Chapter 2
She glanced over at the man sitting across from her on the small private jet as they flew out over the ocean to a small private island where she would be staying for a couple of weeks to relax before she began her next step in her life. She wondered why Takarada-san would be joining her and why Maria wouldn't be there. She could help but think that he looked nervous and apprehensive.
"Shachou... is everything alright?" She asked the eccentric man that wasn't so eccentric at the moment.
He cleared his throat and nodded as he moved to the seat directly in front of her. He sighed deeply and put a small folder in her lap. "Open it..." He whispered. "Don't say anything until you've looked at everything." He told her.
She nodded and carefully opened the folder to find an old ID card with her father's name on it, his birth certificate, his family registry and finally his name change documents. Her eyes went wide at the revelation and she felt faint. "Why?..."
"I... I'm not proud of who I was Dear." He confessed.
"How long have you known?" She asked calmly and quietly. She allowed her mother her side of the story now she would calmly listen to his.
He stared down at the floor. "I just found out when you told Jelly... She told me when you were picking out your clothes yesterday." He told her with shame in his voice. "Kyoko... If I had known."
"If you had known what?! You would have left me out to dry like my mother? You would have made her get an abortion?!" She yelled irrationally. "I was an accident! I was never meant to be and you left her!"
"NO! If I had known, I would have taken you with me. You're my baby girl! I would have never allowed all of the things that happened." He told her hastily. "I would have never allowed either of those two anywhere near you! You're too good for either of them! You are my daughter! I... I would have never allowed them close enough to hurt you... I would have loved you with all my heart your entire life. You would have never known the pain that any of them caused you." He told her with pain and regret in his voice.
"You... You would have?" She asked with tears streaming down her beautiful cheeks.
He nodded and sat next to her then pulled her into his arms. "Yes... and I still will. Let me fix what we all broke. Let me help take away all of those bad memories."
She nodded as she buried her tear stained face into her father's soft shirt.
"Yashiro... Have you seen Kyoko lately?" Ren asked as he and his manager drove to the taping of his most recent drama.
Yashiro sighed. "No Ren... I have not. I haven't heard from her since the day after the audition for Sacred Lotus. Sawara-san won't tell me where she is either. No one knows where she is. I even stopped by the Darumaya and they told me that she no longer lives there." He told him in a worried voice. "Ren... I'm worried about her. She took it really hard."
Ren sighed. "I don't think that something like that would bother her enough to just leave. Do you? She isn't the type to just run away from problems." Ren told him.
Yashiro gave him another worried look as they pulled into the parking lot and parked. "About that... She um... She had a talk with Kimiko Morizumi. I don't know what they talked about, but it troubled her enough to affect her performance." Yashiro confessed.
"I really don't think Morizumi-chan could say anything to Kyoko that would bother her that much." Ren scoffed at the implications.
"I hope you're right." Yashiro commented as he gathered his things and left the car.
"So... I know you said you wanted your new name to be Katerina Misonoi but is that what you really want?" Lory asked as they sped down the highway to their hotel.
"What would you suggest Father?" She asked and he smiled at her calling him father.
"You would really let me name you Sweetie?" He smiled brightly and felt honored.
She nodded. "My mother didn't name me. The nurses at the hospital did." She told him quietly.
He hugged her. "Well, I think we're going to fix that, my little butterfly... Kyoko Takarada." He smiled softly. "You're perfect the way you are and I wouldn't change a thing." He kissed her forehead.
She sighed contentedly in her father's arms. "I like that name Daddy." She whispered.
"Good, we'll change it as soon as we can then. We can stop back in Japan before we head over to Italy next month." He gave her a light squeeze. "Oh! Look! It's the Empire State Building!" He pointed out their window excitedly and she reveled in the comfort and joy of having a doting parent.
"I'm not sure you can help me Takarada-san. I had something I needed to discuss with your father." Ren told Kouki as they sat in Lory's office.
"I'm very sorry Tsuruga-san... He won't be back for awhile. He's traveling abroad with my sister at the moment. I think right now, they're probably in New York." Kouki told him. "They'll probably be back in a couple of weeks, then he plans on taking her to Italy."
Ren looked at him in confusion. "Sister? I didn't know you had a sister."
Kouki chuckled. "I didn't either until a couple of weeks ago, but I am glad we found her. She is quite a talented little gem." He laughed. "And amazingly enough, she fits perfectly into our family. It's surprising that we didn't see it sooner." He shook his head. "Was the subject matter that you wanted to discuss with my father anything I could help you with?" Kouki asked.
Ren sighed. "Well... perhaps you can. I was wondering if you might know the whereabouts of Mogami-san."
"Oh... Well, about that..." Kouki said quietly. "Why would you like to know about my little sister? If I may ask."
Ren sat in shocked silence. "Your... Sister?"
