Page 153 of Six Years
“Because I only looked into it after I heard about the accident.” He clears his throat. “I hope you’re aware that your name will be all over the news should you really want my help.”
Figured as much, but that’s better than any of the alternatives, I guess.
“Allie’s team will publish the recordings, but your name was never mentioned in them. Ji-Hoon only ever refers to you as ‘his son’, so I am asking you, before the recordings are out in the open, to give an interview about the whole accident. I’m sure you have a lot of requests for them anyway. Speaking about it, you will subtly mention that your father has not visited you in the hospital once and do say his name, also talk about your parents’ divorce, and yes, you will have to name the reason for it. People have to be able to associate you with him directly and be given reason to sympathize with you to really care, but don’t make it obnoxious. You’re going to have to pretend as though you believe it was anaccident, not a targeted attack to murder you, otherwise the recordings will sound unbelievable. The police willhaveto investigate, especially with the pressure from the public wanting to see your father go down in flames for what he has done.”
He’s going to jail.
Li Co. will die, I’m pretty sure about that.
And there will be more eyes on me than ever before.
“Do I have to mention Luan?” I ask carefully. I don’t want to drag him into all this mess.
“That’s up to you, but they’ll talk about him either way.”
I spend another ten minutes on the phone with Storm, listening to him tell me in detail what’s likely going to happen, not forgetting to explain the best and also worst-case scenario.
For a moment I want to say fuck it and forget it, not do this because I’m not sure the worst-case scenario is worth the fight, but I have to stop hiding in the shadows. I have to stop letting him walk all over me and finally start to fight back. Cutting him off was only the beginning, it was me claiming my freedom, but I will never be free of him unless he’s behind bars and has no chances of disrupting my peace.
And on top of that, getting justice for my mother also makes this whole thing a lot more worth it.
Chapter 7
“but you’ve been telling your side / so I’ll be telling mine”—Skin by Sabrina Carpenter
February 2027
“But what if theycut the entire interview to make me the bad guy?” Grey keeps on nervously bobbing his leg and up and down. At this point, he might as well have run an entire marathon with that movement alone.
It isn’t often that Grey Davis is nervous, but when he is, oh boy…
I get it though. His entire life is about to be exposed to the public, every aspect, how he grew up, what happened when he was twelve because, apparently, if you mention having a bad relationship with your parents, those reporters abandon the actual reason you came in and dig deeper.
It was what Grey wanted, or Atlas Storm, whoever’s the operator for this ordeal, but it doesn’t make Grey worry any less about what’s to come.
His whole privacy will be thrown right out of the window, so will mine because I am sort of the reason why all of this even happened, and people will dig into it to figure it out. He puts his entire career in jeopardy with this, even though he talked to his management, PR, and more people about the whole situation. Even his team is informed about what Grey is about to do, though they don’t know most of the details of his past. While some of them were skeptical about Mr. Li having been the cause of all of them ending up in the hospital for at least a day or two and believe they should just get over it, the majority of Grey’s teammates fully support his approach to take down his father. They want redemption for what happened after all.
This isn’t just about Grey, this is about the entire team who will keep on having to fear that something will happen to them at any moment for as long as Grey is on that team. Sure, they could kick him off to ensure the team’s safety, but there is a reason why Grey is their captain.
“Baby, you have the entire uncut interview to publish if that’s the case,” I remind him.
“Right.” Grey blows out some air, then shakes out his okay hand. He’s still wearing a cast, but they’ll take it off in a week.
I scoot a bit away from my boyfriend—yes, yes, we’re still boyfriends, we also officially moved in together like nothing ever happened. Some of my belongings are still in Malibu, but they’re not so important.
Anyway, I scoot a bit away from my boyfriend then pull him down so his head rests on my lap. I push my fingers into his hair, playing with his strands while we both stare at the TV and wait for his interview to come up.
Yes, Grey made sure it’s a televised interview because that shows his reactions better than a written interview ever could. It doesn’t really matter with Grey because the only expressions he ever shows to the public are grumpy and grumpier, and his voice barely gives anything away either. It still makes more sense this way, I guess?
“I hate this,” he mutters under his breath.
“What exactly?”
“The waiting.” He sighs. “I hate my own voice, too, so I’m not even sure I’ll be able to sit through this.”
“I love your voice. And I love it when you talk, especially when you say more than two words at once. But the quiet Grey Davis is also good because he allows me to talk on and on without any interruptions, and in case you haven’t noticed, I like talking.”
Grey chuckles. “Really? I had no idea.”
