My Little Mind Reader

53. Forgiveness

Ming's POV

Yo walked into the house, holding Pha's hand. I had to admit that I was still having a hard time liking Pha, but my brother seemed to love him, so I tried to bite back any reservations I had. Honestly, if he hadn't been so terrified about Yo getting hurt, I wouldn't have allowed him to come with us on the rescue. I was still angry that he'd hurt Yo once again when Yo had told him the truth about his abilities. I knew the kind of shock and fear that could come with being told Yo had what amounted to magical powers, so I was giving Pha the benefit of the doubt.

There was a certain amount of guilt involved in my decision. After all, I'd failed Yo as well. When I'd turned to see Park holding an unconscious Yo, in the process of taking him away, I'd been foolish and followed after without even thinking of calling for additional help. It had been my stupidity that led to me being hit hard in the back of the head and falling flat on my face in the alley, resulting in a concussion, a broken nose, and a bruised cheekbone. If New had been there, we might have been able to avoid this whole awful situation.

Yo didn't seem to agree with my self-pity. He spent the whole time in the car telling Dad and I that he was fine and saying that he knew we would come for him. He didn't blame me at all, explaining that no one could have predicted what had happened. Apparently, abducting Yo had been a last minute decision, and only the fact that Park had some well-trained servants with no morals had given him enough advantage to get away in the first place.

I kept hold of Kit's hand as we walked into the house, and I noticed that he gripped me tighter as he looked around. His face showed his surprise, the house was impressive, but Kit's face somehow held fear as well. I didn't know what that meant, but I took the opportunity to pull him closer to me, hoping he would take courage from my nearness.

We walked into the living room, where Yo immediately pulled Pha to sit down with him on the couch next to Dad. There were two other smaller couches and two armchairs, arranged in a large square around a coffee table. I pulled Kit to one of the empty couches, while Beam and Forth took the one across from us. Kao took one of the free armchairs while Joss walked around the edges of the room, tapping on a tablet and speaking into his phone in low tones.

After just a few minutes, the staff brought snacks and drinks. I watched Yo, smiling and leaning either on Dad or Pha and felt an amazing sense of peace. How we'd gone from fearing for his life to sitting happily at home was a mystery to me, but I was grateful. Everyone else was looking a little dazed as well, so I knew we were all experiencing much the same thing. Yo just looked back at us with a smile until he finally lowered his gaze. After a moment of silence, he broached the subject that we were all carefully avoiding. What happened in that room with Park?

"Please stop looking at me that way," Yo said, looking around the room with a little sadness in his eyes. "I'm really okay. Nothing horrifying happened."

"He kidnapped you, Yo," Forth said, sounding frustrated. "How can you say nothing happened?"

"I said nothing horrible happened," Yo looked uncomfortable.

"You don't have to tell us," I looked accusingly at Forth. I had a very bad feeling about what Park might have done and Yo certainly shouldn't have to talk about it in front of everyone. "You just tell us as much as you feel comfortable talking about. Or you can just talk to me and Dad."

Yo swallowed hard and he looked at me with his eyes full of gratitude and trust, but I knew my brother well. Before anyone could say anything else, he continued, "It's okay, Ming. I'm okay. Mostly, he just held me while I pretended to sleep. He did touch me a little, but luckily I was able to fool him into thinking I liked him. As soon as he unlocked the handcuffs, I knocked him out. Then I opened the door and all of you were there."