"So, if I got this right, you actually want me to kill you," Yao said after a moment.
"Yes," I confirmed. "Should the unthinkable happen, I'd want you to kill me."
"And what about your sister? I don't suppose you'd want me to kill her too," Yao went on as if this were some kind of joke.
"Don't be absurd. Besides, part of your family wants her alive, too. He'd be rather opposed to his uncle killing his true love. That is why he ran away in the end."
Yao cursed in Mandarin. "That stupid boy."
"Do we have a deal?" I extended my hand out to the syndicate leader.
Without much more convincing, Yao grasped my hand.
"Uncle, you can't be serious," Kiku protested.
"I can't see any more of my family die. No matter how rebellious and stupid they are to fall in love," Yao stated.
"Is that the connection? Being in love?" I probed. "In that case, why wouldn't she attack more people? Who is John?"
"Be quiet," he ordered. "I've already agreed to tell you what I know. You'll just have to be patient."
Yao paused a moment to make sure I was compliant.
"John Chu was my great grandfather," Yao began again. "He changed his name to seem more American when he and his wife immigrated here. He was the one you could say started our family's...not entirely legal dealings. And he certainly wasn't a doctor."
"What was he?" I asked.
Yao exhaled. "Some might say he was a carpetbagger. It certainly wasn't the syndicate it is today. He claimed to have medicines and mystical herbs from the Far East that could cure the sick minds of loved ones."
"And that brought him to the asylum," I connected.
"They were his best customer. There were quite a few patients from the asylum who became more sane after a session with my great-grandfather. With the money he earned, he finally settled down here."
"But you called him a carpetbagger. What was he really doing?" I asked.
Yao smirked. "John knew nothing about psychology and the human mind. He stole the herbal recipe from a mystic woman in China that was popular for expelling evil spirits."
"So...the people he 'cured' were just possessed. I suppose that makes sense. Most people taken over by a spirit would appear to be insane," I reasoned.
"But not every patient in the asylum were possessed, were they?" Max Chu asked.
"No." Yao's mood dropped. "There was one patient in the asylum who didn't react to the exorcism herbs. Her name was Helena Kline."
Helena Kline. That had to be her. "How do you know all of this?"
"My grandfather told me some," Yao said. "My father and brothers never did believe all that spirit stuff, with the exception of Liang to a point. They were more of just old family stories back then. The rest I found in my great-grandfather's old diary. He goes into more details with his interactions with patients at the asylum and Helena. Especially Helena."
Now we were getting somewhere.
"She wasn't like the other patients apparently. She was more than difficult. It was if she knew what he was trying to do, and she knew far too much about him than he was comfortable with. However, the asylum was going to pay him a large amount of money if he could cure her. Not only that, but it got to the point that my great-grandfather was the only person she'd let treat her. But there was another problem..."
"She fell in love with him," I concluded. If this "Dr. Chu" that Helena said through my mother's mouth was indeed John Chu, it was very likely that she loved him so strongly that it kept her connected to this world.
"No matter how hard he tried to stop her advances, she never relented. It didn't seem to matter to her that he had a wife and a child, though it was said that she exhibited violent signs of jealousy once he left."
I narrowed my eyes. "How violent?"
"I bet you could imagine. Some say she was the one who offed my great-grandparents in the end."
I froze with furious shock.
"Of course when she heard of John's death, she became distraught and committed suicide. Threw herself right out the window."
"Why wasn't my mother told about this? Helena Kline was directly connected to your family. My mom could have taken the proper precautions. She could have been prepared. She could have..." I fumed.
"What? Lived? Like the rest of my family?" Yao retorted. "As I said before, this information was little more than a legend at the time. Just a crazy story my grandfather told to keep us from making bad business deals. I didn't even believe it until everyone I loved was dead."
I managed to reign myself back in. "Love. Does that have anything to do with it? She mentioned that specifically."
Yao sighed. "I've had my speculations. If 'love' really was her motivation, it makes sense that she killed my great-grandparents. As for when she came back, from what I can tell, it seems like she killed those in my family who had ever been in love. Plus various others who got in her way."
"She just kept switching targets..." I thought out loud. "Her focus was fairly singular, but covered a wide range. She must have excellent postmortem control."
"That's all I know. Are you satisfied?" Yao interrupted my rambling.
"Yes, that's enough information. Thank you."
The Chu family was collectively surprised to hear me say those words.
"How soon were you wanting to act?" Yao asked.
"Uncle..." Soo said incredulously.
"Tonight, if that's convenient for you. I'd like to get this done before she manages to find a connection to someone else."
Yao snapped his fingers. "Mei, if you could assemble a special task force..."
"Uncle Yao, you can't be serious..."
"I want snipers trained in on every window and outside door of the asylum. All of you will be nowhere near the site. You are all to stay here until I give the order to move. Is that understood?" He addressed them all.
No one said a word until Max pulled out his cellphone and began to make hurried calls. Soo and Mei reluctantly went off to assemble henchmen and make a more solid plan. Kiku let go of me.
"You'll be riding with me, Elenora," was Yao's last order.
I watched the town pass by through the window in the backseat of a Mercedes Benz. Various aspects of the city thinned out as the car began its ascent up the hill.
"I have to ask you one more question, Elenora," Yao broke the silence.
I sighed. "You're more than justified."
"I understand why the spirit of Helena would target my family. We've made a lot of enemies over the years. However, that doesn't explain why she attacked yours."
I stayed strategically silent.
"Your father...how does he play into all of this? Why did she attack him?"
I didn't quite know how to answer. "I can't know for sure right now. He could have simply been getting in her way. But...it might have been because she was in love with him."
Yao's brows furrowed. "Helena?"
"No, my mother," I clarified. "My mom loved my dad. She would never attack him, but Helena...if the rumors are true, she may have been very capable of killing the one she loved if she felt there was no way for them to be together."
"So Helena would have used the connection from her host," Yao understood.
I nodded in silence. It was just a theory.
"What about you? Are you in love with anyone? Are there connections like that that she can get from you?"
I didn't think about long days with Danny by my side and the wind blowing through my hair. I didn't think about the warmth of lattes and his smile. I didn't think about sleeping next to him. I didn't think about touching him, kissing him, wanting more of him with every fiber of my being and the sound of rain pouring down, trapping us in his little car. It didn't exist. There was no connection between us. He had cut me off completely, and I could do the same.
"No."