Chapter 120: The package
ETHAN’S POV.
Whether I believed Mr. Arashigumi was another matter entirely.
The silence lingered after his words, unbroken until Susan gently set her untouched teacup back on its saucer.
"Thank you for receiving us, Mr. Arashigumi," she said politely. "We appreciate your time."
He acknowledged her with a slight incline of his head before unfolding the newspaper beside him. The gesture was so effortless it almost felt dismissive, as though our visit had been little more than a brief interruption to his morning.
The meeting was over.
Just like that.
Susan lightly touched my arm.
"Ethan."
Her voice was quiet, but there was no mistaking what she meant.
"We should leave."
I looked at Mr. Arashigumi one last time.
He was already reading again.
The man who had held all of our attention for the past hour had returned to his newspaper without the slightest sign that anything of consequence had happened. Somehow, that unsettled me more than any threat could have.
"Thank you for your time, sir."
He gave no reply.
Whether he hadn’t heard me or simply chose not to answer, I couldn’t tell.
I rose from my seat. Susan stood beside me, and across the room Raina slowly did the same.
"Ojiisan," she said, "I’d like to stay a little longer, if that’s alright."
Without lowering the newspaper, he answered, "As you wish."
Anna stood beside her.
"I’ll stay too."
, Mr. Arashigumi looked up. His gaze rested briefly on Anna before returning to the paper.
He neither questioned nor objected.
It was as though he’d already expected her answer.
Raina walked us to the entrance herself.
The mansion seemed quieter on the way out. Servants still doing their thing , same as when we walked in .
Only when the front doors closed behind us did I realise how tense I’d been.
Raina let out a slow breath beside me.
"I’m sorry."
I turned to her.
"I really thought he might know something."
"So did I."
She lowered her eyes for a moment before meeting mine again.
"My grandfather has done things I can’t defend. I stopped pretending otherwise a long time ago." She hesitated, choosing her words carefully. "But if he tells me he doesn’t know something... then I believe him."
There was no hesitation in her voice.
She wasn’t trying to convince me.
She already believed it herself.
I searched her face, looking for even the smallest crack in that certainty, but there wasn’t one.
Strangely enough, I understood.
After sitting across from him, after hearing him answer every question without flinching, I wasn’t as certain as I’d been when I walked through those gates.
"I’ll keep asking around," Raina said. "If I learn anything about Jade, you’ll be the first person I call."
"Thank you."
A faint smile touched her lips. It didn’t quite reach her eyes, but it was genuine enough to remind me of the woman I’d fallen in love with.
I returned it with a small nod before turning toward the driveway.
Susan was already waiting beside the car.
As I reached for the driver’s door, something made me glance back.
Anna.
She was still standing beneath the entrance, watching me.
Expressionless.
Our eyes met across the driveway.
Without looking away, she raised two fingers and touched them lightly beneath her own eyes.
Then she pointed those same two fingers at me.
The gesture lasted only a second.
It didn’t need to last any longer.
I’m watching you.
A chill crept down my spine.
I’d seen that warning before.
Not with her hands.
With her voice.
Months earlier, not long after Raina and I started dating, I’d received a call from an unfamiliar number.
I’d answered without thinking.
"Hello?"
"Is this Ethan Crux?"
The voice belonged to a young woman.
Calm.
Confident.
"Yes."
A quiet laugh reached my ear.
"So it’s true."
I frowned.
"I’m sorry?"
"So she finally got the boy."
"I don’t understand."
"You don’t have to."
Her tone remained almost pleasant, but something about it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
"Just listen."
I said nothing.
"Be sure to make Raina happy Mr cruxs..."
She paused, not for effect but with the certainty of someone stating a simple fact.
"Hurt her and you become a problem and I don’t like leaving problems unsolved ."
I remember staring at my phone, convinced someone had to be playing a prank.
"Who is this?"
"My name is Anna."
There was the faint sound of her exhaling before she spoke again.
"And I happen to be the person who loves Raina more than anyone else in this world."
My grip tightened around the phone.
"What exactly is that supposed to mean?"
"It means this."
Her voice never rose.
"If you love her, don’t give me a reason to remember your name"
The line went dead.
For weeks I’d dismissed the call as the overreaction of a fiercely protective friend. I never mentioned it to Raina. It hadn’t seemed worth worrying about.
Standing outside the house, watching Anna lower her hand as though she’d simply reminded me of something we’d both understood all along, I wasn’t nearly as certain.
She gave the faintest nod before turning back into the house.
The heavy doors closed behind her.
I climbed into the driver’s seat without another word.
Susan waited until we’d driven beyond the estate gates before speaking.
"So?"
I kept my eyes on the road.
"So what?"
She folded her arms.
"If it wasn’t Mr. Arashigumi... who are we looking for?"
The question lingered between us.
I wished I had an answer.
Instead, I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and watched the estate disappear in the rear-view mirror.
"I don’t know."
For the first time since Jade disappeared, every lead we had had fallen apart.
The drive back to town passed in near silence.
Susan sat beside me, watching the road ahead, while I kept my eyes fixed on the traffic, barely noticing the cars that drifted past. My mind was still back at the Arashigumi estate.
Mr. Arashigumi’s voice replayed over and over in my head.
I’d gone there convinced I already knew the truth. Instead, I’d left with more questions than answers.
The certainty I’d carried into that house had disappeared somewhere between a cup of Gyokuro tea and a man whose calm confidence never faltered once.
Beside me, Susan shifted in her seat but said nothing. She’d heard the same conversation I had, and judging by the thoughtful look on her face, she was trying just as hard to make sense of it.
My phone rang before either of us spoke.
The name on the dashboard display made me smile despite everything.
Mum Calling.
I accepted the call through the car’s Bluetooth.
"Hey, Mum."
"Hello, sweetheart."
Just hearing her voice eased some of the tension sitting on my shoulders.
"How are you?"
"I’m alright. How about you?"
"I’m fine."
"Hm." She didn’t sound convinced. "You sound tired."
I laughed quietly. "I’ve had a long morning."
"When don’t you?" she sighed. "You boys really don’t know how to slow down."
"How’s Nathan?"
"He’s fine. Left for work before seven, as usual." There was affection beneath the complaint. "I swear he works just as much as you do. One day I’m going to lock both of you inside the house and make you take a proper weekend off."
"I’ll let him know."
"You’d better."
There was a brief pause before she spoke again.
"Oh, I nearly forgot. A package arrived for you this morning."
My hands tightened slightly on the steering wheel.
"A package?"
"Yes. It came a little while ago."
I frowned. I wasn’t expecting anything, especially not at Nathan’s address.
Without thinking, I eased the car onto the shoulder of the road and brought it to a stop.
Susan turned towards me immediately, silently asking what was wrong.
I raised a finger, then disconnected the Bluetooth so the conversation was no longer playing through the speakers.
"Sorry, Mum. I’ve taken you off speaker."
"No problem," she replied. "You sound worried."
"I just wasn’t expecting a delivery. Are you sure it’s for me?"
"I checked twice. Your name is on it, and it’s definitely Nathan’s address. 72021 vine groove"
That only deepened the unease settling in my chest.
Nathan’s house was in Pottersville. Very few people knew I stayed there whenever I visited, and fewer still would think to send anything there.
"Mum..."
I hesitated for a moment.
"Have you opened it?"
"No." She sounded almost offended by the suggestion. "I thought I’d better ask first."
"I need you to open it. But be careful about it ."
There was a brief silence.
"Ethan, you’re starting to worry me."
"It’s probably nothing," I said, though neither of us believed it.
I heard her walking across the kitchen, followed by the scrape of a drawer opening. A pair of scissors snipped through the packing tape, and for a few seconds the only sound between us was the rustling of cardboard.
Susan watched me from the passenger seat.
"What is it?" she mouthed.
I shook my head.
"I don’t know yet."
A moment later, Mum spoke again.
"Alright, it’s open."
"What do you see?"
"There isn’t much in here." More paper rustled as she lifted something from the box. "It’s... a passport."
I sat up straighter.
"A passport?"
"Yes."
My pulse quickened.
"Whose passport?"
She opened it.
"It says..." She paused to adjust it in her hand. "Joseph Smith."
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
Joseph Smith.
The name echoed through my mind like a gunshot.
It was Jade’s alias.
The forged passport Susan had arranged. The same passport he should have boarded the plane with.
Instead, it had somehow found its way to my brother’s house.
"Ethan?" Mum’s voice pulled me back. "Who’s Joseph Smith?"
I rubbed a hand over my face, trying to steady my thoughts.
"I’ll explain later."
"Is everything alright?"
"I don’t know."
The answer came more honestly than I intended.
"I need you to do one thing for me."
"Of course."
"Don’t throw anything away. Put everything back into the box exactly as you found it."
"Alright."
"And when we’re done talking, could you send it to my apartment by express courier? Don’t open it again, and don’t let anyone else handle it if you can help it."
There was another short pause.
"I can do that," she said gently. "Ethan... are you sure you’re alright?"
I forced a smile she couldn’t see.
"I will be."
"You promise?"
"I promise."
"Alright." Her voice softened. "Call me later?"
"I will. Love you, Mum."
"I love you too, sweetheart."
The line went dead.
For several seconds I remained exactly where I was, the phone still in my hand.
Susan broke the silence.
"Ethan?"
I turned to her.
"The passport they found..." I swallowed. "It was Jade’s."
Realisation spread slowly across her face.
"The forged identity?"
I nodded.
"Joseph Smith."
She stared at me, stunned.
"That... that’s impossible."
I looked through the windshield at the empty road stretching ahead of us.
"No."
The word came quietly.
"It was deliberate."
Whoever had taken Jade hadn’t kept the passport by accident. They could have destroyed it, hidden it, or left it behind at the airport.
Instead, they had packaged it carefully, addressed it to my family, and made sure it reached me.
They wanted me to see it.
The question was why.