The Yakuza’s Mute Bride novel Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Chapter 81

(Go to Tadashi POV:)**

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The forest absorbed sound as though it were alive.

Snow muted my footsteps as I ran between the trees, my breath measured, my pulse steady, my body responding with precision long before conscious thought had time to intervene. Pain flared briefly in my ribs and left leg where bullets had torn into me days earlier, but I dismissed it without effort. Pain has always been familiar to me. Pain was manageable, predictable, and honest.

What was not manageable was the image that would not leave my mind.

Naomi’s body jerked as she shoved me out of the path of the bullet. The sharp sound she made when the shot struck her shoulder. The warmth of her weight as we fell together onto the road.

I did not remember her.

And yet my body reacted as though I had lost something essential.

Reiko’s escape attempt had been careless, driven by emotion instead of discipline, and that mistake cost her. I intercepted her less than a hundred meters into the forest, my men emerging from the shadows in silence as she realized too late that she had been surrounded.

“Well,” I said calmly, stepping closer, the snow crunching beneath my boots. “Well. Well. Well.”

She turned toward me, her face twisted with hatred so old it had fermented into something poisonous.

“Look at you,” I continued evenly. “A mouse that believed herself a wolf.”

“Do not touch me,” she spat.

I studied her without urgency, as though she were an insect pinned to a board.

“Take her to the dungeon,” I ordered.

My men moved instantly, gripping her arms and dragging her away as she struggled violently, her curses echoing uselessly through the trees.

“You will not escape me,” she screamed, her voice cracking with rage. “You murdered my family.”

I smiled faintly.

“I remember erasing the Yamasaki clan,” I replied without emotion. “I do not remember leaving one alive.”

The words froze her.

For the first time, genuine fear flickered across her face.

This was the man she remembered.

Not the public figure. Not the heir. Not the businessman.

This was the executioner.

As they dragged her past me, she laughed suddenly, sharp and brittle.

13:00 Mon, Jan 12

Chapter 81

TO

“How is the woman?” she asked mockingly. “The foreign one.”

I stopped.

Not physically, but something inside me did.

I turned my head slowly and looked at her, my expression unchanged.

Her smile faltered.

“Is it true?” she asked more carefully. “Do you really not remember her?”

I did not answer.

Because I did not understand why the question unsettled me.

I watched her disappear into the forest before turning away.

“Take her,” I said again, dismissing her entirely.

My feet carried me back toward the road, my thoughts tightly controlled, my emotions restrained by habit. Control has always been my strength. Memory was not necessary for survival. Emotion was a liability.

And yet her name surfaced without invitation.

Naomi…. It lingered in my mind like a wound that refused to close.

Why had she pushed me?

Why had she chosen to save someone who had humiliated her, accused her, and dismissed her existence as disposable?

I did not remember loving her.

But I remembered being saved.

That fact disturbed me more deeply than any bullet wound.

When I returned to the restaurant area, I expected chaos. I expected blood. I expected her.

Instead, I was met with absence.

“What?” The word escaped me sharply as I scanned the

Yukito was gone.

So was Naomi.

space.

My chest tightened abruptly, an unfamiliar sensation that disrupted my breathing for a brief moment before I forced myself to regain control.

“She has been taken away,” one of the men informed me cautiously.

My gaze snapped toward him. “By whom?”

“Yukito,” he replied.

The name struck harder than it should have.

Yukito…

13:00 Mon, Jan 12 TO

Chapter 81

My second. My most trusted subordinate. The man who had never once acted without my approval.

Something dark stirred in my chest.

Anger surfaced first, followed by something sharper and more unsettling.

Betrayal? Jealousy?

The realization irritated me.

Why would I feel jealousy over a woman I did not remember?

And yet my jaw clenched so tightly that my teeth ached.

“He took her?” I asked.

“Yes,” the man answered. “She was wounded. He said she needed immediate treatment.”

“She was shot protecting me,” I said slowly, the words sounding strange even to my own ears.

The man nodded.

Silence stretched between us.

Then another sensation emerged beneath the anger.

Obligation.

Regardless of memory, regardless of feeling, she had saved my life.

That alone demanded acknowledgment.

“I need to speak with her,” I said flatly.

The words left my mouth before I fully examined the reason behind them.

Why did I need to speak with her?

To thank her?

To dismiss her properly?

To understand why her absence felt wrong? I did not know.

“Where did they go?” I asked.

“To the secure route,” the man replied. “Yukito said she requested to leave.”

Requested… The word lodged itself in my chest.

She wanted to leave.

Of course she did.

I had reduced her to something that could be bought and discarded.

A sharp pressure bloomed behind my eyes, irritating and persistent.

I told myself it was annoyance.

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Chapter 81

Nothing more.

“Catch them,” I said suddenly.

The order emerged without conscious deliberation.

My men bowed and moved immediately.

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Only after they were gone did I realize my hands were shaking. I flexed my fingers slowly until the tremor subsided.

Why had I given that order? Because she mattered? No.

Because she owed me nothing? No.

Because I needed answers…..Yes, that was the truth.

I turned away and walked toward the vehicle, my steps controlled, my thoughts circling moments I did not remember living.

Her voice, steady despite its fragility, asking me to let her go. The slap across my face that had stunned me into silence. The way she ran from me without looking back.

She had not begged.

She had not pleaded.

She had not clung.

She had walked away.

Most people never did.

That realization unsettled me deeply.

As the car began to move, another understanding settled into place.

I did not remember Naomi but Naomi remembered me.

She remembered enough to save my life.

She remembered enough to bleed for me.

She remembered enough to leave when I stripped her of dignity.

My chest tightened again, sharper this time.

This was inconvenient… Dangerous…..

Memory loss did not erase instinct.

And my instincts were screaming that letting her disappear was a mistake.

Not because of love but because of something far more unsettling.

Possession…

Connection….

A bond tied too deeply to sever cleanly.

13:00 Mon, Jan 12

Chapter 81

I stared out the window as the snow blurred past and the mountain receded behind us.

I had destroyed bloodlines.

I had dismantled empires.

I had buried men and women who cursed my name with their final breath.

And yet one wounded woman walking away from me disturbed me more than any enemy ever had.

“Naomi,” I murmured quietly.

The name felt familiar in a way I could not explain.

Why did it feel like something I had sworn to protect?

Why did it feel like something I had already lost?

I did not know.

But I would find out.

Whether she wished me to or not.

L

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