The Yakuza’s Mute Bride novel Chapter 94

Chapter 94

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Yukito moved before I could even register it, stepping directly in front of me with the instinctive precision of someone who had spent his entire life placing himself between danger and the people he cared about. His back was straight, his stance. wide, solid-unmistakably protective.

It was enough to make Tadashi stop.

Only for a second.

His eyebrow lifted slowly, the movement subtle but dangerous, like the first tremor before an earthquake.

“Move,” he said.

The word was quiet. Controlled. Deceptively calm.

Yukito did not budge.

“Tadashi-sama,” Yukito began, his tone respectful but firm, “listen to me. This is not-”

“I said move, Yukito.”

The air around them seemed to tighten, as though the room itself was bracing.

Yukito remained where he was.

Then Tadashi’s voice cracked through the space like a gunshot.

“I SAID MOVE, YUKITO!”

I gasped, the sound tearing out of me before I could stop it. The fury in Tadashi’s voice was not something I had ever heard directed at Yukito before. Not like this. Not raw, not stripped of restraint.

Fear surged through me-not for myself, but for Yukito.

I reacted without thinking.

I stepped forward and pushed Yukito aside with both hands, my heart hammering wildly in

“Yukito, please-” I started, my voice shaking. “Do not get hurt because of me.”

The moment my

Tadashi moved.

hands left Yukito’s arm, the world shifted.

my

chest.

I barely had time to gasp before his hands were on me, strong and unyielding, lifting me effortlessly off the ground. In one swift, shocking motion, he swung me over his shoulder, my body tipping upside down as his arm locked firmly around my thighs.

“What-Tadashi-!” I cried out, panic flooding my voice as blood rushed to my head. “Yuki-Yukito, help me! Ai!”

My words echoed uselessly through the room.

No one moved.

Ai stood frozen, her face pale, eyes wide with alarm but rooted to the floor by the weight of Tadashi’s authority. Yukito spun around, shock flashing across his features as he took a step forward-then stopped.

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Chapter 94

Because Tadashi had already turned away.

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“What is happening?!” I demanded breathlessly, my hands clutching at his back, my heart pounding so violently it felt like it might break through my ribs. “Tadashi, put me down! You can just-”

“Quiet,” he said.

Not shouted.

Not barked.

Quiet.

The word carried a command so absolute it stole the rest of my protest from my throat.

He did not look back. He did not slow his pace. He walked as though this was already decided, as though the path ahead of him had only one ending and he intended to reach it without interference.

I twisted slightly, trying to see Yukito over Tadashi’s shoulder.

Yukito’s fists were clenched at his sides, his jaw tight, eyes burning with helpless fury as he watched us move farther away.

“Tadashi-sama!” he called out sharply. “This is not right. You do not remember her-”

“I remember enough,” Tadashi cut in without stopping.

The words hit me harder than the way he held me.

Enough…

Enough to take me.

Enough to stop me from leaving. Enough to ignore every boundary I was trying to draw.

Not enough to remember loving me.

The contradiction twisted painfully inside my chest.

He carried me out of the dining room, through the corridor, his stride steady and unhurried despite my frantic heartbeat. Every servant we passed lowered their gaze immediately, bodies stiffening in silence. No one dared to intervene. No one dared to speak.

I was acutely aware of the indignity of it-the way my hair brushed against his back, the way my skirt shifted with every step, the way my world had been reduced to the rise and fall of his breathing and the firm, unyielding strength of his grip.

“Tadashi,” I tried again, softer now, fear giving way to confusion and something dangerously close to heartbreak. “Why are you doing this?”

He stopped.

So abruptly that my breath hitched.

For a moment, the only sound was my own breathing, fast and uneven.

Then he turned his head just enough that I could hear his voicelearly, low and controlled, threaded with something dark and unresolved.

“Because you are not leaving,” he said. “Not with Yukito. Not alone. Not anywhere.”

My heart sank.

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Chapter 94

“Why?” I whispered.

He did not answer.

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Instead, he adjusted his hold on me and continued walking, his lence louder than any explanation he could have given.

Behind us, far down the corridor, Yukito’s voice rang out one last time-strained, furious, and afraid. “Tadashi-sama, if you

hurt her-”

Tadashi did not slow down.

He did not turn.

But his hand tightened around me just enough for me to feel it.

And in that tightening grip, I realized something that made my breath catch painfully in my chest.

He might not remember me.

But whatever he felt-whatever instinct was driving him now-I was dangerous.

And it was possessive.

And it was not going to let me go.

Gio and Ota were the first ones we passed when Tadashi carried me out through the front hall.

They both froze.

Gio’s hand moved almost on instinct, pulling the car keys from his pocket and holding them out without a word. Ota’s gaze flicked to my face-quick, searching, troubled-before settling back into rigid composure. They both understood the same thing at the same time.

This was not a moment they could interfere with.

This was not a moment anyone could interfere with.

Tadashi released me only when we reached the car. He set me down in the passenger seat with controlled precision, as if even now he was afraid of using too much force. Before he could move around to the other side, Ota stepped forward and shoved a jacket into Tadashi’s hands.

“Wear it,” Ota said quietly. It was not a command. It was a concern.

Tadashi took it without comment, slipping it on as he moved into the driver’s seat. The door slammed shut, sealing us into a silence that felt heavier than any argument.

The engine roared to life.

The car surged forward.

He drove fast-far too fast for the narrow road winding away from the estate-but I said nothing. I did not protest. I did not ask him to slow down. Something in the rigid line of his shoulders told me that any word spoken now would only sharpen whatever storm was already raging inside him.

I turned my gaze toward the window, watching Kyoto blur past

streaks of shadow and light.

Lanterns flickered at the edges of the road. Ancient wooden gate flashed by, their kanji unreadable at this speed. The city slowly thinned, buildings giving way to trees, then to long, quiet stretches of road that felt untouched by time.

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Chapter 94

My thoughts spun just as wildly.

Why was he acting like this?

Why drag me away only to trap me in silence?

Why look at me with anger when it was clear he did not remember loving me?

The car suddenly slowed.

Then stopped.

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The abruptness stole my breath, my body jolting slightly forward as Tadashi pulled over onto a narrow stone-lined road. The engine continued to hum softly, but the world outside was unnervingly quiet.

I lifted my head slowly.

Where were we?

Tall, ancient trees surrounded us, their branches arching overhead like the ribs of some enormous living cathedral. The air felt cooler here, cleaner, heavy with the scent of moss and damp earth. A low stone wall ran alongside the road, beyond which stretched carefully tended gardens barely visible in the twilight.

Recognition crept in, slow and disbelieving.

Shugakuin Imperial Villa.

A place closed to the public. A place reserved for royalty, scholars, and the highest-ranking members of old families. A place steeped in silence and history, guarded not by fences but by tradition itself.

No tourists. No crowds. No escape.

Tadashi finally broke the silence.

“Why did you want to leave?” he asked.

His voice was calm.

Too calm.

I turned toward him, really looking at him now. His hands were still on the steering wheel, knuckles faintly pale, his gaze fixed straight ahead as though the road still demanded his attention even though we were no longer moving.

He did not look at me.

I studied the familiar angles of his face, the sharp line of his jaw the faint crease between his brows that appeared when he was thinking too hard. Everything about him felt achingly familiar-and painfully distant at the same time.

I swallowed.

“Why stay in a place where you are not welcome?” I answered quietly.

The words were steady, but they cost me more than I wanted him to know.

He inhaled slowly, deeply.

The silence stretched again, thick and pressing.

“You are welcome,” he said at last.

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Chapter 94

I almost laughed.

Instead, I shook my head, my gaze drifting back toward the gardens beyond the stone wall.

“I am not,” I said softly. “Not to you. Not to your clan. Not to this place anymore.”

His jaw tightened.

“You assume too much.”

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“And you assume too little,” I replied, my voice gaining strength tespite myself. “You look at me and see a stranger. A complication. A woman who should disappear quietly so your life can return to order.”

He finally turned to look at me then.

His eyes were dark, unreadable, searching my face as if trying to peel back layers he did not remember putting there.

“If that were true,” he said slowly, “I would have let you leave.”

The words settled heavily between us.

I laughed softly, a sound without humor.

“You stopped me,” I said. “That is not the same as wanting me.”

His grip on the steering wheel loosened, then tightened again.

“I do not understand you,” he admitted, voice low. “You walk into my life with familiarity you should not have. You look at me like you know every scar I carry. You make my people treat you like something sacred.”

I met his gaze fully now.

“You made them treat me that way,” I said. “Not them. You.”

His brows drew together.

“I do not remember doing that.”

“I know,” I whispered.

The word tasted bitter.

For a moment, neither of us spoke. The quiet of the imperial grounds wrapped around us, ancient and impartial, bearing witness without judgment.

Then he spoke again, more quietly than before.

“When you said you would leave,” he said, “something in me rejected the idea. Not logically. Instinctively.”

My heart stuttered.

“I do not like that,” he continued. “I do not like losing control over myself.”

I nodded slowly.

“Neither do I.”

He exhaled sharply, leaning back in his seat.

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Chapter 94

“So you think leaving is the answer,” he said.

“I think staying will only hurt us both,” I replied. “You deserve clarity. I deserve dignity.”

His eyes narrowed slightly.

“And if I tell you that I will not let you go?”

The question was not a threat.

It was a test.

I held his gaze, my pulse pounding loudly in my ears.

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“Then,” I said carefully, “you will be keeping me for reasons you do not understand. And that will destroy whatever respect remains between us.”

The silence that followed was long.

Heavy.

Unforgiving.

Tadashi finally looked away, his gaze drifting toward the towering trees beyond the windshield.

“This place,” he said quietly, changing the subject as though the weight of it pressed too close to something fragile inside him, “was where my grandfather brought me when I was a child. When he wanted me to remember that power should be exercised with restraint.”

I listened.

“He told me that the quiet here existed to remind men like us that we are not gods,” he continued. “That we can destroy much more easily than we can protect.”

His fingers flexed slowly against the leather of the steering wheel

“I brought you here because… this is where my mind slows down

I closed my eyes briefly.

“Then let it slow enough for you to see clearly,” I said with a sighed. “Not through anger. Not through possession. But through choice.”

He turned to me again.

This time, there was no fury in his gaze.

Only conflict.

And something far more dangerous.

Uncertainty.

The kind that came before either release-Or ruin

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