Page 2 of The Darkest Night

Chapter 2

“You know,I didn’t actually run out on you, right? I had a family emergency.”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “Your family emergency was your grandmother setting you up on another marriage meeting.”

Mae couldn’t well argue with that statement.

Even though she was born and raised in Queens, her South Korean family insisted on her and her younger sister Ryu So-Young following the customs of the country they had left behind when they emigrated to the States. Two of those traditions wereSo-gaeandSeon, which literally translated to ‘introduction’ and ‘marriage meeting.’ At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, Mae was fast losing her value as a prospective bride, a fact her mother and grandmother never failed to remind her of.

Mae’s mouth tightened.

She wasn’t sure how much longer she was willing to indulge their desperate matchmaking attempts. She shuddered when she recalled the last suitor they had arranged for her to meet, the night she’d bailed on Rose.

The accountant’s pasty complexion and stout appearance had reminded her of asongpyeon, the doughy, mung-bean-filled, half-moon rice cake her mother liked to make for afternoon tea.

Since Rice Cake had chosen a pricey place for their date and was picking up the bill, Mae had decided to overlook his sweaty hands and feverish eyes in favor of the delicious food. The meeting would have ended the way all of Mae’sSo-gaesdid, if not for Rice Cake’s wandering fingers. Guilt shot through her as she put down the saw and lifted the dome of Antonovich’s skull.

I probably shouldn’t have hit him as hard as I did.

Though there’d been plenty of witnesses who’d seen the guy fondle her ass without her permission as they were preparing to leave the restaurant, Mae still hadn’t heard the end of it from her mother and her grandmother.

Apparently, kicking Rice Cake in the balls before finishing him off with a vicious left hook had been a step too far and not the kind of behavior expected from a polite young lady seeking a wedding match.

“It’s a miracle he hasn’t sued us,” Ye-Seul Hwang had grumbled upon hearing the news of her granddaughter’s violent transgression from their neighbor Mrs. Son-Ha, AKA Koreatown’s official busybody and first-class muckraker. “Never mind what this will do to your chances of landing another marriage meeting. Mr. Poh thinks you should lie low for a few weeks.”

“For the hundredth time, I’mnotinterested in getting married right now,” Mae had objected, doing her best not to make her words come out a wail. “Nor do I want you and Poh to set me up on any more crazy-ass dates.”

“Language, young lady,” her mother Yoo-Mi had warned coolly. “Mr. Poh is the best matchmaker in the city.” Her mouth flattened to a thin line, a sure sign she was moments away from blowing a fuse. “You should be grateful your father and I even allowed you to leave home and get your own apartment. You don’t know half the gossip we have to suffer through from Mrs. Son-Ha and her friends about having an unmarried daughter not living under the family roof.” She sniffed. “They think you’re fornicating with foreign men.”

Bob the vibrator and the handful of guys she’d slept with since she lost her virginity in college had flashed before Mae’s eyes at that.

“Why, they practically called you a jizz,” Ye-Seul had added with a soured expression.

Mae had choked on her tea. Yoo-Mi had turned an alarming shade of red.

“Do you mean Jezebel?” Mae’s sister Ryu had asked carefully. “Jizz means something, er, different.”

“Yes, that Jeze word,” Ye-Seul had concurred with some vigorous head bobbing. “What does jizz mean?” she’d asked curiously, much to Yoo-Mi’s horror.

Ryu had waved a dismissive hand. “Never mind that. Personally, I think Mae should have ripped that guy’s dick off and fed it to Mrs. Son-Ha’s dogs.”

She’d made a slicing movement across her raised left middle finger and ignored the glare Yoo-Mi had shot at her.

“What am I to do with the two of you?” their mother had finally said in a heavy voice. “All I want is your happiness. After everything you’ve sacrificed for this family, you both deserve that.”

Her chin had wobbled and her eyes had glistened with a shimmer of tears.

Remorse and frustration had swept through Mae at the quiet accusation behind Yoo-Mi’s words. She’d seen the same emotions flash in Ryu’s eyes and almost wished she hadn’t come home for Sunday dinner.

Their mother still hadn’t forgiven herself for the fact that Mae had had to give up her surgical residency at Grandview General to manage the family’s funeral home three years ago, after their father’s sudden death from a heart attack. Or that, instead of pursuing a promising MBA, Ryu had taken over the job of funeral home director from Mae a year and a half later, after graduating in the top ten percent of her class from one of New York’s most prestigious business schools.

Mae had forgone returning to her surgical residency program and signed up to be a mortuary assistant at Grandview General, mostly so she could carry on helping out at the funeral home until they appointed someone they trusted to assist Ryu. Since theirs was the main funeral parlor catering to traditional death rites in Koreatown, the business was hectic even at the best of times.

Yoo-Mi had tried her best to learn the ropes and support Ryu. Having spent most of her adult life successfully running a home and bringing up a family, she had proven to be more of a hindrance than a help to Mae’s younger sister.

It wasn’t long after that that their mother had convinced herself marriage was the answer to her daughters’ future happiness, something Mae and Ryu strongly suspected Mrs. Son-Ha had a hand in. Yoo-Mi and Ye-Seul had since pursued this avenue of action with a devotion that gave the two sisters regular indigestion.

“You heard anything from Rice Cake’s lawyers yet?” Rose asked presently.

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