Forced to be The Mafia's Contract Wife

December 2nd

That morning, it was said on TV that it was the coldest day in ten years. This was indeed so. It had snowed since morning, and by noon the snow turned thicker.. The wind, not to be outdone, whistled constantly. People at the bus stop outside the supermarket couldn’t help running inside to get some warmth for a couple of minutes if they reckoned the bus was not coming immediately.

Thanks to the bad weather, there were few serious customers in the supermarket, and the two cashiers were playing games on their phones to kill time. Adele, who was both cashier and staff supervisor, caught sight of the snow at the entrance, tracked in by people from the bus stop.

Adele called Kate to disassemble a couple of used cartons and put them on the floor of the entrance to avoid melted snow, causing a slippery and stained floor. But she shouted a few times to the back from her cashier stand without receiving a response from Kate.

Adele had to ask another coworker to cover for her as she walked back inside to the shelves. Kate was standing between two rows of shelves, meditating. She heard footsteps and turned to Adele:

“Adele, my eyelids keep twitching all the time.”

“Left or right?”

Kate, clearly distressed, took a second to figure out left from right and pointed: “Right one.”

Adele was speechless at her state and replied carelessly, “Bad luck. My grandma said it left for fortune and right for misery.”

“Seriously?” Kate opened her eyes wide.

Adele laughed at her, being so easily shocked. “Don’t take it seriously. My uncle said it was left for career and right for romance. Don’t be superstitious. It will probably go away soon.” And then Adele instructed Kate to put the flattened cartons on the floor with adhesive tapes. “Make sure the floor is dry. Otherwise, if some elderly person slips and breaks his bones, he will sue us.”

Kate nodded and ran to carry out Adele’s instructions.

After she finished, Kate came back to continue arranging items on the shelves and checking stock, a tedious job. They used to have three employees. One of the other two was the boss’s niece, and the other one was the nephew of the boss’s wife. To make things worse, these two fell in love and spent most of their time whispering and giggling together, leaving Kate to work alone.

She didn’t want to complain because it was not easy to keep a stable job. She got paid on time every month in this stagnant economic situation. Besides, she preferred to deal with merchandise rather than people. Whenever customers asked her where a certain product was, she could always give the precise location. This made her feel good. So even though Kate was busy as a bee every day, she enjoyed the job.

But today, she was a little absentminded.

Kate took her cell phone out of her pocket from time to time. She was expecting a call, a very important one. The way her eyelids had been twitching since this morning gave her a bad feeling.

Kate hadn’t felt like herself for the whole day. She didn’t even notice when someone was walking too close to her. The person patted her on the shoulder, but she was too scared to scream out. When she turned back, that person screamed out too. It was a hoarse, male voice, and she saw a tall, skinny boy with thick eyebrows, sticking his tongue out at her.

The big boy remonstrated her for scaring him by pointing at one of her eyes, “What the hell is going on with you? That is spooky.”

Kate raised her hand to touch her eye and found a small piece of paper. She thought of her practice this morning when she had torn a small piece of tissue paper to cover her flickering eyelid. She thought there were not many customers today and that nobody would see it.

The boy with the thick eyebrows leaned on the shelf with folded arms and smiling, said, “You must be exhausted without us.”

“It will be Sarah’s birthday in two days. You should come to the party.” Sarah was the boss’s niece. The boy with the thick eyebrows is John, nephew of the boss’s wife.

Kate said OK and started stocking the shelves with milk.

John took the milk from her hands and said, “You leave early today. I will do it.”

“OK.” Kate wiped her hand on her apron and left.

“Hey! Leaving now? Not even a thank you?” John shouted at her back.

Kate replied without turning back, “Isn’t that your job?”

“OK, OK. Get out of here!” John waved his hand as if swatting away a fly. The other girls at the cashier counter laughed.

Kate was anxious to get back. Her cell phone was going to die because she didn’t have the charger with her.

The snow had almost stopped, but the wind from the coast did not subside one bit and drilled through her coat like needles.

When Kate got down to the bus, it was pitch black. She had to walk through a long alley from the bus stop to the house she shared with her roommate. There was a hotdog stand at the entrance of the alley, and Kate realized her stomach was protesting when she smelled the yummy food. She bought one and took it in her hand. The warmth of the hotdog was transmitted to her palm through the paper bag, and she had a feeling of satisfaction.

The streetlights inside the alley were broken, and it was completely dark. Kate was anxious to get home and did not notice a car following her at a distance.

The car was a dark color, and its headlights were not on. It hid in the dark night like an animal lurking. When Kate got to the middle of the alley, the car sped up suddenly, and she heard the sound of the engine.

She moved aside to avoid it. But the car passed her, turned 180 degrees, and blocked the road. The headlights were suddenly on, and she had to raise her hand to cover her eyes.

Kate frowned and opened her eyes a little. A dazzling white light came to her eyes. She took a few seconds to adapt to it and found it was a huge crystal chandelier hanging from a very high ceiling. The shining crystal beads of the chandelier reflected light to the walls of an extremely big room. Everything looked surreal.

And the next second, Kate realized that she was curled up and lying on her side on the floor. Her hands were tied behind her back, and her ankles were also bound with rope. She recalled the last scene she could remember and saw the light… She was taken aback. She had been…kidnapped!

“Awake?” A male voice asked from behind her.

She felt her body was still feeble, and it seemed that some smell was still lingering in her nose. She turned back labouredly and saw a couch with two young men sitting on it.

These men stood up simultaneously and walked towards her. She could see the outline of their muscles under their clothes. They reminded her of dangerous animals. She was scared and struggled to sit up.

The man with pale skin and curly hair bent down and lifted her chin with two of his fingers, spoke with a flighty tone, “Tell us. Where is it?”

Kate’s heart skipped a beat, but she showed nothing on her face and asked, “What is it?”

The man gave a snort of contempt. “Stop playing dumb with me. You know what it is.” And then he bit his lips and squeezed out the word “the disc.”

It felt awful being stared at so intently, and Kate shifted her eyes away. “I don’t have any disc.”

The man gave her an angry glare and said, “Ha. Keeping your mouth shut? You will not say it?” Before he finished his sentence, a white light flashed over Kate’s face, and magically, he had a dagger in his hand. The thin blade gave out an icy air under the light. And in the next second, the dagger point reached Kate’s cheek.

The man laughed insidiously. “You got a pretty face, chick, but it is a little dull. You want me to add some scars here to make it more interesting? Here? Or here?”

The dagger moved across the surface of her face, and if he wasn’t careful or experienced enough, her face would be ruined. Kate’s mind wasn’t focused on the dagger. She recalled a scene five days ago.

Caroline, Kate’s friend from home, whom she had not seen for a long time, came to see her and dragged her to a place out of the way and slipped her an envelope. Caroline instructed Kate with a mysterious expression that if she did not receive her call in a week, to mail the envelope. Whatever was inside the envelope felt hard and round.

Seeing this made no difference, the man with darker skin and a buzz cut frowned and yelled, “Stop wasting time.” And he roared to Kate in the suppressed voice, “You will end up like your friend if you don’t say it.”

At these words, Kate blurted out, “What happened to her?”

The man was going to open his mouth but instead coughed and put away his dagger. His voice changed into a gentle and coaxing tone: “Little sister, don’t be silly. You give me the disc, and I will let you go immediately, plus you’ll make a fortune.”

Magically, his hand, which had held a dagger just a few seconds ago, was now waving a big stack of money in her face. “See. This is all yours if you give us the disc.” And then he added, “My pal won’t be as nice. He might strip you.”

Seeing the fright in her eyes, this man with the curly hair was satisfied with the effect of his words and continued. “He hasn’t touched a woman for months. He has severe chemical imbalances and is as hungry as a bear.”

He was still smiling when he spoke, but his eyes suddenly turned ruthless as he saw no further reaction from Kate. He grabbed her sweater collar and pulled her towards him. Kate’s neck and collarbones were exposed, and he couldn’t help giving them a stroke. “Wow, nice skin. You feel good.”

Kate shivered and struggled violently and screamed, “Let me go! You bastards! I know nothing!”

Her fighting irritated him, and Curlyhair pressed her down against the floor, but she hit him in the ribs with her knee. Skinny as she was, she did some damage. Curlyhair called his pal for help without turning back, “Come to help me hold her down.”

The man with a buzz cut hesitated a little, then squatted and used one of his knees to press her tied legs against the floor.

Kate’s coat was unzipped, and her sweater was lifted up. Her pinklaced bra was exposed. The two masculine young men were surprised to find the skinny and malnourished girl had an hourglass figure under her clothes. Curlyhair made gestures to unbutton her pants as he gave the ultimatum: “If you don’t say it, don’t blame us for taking no mercy on you.”

“Help! Let me go!” Her face was like a fish on the cutting board. She was doomed and had nowhere to escape, but she still cried for help grievously and didn’t give in.

“What the hell is this?” Another deep male voice said suddenly.

Kate didn’t expect her cries for help would reach anyone, and she was surprised to hear somebody respond. She was still not sure if it was real or a dream.

The two men responded quickly. They released her and stood up immediately and called with respect to the direction of the door, “Boss.”

Curlyhair asked, “Didn’t you go to the resort center? Why did you come back so soon?”

Kate turned back to see a coldeyed big man with a dark coat standing at the door looking expressionlessly at them.

Curlyhair explained hastily, “This chick clamped up and wouldn’t tell us anything. So we had to give her some motivation.”

“By stripping her?” the man ridiculed. “If I came a little later, might I have interrupted your intimacy?”

The two men wanted to explain again but seeing his face, they hushed up.

The man strode to her and looked down at Kate on the floor. She had halfopened clothes, and her shoulders were still twitching while she sobbed. Her messy bangs covered half of her face, the hair on the floor was wet, and her chin was dripping with an unknown liquid, probably a mixture of tears and snot.

He frowned and reprimanded his men. “How could you treat a lady so rudely?”

And before he heard the response, he added, “Go fetch a basin of water.”

The two men looked at each other and couldn’t figure out what their boss was thinking. Would the boss clean up for the girl? One of them asked: “Cold or warm water?”

Their boss gave them an angry stare, and they shut their mouths and ran out to get the water.

The man took off his black suede gloves slowly and walked toward Kate’s back. He squatted down and pulled her tied hands. Kate stayed still in terror. She struggled to hear what he said: “What is your name?”

The binding method was professional, and he patiently unbound the loops of rope. Her slender wrists bled because of the abrasions from the rope during her struggles. The man’s eyes lingered a little on them and then turned to untie her feet. Without getting her response to his question, he lifted her chin with two fingers and said, “Not hearing my question?”

Kate caught sight of his sharp eyes and was frightened. She curled her lips and said, “Ka…Kate.”

The man’s eyes became milder as he threw the rope to the floor. He kept the same pose and tried to talk casually, “Kate. This is the case. Your friend took some important information from us and wanted to blackmail us.” He twisted the corner of his mouth when he came to this. “I hate being blackmailed.”

“I will ask you one last time. Where is the disc?”

“Water is here.” The two men carried a big basin of water and put it down on the floor. The water was still rippling inside the basin. Except for the boss, everyone was wondering what the purpose of the water was.

Kate was thinking of the words the man said, and her brain was racing. She thought of what Caroline had told her, “You have to keep it safe. Do not tell anybody about it.” She pressed her lips tightly together. Perhaps her motion had irritated the boss, she felt the back of her skull was pulled tightly, and her whole face was pressed down into the water.

This happened without warning.

The other two men were also struck dumb. They didn’t expect their boss to take this step directly. Kate wasn’t prepared for it. She choked and tried to struggle, but her back was pressed tightly by the boss’s knee. Her limbs were spread limply on the floor uselessly.

When her mouth and nose were filled with water, and she was going to suffocate, she was lifted by her hair out of the water.

“Still won’t say it?” The voice was as cold as a demon from hell.

Kate kept coughing violently and seemed not to hear what he said.

With another splash, she was pressed into the water again before she stopped coughing.

This continued until she forgot how long she had been here, and the time between splashes felt longer and longer.

She felt a bitter taste in her mouth and coughed, not knowing if it was tears or bile. And in the end, Kate could only see two thin lips open and close silently. Her brain stopped functioning, and she was not able to receive or give any command.

The man stared at her for a while and suddenly released his clamping grip on her head. He instructed the other two, “Lock her up.”

What followed was a lasting and strange torment.

Kate was thrown into a narrow and pitched dark room. The room was small enough to fit one person. Its width was less than her height. She had to remain curled up all the time and was constantly reminded of the legendary “matchbox cell.”

Because of swallowing too much water, her lungs felt like they had exploded, her ears were pricking, and her head was aching. Her clothes were soaked in the front, and she felt seized by coldness from time to time. She shivered in coldness, hunger, and terror. She had to close her eyes and start to count as if she was playing cat and mouse when she was a kid.

Kate had an older sister. Her mother had wanted a boy. And when she was born, her mother was disappointed. The next year she had a sister. Both her parents were upset, and the three girls were also a heavy burden on the family.

When Kate was four years old, her mother got pregnant again, and they finally had a brother.

When her brother was three years old, Kate’s younger sister took him out to play by the river. Her brother fell into the river by accident, and her younger sister was scared to death and kept crying. Kate happened to find them. Her first reaction was that her brother was the most important person in their family, and he could not die. She jumped into the river without thinking.

Kate didn’t remember how she got back to the riverbank. She only remembered the freezing water with thin ice floating on the surface. It was so cold, and her body felt lifeless.

When she woke up, the first thing she saw was her grandma’s happy face. She told her that she had had a fever for three days and nights.

Her mother brought her ginger tea, saying that it could expel the coldness inside her. She hated ginger, but she drank it obediently, and her body warmed up.

Her mother was sitting by her bed and pushed her wet hair back and said, “Thank you, Kate. Thank you for saving your brother.” Her parents rarely expressed their feelings, and these were the warmest words they had ever said to her.

She shook her head, and her tears came out.

Her mother asked again, “Where is it?”

Ah? Kate raised her head in puzzlement.

Her mother’s loving face was fading away. She asked harshly, “The disc. Where is the disc Caroline gave you?”

She muttered, “What is the disc?”

“Still playing dumb?” Bang! She was slapped in the face.

She looked at her mother, who had never been so fierce and malicious.

Kate woke up because of hunger.

When she woke up, the day had broken. This time she was lying on a huge bed with complicated and exquisite designs on the head. She was covered with a comfy and soft quilt. The room was large with simple but elegant decorations—lightcolored drapes and French windows, with a beige background and vague goldpatterned wallpaper. On one side of the wall, there was a fulllength wardrobe that reached to the ceiling. And on the floor, there was a snowwhite longfur carpet.

Kate scanned the room blankly, and her memory came back to her slowly. She felt scared and disoriented. What was the situation now? Her first thought was to get away from here as soon as possible.

Right now. Immediately.

When Kate raised her hands, she saw they were bandaged. She was a little startled. She lifted up the quilt, and her chest hurt because of the movement of her arms. All her limbs were sore. She disregarded all these sensations. Fortunately, when she looked down, she was still wearing her sweater and jeans. Her coat was neatly folded on a chair nearby.

As she was going to get down from the bed, she heard footsteps from behind the door. She paused and got back on the bed, laid down under the quilt, and closed her eyes.

The door opened, and somebody walked in. He seemed to stop for a moment at the door and then approached. Kate’s heart was beating fast. The person stood by the bed for a while and sneered, “Get up if you are awake. Still acting?”

Kate had to open her eyes and see Curlyhair from yesterday, looking at her with a faint smile. The nightmare from yesterday came back to her. She couldn’t help withdrawing back to the quilt.

Curlyhair ignored her reaction and waved to the door, “Come in here.”

A middleaged woman came in with a big tray. Kate’s stomach was empty, and her nose was sensitive to the smell of food. She smelled fried meat, onions, and spices.

The woman put a small collapsible table on the bed and put the tray on it. She said respectfully, “Miss, please eat while it is warm.”

Kate stared at her without moving. Curlyhair got impatient and urged, “Quick! Eat it because we have something else to do.”

She took the cup of chicken soup and gulped it down eagerly.

She was pondering inside while eating. Why were they suddenly treating her so nicely? Did she tell them something last time when she was not herself? Or would they continue to torture her after she ate?

She was so hungry that she swallowed the meat quickly without chewing. She coughed, and her lungs were pulled and hurt like hell. Curlyhead frowned and said, “Slower. Nobody will be responsible if you die of choking. I will wait for you downstairs.” He waved his hand in annoyance and left.

Kate wondered what was waiting for her. Was the man who tried to drown her downstairs too? Her head tingled when she thought of him. But there was no way out for her. Why not enjoy the food first and deal with it later?

She had been prepared for more torture when she got downstairs, but she found Curlyhair and Buzzcut sitting on the couch watching TV. They looked relaxed and turned off the TV as soon as they saw her. Curlyhead picked up the car key on the coffee table and signaled her to follow them.

When they went outside, Kate saw she had been in a threestory house. Two large dogs with long fur growled at them from the porch. They jumped up when they saw her and barked, flashing their scary shining white teeth. Curlyhead gave them a shout, and they strolled away.

Kate was glad that she didn’t try to escape from the window earlier; otherwise, the two big beasts could have torn her into pieces.

A shining dark sedan, parked at the door, looked familiar. It could have been the same one that kidnapped her.

Buzzcut took the driver seat, and Curlyhair opened the back door and shoved Kate in. The car started, and Curlyhair took out a bag and covered her eyes. He did say “Sorry” when he did it but didn’t show any sign of feeling sorry.

The car drove fast, and Kate sat still with her back on the chair. She was worried and scared about where they would take her to, but she made no sound. The two of them didn’t speak either.

They rode in silence for about two hours until the car slowed down and stopped. Curlyhair took the bag off her head, and Kate adjusted her eyes to the light. She looked out of the window and identified that this was the alley where she was kidnapped.

Curlyhair drew a cigarette and lit it. He had one drag and exhaled it. And then he asked, “Will you call the police?”

Kate was surprised, but she shook her head immediately.

“OK. Smart.” Curlyhead snorted.

He took another deep drag and threw his cigarette out of the window. And then he pointed at her with his forefinger and threatened her, “That thing since you said you didn’t have it, you’d better never take it out. Otherwise, you will end up like your friend…” He made a gesture of pointing a gun at her temple with his hand and pulling the trigger, “Bang!”

Kate shrank to the back of her seat but could not help asking, “She…did you…really kill her?”

Curlyhead changed his face and said impatiently, “Better not to know too much.”

He pulled something from the front seat and threw it to her. She looked down. It was her shoulder bag.

“Get out.” After Curlyhair scrutinized her for a few more seconds, he released her.

Kate felt excited and pushed the door open. She jumped out hastily for fear they might reconsider. She walked fast at first, but as she got further away from the car, she simply ran.

The car didn’t drive away but stayed there until she lost sight of it at the corner. Curlyhead went to sit in the front and took out his cell phone and called to report. “Boss. She has been sent back.”

“OK. Did you make the arrangement?”

“All set. We took extreme caution this time.”

The call ended. Buzzcut started the car, and Curlyhead took out the pack of cigarettes and gave one to him, helping him light it. And he lit one for himself, cursing, “Shit. Bad luck. What a moron.”

They had worked all night, and even hypnosis had been used. The girl had talked, but none of it was useful. They prick their ears up for a long time.

And finally, their boss concluded that these tricks only worked on normal people, but this one has a problem here: the boss pointed at his head.

That was to say, they had to play the game differently.

Kate ran up to the third floor in one breath. She took out her key and opened the door with trembling hands. She sat down on the floor as soon as she got into her room. Her roommate was not there during the day. The small room looked empty and spacious.

She sat there for quite a while, and when she got up to her feet, she felt darkness come over her eyes and discomfort all over her body. It felt like she was drowning. When she wiped her forehead, it was wet.

Kate managed to walk to her bed, found some cold medicine, and swallowed it down with cold water. And then she laid down on her bed. The medicine took effect, and she soon felt herself slipping into sleep.

She slept deeply and only woke up once in the middle of the night. Her roommate was back. It was soothing to see a familiar face, and she closed her eyes again.

Kate heard her roommate saying something and wanted to get up, but her body was rooted in the bed. Her throat was dry and burned so much that she could not speak a word.

At last, Kate’s roommate woke her up. She was from Ohio. Kate said she had a fever and kept raving. Her roommate helped her take some antipyretics, and then Kate went back to sleep.

The next time she woke up, it was early in the morning. This time her cell phone rang for a long time. She put it to her ear and covered her head for fear of disturbing her roommate. She saw the number was her elder sister. Her sister cried on the phone, “Kate, come back home. Father is in the hospital.”

She was shocked. “Father? What is the matter with him?”

Her sister sobbed, “Some fatal disease.”

When Kate got outside, the sky was still gray. The city had not yet fully awakened. She took the bus to the supermarket, got something she put there, and headed to the railway station.

John caught her at the lounge of the railway station and gave her a bulging envelope with three thousand dollars. He said, scratching his head, ”Not much, but it might help. Don’t be anxious to return it to me.” Kate was so moved that she couldn’t say anything. John patted her on the shoulder and said, “No need to say anything. We are friends.”

The train finally reached Portland. The city had just had heavy snow. Workers were cleaning the city with snow removal trucks and spreading salt in the middle of the roads, which were noisy and jammed. The melted snow and salt made the road dirty.

The temperature was 13 degrees Fahrenheit, and all of Kate’s limbs were numb by the time she got to the hospital. She wasn’t aware of the cold because her heart was eaten by her deep worry. Portland Mercy Hospital, 13th floor.

She finally saw her father, lying on a bed with pipes connected to his body. She had not seen him for a year, and he looked totally different. His face was dry and gray, his cheekbones protruded, and his skin stretched over the bones like a tent. Her tears gushed out immediately.

Her father became skinny in the past year, and he had stomach aches from time to time. He didn’t take it seriously and bought some medicine at the drugstore to kill the pain. It was not until a few days ago, when he coughed up blood, that he went to the hospital for a checkup.

The doctor informed him that he was in the middle stages of stomach cancer and recommended him to get to Portland Mercy Hospital. Her father was not insured, and they ran out of the five thousand dollars they brought with them quickly. The doctor told them that surgery and aftertreatment would cost about $100,000. It was an astronomical figure for a family like them.

Her father wanted to go back home and save the money so that his son could go to college. Kate’s mother and elder sister, of course, did not agree with this. Her elder sister had asked her husband to try to borrow some money from his parents, but it was not going smoothly. Kate’s younger sister was in college, and her little brother was in high school. They didn’t know about their father’s illness yet.

Kate sat by the bed and listened to her mother, telling her about her father’s condition. She drank a mug of hot water and warmed up. She said, “Father cannot leave the hospital now. I have three thousand dollars here. We can hold on for a few more days with this. And we will think about what to do next.”

It was not easy to think of any solutions; Kate knew that this would take some thinking.

Without insurance, staying in the hospital was like burning money. Kate’s three thousand lasted only three more days before the hospital started to urge them to pay the bills. Her mother and two sisters were anxious and sad, but they had to conceal their feelings in front of their father.

When Kate sat on a bench downstairs in the inpatient building, she stared blankly at the bank outside the hospital gate. She imagined herself wearing a mask and rushing into the bank for a robbery. A shadow blocked the sun, and a flat voice asked from above, “Kate?”

She looked up and was surprised to see a middleaged man with sunglasses and a dark coat, showing a mild smile on his face, “Our boss wants to see you.”

She was startled and wanted to stand up. She composed herself and said, “Your boss? Do I know him?”

The man chuckled and said, “Our boss is Mr. Fox.” He paused and then added, “You saw him a few days ago.”

Kate’s heart was seized. She had fallen into the icy river again.

Kate followed the man mechanically, about one step behind him. The man looked amiable and chatted with her, “Don’t you feel cold? Portland is quite different from Los Angeles. Probably negative 20 F degrees?” As he mentioned the temperature, he shrank his neck into his collar.

The man led her to a fancy coffee shop. When they entered the shop, she saw Curlyhair immediately. He raised the corners of his eyebrows and said, “Fancy meeting you again.”

And then she saw that man.

He sat at a table by the window, wearing a dark sweater and a shirt under it. He looked handsome and refined, which she knew was but a disguise.

The room was warm, probably 70 degrees higher than outdoors. Not knowing if it was because of the abrupt temperature change or her anxiety, Kate sneezed suddenly.

The man smirked and pointed to the seat opposite him and said mildly, "Sit down, please.”

Kate walked over and sat down.

There were four chairs, but the other two men just stood respectfully. It looked strange, but they behaved naturally. They kept silent and seemed to melt into the background. In the center of the table, there was a small vase with a perfume lily. The tender and broad pink petals spread at ease, not feeling the cold from outside at all.

Out of the tinted window, Kate saw the hospital building in the distance. The layers of drapes separated this world from the outside. She felt a little discomfort in this confined space. The table between her and the man could not block the domineering air she felt from him. She didn’t dare to look his way, but she still could feel he was looking at her.

She didn’t know what his intentions were. He was probably trying to put some pressure on her. His silent stare made her nervous, and she pretended to look away. When she looked back, she met his gaze accidentally. They were clear and deep, like a vortex that could suck a person into it.

To release Kate’s anxiety, the man smiled and poured a cup of tea for her and started chatting as if they were friends, “How is your father?”

Kate felt her heart being stabbed by a needle. She answered awkwardly, “Just like that.”

The man put the cup of tea in front of her. Kate was startled by this ordinary behavior.

He poured a cup for himself and took a sip. “Nice. Have the hot tea. It can help you warm up.”

Kate wondered what he was playing at. She was on the verge of saying, “Stop beating around the bush.” But instead, she took up the cup and had a drink. She was nervous and drank too fast. The tea was too hot, and she almost wanted to spit it out.

The man waited until she put down her cup and put his cup down too. He said, “Miss White, how about we make a deal.”

As he just said these words, the middleaged man moved forward and put a bank card in front of Kate on the table.

“There are two hundred thousand dollars on this card. It is for your father’s surgery. Don’t delay this anymore.”

Kate’s eyes fell on the card about a foot away from her. She heard the sound of her saliva moving in her throat, and the next second she heard the man, with power in his voice, “You know what I want.”

She blurted out, “No.”

Realizing her reaction was negative, she added hastily, “I don’t know what you want. I have things to attend to. I need to go.”

When she stood up, she made some noise pushing the chair back. Curlyhair was about to stop her, but his boss said calmly, “Let her go.”

Curlyhair turned to his partner and pursed his lips in the direction of their boss. Curly hair's partner looked back at the boss, taking up his cup of tea with ease. It was as if he knew it was in the bag.

As Kate hurried back to the hospital, she ordered herself to wave away the idea, not allowing herself a chance for hesitation. She walked faster and faster, and when she got back to the ward, her back felt moist.

It was noisy in the room. A few hospital staff members were there, and her mother and sister were arguing with them about something. Her mother pleaded with them, insisting that they could get the money soon and pay the hospital.

But the male hospital staff said, “You can check in when you have the money ready. You know a lot of patients are waiting for a bed out there. Besides, we cannot treat him if you cannot even pay the money you owe to the hospital. There is nothing to be discussed. He has to get out of here today. This is not an asylum.”

Kate’s usually mildtempered sister got angry too, “How can you speak to her like that?”

Her father struggled on the bed and intended to lift the quilt and get down underneath it. He coughed and said, “Let’s leave this goddamn place. I want to die at home.”

The sound of her mother pacifying her father, her father’s coughing, the hospital staff exchanging words, all mixed together and turned into a net, wrapping and trapping Kate and making her feel suffocated. In confusion, she could only see the bankcard in her brain…two hundred thousand dollars.

With two hundred thousand dollars, her father could have the surgery immediately.

Without the two hundred thousand dollars…

After a short stalemate, her mother accepted the fate they had to face and started to pack up their things. Her sister had called her husband, and they fought over the phone, and now she was sobbing. It looked as if their last hope was broken.

Kate had never had such a hard conflict inside her. She looked at her luggage at the corner of the room. It was something that did not belong to her. Besides, somebody’s life might be at risk.

A phone rang. The male hospital staff, coldly monitoring them, answered the phone. After a few “well” and “ah,” he changed his face and said awkwardly, “You don’t need to go today.”

“Uh?” The whole family stared at him in surprise.

He waved his hand and said shortly, “Somebody paid your bills.” And he added, “But you have to try to get the money ready for surgery. The resources of this hospital are tight. You have to know that.”

He jerked his head to the other staff, and they left together.

The windfall made Kate’s mother and sister both ecstatic. They hurried to get her father back to bed. Kate ran out to catch up with the hospital staff. “Please, tell me who paid the bills for us?”

The hospital staff turned crossly, “A big guy called Mr. Fox. He talked to our hospital president. Since you knew such a powerful person, what were you doing earlier? It is a waste of my time.” And he left angrily.

Her suspicion was confirmed. She leaned on the wall languidly.

What did this mean? Had he forced her to accept the trade?

While she was leaning on the wall weakly, and enduring the fight inside her heart, the phone in her pocket rang all of a sudden. Kate shook so hard that a nurse passed by and gave her a strange look.

She took out the cell phone and saw an unfamiliar number. This time she didn’t hesitate but accepted the call immediately. The mild male voice asked, “Miss White, have you thought it over?”

Tears emerged from her eyes, and she heard herself said in a dry voice, “Yes.”

Back at the café, Curlyhair and the middleaged man were still standing. And the boss was standing by the window making a call. He turned his back to the door and put his other hand in his pocket. On the table, there was a notebook computer.

When Kate entered the door, she stopped. Curlyhair walked over and asked her for the thing, but she ignored him even though he was obviously cross. The man turned back only after he finished his call, and he looked at her lightly. She walked up and put the envelope on the table. Curlyhair took it and examined it by the light from the window.

The man didn’t give a second look at it. Instead, he asked, “Did you see it?”

Kate shook her head.

He handed her the card and said calmly, “The password is the last six numbers of your social security number. And the other fifty thousand is compensation for the offense we caused you a few days ago.”

Kate took the card and held it tightly in her palm. The sharp edge poked her soft skin, but she didn’t feel pain.

Curlyhair passed the envelope to his boss and nodded to him. The man went back to his seat, looked at the receiving address and sender on it, and made a hardly audible snort.

Kate heard it and looked up at him.

He tore the envelope neatly and put the disc into his notebook computer. She observed his cold and sharp profile and his curved lips. That might be ironic or complacent. While waiting for the document to be read by the computer, he tapped his fingers on the table, and the ring on one of his fingers gave some icy glare under the sunlight.

Kate looked down to the tile below her feet and waited.

After a few minutes, the man finished browsing the contents of the disc and walked up to Kate, still carrying the cold and calm air, “That is it for us. As soon as you walk out of this door, everything you hear and see in here…” he pointed to her head, “has to be deleted completely.”

Kate nodded. The man could not see her face and seemed to think that was an obstacle to their communication. He lifted her chin and forced her to look into his eyes and then felt satisfied. “Don’t play a game with me. Don’t get yourself and your family into any more trouble.”

He stressed the word family and pronounced it especially distinctly.

Kate looked into his deepset eyes and felt a little dizzy, but she replied affirmatively, “I know.”

The man scanned her face again as if to identify if she was telling the truth, and then he released her, “You can go now.”

Kate turned, pushed the door open, and walked out without hesitation.

As soon as the door was closed, Curlyhair asked, “Boss, you really want to let her go?”

The man leaned back to the chair and lifted up his cup of tea while looking at the pink perfume lily. He seemed to not be hearing Curlyhair’s question and muttered, “They should change this lily to a white one.” As he took a sip of the tea, he turned to them, “What do you think?”

Curlyhair was startled. What did he think about it? A pink or a white lily? He replied in the next second with coldness in his tone, “I think only dead people are reliable.”

The man raised his eyes and gave him a stare, “Is it funny to kill?”

“Uh…” Curlyhair paused. “Of course not.”

The man took another sip and said slowly, “Remember, we are here to solve the problem, not to make another problem. Or else I will have to spend all my time following you and cleaning up the mess for you. How can I do anything else?”

Curlyhair was ashamed by his words, and he said respectfully, “I will keep an eye on her. If she oversteps the boundary, I will…” He made a cutting gesture on his neck.

The man seemed to not hear him. He poured another cup of tea for himself as if he was now enjoying the tea only.

Kate had the card in her pocket, but her heart did not feel relieved for solving the problem of funds. Instead, she felt heavier than before. Her heart was empty as if she had had something inside of it removed. An important organ of her body was gone.

She put her hand on her chest. It felt hard.

Kate walked to the hospital with heavy steps. She paused for a second when she stepped across the gate of the hospital. She walked to a remote place, a lane between two buildings. Nobody walked by there. The snow was about five inches thick, clear and crystal, white and pure. She squatted down and looked at the snow. It was so white it made her feel ashamed.

She inserted her fingers into the soft snow and couldn’t feel the coldness. She wished she could wash away the dirt on her hands. After a long time, she felt the piercing wind blowing through her coat, and her nose became sore. Tears came to her eyes as she put her hands on her face and cried out.

She remembered when she was a child; she played cat and mouse with her friends. In the middle of the game, the TV had some show, and her friends ran back to watch. She kept hiding in her neighbor’s garden. At first, she was happy nobody found her but soon she felt something was wrong.

However, she stayed there unmoved because that was the rule. She fell asleep until her parents came to find her. They beat her up.

Another time, her mother had asked her to send something to her aunt. She went to the house, but her aunt was out, and the door was locked. She waited there all day until the next morning.

Her parents thought she was stupid and wondered if her brain had been damaged from the time she almost drowned while saving her brother from the river.

She always followed the rules, never crossed the lines. It had become a habit. But now, she broke the rules.