The Yakuza’s Mute Bride novel Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Click…

The door had barely closed behind her when the silence turned violent.

Tadashi Masayoshi lay back against the pillows, staring at the place where she had stood moments earlier, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached. The room felt smaller now, suffocating, as though the air itself resented her absence. His chest tightened with an emotion he could not name, sharp and intrusive, burrowing beneath his ribs like something alive.

‘Annoyance,’ he told himself.

Suspicion….. And mostly irritation at having allowed a stranger so close while he lay wounded and compromised.

That was all.

And yet his fingers twitched restlessly against the sheets, remembering the warmth of her touch even as his mind rejected the meaning behind it.

‘No, I must be crazy. Why am I thinking about her now? Stupid!’ He exhaled sharply and turned his head away from the door.

“Gio,” he called.

The man appeared almost instantly, stepping inside with controlled precision, his expression neutral but attentive.

“Ota,” Tadashi added, his voice edged with impatience.

Ota followed moments later, leaning slightly on his crutch, his face carefully schooled into obedience. He did not speak, but his eyes flicked briefly toward the door, as if he could still sense her presence lingering beyond it.

Tadashi did not miss that glance.

His irritation spiked.

“I want everything,” Tadashi said coldly, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. “Everything you know about that woman. Her background. Her movements. Her connections. Every detail. And also why am I here?”

Ota stiffened slightly.

“Everything?” Gio asked carefully.

“Yes,” Tadashi snapped. “Because I must be insane to have allowed someone like her into my life.”

The words tasted bitter in his mouth, though he did not understand why.

“I want to know if she is trustworthy,” he continued. “Or if she is nothing more than a gold digger who successfully fooled me while I was distracted.”

Ota’s grip tightened on his crutch.

Silence stretched.

Too long.

Tadashi turned his head sharply toward him when he saw the man’s eyes staring at him. “What?”

Ota hesitated, then spoke, his voice measured but firm. “You were the one who told her to wait for you,” he said. “You were

12:57 Mon, Jan 12 TOG

Chapter 74

the one who came to London for her, Tadashi-sama.”

The words landed harder than any accusation.

Tadashi froze. ‘What?!’

For a moment, the room seemed to tilt.

“What did you say?” he asked slowly.

Ota met his gaze without flinching. “You told her to wait. You told her to trust you. You told her you would return to her.”

Tadashi felt something twist violently inside his chest.

“You too?” he hissed, anger surging to mask the unease creeping up his spine. “Have you decided to defend her as well?”

His eyes flicked briefly toward Gio, who remained silent, his expression unreadable.

Ota sighed quietly.

“Yes,” he admitted. “Because I saw it with my own eyes.”

Damn it! Damn her!

Tadashi scoffed. “Saw what?”

“How deeply you were in love with her,” Ota replied.

The word struck like a slap.

Love.

Tadashi let out a harsh, dismissive sound. “Do not be ridiculous.”

“I am not, Tadashi-sama,” Ota said calmly. “You were different when you’re with her. You softened. You listened. You allowed her to see you when no one else ever had.”

Tadashi’s jaw tightened painfully, yet he didn’t say anything.

“You gave Yukito a direct order,” Ota continued. “You commanded him to protect her at all costs. Even from yourself. That is why he stood against you just now.”

The memory surfaced unwillingly.

Yukito’s defiance.

The way he had spoken.

The words twisted uncomfortably in Tadashi’s mind.

He clicked his tongue sharply. “Then she must be a witch.”

The statement came out harsher than he intended, edged with something dangerously close to desperation.

Ota’s eyes widened in shock.

For a brief moment, Tadashi saw something flicker across his old friend’s face.

Not anger.

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Chapter 71

Not rebellion.

But sorrow.

Ota looked at him the way one looks at a man standing at the edge of a cliff, too stubborn to see the drop below.

“I will do as you order,” Ota said quietly. “We will gather everything we know.”

He paused, then added, softer now, “But when your memories return, you will regret what you said today about her

Tadashi bristled. “You assume too much.”

Ota shook his head, “I assume nothing,” He replied. “I remember.”

That unsettled him more than any argument could have.

Gio bowed slightly, signaling the end of the discussion. “We will begin immediately, Tadashi-sama.”

Ota inclined his head once, then turned toward the door.

Neither man looked back.

When they were gone, the room fell silent again.

Tadashi closed his eyes.

For a moment, images flashed unbidden through his mind.

A woman sitting beside a fire, wrapped in one of his shirts.

Hands moving gracefully, speaking without sound.

A laugh caught between a cough and a smile.

Her fingers clutching his sleeve as though afraid to let go.

He opened his eyes sharply.

Annoyed.

Disgusted with himself.

These were false impressions, he told himself. Fabrications created by injury and suggestion.

And yet his chest ached.

Why would two men who had bled beside him defend a stranger?

Why would Yukito risk defying him?

Why would Ota speak of love with such certainty?

And why-Why did the image of her collapsing outside his door refuse to leave his mind, even though he had not seen it happen?

He pressed his palm against his forehead, irritation bleeding into something darker.

It was Regret.

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Chapter 74

Or uncertainty…

A nameless pressure behind his eyes.

Unaware that just beyond the wall, separated by a single room, the woman he dismissed lay unconscious, her throat raw from surgery, her heart bruised by his words, having crossed an ocean to see him only to be cast aside.

Unaware that the very person he ordered investigated was the anchor he had lost.

And unaware that when memory returned-It would not come gently.

It would come like a blade.

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