Page 8 of Shadowing You

Tears blurred her vision, though she still couldn’t make her mouth move.

He pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her, and she rested her cheek on the soft cotton of his sweater, breathing him in. He smelled of fresh soap, her father’s tea, and his perfect scent. She didn’t know why he was there, but she held on and never wanted to let him go.

“When you left…” His voice rumbled in her ear, so low that only she could hear. “I knew I didn’t want to live without you.”

He stepped back and went down on one knee right there on the worn linoleum in her parents’ house, which suddenly became the most beautiful, most romantic spot in the whole world.

The diamond caught the overhead light.

Something in her chest—fear and worry and the certainty that she would always be alone—simply let go.

She was too stunned to speak, and after a moment, his expression shifted. “Uh-oh,” he said. “Have I miscalculated?”

“No!” She laughed, the sound bubbling out of her on a current of joy. “I mean… Yes, yes!”

A moment later—she wasn’t even sure how it happened—her feet were dangling a foot above the ground. She was clinging to him and crying and not caring that he could see right through her into her heart.

Her mother wept in the doorway. Her father’s stoic eyes were watery.

Ethan set her back down and slid the ring onto her finger, looking like he’d just won a prize, and she thought… This. Whatever comes next—this is enough.

A squeak had Mei Lin’s eyes opening, and the dream-memory faded away.

As if it had never been real at all.

She sat up and shook off her melancholy, taking in her surroundings. The train was pulling up to a station for one of its scheduled stops.

A few people around her stood and gathered their things, preparing to exit, but she was still hours from Hong Kong.

She yawned and looked out the window, scanning the faces on the platform. Businessmen and women, families, normal people going about their normal lives.

And then, her heart thumped.

She slowed down and scanned the faces again.

A man she’d once respected was standing near the far end of the platform with the others waiting to board, his gaze moving methodically across the train windows as they rolled past. Searching.

She’d forgotten the unusual size of his nose. He was heavier, a little paunch hanging over his belt, his hair shorter and gray at the temples.

It couldn’t be him. Her fear was playing tricks on her.

But her body knew the truth before her mind caught up. She was already standing, one hand on the seat back. The train was almost stopped by the time her car passed him.

She stayed away from the window but peeked out.

No question. It was Dr. Lu Feng, the man who’d ruined her life. Maybe it was a coincidence that he was waiting to board the train she was on. More likely, he’d discovered the ticket attached to her national ID. He must be looking for her. If she stayed on board, she’d be trapped with him. At least out there, she’d have a chance to escape.

She ducked out of view, her pulse racing. She had seconds before the doors would open.

He’d managed to silence her for six years. If he caught her again, he would make sure she didn’t survive.

Her seat was in the second car from the front. Did he know she was in first class? Even if not, fewer people in the car meant fewer would be getting off and on.

She skirted past other passengers in the aisle, thankful for her short stature and prison-skinny frame. At the end of the first-class car, she stepped through the connecting door and into another just like it.

She kept moving, desperate to get to a second-class car and to put as much distance between herself and Lu Feng as possible.

She was halfway down the aisle of a second-class car when the doors opened.