My princess

Chapter two

She was raped.”

The words tasted like poison coming out of my mouth. I hadn’t even been able to think about it, let

Alone say it out loud, but there it was hanging in the air between me and the doctor, like

Something that can’t be taken back. The doctor held my gaze, steady and calm in a way that made me want to break something.“Don’t worry, sir. Her fever is down and she’s stable now. She’s going to be okay.”

Okay. Like that word meant anything anymore.“And Sir, he hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “My older brother is a cop. If you need any help, any help at all, don’t hesitate.”

He reached into his coat pocket and placed a card on the table between us, then quietly excused

Himself, leaving me alone with the silence and that small white card and the rage building in

My chest like a fire with nowhere to go. I picked up the card. I stared at it for a long time.

Three days had passed and Liya was still weak, barely able to sit up without wincing.

The police were still “investigating.” That word was starting to make me sick.

“I swear,” I muttered, pacing the length of the hospital room, “when I find the man that did

This, I’m going to make him suffer. Slowly. So slowly that he’ll be on his knees begging me to

End it before I’m even halfway done.” The fourth day came and went. Still nothing. The police weren’t doing anything —could feel it in every vague update, every rehearsed apology, every ‘we’re working on it, sir.’ They

weren’t working on anything. “I’ll do it myself.” I stood up, reaching for my jacket.

“Tom.” Her voice stopped me cold. It was still fragile, still barely there, but it carried enough weight to

Nail my feet to the floor. I turned around. Liya had reached out and wrapped both her hands.

Around mine, her grip weak but desperate.

“Give them time,” she whispered, her green eyes searching my face. “They’re doing their best. Please, Tom.”

She squeezed my hand. “The last thing I want is for you to get into trouble because of me.

Please.” I looked at her pale, bruised, broken — and somehow still thinking about me.

God, I loved this woman. My boss from the noodle shop, Mr. Park, had been bringing soup to Liya ever since he found

Out she was in the hospital. He didn’t know the full story and I never told him, but the gesture

Meant more to me than he’d ever know. Some people just show up. Mr. Park was one of those

people. Two weeks later, on the day she was finally discharged, the police found him.

And there I was, standing on the other side of a cell door, face to face with the man who had

Touched what was mine. He looked so ordinary. That was the most infuriating part. He just sat

There, breathing, existing, like he hadn’t shattered everything.

The cell door was the only thing between us. If it hadn’t been for Liya’s pleading, I would have hunted him down myself and ended it long before it ever got to this point. But she had begged me with those tired green eyes, and I had

promised. I had promised. Leo, the doctor’s older brother, the cop who had become something close to a friend.

For the past two weeks of the investigation, he had been standing beside me. I turned to him quietly.

“Open the door. I just want to talk.” Leo looked at me for a long moment. Against every instinct he had as a police officer, he opened the door. I lunged. Everything after that was red. My fists, my nails, my hands wrapped around his

Throat I wasn’t thinking, I wasn’t feeling. I just needed to end him. I needed to. Several officers rushed in, grabbing at my arms, my shoulders, pulling me back, but I couldn’t

let go. I wouldn’t. It took four of them to get me off the man.