Chapter 17 – The Lie That Buried Them

The call came late at night.

Aiko was sitting on the edge of the guest bed, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling of her aunt’s house in America. Everything around her felt borrowed. The room. The silence. Even the air.

Her phone buzzed.

Father.

Her heart tightened.

She hesitated before answering. “Dad…?”

Hiroshi Hoshizora’s voice came through calm, controlled, almost gentle. That alone made her uneasy.

“Aiko,” he said. “I need you to sit down.”

Her fingers dug into the sheets. “What’s wrong?”

There was a pause. A measured breath.

“There was an accident.”

The world seemed to tilt.

“…What accident?”

“Yuji,” Hiroshi continued slowly, “was involved in a traffic collision. He was on his way back from work.”

Aiko’s chest tightened so painfully she couldn’t breathe. “Dad… what are you saying?”

“The baby was with him.”

Silence.

Her ears rang.

“I’m sorry,” Hiroshi said. “Neither of them survived.”

The phone slipped from Aiko’s hand.

She didn’t scream.

She didn’t cry.

Her body simply gave up.

She slid down onto the floor, back against the bed, staring at nothing. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out. Her chest burned as if something had been torn out violently.

“No…” she whispered. “No, no, no…”

Her aunt rushed in, alarmed. “Aiko? What happened?”

Aiko shook her head weakly. “They’re… gone.”

Her aunt froze. “Who?”

“Yuji,” Aiko whispered. “Mai too…”

Her aunt covered her mouth.

Aiko pressed her fist to her lips, finally letting out a broken sob. It ripped out of her like a wound reopening.

“I left them,” she cried. “I left them alone… I left my baby…”

She collapsed forward, shaking, her body wracked with guilt and grief. Every promise she had made echoed in her head. Every moment she chose safety over them crushed her chest.

Hiroshi ended the call on his side calmly.

The lie was complete.

The funeral happened without her.

There were no photos sent. No details. Just a single message from her father.

It’s over now. Focus on your future.

Aiko stopped eating.

She stopped sleeping.

She moved through her days like a ghost, replaying Yuji’s smile, Mai’s tiny fingers, the warmth she had abandoned.

At night, she held her stomach and whispered apologies into the dark.

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”

But there was no answer.

Far away, very much alive, Yuji Sakamoto held his daughter close as the bus pulled away from the city.

Kazunami Town was small. Coastal. Quiet. The kind of place people went when they wanted to disappear.

Yuji stared out the window, Mai asleep against his chest.

No Hoshizora. No past. No expectations.

Just survival.

He had changed his number. Left no forwarding address. Cut every thread that connected him to that life.

The city that took everything from him faded into the distance.

In Kazunami, no one knew his name.

No one knew he had been beaten, broken, robbed of his child and his love.

That was the point.

He rented a tiny room above an old grocery store. The owner didn’t ask questions. Just nodded and handed him the key.

At night, Yuji rocked Mai to sleep, whispering promises he would never break.

“I won’t let anyone touch you again.”

Mai slept peacefully, trusting him completely.

Yuji’s face hardened.

Whatever Aiko Hoshizora had been to him before was buried.

As far as the world knew, Yuji Sakamoto and his daughter had died in an accident.

And in that death, a new life quietly began.

In Kazunami Town.