: The only thing they have in common is their abhorrence for Shuichi. Karin claims he murdered her brother. Scott maintains that he is responsible for the death of his daughter. Karin and Scott's meeting may have been coincidental, but their plan to assassinate Shuichi is not.

Chapter summary: Maiko learns about the accident. A strange woman is seen lurking about the hospital as Eiri finally comes clean.

Warning: Angst, drama, m-preg, language, m/m sexual content

Inserts: References to “This I Promise You” chapter 13, “Because of You” chapter 18 & 20

A/N: I'm sorry if I'm taking too long between updates. I'm kind of a perfectionist. I even went back over the first twenty-four chapters and did some more tweaking, though I haven't posted the updated chapters yet. Besides, I want to give you guys more than one page to read and I'm not going to update just for the sake of updating. Bear with me. Once a month updates are better than not having updates at all, of which I can name quite a few of you. I could update sooner, have the chapters shorter, and let the story drag on for longer than it should or I could give you a longer chapter and move the story along more quickly. Anyway, here's the next installment.

***

Chapter 25

[Speaking of his boys…

“What about Riku?” he asked Dr. Li turning back towards the man.

“Ah! Yes. Kitazawa-san. He is in surgery.”

Eiri froze. His eyes went wide. In surgery? Dear Lord! His heart starting beating wildly in his chest. “Is he okay?”

He read a study on line from one of the local universities some time ago that claimed that the safest place to be in a car during an accident was in the back seat. The safest place in the backseat was in the middle, which strangely enough was the least popular site in a vehicle to sit. From that, he would assume that the least safe place in a car during an accident was more than likely the driver's seat.

“He's being taken care of by Dr. Amada Hirofumi so I don't know much about his condition, but I do know that he may have suffered some spinal injuries during the accident.”

Eiri went white. He felt woozy.

“Someone will be out here to talk to you shortly,” Dr. Li told the distraught father. He patted Eiri lightly on the shoulder and turning, vanished down the hall, leaving Eiri to try to cope with the devastating news.

Eiri turned slowly to watch his husband and their sons. How was he supposed to tell Shuichithat Riku might have been left paralyzed in the crash?]

***

(Hokkaido, Japan)

As soon as she and her two young children stepped into the house, the phone rang. Its shrill tones filled the cramped, but newly renovated confines of the apartment. With a curse, Maiko hopped through the foyer trying to pry her sneakers off as she juggled with an armload of shopping bags.

“Chiaki, help your brother take his shoes off please,” she told her daughter who was unzipping her heavy winter coat with its faux fur lining.

“Okay,” her daughter complied. Chiaki hung her coat on its hook besides her book bag and then turned towards her two-year-old brother. “Come here, Subaru,” she said, grabbing hold of him as he tried to step into the house without removing his shoes.

Subaru protested.

“We gotta take your shoes off and then you can watch Blue's Clues.”

She said the magic words. Two-year-old Subaru started talking up a storm to his older sister about one of his favorite television shows as Chiaki started to take off his outerwear.

Meanwhile, Maiko continued to struggle with removing her shoes as the phone's continuous reverberations sounded more and more hysterical.

Finally free of the hindering feet adornments and loaded down with her shopping bags, Maiko rushed through the house and fishtailed into the kitchen. Tossing the bags onto the kitchen counters, ignoring the several that flopped onto the floor, their contents spewing everywhere, she slid on stockinged feet across the slick travertine floor and grabbed the phone mid-ring.

“Hello?” she breathed breathless. “Hel-?” She pulled the phone away from her ear as the dial tone buzzed in her ear. “Guess not.” She replaced the receiver.

She was bent over her shopping bags, returning their spilled contents into their bags when her daughter skipped into the kitchen with her little brother in tow. “Who was it Mommy?” Chiaki asked as she crossed the kitchen towards the dining room.

“Don't know,” Maiko said. “They hung up.”

“Oh.” Chiaki pulled out one of the stools and perched herself at the bar peninsula looking back into the kitchen.

“Oh, dear,” Maiko exclaimed as she caught sight of her son's hair as he played with the magnetic characters on the refrigerator.

Subaru's mop of black hair was electrified and sticking on end. Maiko guessed it was because of his hat.

Maiko giggled. “Come here, Subaru,” she continued to laugh. “Poor Baby.”

Picking her son up, she balanced him on her hip and made her way to the sink. Setting him on the lip of the stainless steel sink, she turned on the faucet enough so that the water just barely trickled out.

Wetting her hands, she ran her fingers through her son's frizzy hair.

Subaru reminded her of Shuichi. She could remember when they were younger and Shuichi's hair would look all frazzled like this in the morning.

“He looks funny Mommy!” Chiaki commented from behind her.

“He sure does.”

“Oo!” Chiaki exclaimed when the phone started to ring again. “Can I get it, Mommy?”

“No, I'll get it,” Maiko said.

Chiaki whined in disappointment.

Maiko picked Subaru up and crossed the kitchen. “Do you have any homework?”

“I got some math,” Chiaki said. Her mood did a complete one-eighty. “Kitsuki-sensi said that if we didn't finish in class, we had to do it at home and bring it in tomorrow. You have to sign it too.”

Maiko nodded. “Okay. Then go get your backpack and bring it to the counter.”

“Okay!”

Maiko picked up the portable extension and pressed the talk button as her daughter skipped out of the kitchen. “Hello?”

“Maiko?” came the static-filled voice over the line.

“Ma?”

Subaru began squirming so Maiko walked to the living room and shut the baby gate behind her. It was the same type of gate her brother had scattered throughout his house.

“Was that you who called a minute ago?” she asked her mother.

Subaru ran on his short, chubby legs across the living room to the television. He patted the black screen and looked over his shoulder at her, saying something that sounded vaguely like “clues”.

Maiko walked across the living room towards the entertainment center, grabbed the remote for the television that was sitting on top of the TV while her son scampered to the couch, and started rocking quite forcibly as he talked to her about what a great show Blue's Clues was, or so she assumed.

“Yes. I've been trying to get a hold of you all day,” her mother was saying.

“Mommy,” came Chiaki's voice from the kitchen.

“In a minute,” Maiko called over her shoulder to her daughter. “Sorry,” Maiko apologized to her mother, “we just got home.”

She grabbed the remote and searched for Blue's Clues among the dozen or so shows that were recorded everyday on the DVR system. Most of them were recorded for Subaru.

Subaru cheered behind her as the opening theme song to Blue's Clues began.

“I picked Chiaki up from school and then we did some shopping. We just got home and I forgot to charge my cellphone last night so it died. Why? What's up?”

“…”

Maiko drew her brows together. “Ma?”

“…Have you listened to the news at all today?”

“The news? No,” she drawled cautiously, “like I said, we just got home. I haven't even had time to put my feet up.” Maiko did not like where this was going. “Why? What happened?”

“Eiri called me a little while ago.”

“Eiri?” Maiko's heart performed a series of summersaults. “Oh God! Is it the babies? Is it-?”

“There's been an accident.”

Maiko gasped. “What?! Oh my God,” she breathed. She staggered backwards and flopped into the armchair. The color drained out of her face. “Wh-what happened? Is everyone okay?” she stuttered in alarm.

“Both Eiri and Shuichi are fine,” Shindou-san assured her daughter.

“Oh that's good,” Maiko sighed in relief.

“But…”

Maiko perked up. Her heart was heavy with anticipation.

“Apparently, Riku was taking Kei and Kane out to do some shopping in Osaka and…they were hit from behind…”

“Oh my God.” Maiko felt faint.

“Your father and I are on our way to Osaka right now.”

“Oh, no. Poor Shuichi.” It seemed to be one thing after another.

“Thankfully, Kei and Kane just have some minor cuts and bruises, but they're unsure of Riku's condition. He's in surgery right now.”

Maiko brought a trembling hand to her mouth. “Oh God. I hope he's alright.” Her brother did not need this right now.

“They're saying it was a hit and run.”

Maiko gasped. “What?! Oh my God.”

“I don't know any of the details…This is just terrible. Terrible.”

~*~

“Mommy!”

Maiko was not sure how much time had passed when she was jerked out of her dazed state by her daughter's shouts.

She could not even remember what she did with the phone.

“Mommy come look!”

“What is it?” she asked Chiaki distracted. Her voice with thick and did not sound like her own. She continued to stare unseeing out the front window at the clear winter night with its fresh layer of snow.

“It's that lady!”

“What lady?” she asked uninterested.

“On the TV!”

Sighing, Maiko dropped her legs to the floor and swung around. She looked across the living room and through the arch at Chiaki who was standing on the stool's spindles and pointing at the television.

Her backpack was propped open besides her. Its contents looked like they had exploded all over the countertop. It also blocked Maiko's line of sight at the television.

“Why is the TV on? Aren't you supposed to be doing your homework?”

“But Mommy!” Chiaki whined. “Look!” She bounced lightly as she continued to indicate the television.

Maiko had the small television that was sitting on the counter along the far wall so that she could watch the news while she got them all ready in the morning and again later in the evening as she prepared dinner and made her daughter's lunch for the next day.

With a sigh, Maiko brushed at her tear soaked face and pushing up from the armchair crossed the living room to the dining room, noting that her son had fallen asleep.

“You know you're not allowed to turn on the TV until you finish with your homework,” she reminded her daughter as she reached out for the power button blindly.

“But Daddy's lady friend that was over that one time when we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa is on TV.”

Maiko froze.

“See?” Chiaki turned to look at her mother and pointed at the screen. “See?”

Maiko forced back her tears, whether they were from anger or sadness over the reminder of the day her marriage fell apart because of her husband's infidelity she was not sure. She had enough to deal with without bringing up that.

She had met up with him back in August and just listened to what he had to say just as her brother had suggested. He was her husband and she promised to stay with him through the good times as well as the bad until death did they part. Maiko might have been willing to forgive him for one act of infidelity, though life for him would not have been a very merry picnic. She had been willing to listen, open to trying to make their marriage work. He was her husband after all and despite what he did to her, to them, she still loved him, but to say that meeting had not gone well would be an understatement.

The father of her children had the nerve to tell her that she should think of their children and what people would say when word got out about the divorce. He said they should stay together if for nothing more then for the sake of the children, but he did not stop there. He even had the gull to suggest that he would retain his mistress and she would be free to take a lover as well. She had stormed out of the café after throwing a perfectly good Hawaiian Smoothie in his face and telling him to “go to hell”. The next day she called her lawyer.

“Chiaki-”

“Take a good look at this woman. She is thirty-five year old Rinjin Karin-”

She knew that name! Rinjin was the name of that guy that nearly killed her brother seven years ago!

Unable to stop herself, Maiko turned towards the television. Maiko gasped. Her eyes went wide and her face went white.

“-she is wanted for questioning concerning the hit and run accident that happened earlier today in Osaka that sent all three Uesugi-Shindou children to the hospital-”

With trembling hands, Maiko reached out for the television and turned it off.

It was her! God help her! It was her! The woman she caught her husband with over the summer!

She suddenly felt nauseous.

~*~

(Osaka University Hospital)

Detective Misawa Ren left his partner, Detective Shigeno Shin, back at the Home Lodge Hotel to deal with the mess there while he came to the Hospital to question Yuki-san, Shindou-san as well as the children who were involved in the accident. They might be able to shed some light onto this investigation.

He called the hospital on the way over and learned the two younger ones, the six-year-old twins, were fine except for some minor cuts and bruises, but that the older boy, Kitazawa Riku, was still in surgery. His condition was still unknown. However, he was told that it was feared he might have suffered some spinal injuries during the accident. Misawa was surprised that the children had survived the accident at all. He had seen the vehicle, or rather what was left of it. It had not so much as crashed into the pylon in the parking garage as had been impaled by it. The Hyundai Tiburon was nothing more than a ball of scrape metal.

There were still no leads as to the whereabouts of Rinjin Karin. The confidential tip line has been receiving calls nonstop since this whole fiasco started. While each one had to be followed up, none of them had panned out.

Though there was no evidence to back them up, those who had been assigned to the taskforce all agreed that Rinjin Karin was still somewhere in the city. She had unfinished business with Shindou Shuichi.

They also agreed that she had not been trying to kill Shindou's children, though that would have been an added bonus. She was sending Shindou a message. That was the only reason why she was not even bothering to try to hide the fact that she was the unsub behind everything.

Misawa stepped up to the enclosed counter in the Emergency Room and rapped on the glass with his knuckles. He held up his badge. “I'm Detective Misawa Ren. Where might I find the Uesugi-Shindou family?”

“Oh, yes, Detective. I was told you would be arriving. They are in the recovery room,” the nurse pointed over her shoulder. “Just go through these doors here and turn right.”

“Thank you.” He inclined his head.

She returned the gesture with one of her own.

Returning his badge to the pocket inside his suit coat, Misawa marched down the short hallway to his left and pushed through the swinging doors.

~*~

She peered around the corner of the outpatient building.

The Emergency Room entrance was staked out by the local news stations. Their news vans decorated with station logos and erect antennas lined the street. The national news stations would have people en route to the scene. She did not see any yet. Paparazzi as well as reporters from the local radio news stations were mixed into the crowd as well.

The mob was camped by the entrance to the ER earlier until they quickly become a nuisance. The police arrived and the various news media were told to vacate the premise or they would be arrested. It would have suited her just fine if all of them had been hauled away.

The horde of eyewitnesses with their cameras, still and moving, being across the street from the hospital rather than surrounding the automated doors to the Emergency Rooms did not make it any easier for her to enter the hospital unnoticed.

She spied a patrol car turn off the highway and coming straight down the street in her direction. Panicking, she ducked back around the building and pulled the hood of her coat over her head. Stuffing her gloved hands into her pockets, she lowered her head and watched her feet move one in front of the other as she strolled casually down the street.

Nobody would notice her. It had been unusually chilly since October. Though it was warmer out today than it has been, there was still a bite in the air.

The police would have the hospital staked out just as the media did. Yuki and Shindou would no doubt have bodyguards. Somehow, she had to find a way to get to them. It should not be too difficult. Not every entrance would have someone watching over it and their guards could not be with them every second of the day.

~*~

Yokoiwabara “call-me-`Yoko'-or-`Tai'-and-you-die” Taisuke, who called himself a “freelance photojournalist” and not a paparazzo, was quickly becoming bored. The constant squawking was giving him a serious migraine.

Nothing was happening. He would bet his favorite body part- you had three guesses as to what it was, and the first two were wrong- that Yuki and Shindou had been in that van that arrived at the hospital earlier. If he were them, he would want to avoid the press at all costs. That meant that they would have veered away from the obvious entrance, which would be the ER entrance even though it would have gotten them to their boys that much quicker. So where would they have entered from? His best guess would have to be the loading docks or employee entrances in the back.

Taisuke glanced over his shoulder at his flock of competitors and quietly slipped away. He took advantage of a momentary opening in traffic and darted across the street.

With a smirk, he said one last silent goodbye to the multitude of morons and flitted around what he believed was the outpatient building, whatever an outpatient building was.

His shit-eating grin slipped as he spied someone walking hurriedly away from him. This person was hunched over as if he were trying to disappear beneath his coat and not so much as limping as dragging one of his legs behind him. There was something very odd about this guy. With a split second decision, Taisuke took off after him.

~*~

As Detective Misawa stepped through the swinging doors, he noticed a man in a black trench coat several yards down the hallway talking on the phone. The man was on the short side with yellow blond hair and a severe expression on his face.

“Seguchi-san,” he called out to the man.

Without missing a step, Seguchi Tohma held up a hand.

Misawa pulled his badge out as he strode down the hall towards the man.

“Yes, Mika,” Tohma was saying, “I'll call when I have news…Yes…I love you, too.” Tohma pulled his cellphone away from his ear and flipped it closed, effectively ending the call. He turned towards Misawa. “May I help you?” he asked as he slid his phone into an inside pocket of his coat.

Misawa held up his badge for the keyboardist turned CEO. “Detective Misawa Ren. We spoke on the phone earlier.”

“Ah! Yes, Detective. Hello.”

The men shook hands.

“My condolences Seguchi-san.”

“Thank you.”

“I heard that the two littlest ones-?”

“Keitaro and Kane,” Tohma supplied.

Misawa inclined his head in gratitude. “Yes, Keitaro and Kane-kun. I heard that they-”

“Just have some minor cuts and bruises. Yes.”

“That's good.”

“They were lucky.”

“Has there been any news on Kitazawa-kun?”

Tohma shook his head. “Not as of yet.”

Misawa nodded sadly. The lack of news about their son must be driving both Yuki-san and Shindou-san insane.

“My source tells me, Detective,” Tohma said, “that a Rinjin Karin is your main suspect?”

“Yes,” Misawa nodded. “We tracked her to the Home Lodge Hotel just outside of the city, but by the time we arrived, she was already gone, but we suspect that she is still in the city and most likely on her way here.”

Tohma had suspected as much. “You believe that she is after Shindou-kun?”

“Yes. If our information is correct and she is indeed sister to Rinjin Yasashii then it is possible that she blames Shindou-san for the death of her brother.”

“That's ridiculous. His death was an accident. The railing was loose. Besides he killed two of my best guards, kidnapped Shindou-kun and would have killed him.”

Misawa nodded. “Be that as it may.” He had read up on the case. “Apparently, that is not what Rinjin-san believes.”

“Then she is a fool.”

“Yes, but a very dangerous fool.” Misawa glanced down at the smudge of his right shoe as he gathered his thoughts. “Seguchi-san I want to apologize.”

“For what, Detective?”

“For giving you such tragic news over the phone.”

Tohma inclined his head, but said nothing.

“As Primary, I wanted to be the one to inform you of the accident, but I didn't want to leave the scene. I wanted to make sure that nothing was overlooked, but the trip to Nara would have taken half an hour and by then the media would have splashed the news of what happened all over TV. I did not want you to find out that way.”

Even though they tried for a media blackout or at least a semi-media blackout, just as he feared happened. Leaks had the news spreading like wildfire. If he had even attempted the drive to Nara or requested an officer from Nara be sent out to inform the family of the boys about the accident, the police officer would have arrived too late. By the time he arrived, Yuki-san and Shindou-san would have already found out when they turned on either the television or the radio.

Tohma nodded. “I understand. Thank you Detective.”

“Seguchi-san, would it be alright if I had a few words with Yuki-san and Shindou-san? I'd also like to speak with the children.”

“Of course. I believe Eiri may have some things he has to speak to us about as well, Detective.”

Misawa thanked the man as he walked passed him.

He watched as Tohma strode confidently across the Recovery Room towards a set of drawn curtains in the far corner that was ringed by sextuplets in black suits that looked like they cost more than his annual income. He assumed they were bodyguards that Seguchi Tohma hired to protect his family.

He himself had gone to his superiors and requested that additional officers be sent out to patrol the streets, especially around the hospital. If this Rinjin Karin was indeed after Shindou, then that was the likeliest place she would show up next.

Tohma pulled aside the curtains and vanished inside the tent but not before Misawa caught a glimpse of Yuki-san and Shindou-san cuddling with their peacefully sleeping twins on the narrow hospital bed.

He wondered if it would not be more prudent for them to have a private hospital room.

Not more than a second later, Tohma reappeared. The curtains swung together again as he passed through, but they were not lying perfectly straight, which left a gap through which Misawa caught a glimpse of the writer as he untangled himself and bent over Shindou-san. He whispered something in his ear then kissed him chastely on the lips before rounding the bed and exiting the curtained off section behind Tohma.

As the curtains were drawn back together, Misawa caught a glimpse of lavender eyes staring at him in confusion, before they vanished.

“Detective.”

Misawa swung his gaze back around.

“This is my brother-in-law.” Tohma indicated the taller, blond haired man walking up behind him.

“Yuki-san,” Misawa greeted as they shook hands. “Or do you prefer Uesugi-san?”

“The latter,” Eiri confessed.

Misawa nodded once. “Uesugi-san-”

“Why don't we take this somewhere a little more private?” Tohma suggested as he glanced about the busy ER.

“Yes, that is a good idea,” Misawa agreed. He looked around. “Excuse me,” he called out to a passing doctor.

“Yes?”

He presented his badge. “Do you have somewhere private where we can go?”

“Of course, Detective,” the woman said. “Just this way.”

With her file tucked under her arm, she led them back through the recovery room and down the hall Eiri and Shuichi had been escorted through earlier. She stopped at the first door. Twisting the handle, she swung open the door. Sticking her head into the room, she groped the wall besides the door and turned on the lights in the office.

“He you go,” she said with a smile as she pulled her head out and stepped back.

“Thank you.”

She inclined her head and vanished back down the hall.

“Gentlemen,” Misawa said, turning towards him.

Tohma and Eiri stepped into the room and took the visitor chairs in front of the desk.

Misawa entered the office and shut the door behind him. As he crossed the office towards them, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a photograph. “Do either of you know this woman?” he asked them. He watched them closely.

Tohma leaned forward and taking the photograph, studied the woman staring back at him. The blond hair piled haphazardly atop her head was obviously fake, as was the high-sculpted cheeks, aquiline nose and full, pouty lips. What he could see of her suit appeared just as expensive as any of his wife's suits. Whoever she was, he did not know her, but she was beautiful in an artificial way. “She doesn't look familiar.” He handed the photo to Eiri.

Like Tohma, Eiri found her attractive, but could not say either way if he ever met her, but there was something vaguely familiar about her. As he studied the woman in the photograph, the deeper the sense of familiarity became.

“Uesugi-san?”

Eiri glanced briefly at the detective before returning his gaze to the photo.

“Eiri?”

“You know her,” Misawa assumed.

“I don't…”

***

[He pushed the door aside and stumbled inside the apartment, tripping over something that was lying right inside the door. Regaining his balance, he started over his shoulder at the limp bodies and cursed.

“E-Eiri,” came the cry from above him.

The writer glanced up, saw his baka alive and well at the head of the staircase. At his feet was their neighbor, clutching his face and crying. He blinked. “Shu, wh-what did you do to him?”

Shuichi smiled proudly. “Decked him.”

Eiri snorted, but felt a surge of pride. “I can see that Baka.”

“Well,” the singer said, fisting his hands on his hips, “that's what he gets for trying to take what I reserve for you alone.”

“What?” Eiri did not like that one little bit. He started towards the staircase. “Shuichi, what-?”

He cut himself off when he noticed the bastard who took his Shuichi stagger to his feet. With his wide eyes, he watched as this man, who had blood covering the lower half of his face and an insane gleam in his eyes, glared at the back of Shuichi's head.

Shuichi heart beat in reaction to the sudden panicked look in his husband in confusion. “Eiri?” he called out cautiously. “What's-?”

“Duck!” Eiri shouted in panic.]

***

His heart beating wildly, Eiri's eyes went wide.

***

[“When they traced the call Mr. Keene made at the diner…”

Eiri gulped.

“…apparently, it came back to a woman here in Japan.”

Eiri's eyes went wide. The color drained from his face. If he had not been already sitting down, he would have fallen over.

An image of the surveillance photos spread out on his desk flashed through his mind.

A woman? Here in Japan? Could this be just a mere coincidence? It had to be. What other explanation was there?]

***

[Shuichi glanced up at his husband with torturous purple eyes. “Uhm…you remember…that paparazzo I told you about when we were back in Tokyo?”

Eiri did not like where this conversation was going already. He frowned down at the other man. “Yeah,” he drawled.

“Well.” Shuichi glanced down at his hands clenched together in his lap. “I think…”

Eiri's heart was hammering in his chest.

“I think I saw him.”]

***

It was her!

The photograph shook in his trembling hands.

It was Rinjin's sister. It had to be. She was their stalker, the one who has been sending them all those surveillance photos. She was most likely the one who broke into the studio last month. She was the one who Shuichi saw in front of the house, the one who took off after Riku as the boys left to do some shopping in Osaka. She's-!

“Uesugi-san? Are you alright?” Misawa asked the writer when he went white.

“It's her,” he whispered.

“Eiri?”

“It's her.”

“Eiri.” Tohma snatched the photograph out of the hand of his wife's younger brother. “I think it's time you told us what is going on.”

Eiri slowly lifted his head. He flitted his gaze from his brother-in-law to the detective before lowering his eyes back to the stained linoleum floor. Closing his eyes briefly, he opened them and said, “It started four months ago when we went to Tokyo for Shuichi's grandfather's funeral.” He turned towards Tohma. “Remember when I told you about the paparazzo Shuichi saw?”

“I remember.”

Eiri lowered his gaze. “Apparently, it wasn't a paparazzo.”

Tohma drew his brows in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“If it wasn't paparazzi, then who-?”

Eiri stole the photograph back from Tohma and held it up. “It was her.” He guessed it was time to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

***TBC***

A/N: Wow. C'mon now. Tell the truth. How many of you had forgotten about Maiko's marriage troubles? Bet ya didn't see it having anything to do with Shuichi, huh? It's strange how things work out like that.

Next Chapter: The truth comes out.