I went to my father’s office. He was in but the secretary whose name is Michelle said he was on the phone. But when she saw me she told me to go in.

My father was on the phone dealing with an interesting person. My father was part of the group who dealt with International relations with those that came from overseas. He was half Chinese which meant I guess I was a quarter Chinese in actual fact.

“I’m sorry sir but you must talk with your immigration officer about this,” he then held the phone away as the person yelled at him in Cantonese. I didn’t think people here spoke it. He politely answered back in the same tongue.

“Did you understand that…? Hold on for a moment,” he looked up at me. He put his hand over the receiver.

“Sam now is…” I must have been tearing up in front of him because his face went less serious and he quickly went back to the person.

“I’m sorry can you call me back in an hour? I just had something come up,” he waited for a response, “ok thank you very much, alright, goodbye.” He hung up the phone, stood up and came over to me. He patted my shoulder; I went up to his chin.

“Sam…?” He said gently examining in, “what’s the matter?” I breathed out my eyes starting to sting and my voice breaking.

“Dad,” I bit my lip and the tears started to fall. I started to sob and he put his arms around me as I cried. I returned the hug while my tears wet his suit blazer. He just held me while singing softly a song in Mandarin that he used to sing to me when I was little. Now he did it when I was sad.

***

When I had stopped he gave me a box of tissues and sat me down next to him at his desk. I told him what happened with Rain. He nodded.

“Hmm, I admit things have been strange since Curtis Patrick came back onto the scene,” I heard the tone in his voice change after he said his name.

“Do you think he’s involved with the theft?” I asked blowing my nose.

“I don’t know Sam, but what I do know is that Mr.Francisco has been on edge since he appeared.” I nodded but I was in deep thought.

I had to confront him.

I waited for him to leave the hotel that evening. I thank Bunny for telling me about it that afternoon.

He walked down the street and I ran after him.

“Mr. Patrick!” I called. He stopped a sinister smile came over his face when he saw it was me.

“Why if it isn’t you?” He sneered, “I was wondering who was bothering me.” I ignored his rudeness and cut to the chase.

“Did you steal from us?!” He looked shocked at my outburst but then he grabbed me by the arm, yanking him towards me.

“Do you want me to get you arrested too?” He asked spitting a bit in my ear. I pulled my head away while unable to move.

“Because if you want I can arrange that,” I stared at him.

“What are you on about?”

“You will go to jail and I can walk free,” he started to laugh, “how surprising that would be for Mr. Yu,” I looked at him in horror.

“But that money belongs to us!” I yelled. He swung around and grabbed me by the scruff of my shirt.

“Listen you slag! I need that money more than your precious casino will!” He let me fall to the ground.

“It’s because of that money that I will be out of jail for another ten years!”

“What the hell are you on about?!” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Bah don’t you get it?” He scratched his eyebrow, “the reason I am not in jail is because I bribed the detective on your mums’ case.” I started shaking, my mouth open wide.

“You… You really did kill my mum!” I felt my eyes burning.

“That’s right, it was me who did it,” he began to walk, “accident of course but I would still be given time for running.” I bit my lip, my vision getting blurry. I got to my feet, staggering a bit. I shook my head at him.

“You monster,” I turned and walked away as the tears began to fall.

***

I walked back to my room still sobbing. Staff saw me but didn’t ask me why or stop me to find out. I went to my room and sat on my bed hugging my pillow. I just sat there, staring out at the view, though I could barely see it clearly.

“Sam?” I heard Bunny frantically knocking on the door. I sniffed, grabbed a tissue and blew my nose.

“Come in Monique,” I told her and she came in. Her eyes widened when she saw me.

“Oh honey,” she came and sat down next to me and hugged me hard, “what is wrong? I got concerned when I heard you’d been seen crying.”

“I’m ok now;” I said dabbing my eyes. She gave me a puzzled expression.

“Are you really? You know you can talk about it.” I shook my head.

“I’d rather not,” I told her sadly but with some firmness, “but I think I’m over it now.”

“Alright, if you say so,” she said bounding off the bed to the kitchen

“So what brings you here?” I asked, “Aren’t you on your shift still?”

“No I finished five minutes ago,” Bunny said opening the fridge, “but I had to let you know about something.” I became interested.

“They released Rain half an hour ago,” I looked at her hard.

“What? He really was released?” I was able to be happy about this.

“Yeah they’ve found he was innocent after all, but they are still suspecting him,” I managed to smile. That was better than being the main suspect.

“Is there any mountain dew?” I asked. Bunny’s head disappeared for a bit.

“Umm there is one can,” she took it out and placed it on the bench.

“Thanks,” I told her. She came back and sat at another chair tossing me my can. Good thing I caught it.

“You should go spend some time with him.” I bit my lip hard, the last time he’d seen me I’d been close to crying.

“I don’t know….”

“He leaves in less than a week,” this hit me hard. Where had the time gone? It didn’t seem like it had been long. I nodded, knowing that she was right.

“Ok I will,” I told her standing up placing my unopened can by the table.

“I’m just going to change out of this,” I said going to our wardrobe and grabbing some shorts and a t-shirt with a red lily on it. I got changed in the bathroom, grabbed some black slip on sneakers and was on my way, my phone and wallet in my short pockets.

***

I found him at the dining hall room, going over some choreography with his dancers. He was wearing a singlet and blue track pants.

“One two three,” he said in English as they went over a foot shuffle move. They then progressed to some familiar dancing, the guys all got female partners.

I remembered that I danced that with him. He looked up from the final position straight at me. He stopped and released the girl.

“Good job,” he said and the other dancers clapped for each other.

“We’ll take a fifteen minute break,” he said, “thank you everyone.” He thumbed up the guys at the music system who gave thumbs up in return. He jumped off the stage and walked over to me.

“Hi,” he said wiping sweat off his forehead.

“Hey,” I said shy all of a sudden, “glad to see you’re off the hook.” He laughed with his mouth shut. He whirled me into a hug.

“Me too,” he said smiling, his eyes going small again.

“So how come you got…?” I went silent, not sure if I should have asked.

“I was freed?” He asked. I nodded.

“I had an alibi,” I stared at him.

“Who was your alibi?” I imagined his translator or his agent would have spoken up.

“Your father,” that didn’t register to me at first.

“My father was your alibi?” He nodded.

“Yes, your dad is very kind,” he added.

“Yes he is,” I blinked hard, finding my eyes were starting to burn again. Unfortunately for me Rain was able to see my eyes starting to build up with water.

“Sam?” He touched my shoulder; I sniffed before looking at him.

“I’m good,” I said wiping my eyes. He suddenly embraced me in another hug. I breathed out hard, smelling his deodorant. Even he smelt nice. I didn’t say anything and neither did he. He just held me close to him while I dealt with the rising emotion in me.

“Did something happen?” He asked lowering his head so he could say it without being very loud.

“I know who stole the money,” I managed to say, lifting my face from his chest. His eyebrows furrowed down.

“Who did it?”

“It was Curtis Patrick,” Rain let out a sigh but from how his face was I knew he was angry. He had become rather tense quickly. His nostrils flared while he let his fury come out in silence. When he was done he turned back to me.

“Can we tell the police?” He asked finally.

“We don’t really have proof,” I admitted, “but if we could get it then…”

“I’ll think too,” he said, before one of the dancers called out to him.

“Ok be there soon,” he released me and took a sip of his water bottle, stretching his neck as he did.

“I have to go,” he said but he turned around and put his hands on my shoulders eyeing me eye to eye, “don’t chase him Sam. Please wait until we think of a plan.” He was concerned about what happened before. I nodded.

“Ok,” I said giving him a brave smile, “I won’t.”

“Good,” he had a spark of an idea and he bit his lip, wrapping his mind around something for a moment.

“I have something to tell you,” he leaned down and put his mouth to my ear.

“Wo ai ni,” he said and I jumped. His breath tickled my ear but there was another reason too. I felt my spirits soar and I smiled to myself as he went back on stage to continue practicing.

I was smiling to myself stupidly as I walked back to my room after watching him practice.