Hwa found herself standing taller. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it to Layne’s funeral.”
Séverine shook her head softly. Her white hair swept back and forth, back and forth, against the lace back of her dress. “No one blames you for that. You were there when it happened. Attending the service would be too much to ask.” She waved away a document and another bloomed up to replace it. “You didn’t answer my question, my dear.”
“About the job?” Hwa licked her lips. “It kinda sucks, actually. They’re making me go to Homecoming.”
Séverine twisted. “Oh, that’s not such a bad…” Her manicured hand met her lips. “Why, Hwa, what’s happened?”
It was useless, trying to keep secrets from her. Mistress Séverine had a sixth sense. Maybe even a seventh one. She just knew when you were vulnerable. It was her trade.
“My place got broken into.”
The Mistress crossed to her and clasped her gently by the shoulders. She took Hwa’s chin in her hands and turned it to the left first, and then the right. “Well, are you hurt?”
“No. They were gone by the time I got there. They did a number on the place, though. There’s shit—sorry—everywhere. And they melted my brother’s trophies.”
“Animals.” Séverine smoothed her hair. “Just animals.”
“They left a threat on my mirror. They said they were going to come back, and, uh…” Hwa let the other woman see her eyes. “Finish the job.”
“You don’t even have to say it. Not if you don’t want to.”
Hwa nodded. “Thanks.”
Séverine moved to her desk and opened the top left drawer. She fished out a bottle and shook it. A smile crossed her face. “Do you know who did it?”
“Aye. Got a pretty good idea.”
“Mmm.” Séverine shook out a pill from the bottle and offered it to Hwa. “You take that. You’ve had a scare, and you need to rest.”
Hwa blinked at the pill in her hand. “Will I sleep?”
“Later, you will. It’s very slow, this one. We’ll feed you, to help it along. I’ll have Rusty make a big cioppino. And bread! We’ll eat bread. As much bread as you want. And a big olive oil cake for dessert, with honey. And Manhattans to start. Then an old vine zin I’ve got kicking around. Oh, darling, don’t cry.”
Naturally, Hwa started sobbing right that second. Séverine patted her hair. “It’s all right, dear. It happens to all of us. It’s happened to me, once or twice.”
Hwa only sobbed harder. Her throat hurt. Her eyes hurt. It was much worse to think of this happening to the people she knew. To think of all the women this had happened to, before her. All the women who had read those same words in some other place, at some other time. Maybe not for the same reasons, but the reasons didn’t matter. What mattered were the words. The threats. The people who made them. And their hate.
“It’s a sign of success, actually. If they’re trying to intimidate you, you must be doing something right.” Séverine handed her a glass of water. “You should tell your employers that you might not be available for the next little while.”
Hwa nodded. It was the last call she wanted to make, but the Mistress was right. There was no way around it. She wiped her eyes again. “Thanks. Thanks for everything.”
Séverine reached out and stroked Hwa’s face with just her fingertips. The bad side. The stained side. She was the only one who would ever touch it. “You are so much bigger than this bullshit. Remember that.”
Hwa squeezed the tears out of her eyes. “Yes, ma’am.”
When the door closed behind Séverine, Hwa pinged Síofra.
“How’s the laundry going?”
“Not great. My place got, uh, tossed. Probably some guys from Security. You know. In retaliation.”
A long, long pause. Dead air. “Did you hear—”
“I heard you.” His voice was iron. “Where are you? I’ll hire a boat.”
Hwa shook her head, then remembered he couldn’t see it. She mastered her breathing. Thought of the master control room. The buttons and switches. The screens, with her apartment on them. Her first real place. Tae-kyung’s trophies. Christ.
“I have a place to stay.”
“You have a place to stay right here. You know that.”
Hwa squeezed her eyes shut. She had considered it. Wanted it. Just show up in Tower Five, at his door, the smell of jasmine and honeysuckle, the mossy dimness of his hallway. Just fob herself in and tell him everything and damn the consequences.
“That would go badly for you, wouldn’t it?” Hwa asked. “They’d know, I mean. If I stayed the night. You’d get in trouble.”
“Stop protecting me. I’m not the one who needs protecting.”
“We…” Hwa didn’t know how to finish the sentence. She decided on another truth, instead. “I just wanted to stay with a woman, eh? I needed some, er, girl time. Someone who gets it.”
A long pause. A defeated sigh. “Of course. I’ll run by your place and set up some flies on the wall, just in case.”