Back to Thorn Hill ✓

Part IV

The walls of Thorn Hill Mansion harbored more secrets than one person alone might take upon herself. Never, though, Alexandra would have imagined of finding out the greatest, the father of all those mysteries.

I'll face Dad and bring him to tell me the truth, she kept repeating to herself like a mantra.

Alexandra grasped the pottery doorknob of her father's study, where he had barricaded himself since the night before, with no intention of knocking. She froze when she heard voices inside.

"What you ask for is ridiculous!" The firm voice of her father was betrayed by an exasperated undertone.

A brief silence followed, and the other man replied with a low and vibrant voice, "Mister Graham, as you well know, my favor comes with a cost. Think of what your predecessors have accepted to forsake—think of old Walter, and how he was rewarded; I'm not asking for much after all. Besides you have no choice, if you want to keep living your life the way you've done until now. You will accept the deal and pay what is due also this time." The statement sounded ineluctable more than intimidating, but it implied a threat nonetheless. From the voice of the stranger seeped a confidence and an arrogance typical of who is certain of knowing the human nature as well as the inside of his pockets.

Alexandra didn't need much effort to match that voice to a face.

Her reaction was so sudden and impulsive that it surprised more herself than the two men inside the study when she swung the door open and stood there staring silently at them from the threshold. Alexandra didn't spare a glance at the bewildered expression of her father as her gaze traveled over the stranger and fixed into his impenetrable obsidian eyes.

The brighter the light, the darker its shadow; but it looked rather the opposite to Alexandra, that the caliginous figure of the man made the rays of the sun starker at his back.

"Hi, sorry for the interruption."

The stranger kept his eyes trained on Alexandra, but he didn't say a word. Her father chimed in instead. "This is my daughter Alexandra," he said nervously. "Alexandra, meet mister Kokei Hisakawa."

There were a lot of stories going around the city about the Graham family. Alexandra had always reckoned them legends, little more than fanciful fabrications, but now she wasn't so sure anymore. The elusive presence that seemed to have been overshadowing the household since its origins was anything but a myth, it was a man in flash and blood. And that man was standing right in front of her now, wrapped into an elegant gray suit.

Kokei Hisakawa.

"Mister Graham," Hisakawa said, taking father and daughter by surprise, "would you mind leaving me and Alexandra alone? I will join you in the garden in a few minutes."

"What?" The shock painted on the face of Alexandra's father was replaced by a strong irritation as he left the room without further objections.

Alexandra and Hisakawa were alone.

"I don't think we've met before."

"I'm sure we did at least once—yesterday afternoon. Excuse my question, is that suit of Prada?"

"Yes."

"It's true then..."

Hisakawa studied Alexandra with interest, and asked, "What?"

"No, nothing, mister Hisakawa."

Alexandra thought she had seen the shadow of a smirk on the thin lips of the man.

"Please, call me Kokei. We show roughly the same age."

"Maybe, but I think I'm much younger than you."

This time, the lustful mouth of Hisakawa actually tilted upward in a bemused grin at the challenge in Alexandra's voice.

"Now, let me ask you a question. Will you, Alexandra?"

She nodded weakly, enthralled, like she had heard her name pronounced for the first time ever.

"If a crystal ball could tell you the truth about yourself, your life, the future or any other thing, what would you like to know?"

Alexandra pondered about it for a second, and replied, "I'd like to know how to obtain that same ability, Kokei."

The expression of Kokei was unfathomable, or maybe it was her that was so dazed from the events not to be able to read it.

"Interesting," he said. "No one has ever answered this way—and I assure you that I've asked the same question to many people before."

Alexandra could not escape the sharpness of that direct and unflinching stare against her efforts. Those eyes—the darkest she'd ever seen—pulled her in like a magnetic force.

"I hope to see you soon, Alexandra."

The balmy voice of Kokei lingered on her skin like the memory of a voluptuous caress even after he left the room.