The Healer: A Young Adult Romantic Fantasy (The Healer Series Book 1) (29 page)

“Okay, so once the child was born and grew up learning how to heal, then what?” I asked impatiently.

“She’d heal the veil and take her rightful place alongside Victor. If ever the veil needed strengthening it would be her job to do so. This situation was also unique because she was betrothed to Victor before she was even born. Most kami never have a companion and must perform their calling in solitude.”

I thought I heard Tie give a disgruntled snort. I looked over to see him glowering angrily at the floor. His mood swings were so puzzling. I never had any idea what he was thinking even when I thought I knew what he was feeling.

“Why do you need Hope if you have this half mortal girl?” my father asked.

“Hope
is
that half mortal girl,” she said evenly.

I let out the breath I’d been holding. I think I’d known all along what Ms. Mori had been leading up to, but denial was a much easier road to travel down than acceptance. I had a million thoughts forming in my head, all of which amounted to one general idea. I was no deity, and I wouldn’t be fulfilling some crazy prophecy anytime soon. I was just a simple girl who happened to be smarter than the average heart surgeon. That was it. Just some obscure nobody with a random gift that came in handy whenever someone was on the verge of a stroke or possible heart attack.

“Do you even hear what you’re saying?” my father argued. “Hope was not fathered by an immortal God. I’m as mortal as they come.”

“Please calm down, Dr. Fairmont, and let me continue. The young girl was born around the time the veil began to weaken. Over a thousand years ago. When she came of age and was ready to take her role at Victor’s side…an unfortunate event occurred, and she was killed.” Ms. Mori stopped talking, her tone hinting at some raw grief. She swallowed and spoke again. “Her spirit was then entombed in a stone statue.”

Ms. Mori stared at my father, willing him to make some kind of connection.

By the way his eyes grew wider, it was apparent that he had. “The statue was of a Japanese woman kneeling before a cherry tree. Her arms were stretched forward like she was reaching for something,” he said flatly.

I stared at my father in surprise. How could he possibly know anything about that statue? His description of it was so detailed. It was like he’d seen it.

I glanced at Tie.

He was doing his best to appear unaffected by my father’s last sentence but some strange emotion flickered across his face and disappeared quickly. I thought it looked like a mix between anger and guilt, but I couldn’t be sure. I studied Victor next, wondering if his demeanor would be revealing in any way. It was surprisingly blank. His eyes looked a bit unfocused. He seemed lost in his thoughts, remembering something that had happened in another time and place.

“How do you know about that statue, Dad?” I asked into the silence.

“You were born in Kagami right next to that statue and a huge cherry tree.” He barked out a rough laugh, no doubt thinking how crazy that statement sounded.

I rose to my feet.

My dad looked up at me, and there was real fear in his eyes.

“When you were born you weren’t breathing. The umbilical cord had been wrapped around your neck, and I thought you were dead. I unwrapped it, but I couldn’t do anything to save you. Then this strange, thunderous noise hit. It was so deafening it broke the statue of that Japanese woman right down the middle. When it cracked open you started crying. The whole thing was so terrifying, and yet I was so relieved you were breathing I barely noticed anything else.”

“You kept this from me. Why did you and mother lie to me?”

“We were scared, Hope. Hachiman told us you’d have a gift for healing. He had no intention of allowing us to take you with us when we left. Your mother and I thought it best to tell no one about the incident. I’ve been hiding you from them ever since, keeping you safe from them.”

“The safest place for Hope was Kagami. You were supposed to leave the baby there. She was to be held at the temple under the watchful tutelage of the monks until I could arrive and raise her myself, but you disappeared from the temple in the middle of the night,” Ms. Mori said.

I watched Ms. Mori’s features and noted her barely suppressed rage.

“You’re damn right I did.” My father stood up next to me. “There was no way Julia and I were going to hand over our daughter to a bunch of monks just because they said to. We left, and our daughter left with us.”

“You had no right!” Victor shouted. “We waited hundreds of years for her to be reborn, and for what? To have her disappear without a trace? We’ve been looking for her for seventeen years. It shouldn’t have taken us so long to find her. It was like you guys were wearing some kind of protective shield or something. I can find anybody I want just by thinking about them, but I couldn’t find you. None of us could. ”

Tie found me. Or was it possible that he knew where I was all along?

Now everyone was standing. Tie looked like he was ready to get in between Victor and my father if necessary. Ms. Mori kept looking at me like she couldn’t wait to get her hands on me, and Angie held her purse out in front of her, no doubt ready to render someone unconscious if they took even one step toward me.

“She’s my daughter,” my father yelled. “If you kami were capable of loving anything you’d understand why leaving Hope behind was absolutely unthinkable. No decent mother or father would have ever considered it.”

“How did you even get out of there? Kagami is enchanted. You shouldn’t have been able to leave with Hope in your possession.” Victor folded his arms across his chest fully expecting an explanation.

My father hesitated and cast a furtive look at Tie. No one noticed it though because almost everyone was looking at me. Nor did they see the almost imperceptible shake of the head Tie sent my father.

“Let’s just say a desperate father has his ways. Julia and I took Hope from that awful place and left Japan as soon as we could. We never talked about it again.”

“Dr. Fairmont, Hope isn’t your daughter,” Ms. Mori said in exasperation. “Your real daughter did, in fact, die in her mother’s womb. Her death and subsequent stillbirth allowed the statue that Hope had been trapped in for over a millennium to break open, releasing her spirit into the body of your baby girl, giving her a second chance at life. Although Hope may not remember it at this moment, she lived once before in an age and place now long forgotten by almost everyone.”

I felt a strange kind of anger building within. Finding out you’re a major player in a prophecy involving a battle between the forces of good and evil is one thing. I think I was actually capable of eventually accepting that kind of bad news. Being told my father wasn’t really my father was enough to break me where I stood.

He was everything to me. Never once in my entire life did I ever feel he didn’t belong to me or I to him. We were family. Our bond was tighter than most families. That had to mean something, didn’t it? It had to mean I was his daughter.

I placed my trembling hand on my father’s shoulder and prayed he wouldn’t push it away. Instead of rejecting me he pulled me close and held me as tight as he could.

“I don’t care who Hope’s spirit belongs to,” he said vehemently.

“She’s my daughter, and as far as I’m concerned this conversation is over. I’ve heard enough.”

My father grabbed my hand, pulling me toward the door. Within an instant Ms. Mori and Victor were standing in front of us.

“Dr. Fairmont, I know this is a lot to take in, but you must understand the danger she now faces. Amatsu knows where she is. We have to keep Hope safe until she’s ready to take her place beside Victor,” she said in a placating tone.

My father bristled visibly and moved me behind him. I accidentally backed up into Angie who gave me a fierce grin. I could have sworn she was enjoying this.

I peeked out from behind my father to look at Victor and realized for the first time that if everything Ms. Mori said was true, I was supposed to live the rest of my life as Victor’s wife. No wonder he’d been so annoyed with Tie’s flirtatious advances. It explained many things, including the hungry kiss he’d given me earlier. He must’ve been waiting centuries to do it! Even now, the look he gave me was filled with yearning. I felt a strange pull in his direction, but all I could think about was Tie.

“I will protect my daughter,” my father said emphatically. “I’ve managed to keep her hidden from you people all these years, and I can do it again if I have to. As far as healing the veil is concerned, I’m afraid your kami friends are going to have to think of some other solution to their problem. It’s no longer Hope’s concern. Come on sweetheart. We’re getting out of here. Angie, let’s get going.”

“You got it doc,” Angie said smiling brightly.

“You can’t do this. You have no right to do this,” Ms. Mori cried out.

“She belongs to us.”

“She belongs to herself,” my father roared. “She will determine her own destiny and decide her own fate. You’ve already messed up one of her lives, and you are not going to mess up this one. You people are immortal! You’ve had a thousand years to work on some other contingency plan. If you haven’t done that by now, there’s no one to blame but yourselves. You are not going to lay this problem at my daughter’s feet. We’re done here.”

“What is Tie’s role in all of this?” I interrupted.

My question caught everyone off guard. Ms. Mori looked at Tie, who was still standing behind all of us, and tried to say something, but for the first time since I’d known her she seemed at a loss for words.

Tie’s gaze captured me pleading with me to remember something profoundly important—as if I already held the answer to that question and many others I hadn’t yet voiced.

Victor finally spoke into the silence. “Tie is the god of love and marriage,” he said stiffly. “He unites couples together through his blessing and the gift of a cherry blossom. He’s merely here to bless our happy union.”

My father stiffened at my side. I’d never even dated a boy let alone talked about marrying one. The subject couldn’t have come up at a more inopportune time.

There was more to it than that, though. The room filled with secrets left unspoken, but no one seemed willing to reveal what was really going on here. I was only being told so much. Clearly, I needed to find out the rest on my own.

“Musubi-no-kami,” I said addressing Tie.

“At your service, my lady.” He gave me a gallant bow.

“No wonder you argued with me in class. I criticized your very existence.” I eyed him critically.

“It was a bit offensive, but I can’t expect you to accept what you don’t understand. I have an important role to play, and I take it very seriously.”

“Yes, you force people to fall in love with each other by giving them magic flowers. Is that what you’re here to do? Give me a flower, and all your problems are solved?”

I was angry with him. I rebelled at the thought of anyone, especially Tie, making me feel something I wasn’t sure I wanted to feel.

“No, of course not,” Victor protested. “He’s simply here to help protect you and give our union his blessing.”

Tie opened his mouth to say something, but Victor sent him a warning look.

“We are leaving now,” my father said.

Angie and I followed my dad out of the den and down the hallway toward the front door. “Dr. Fairmont, I beg you to reconsider. Think of what you’re doing.

Hope’s life will be placed in jeopardy because you can’t accept what is,” Ms. Mori cried out.

“Don’t stand there and pretend you actually care about my daughter. All you care about is strengthening your precious veil.” He rounded on her and pointed an accusing finger at her face.

“I care about Hope just as much as you do,” she cried out, close to tears.

“It’s not the same thing. She’s not your child,” he shot back.

“She is my child!”

That stopped everyone in their tracks.

“I’m the empress who gave birth to her over a thousand years ago.” Tears began falling like large rain drops down her cheeks.

“Wow,” Angie said. “I feel like I’m watching an episode of Jerry Springer. My money’s on Dr. Fairmont. Pretty sure his paternity test will prove positive.”

Ms. Mori’s announcement took the fight right out of my father. He had absolutely no idea how to respond to her startling revelation.

I couldn’t help but feel completely detached from Ms. Mori’s statement. It was quite the bombshell to unload. Maybe a person who’d never had a mother like Julia Fairmont might have felt some kind of connection to this woman’s claim of motherhood, but all I felt was annoyance at her implied claim to me. Nobody could take the place of my mom. Ms. Mori may have birthed me a thousand years ago, but she was most definitely not my mother.

My father was still standing there silent; no doubt trying to figure out what his next move would be.

I didn’t know what was supposed to come next, but the thought of leaving without getting any rest made me want to cry.

“Look,” I said wearily, “let’s just stay here tonight. You’re tired. I’m tired. Angie looks like she’s about ready to face plant into the nearest couch cushion.”

Angie nodded in agreement.