Hello! It's time for a new chapter! I hope you enjoy this one. See you next year!

Chapter 9: Betrayal

The first thing that Sora did when she received the video was to forward it to Taichi. She didn't say a word about it and didn't care if he was sleeping in Japan. He would see it when he woke up.
"I'm sure there's a good explanation." Mike said as he sat down on their bed beside her. "I know your friends, they wouldn't do such thing to you."
"Then explain to me how suddenly me and my daughter are on the news?" Sora looked at him. "They had leaked it behind my back."
"You should at least let them explain it to you. You've known your friends better than anyone. You know they aren't like this."
"I know, but I really can't talk to them right now. I'm too nervous to deal with anything regarding this at the moment."
"Is there anything I can do make you feel better?"
"Yes." Sora got as closer to him as she could and locked eyes with him. "You can stay with me tonight."
"Don't I do that every night already?"
"You know what I mean, Mike." She started kissing his neck and moved up to his earlobe.
Mike groaned softly and closed his eyes as his body reacted to all the teasing Sora was doing to him. She pushed him down towards the bed and sat on top of him. They exchanged a brief glance before Sora bent over and captured his lips in an urgent yet passionate kiss. Her fingers tugged on his black shirt and she started to unbutton it. Without breaking the kiss, Mike managed to sit down so his fiancé could take it off his body. He wrapped his arms around her as the kiss turned to a slower pace.
"I want a baby." Sora said after she pulled away from him to breathe.
"What?!" Mike raised his eyebrow and was completely taken aback by her statement. "Where did that come from?"
"I've been thinking about it for a while, and I think it's time to give Yumi a brother or a sister."
"This isn't because of Yamato supposedly finding out about your daughter, is it?"
Sora frowned and crossed her arms, moving away from him. "Why does everybody think my decisions always revolve around this man? I haven't seen him in years!"
"I'm sorry. You're right. I shouldn't have accused you of thinking that way." Mike reached out for her arms and unfolded them, pulling her back towards him by her hand. It was his turn to kiss her neck. "For your information, I'm all up for having a child with you. We can go back to start trying right now, if you want to."
A smile crept on Sora's face and she immediately took her dress away, revealing her delicate red underwear. Her right hand slid up to the back of his neck and she pulled him towards him once again. "Then we have no time to waste."

Taichi groaned and rolled over on his bed as the noise got louder and louder. He always kept his cellphone out of reach, so he would have to get up to turn the alarm off. But he didn't remember having it set last night. He wasn't willing to wake up so early on a Sunday at all. It had taken Hikari to storm into his bedroom with anger expression and do something about it.
"You know, sometimes it's good to just get up and turn off the freaking alarm yourself!" She grabbed her brother's phone and looked at the scream. Her eyes went wide. "Uh… Taichi?"
"What?" Taichi muffed. He still had his eyes closed.
"It's not your alarm. Yamato has been calling you desperately."
"Huh?" He pulled the blanket away and sat down to look at his sister. "So early in the morning?"
"What time do you think it is, Taichi?"
"Uh, 7 or 8?"
"It's 10, brother." Hikari rolled her eyes and barely managed to hold her laugh.
"What?!" Taichi jumped off the bed in a hurry and grabbed his phone from his sister. "I should call him back."
"Obviously. Breakfast is on the table."
"You went to the bakery already? It was supposed to be my turn today."
"Not only to the bakery, but also to the grocery store."
"Damn it! I'm sorry, Hikari. Cleaning the house is on me next week."
"It better be." She walked out of his bedroom.
Taichi looked at her sister before turning his attention to his cellphone. He quickly dialed Yamato's number and pressed the call button. The blonde's voice soon echoed around his room.
"Finally!"
"I'm sorry, I overslept." Taichi let out an awkward laugh. "What's up?"
"We have a problem."
"Another one?" The brunette said jokingly. "What is it?"
"Mayumi accepted the deal Marie proposed to her, but I'm afraid it's too late."
"So just take the proposal back."
"Are you still sleeping, Taichi?! Did you even pay attention to what I said?"
"I did. So do you think she's going to do something?"
"I think she already did, to be honest."
Taichi stared at his phone vibrating on his hand and there was the name Sora on the screen. He began to get tense. Somehow he knew something was off. "Fuck!"
"Excuse me?"
"It wasn't for you, Yamato. Sora is calling me."
"So don't keep her waiting! Answer her. We'll talk later."
"Alright, bye."

When Taichi entered the living room, Hikari noticed he was extremely pale and staring at his mobile with widened eyes. She knew it must have been something serious. "Taichi, are you okay?"
"We're about to find out." Sighing, he finally pressed the answer call button on his phone. "Hey, Sora."
"It was you, wasn't it?"
"I don't understand, was it me what?"
Even if Taichi couldn't see, he knew Sora was rolling her eyes and annoyed on the other side.
"Don't play dumb on me, Taichi. I know it was you who talked to that woman who went on TV to talk about my daughter."
"Wait, what?!" He was genuinely surprised at her accusation. "You seriously thought I would do such thing?"
"You tell me. If it wasn't you, it was someone from our group. They were the only ones who knew the truth."
"I can guarantee to you it wasn't any of us. And I think you know it too. What happened though?"
"I received a video about a girl who was talking about Yumi on a Japanese gossip program! Can you explain to me what happened?"
Hikari stopped what she was doing and sat down to pay attention to the conversation.
"Okay, Sora." Taichi looked down at his phone after exchange a glance with his sister across him. "I'll tell you everything."
"Taichi."
"This has gone way too far, Hikari. It's the right thing to do."
"What has gone way too far?" Sora questioned from the other side of the line. "What have you all been keeping from me?"
"Sora, the woman who went on TV to talk about Yumi is the one Yamato met a couple of weeks ago at The Empire."
"What?!" She yelled. "How did Yamato even find out about her? It's been years since he last talked to us. Unless you all decided to tell him behind my back when I specifically told you not to." Sora waited for a reply from the siblings, which never came. "You told him, didn't you?"
"Actually, we told Takeru and he told Yamato." Hikari was the one who replied. "I happened to still have his number and called him. Mimi was really determined to "do the right thing", because you couldn't or didn't want to."
"So this has been Mimi's idea all along?" Sora asked. "I knew she wouldn't give up so easily. I can't believe you tagged along with her in this crazy plan. I'm really disappointed to all of you."
"We're very sorry about this, Sora. We tried to convince her not to do this, but she was focused on telling Yamato the truth."
"You still could have taken the high road and not been a part in this mess. I would never expect you to stab me on the back like this."
"That wasn't our intention, Sora. We swear." Hikari said. "Trust me, we feel really bad about it."
"Feeling bad isn't going to make things better, Hikari. You still shouldn't have done such action behind my back. My wishes and orders weren't taken into account."
"You're right." Taichi said sadly. "We really shouldn't have done that. But Sora, Yamato had already met Yumi before you, her and Mike left to London."
"What?!" Sora and Hikari said at the same time and Taichi looked up towards his sister.
"They had accidentally met at her school a day or so before you left. She was crying because she didn't want to go and they talked briefly about it. He thought she could be your daughter because of Yumi's similarity to you, but didn't put too much into it. It was only when I showered him a picture of her that he realized he was right all the time." Taichi covered his mouth after he realized he had slipped more than he was supposed to for the time being.
"You showed him a picture of Yumi?! When did you become friends again? You used to hate him."
"In Yamato's defense, he's changed, Sora. Seven years had gone by, a lot happened since then. He knows he messed up with you, but he is genuinely interested in getting to know his daughter better. You should have seen his face when he saw her picture. I have no doubt he will be a great father to her."
"Yamato is not getting any closer to Yumi, Taichi." Sora said firmly. "I already told you that."
"Sora, I don't mean to get you angry, but it's only a matter of time now. Also, when he saw the woman on TV, he immediately called his personal assistant and asked her to make a deal with the woman. He was worried about you and her the whole time. He didn't want you two to be exposed, especially that way."
"It's easy when the damage is already done." Sora said bitterly.
"Okay, I think you're being unfair now."
"And I think you all stabbed me on the back, how's that?" She snapped and hung up without saying goodbye.
"She's really upset." Hikari said after she recovered from her shock at Sora's attitude. "I don't remember seeing her ever hanging up on someone, especially like this."
"Yeah, but the worst thing about all of this is that we knew it would happen, but we chose to ignore it anyway." Taichi sighed.

The woman closed the door and walked towards Yamato and Takeru. "And that was it."
"So what do you think of it?" Yamato asked Takeru after they finished looking at the apartment.
"I love it. It's big enough for the two of us and it's not far from the city too."
"So, let's sign the papers?"
"Absolutely." Takeru smiled. "But I don't get paid much since I have an internship. Hopefully they turn me into a regular worker and I get to work full time."
"They surely will. Don't worry about paying for the apartment, we can discuss this later."
"And the good thing is that it's already decorated, so we won't have to spend much money on furniture and other things."
"That's definitely a plus." Yamato shoved his hand in his pocket to pick his cellphone. He looked at the screen and got a little tense. "Excuse me, I have to answer this."

Yamato closed the front door of the apartment and leaned against the balcony before pressing the accept button on his phone.
"Hello, Taichi."
"Yamato, we have a big problem here."
"That seems to be a standard these days." He rolled his eyes. "What is it?"
"Sora received a video from that woman's interview on TV."
"Wait, what?" Yamato shouted. "When did that happen?"
"Apparently, yesterday. She said she received from some girl."
"I was sensing something would happen." He pressed his palm against his forehead and sighed. "Taichi, it was Mayumi."
"How is that possible, Yamato?" Taichi asked. "She doesn't even have Sora's number."
"She must have taken when… wait a minute." Yamato went silent for a moment. "She must have saved it on her phone when she asked for mine saying she wanted to save her own number on mine. Yes, that was it. It was probably when she took a picture."
"She took a picture of your phone and you didn't get suspicious at all?"
"I did. I asked her about it and she said it was easier for her to save my number on her phone like that. She was actually taking a picture of Sora's number."
"So it was definitely her. I thought she had accepted the deal."
"She did. But she wouldn't leave it be, obviously."
"What are we going to do now?"
"I don't know." Yamato sighed. "Was Sora really angry about this?"
"She hung up on me, and she doesn't hang up on people at all. You can see how angry she was."
"I suppose I can say goodbye to my chances of getting to know Yumi."
"Yes, I think you can." Taichi went silent for some seconds. "What are you going to do about this?"
"Honestly, I don't know. I think my best option now would be talking to Sora in person. I have nothing else to lose."
"But she doesn't want to see you at all. I don't think it'd be the best thing to do. At least not in this moment."
"You're probably right." Yamato ruffled his hair nervously.
"I have a plan." Taichi suddenly said, much to Yamato's surprise.
"What plan?"
"I'm gonna make her taste her own medicine."
"Taichi, what are you gonna do exactly?"
"You'll find out soon."
"Don't be reckless. This can make my situation even worse."
"It won't, I promise." Taichi reassured him. "Okay, I gotta go call Mimi. Talk to you soon, bye."
"Alright, bye."

Mike sat on the empty side of the bed and looked at Sora, who was lying down next to him.
"Are you feeling better now?"
"A little, not much really. This day couldn't get worse, if you ask me."
"Why is that?"
"I called Taichi earlier and confronted him about the video I received from that girl."
"What did he say?"
"He said…" Sora bit her lower lip to stop the tears that were forming in her eyes from falling down. "He said that Yamato already knows about Yumi and that it happened the day before or a few days before we left Japan. They even had a brief conversation."
"But, Sora, don't you think it's a good thing?"
"How is that a good thing, Mike?" She didn't bother fighting her tears anymore. "He's not a good influence for her."
"You have this image of him from seven years ago and aren't even giving him a chance to show you who he is today. A lot can change in this period."
"I know, but…"
"Tell me, how would you feel if you were in his place? You would want a chance to meet your daughter for real, wouldn't you?"
"I would." She looked down at the bed. "Okay, so you have a point. But what if Yumi decides she wants to live with him instead?"
"Then you're just gonna have to accept it." Mike looked straight into her red eyes. "That doesn't mean she won't talk to you again, but maybe they will want to experience it together. You'll still be her mother."
"I suppose you're right. Maybe I'm being a little unfair to him."
"So, I have a proposal to you. I hope you don't feel angry at me, but…" Mike rolled over and grabbed an envelope from the bedside table. "There are two flight tickets here."
"What for?" Sora asked with confusion. "Are we going to another country or something?"
"We're not." He took a deep breath. "But I want us to take a break on our relationship."
"What?! But Mike…"
"Please, let me finish." He pleaded. "This is for you and Yumi. I think it's time you and Yamato work things out face to face."

So what do you think is gonna happen next? Please leave a comment, I want to know your thoughts.