Chapter Fifteen

“FOR FUCK’S SAKE where have you been? Six people have asked me where the artist is,” Nico hissed.

Julia stepped next to Nico. “Thanks for covering me. I had to run pick up a prescription for my dad. Do I look okay?” She tugged at the collar of her shirt.

“Your tie is crooked.” Nico reached out and grasped the knot of the tie and tugged. “Who tied this? You should’ve just let me tie it.”

Julia swatted Nico’s hand away. “Leave it.”

Nico rested his hands on his hips. “Fine. If you’re done with me, I’m going to go find Tony and Hannah.”

Julia grasped Nico’s arm and squeezed. “Sorry. And thank you. I couldn’t have done this without you and Tony.”

“You’re welcome. And don’t look now but some very hot chick is checking out your ass.”

“What?” Julia shifted to turn around.

“Be cool. Don’t look too anxious.” Nico held tight to her arms. “Hey, where’re your bracelets?”

“Not now, Nico. Not now.” Julia pulled away from his grasp. The wounded look on his face cut her to the core. “I’m sorry. Look, I’ll explain everything after the show, okay?”

“Okay.” Nico turned to leave, then turned back. A deep frown wrinkled his forehead. “Be careful.”

“What are you worried about?”

Nico rubbed the back of his neck. “Don’t know. Something feels off.”

“I’ll pay attention. Promise.”

Nico lifted his chin in acknowledgement and walked away.

Julia scanned the crowded room. Her stomach rumbled. She pressed her hands against her belly, already regretting not stopping to pick up a sandwich on her way to the show.

“Your work is exquisite.” Nüwa’s breathy whisper flowed over Julia.

She turned toward her voice. Nüwa’s emerald-green tight sheath dress showed off her lovely shoulders. Her matching heels added at least four inches to her six-foot height.

“What are you doing here?” A flush warmed Julia’s face and she reveled in Nüwa’s attention.

“Enjoying the art.” Nüwa shook back her silky hair before she stepped closer, the scent of her sandalwood perfume wrapped around Julia. “And making you blush.”

Julia shifted her gaze away from Nüwa’s razor-edged smile. “You came to see me?” She swallowed on a dry throat. “Thank you. No one I’ve ever, umm, dated has come to any of my shows since college.”

Nüwa lifted an eyebrow. “Dated?” She shifted her stance to stand alongside Julia so they could face the crowd. “That’s a very sweet way to describe what we’re doing.” She leaned closer and her arm brushed against Julia’s shoulder. “This is a sizeable crowd. Have you had any buyers interested?”

Julia spotted Gerald and Lian across the room. She turned away from Lian’s sharp stare to face Nüwa. “Your mother’s staring at me like I’m going to defile you.”

Nüwa met Julia’s gaze. “She’s annoyed I chose this as my first outing in four years. She would have preferred it as a brunch in a fancy restaurant complete with paparazzi to show how I’ve recovered.”

“You look lovely. How do you walk in those heels?” Julia had the overwhelming desire to fall to the floor and press her lips to the beautiful smooth leather.

“Thank you. It’s a skill I was determined to master. Flats are so boring. Besides, many people have a lot of stereotypical ideas of what is appropriate footwear when you’re as tall as I am.” Nüwa sipped from her water bottle. “Enough about me. Have you made any sales?”

“Not yet. I don’t expect to.” Julia gestured to the crowd. “This is the ‘looky-loo’ type of crowd for the most part. I don’t think my work is what they’re in the market for.”

“Why not? Yours is some of the best work here.”

“I don’t know. I’ve not paid as much attention to the marketing side of things. I never know how to set up my booth.” Julia rested her chin on her chest.

“Julia.” Nüwa’s tone made Julia look up. Nüwa pinned Julia in place with her gaze. “It’s wonderful to make art for art’s sake. It is admirable to bring beauty into the world because the world needs more of it. But in order to have time to make more art, you must think about the business side of things.”

“You sound like Nico. He’s managed to get Tony’s career off the ground. He was able to quit his day job last year.”

“Do you want to?”

“What?” Julia wiped her sweaty palms on her pants.

“Do you want to quit your day job? Spend your days making sculptures? Doing shows like this?”

“I don’t know. I can’t even imagine it.”

Nüwa gestured to the two smaller pieces Julia had brought to the show. “As much as I love your large work, this is the size people can envision in their homes. Do you have more of this size?”

“Thirty at least. I use the scrap from my large jobs, otherwise it would just end up in the landfill.” Julia lifted her shoulders and straightened them. “I could never make enough to live on and help my folks selling my art.” She raised her hand to touch Nüwa’s arm. “How long are you staying? Could we have dinner after the show?”

“I’m not sure I’m up for it.”

Nüwa’s sad smile squeezed Julia’s heart hard. “Another time then. I’m honored and so happy you came to see my work. Me.”

Nüwa shifted her gaze over Julia’s shoulder. A frown crossed her face. Julia turned to see what she was staring at. Across the room, a short man with a white woven straw fedora tipped his hat in their direction and waved. What would pass for a smile twisted his narrow mouth. His tanned face stood out in the sea of pale skin common during the Midwest spring.

Nüwa’s gasp made Julia turn toward her. “Nüwa? Are you okay?”

She mumbled, eyes wide, before she shrank away from Julia. Nüwa shoved her water bottle into Julia’s hands. “He’s here. He found me. Not again. No. I have to get out.” She gripped Julia’s arm, her fingernails biting into her skin. “I have to go.” She shoved past Julia.

Nüwa fled the hall, her heels ringing a staccato beat as she ran from the exhibit. Patrons scattered like gulls on a beach as she dashed toward the exit. Her shoulder caught the edge of a server’s tray. Cries of dismay echoed in the atrium as the waiter and the wineglasses crashed to the marble floor. Julia caught a glimpse of the man, white fedora now firmly planted on his head as he moved in the direction Nüwa ran.

Julia bolted after Nüwa, shoving people aside and shouting “excuse me” at anyone who blocked her path.

At the entrance to the parking garage, she caught up with her. “Nüwa. Wait! Who’s here? What are you talking about? What do you need?”

Lian and Gerald arrived on Julia’s heels.

“She needs you to get away from her.” Lian’s sharp tone cut the air. She gripped Nüwa’s arm and shot a lethal glare at Julia before she turned and jerked Nüwa toward the exit door. “Let’s go.” Lian shoved the door open hard enough it slammed into the wall behind it.

Julia froze, not willing to risk a confrontation with Lian, or adding to Nüwa’s obvious distress. Gerald stepped around Julia, avoiding her gaze as they escorted Nüwa from the building. Julia glimpsed Nüwa’s helpless shuttered expression as her mother led her away down the stairs with Gerald following closely behind. The door slammed shut on the scene.

Julia pressed the bar to open the door, determined to follow. “Jules!” Nico was running toward her. “Jules! What’s up? You need to come back. I have a buyer waiting at your booth. Come on. What was up with the woman you were talking to?”

“I don’t know.” Julia let the door close with a soft click. She followed Nico back to the exhibit floor. “But I’m going to find out.”

 

NÜWA FOLLOWED HER mother, unseeing. Martin was here. Had waved at her. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her throat ached as she took huge gulps of air. “He’s here. Mom, he’s here.”

“Impossible.” Lian shoved Gerald out of the way as he tried to slide behind the wheel of the car. “No. I’ll drive.”

Nüwa’s hands trembled as she buckled her seat belt. Her father barely had his door closed as her mother pulled out of the parking space, wheels squealing on the cement. Nüwa’s elbow hit the armrest as her buckle clicked into place.

Lian’s grim expression was reflected in the rear-view mirror. “I told you. I told you both this was a bad idea.”

Nüwa clasped her hands together and counted to herself, trying to get her panic under control. “What do you mean impossible? I saw him. He waved at me.”

“My people in Costa Rica have him under constant surveillance. If he had left the country, they would have informed me so I could…”

“You could what?” Nüwa braced her feet, fighting the urge to vomit as her mother whipped the car on to the access lane for the expressway.

“Inform the authorities,” Lian bit out as she accelerated into the sweeping turn leading to the highway.

Nüwa’s stomach rolled. “Mother, if you don’t stop driving like we’re in The Fast and the Furious I’m going to vomit.”

The car shot forward down the interstate. “I never should have let you two talk me into this. All for some bit of fluff you want to play with. I should have never…” Lian muttered.

“What did you say?” Anger welled up, shoving Nüwa’s panic aside.

“I see how you look at her. I’m not ignorant, Nüwa. I know what’s going on. Disgusting. Wasting your time on her. Who is she? A nobody.”

Nüwa inhaled sharply. “Stop this car.”

Lian snorted. “Right on the interstate? You’re going to walk home in those heels?”

“Enough!” Gerald’s shout rattled the windows. “Julia is a good person. And you have no room to talk, Lian. Remember how pleased your parents were when you wanted to marry an artist? Or do I need to remind you of the awful things they said to me? And to my parents? All because I was not Chinese enough for them? Because my mother was white?”

Nüwa gripped the seat to steady herself. In her entire life she had only ever heard her father raise his voice to her mother once. The memory of that afternoon, a few days after her brother’s death, was a blur other than her father’s shout silencing her mother’s fit in the phone store over their refusal to unlock her brother’s phone.

The muscle in Lian’s jaw worked but her mouth stayed closed.

“Nüwa.” Gerald’s voice was patient as if he were talking to a child instead of a grown woman. “What did you see?”

Nüwa pushed aside her irritation. “I saw Martin. His hair was blond, and he looked thinner, but it was him. I’m positive.” Nüwa sighed. “And what do you mean your people, Mother?”

“I pay a private firm to watch him.” Lian sniffed loudly. “Since no one else seems interested in his return to justice. They send weekly reports to Yvonne Li. If there had been a change, I trust she would inform me. If he had left the country, she would have told me.”

Nüwa wrapped her arms around herself, gripping her upper arms. Was she sure? Could she have been mistaken? Doubts swirled around her mind. She shivered as the adrenaline spike of her panic attack wore off. Her mother turned off the highway and onto the two-lane blacktop leading to their home. She peered out of the window. Telephone poles whipped by as they sped past open fields with cows and hundred-year-old bank barns. Defeat slithered around her, cloaking her in misery.

What would Julia think? Julia. How could Nüwa ever consider continuing their relationship? Or risk exposing her to her mother’s toxic behavior? Her parents had switched to Mandarin as they continued their bickering in the front of the car. Nüwa caught part of their argument, the same old things, blame and resentment, spat between the two of them. Too worn out to focus enough on their conversation, beyond caring, Nüwa leaned back against the seat, and closed her eyes.