The Little Black Book

The sun peeked its rays through the vertical blinds on Rose’s waking face as she opened her eyes to a view of memories that were forgotten during her sleep. The scent in the pillow, the comfort of the worn out blanket that kept her warm that night were all signs of her mother who was viciously murdered. Her heart hurt with each beat while her tears fell endlessly in what felt like an abyss of turmoil. Why would anyone want to hurt her, she thought to herself over and over again knowing she’d never get an answer since the case went cold, left unsolved. Rose knew there had to be more to the story, her mother wasn’t the type of woman to get mixed up with anything that would result in her death. At least she didn’t think so.

She forced herself out of the bed, dragging her melancholy like a weight around her neck into the kitchen for her first cup of coffee. Making her way to the living room, she was bombarded with memories. With each glance around her apartment, she saw visions of her mother dancing, crying on the couch at a sad movie, toasting wine with her friends and family, she was everywhere. “What am I supposed to do without you?” she spoke into the air.

Coffee in hand, she found herself back in her mother’s room. Hours had passed by the time Rose realized that the grumbling sound that came from below was her stomach, she was hungry. She had already packed most of her mothers things and felt like she deserved a break. She decided to make her way back to the kitchen but as she got up her phone fell out of her lap. She panicked, trying to break its fall but all she managed to do was kick it under the bed.

Exasperated and hungry, Rose took a breath in and out in an attempt to calm her boiling blood, she really wasn’t in the mood to move her mother’s bed but the phone made it to the center of the king sized bed and Roses’s arms were too short reach it. She positioned herself to move the bed but the bed frame wouldn’t budge, not even a small bit. She looked closely at the bottom of the bed frame and noticed that her mother had the legs bolted to the floor. No wonder I can’t move it, she thought to herself.

Curiosity overcame hunger because she needed to understand why her mother had her bed nailed to the floor. Rose did her best to examine the entire frame for any clues on how to move it, but there wasn’t one. She looked at her mother’s night stand and her curiosity deepened. She sat on the bed next to the night stand and looked around for anything out of place. She looked inside the drawer but nothing was out of the ordinary, just her moms creams and books. Rose thought maybe her mother was just paranoid about someone stealing the bed.

Out of frustration, Rose grabbed the top of the headboard with the intent to shake it back and forth in anger but her finger landed on a part of the wooden bed frame that didn’t feel like wood. Rose investigated the smooth, glass-like surface behind the headboard. Without thinking she placed her index finger on the glass surface and then - the bed moved, revealing a secret compartment within the floor. Rose climbed out of the bed to get a closer look at the contents, it was a safe in te floor; documents on real estate, rare coins and a manilla envelope with Rose’s name on it. Her hands started to shake as she opened it and dumped the contents on the floor, it was a little black book, a usb flash drive and twenty thousand dollars. Rose couldn’t believe what she was seeing, who was her mother, beds nailed to the floor, secret compartments, and murder?

Hopefully something in the belongings she left would shed some light or at the very least give her some clues to point her in the right directions for answers. She placed her finger back over the scanner and the bed returned to it position. Her mother always talked about DNA scanners being a revolutionary thing, now she understood why she talked about it so much. She knew the day would eventually come when Rose would need the information for situations like the one she was in at the moment. She grabbed her laptop from the night stand and plugged in the flash drive. Clicking with anticipation, she opened the flash drive. There was a file with her name on it and another file called "The little black book”, that was it. Rose clicked on the file with her name on it and a video popped up. It was of her mother, Jasmine.

Rose stared at her face before she pressed play, she missed her face so much and wanted to glance for a minute. She touched the screen with her fingertips wishing for one last hug before she pressed play.

“Hey Rosie Posie. If you’re watching this, then that means I’m dead. I’d like to think it would’ve been from old age but after I tell you the story...the whole story you’ll understand why I’m sure I was murdered. I need to tell you where you really come from and who your father truly is.” Rose listened very carefully to each word that came out of her mother’s mouth. Completely forgetting to satisfy her hunger, she settled in for what was going to be the wildest story of her life. She started from the beginning.

* * *

Jasmine Monroe worked as a liaison for the American division of Jay Yeong Enterprises, one of the largest energy corporations in Hong Kong. Jasmine was a beautiful black woman with an hour glass figure that spoke volumes the moment she walked in any room. But her body wasn’t the weapon, it was her mind. She was as smart as she was beautiful but even the most focused minds eventually succumb to the charms of Cam Liu, son of the CEO; Sun Liu.

One night, Jasmine and Cam were working late and suggested getting drinks at the bar. She knew it wasn’t a good idea but he was so very handsome and taller than most asian man with a muscular physique that was very hard to ignore, even through his business suit. So Jasmine agreed. One drink turned into another and then another, until they found themselves back at his apartment making sweet love to each other, torching her flesh with a stroke of his hands and bringing her to peaks of ecstasy she’d never experienced before, he was a gifted man indeed.

For three months they rendezvoused at his place, losing herself in wanton lust, forgetting that they lived in very different worlds with very different rules.

Once the merger deal was complete, Sun Liu celebrated with a private party at his beautiful home in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. His parties were often the talk of the town for his elegant taste in foods, his radiant eye for decor but it was the glass house itself that peeked the interest of many. By the time Jasmine arrived to the island many of the guests were scattered throughout the property taking in the beauty of their surroundings. They chatted inside and outside the luxurious home while others walked along the illuminated path to the gardens lead by the moonlight, the ambience in the atmosphere felt surreal. Jasmine walked through the open doors and immediately was taken with the glorious evening gowns that were being accompanied by high priced tuxedos, men and women in their finest evening wear dressed for class and regality. Her decision to go with the purple sleeveless mermaid sequence evening gown was the perfect choice, and with her hair pinned up she was as beautiful as everyone else. She belonged.

Jasmine made her way to Mr. Liu. After a few minutes of pleasantries and storytelling, she happened to turn her attention to a piece of art, a Qialong vase priced over fifty million dollars, it was an exquisite sight and worth every penny. That’s when she witnessed Cam and another woman from the party sneak into one the rooms on the second floor.

Jasmine excused herself and walked upstairs without making a sound. She quickly opened the door, walked in and closed it behind her. Cam was in the middle of undressing his company when she interrupted them with the clearing of her throat.

“Ahem” She said intentionally. The woman looked and had the modesty to be embarrassed, she grabbed her dangling gown before it fell to the floor while Cam, completely unfazed by Jasmine’s presence sauntered away from his guest and poured himself a glass of whisky. Jasmine stared at the half naked woman who attempted to redress herself but her unfocused hands had a hard time with the clasp to her gown.

Cam seemed amused by the situation and slithered back over to the woman, helped her with her clasp, then kissed her neck all while staring intently at Jasmine. She knew what he was doing, but the poor woman was so intoxicated that she had no clue he served her up on a platter like the main meal for a lion. He then placed seductive kisses on her neck to entice Jasmine to join him but she didn’t. The unspoken body language between Cam and Jasmine felt like a strong cup of coffee, the woman sobered up enough to see that the situation was more than awkward and excused herself from what was probably the most intense moment of the night. Cam was so arrogant that he walked over and kissed Jasmine, who refused to return the affection.

“What do you want me to say?” He asked. Her face was stone.

“You couldn’t wait until I was out of the country before you found my replacement?” She said with a little more emotion than expected. Cam looked at her then let out a boisterous laugh that made her feel very small.

“Everyone is a replacement dear. Listen, we had a really great time the sex was great your mind is exceptional but you’re leaving and I’m getting married in a few months and you, you’ll go on about your life as I will.”

“Was any of it real?” she asked holding on tight to the tears that threatened to give her true feelings away.

“In the moment it was.” He retorted.

Jasmine stepped back away from him with a hand behind her back to locate the door knob. The tears burned her eyes but she would never give him the satisfaction. She open the door and left without another word and made her way to the staircase. She used her hands to feel for the banister, completely blinded by her unshed tears. Each step down felt more and more like a nightmare she couldn’t wake from, she was so blinded by fury and anger that she accidentally ran into a waiter on his way up the stairs. Neither one of them acknowledge the bump, he continued up while she hurried down. By the time she reached the last step, she strategized how to get out of the house unnoticed; Mr. Liu and his wife stood close to the entrance and there would be no way of getting around them unseen so she was going to have to find an alternative route. She looked around the grand hall, using her peripheral vision, she spotted a door leading into the kitchen. Jasmine made her way through the kitchen and down the corridor until she walked through a side door that led to the ground level balcony on the other side of the house where it was less light than the rest. This side of garden had very little light with the exception of the moons reflection as it illuminated the stilled water around the island. It was picturesque and a welcomed image to replace the one of the monster she’d fallen in love with. How could he? she asked herself. How could he not?

Desiring more isolation, Jasmine started to follow the dark path that led into the garden when she heard a faint sound like a soft bang, then a moan. Within seconds, a man staggered towards her, as she got closer she realized it was the waiter from the staircase, he’d been shot.

“Oh my God!” Jasmine gasped as the waiter succumbed to his wound and fell to the ground. She didn’t know what to do and from the sound of it, she had less time to figure it out. She knelt down to him to offer some assistance but he looked into her eyes, went into his pocket and handed her a little black notebook.

“He must never get this back.” The waiter said as he pushed the notebook into her hands. She looked down at the man for one last glance before he died. She heard voices approaching and needed to think fast, no one could find her with a dead body and a black book she couldn’t explain.

The voices got closer, their lights got brighter, she had seconds to hide. She narrowly escaped detection as she quickly and quietly hid in the shadow of the bushes that decorated the sides of the house while two of Mr. Liu’s guards walked up to the dead body spoke in Cantonese, picked up the dead body and rushed back into the house. Once the coast was cleared, she sprinted to the dock where water taxis laid in wait for the guests to venture back to the mainland for the evening.

Once she was back in her hotel, Jasmine thumbed through the book and realized what she had in her hand. It was information dates and payments made by the Yakuza. They had secrets on politicians, the police force and judges, anyone who had a fetish for anything illegal, corruption was everywhere. Jasmine needed to get out of Hong Kong before anyone realized the two things that could get her in trouble: one, she left the party early and two, the little black book was missing. She couldn’t just leave without raising more suspicion since she wasn’t due to leave for a few more days, she had to think. She looked at the small garbage bin by the toilet, got out of the tub and sat on the edge of the toilet seat to remove the pregnancy test she took earlier that night. “Pregnant” was displayed in the indicator window.

Of all the things in the world to do to herself, getting pregnant by the son of a man who was more dangerous than she ever imagined probably wasn’t the best situation. She remained in her hotel suite devising a plan for the last remaining days she had to spend with Mr. Liu and Cam. Fortunately for her, Mr Liu explained that Cam was on a special project for the company so he wasn’t expected to make an appearance before the week was out. “Good,” she thought to herself. The only thing left to worry about was getting the little black book back to the states, once she was home, she’d find a way to decipher the rest of it into english but until then, she placed the book in an imitation Qianlong vase stuffed it with shipping paper and marked it “Extremely fragile” and express mailed it to herself before she left Hong Kong.

“Take care of your brother, I love you both” were the last words Jasmine uttered before the video faded to black. The story was fantastic but it made more sense than Rose cared to admit. For years people mistook her for being “blasian” due her small almond shaped eyes, color of her caramel complexion and long wavy hair but the curves of her hour glass figure screamed big-boned and brown-skinned like her mother, so people really didn’t question it. Rose had a lot to take in, her mother wasn’t who she appeared to be, the man she thought was her father wasn’t and her real father was possibly apart of the Yakuza.

Rose was a business woman having adopted the same career path as her mother but with a bit more flare for the sinister criminal mind, she thought of a million different ways to use the information to her advantage but she didn’t know who killed her mother and had a sneaky suspicion that the little black book had something to do with it. She read page after page of the tantalizing secrets on the who’s who, she had enough information to turn Hong Kong on it’s ear, it was time for payback. Rose picked up the twenty-thousand dollars and thought long and hard about her next move but it was a no-brainer, she was going to Hong Kong.