“How did your mother… die?” I lit a cigarette, but my hands were shaking badly.
Arson looked at me, a bit confused, as if he was trying to understand my question.
He was slow to respond and after a few seconds he whispered, “Mom… fell asleep. The police said Mom fell asleep while driving.”
A car accident.
I took a deep drag of my cigarette, but the harsh smoke made me cough.
Arson jumped at the sound, shrinking back.
The scared, startled look on his face stabbed my heart in a way I couldn’t explain.
“How old are you, kid?”
He thought for a moment. “Nine… almost ten.”
The timing matched.
My heart felt as if an invisible hand was squeezing it, making it hard to breathe.
“Where’s your dad? Why didn’t he come to pick you up?”
At the mention of his father, Arson’s eyes darkened and his head dropped even lower.
“Dad… is very busy.”
The same excuse.
Exactly like Harry ten years ago.
I put out my cigarette and walked back and forth in the studio, feeling irritated.
Something was wrong. Everything felt wrong.
If Arson was really the son of Emily and Harry, why didn’t Harry come to take him immediately after her death?
Why let him go alone, following Emily’s last wish to find me, his “enemy”?
It didn’t make sense.
Unless… unless Harry didn’t know either, or he was being kept in the dark too.
I walked over to Arson and crouched down. “What’s in your backpack? Let me see.”
He hesitated for a moment, then obediently took it off.
I unzipped it. Inside, besides a few sketchbooks and a worn Ultraman toy, there was a white pill bottle.
It had no label—like some unregulated product.
“What’s this?”
“Grandma gave me smart pills,” he said softly. “Grandma said I have to take them every day, or I’ll get stupid and Mom won’t like me.”
Grandma?
Linda.
My mind went “buzz.”
A chill ran from my feet straight to the top of my head.
Why would Linda give Emily’s son unknown medicine?
Could it be…
I didn’t dare think any further.
I shoved the pill bottle into my pocket and looked at the boy in front of me. He was so much like Emily, yet carrying Harry’s shadow in his face. My feelings were a tangled mess.
“Tonight, you’ll stay here. And tomorrow, I’ll take you home.”
By “home,” I meant our home.
Arson was obedient to the point of breaking my heart.
When I told him to take a shower, he quietly walked into the bathroom by himself.
A long time passed and I didn’t hear water running. I went to check.