Page 33 of Shadowing You

She didn’t understand her parents’ silence or Ethan’s.

She didn’t understand why the warden had opened her cell door, telling her the six years she’d lost were nothing more than a clerical error.

It was too much, and despite the fact that she’d dozed off and on for this entire drive, she was exhausted. Ethan had woken her at one point and pressed two protein bars and a bottle of water into her hands. She’d eaten the bars, drunk the water, then promptly fallen back asleep.

Would she ever feel rested?

Even now, she let her eyes drift closed again.

Ethan’s voice woke her. He was on the phone, speaking quietly. He paused to listen, then said, “It wasn’t my first choice either.” More listening, a long sigh. “I can read a map.” Sharp word. Another pause. “Thank him for me.” The call ended with three faint beeps. Ethan gave the driver the name of a hotel, and the driver tapped it into his phone without letting up on the gas.

Mei Lin stretched. “Everything okay?”

Ethan’s smile looked forced. “Gavin found us a place.”

“Who is Gavin?”

Ethan faced forward again. “My father.”

She blinked, trying to put that information somewhere it made sense.

She’d met Ethan’s mother and her family after they started dating. The woman had been kind but…distracted seemed like the right word. Here she had this grown-up son, but her focus had been on her two school-aged boys. Not that she didn’t love Ethan. Mei Lin had seen the woman’s love in her eyes. She just hadn’t had a lot of room for him in her life.

That weekend, Mei Lin had asked Ethan about his birth father, who was not the man his mother was married to.

“He’s not in the picture.” Ethan had said the words as if they were the end of the story.

Somewhere along the way, the story had changed.

“He has connections,” Ethan added.

“I hope you’ll tell me about him.”

“We have a lot to catch up on.”

That was an understatement.

He’d been reconnecting with his father, apparently, and not looking for her.

The pain of it sat under her ribs. She could’ve told Ethan about the evidence she’d been collecting for months before she was arrested. She’d worried their conversations would be intercepted. She’d been trying to protect herself.

She’d obviously failed. Lu Feng had discovered what she was up to despite her precautions.

The driver took an exit, and she read the sign as they passed.

Zhangjiajie City Center.

Low apartment blocks and shop awnings closed in around them. Locals and tourists bundled in coats and scarves moved along the streets. Her parents had brought her and her brother, Renshu, to see the sandstone pillars in the nearby national park when they were kids.

She could still remember the thick summer heat and the scent of wildness in the air as she and Renshu stood on a viewing platform. He kept pointing out this pillar or that, but she was fascinated by an ornery macaque, a funny-faced monkey that swung low on a vine and snatched a cap off an old man’s head, then disappeared into the trees.

Wanting to see where the macaque went, she’d hiked herself onto the railing and leaned forward.

Renshu had snatched her back. “Be careful, little monkey, or you’ll fall.”

Her bossy big brother was always telling her what to do. She’d pretended she minded, but secretly, she’d enjoyed the attention.

Later, in the gift shop, he’d presented her with a little painted wooden monkey. “I’d like you to meet your twin.”