The Yakuza’s Mute Bride novel Chapter 86

Chapter 86

This…. I recognized the road before my mind fully accepted it.

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The long curve of the mountain pass, the quiet sweep of foreste hills, the faint glimmer of lanterns that lined the narrow path like sentinels guarding something sacred and dangerous. My heart began to pound long before I saw the familiar gates rising ahead of us.

Shun-sama’s mansion.

The Masayoshi estate.

The place where everything had begun.

Why was he bringing me here?

I sat in Tadashi’s lap the entire ride, his arms wrapped around me so tightly that it felt less like an embrace and more like a cage. He did not loosen his grip even once. Every time the car slowed or turned, his hold tightened, as if he feared I might

vanish between one breath and the next.

I tried to speak.

“Tadashi…

you

asked me to leave,” I said softly, testing my still-healing voice. “Why are you taking me here?”

He did not answer.

He did not even look at me.

His gaze was fixed straight ahead, jaw tight, eyes dark and unreadable. It was as if something inside him was fighting something else, and I was caught in the middle of that silent war

When the car finally stopped, he was already moving.

Before I could gather my thoughts, he lifted me effortlessly into his arms and stepped out into the cold Kyoto air. The weight of the place pressed down on me immediately. I saw the servants freeze where they stood, their eyes widening in shock when they saw me in his arms, yet not a single one of them dared to speak. They bowed deeply as we passed, fear and reverence blending into something almost worshipful.

I felt smaller with every step.

Tadashi did not slow.

He walked straight through the halls, past rooms that held too many memories, until we reached the one place I had not wanted to see again.

His room.

The door slid open, and he carried me inside as though this was the most natural thing in the world.

He placed me on the bed.

It was his bed…

My heart was racing.

Before I could stand, before I could ask anything else, he began emoving his coat, then his blazer, movements smooth and automatic, as if he had done this in front of me a thousand time before.

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17:27 Thu, Jan 22 G D D.

Chapter 86

Which, in another life, he had.

“Tadashi…” I whispered, my voice trembling.

He did not stop.

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When he was left in nothing but his trousers, I turned my face away, unable to look at him, unable to bear the memory of how intimately I once knew every inch of him.

Why was he undressing?

Why was he here with me like this?

My breath caught when I felt his presence close again.

Before I could react, his mouth was on mine.

The kiss was not gentle.

It was not asking.

It was claiming.

I gasped, my hands instinctively pushing against his chest, but the resistance melted almost instantly as something old and familiar surged through me. His lips moved against mine with a hunger that felt confused, almost desperate, as though his body remembered something his mind could not.

I missed him.

God, I missed him so much.

When he finally pulled back, I was trembling.

I touched my lips in disbelief, my heart aching with a pain that was both familiar and unbearable.

He looked at me with that same cold, assessing gaze, then turned away.

I followed his line of sight.

And froze.

On the wall behind him hung a massive painting.

Of me.

Not a simple portrait, but a breathtakingly detailed painting of my face, my eyes, my hair, captured with a tenderness that

no stranger could have painted. Every line, every shadow, every brushstroke spoke of devotion.

It was me.

In his room.

Displayed like something precious.

“My reaction was the same as yours when I came here,” he said quietly, watching me stare.

“What… is that?” I whispered.

He scoffed lightly and turned back toward the painting. “It seems what you told me about us was not entirely a lie.”

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Chapter 86

The words struck harder than I expected.

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I could not stop staring at my own image on the wall. The woman in the painting looked loved. Cherished. Seen.

The man standing beside me looked like he had never known how to love.

“I never lied to you,” I said softly. “I told you the truth.”

He exhaled slowly. “The idea of myself with a woman…” he began, then fell silent.

“With me,” I added quietly.

He turned his eyes back to me.

“I told you I would leave if you wanted me to,” I said. “Yet you keep taking me back.”

His jaw tightened.

“With Yukito…” he muttered.

I did not understand why that name ignited something dark in him.

Before I could ask, his hands were on me again.

He turned me to face him, his grip firm but not cruel, and his mouth crashed onto mine a second time.

This kiss was different.

Slower.

Deeper.

More consuming.

I tried to pull away, tried to remind myself that this was not the Hadashi I loved, but my body betrayed me, responding to him as it always had. His hands moved against me with a familiarity that made my chest ache, his touch possessive, urgent, as if he were trying to claim something he did not understand he was afraid to lose.

I felt it then.

Not love.

Not yet.

But recognition.

Some part of him knew me.

Some part of him refused to let me go.

Even if his mind insisted I was a stranger.

Even if his voice denied everything his hands were saying.

When he finally pulled back, his breathing was uneven, his eyes dark and stormed with something that frightened me.

“I do not know why,” he said hoarsely, “but when you are near me, everything feels wrong if I let you go.”

I swallowed hard.

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Chapter 86

And for a single, fleeting moment, something in his gaze flickered.

Something that looked dangerously like longing.

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