Chapter 9: The Lake House

"Why would you copy my hand?" Lu Chen asked.

His voice came out steady, and he was proud of that.

Su Lu smiled and folded the sheet in half.

"For notes. If you're ever too busy to write to the chairman's lawyers, I'll write for you."

She patted his hand.

"Don't look so scared, Chen. It's only practice."

She slid the paper back into her drawer and turned the key.

"Go to bed. You've had a long week."

"That's all?"

"That's all." She tilted her head. "The seventeenth is a lovely night, you know. The whole family at one table. I'm so looking forward to it."

His fingers curled against his knee.

She wanted him to hear it.

She wanted him to know she knew he had been in her safe.

She wanted to see what he would do about it.

"Good night, Su Lu," he said.

"Good night, sweet boy."

He walked out of the study with his back straight and his pulse racing.

Su Ye was waiting at the bottom of the east stairs.

He wore a clean shirt and a fresh sling.

"There you are," he said. "My mother wants me to rest. The doctor says a week of quiet."

He shrugged.

"I told her I'd go to the lake house."

"The lake house?"

"The family villa. Two hours north. Nobody there but a caretaker who goes to bed at eight."

Su Ye looked at him.

"I want you to come."

Lu Chen thought of the seventeenth.

"When?" he said.

"Now. Tonight. Please."

Behind them, in the dark of the corridor, Su Lu said, "Go. Both of you. I'll tell Grandfather."

They drove in the dark with the windows down.

Su Ye hummed under his breath and drummed his good hand on the wheel.

Twice he glanced over, and twice Lu Chen looked at the road.

"You're shaking," Su Ye said at last.

"I'm cold."

"No, you're not. Are you going to tell me what happened in there?"

"Nothing happened."

It was a lie.

He had promised that whatever he hid, he would hide it outside the door.

He was already inside it, and lying anyway.

Su Ye did not push.

He only reached across the seat and laced their fingers together, and held on for the rest of the drive.

The villa stood on a hill above a black lake.

The caretaker had left the porch light on and a key under a flowerpot.

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