Maya - a Naruto Fanfic

40. Loose Ends (1)

The call came in an hour ago.

They found a body just outside the fence behind the school.

It looked like it had been dumped there.

They had said the identity was still to be confirmed, but it was definitely the body of a black girl, early teens at most.

Tanya doesn't remember much of what happened after hanging up the phone. The rancid smell coming from the sink tells her she threw up, and one of the chairs lies in pieces at the bottom of the far wall. She's sat on it's partner, back at the kitchen table, doing nothing. What does one do in this kind of situation? What can she do? They said to wait, but for how long?

What happens next?

When the phone rings again, it nearly shocks her out of her skin, yet she still can't reach for it fast enough, hands shaking as she presses it to her ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello? Tanya? The police just called me." She almost groans. Not him. Not now.

"Yeah." She drops her face into her free hand and tries not to just cry.

"They said they found a body. Is it her?"

"We don't know yet."

"We? Are you with the police now? Let me speak to them."

"I'm alone, Daichi."

"When did they say they would call to confirm?"

"I don't know. Could be any minute now, so I need to-" she tries to escape. She doesn't want to talk to him now.

"How could you let this happen?" He snaps. This might have broken something this morning, before the call, but now... Now she doesn't think there's anything left in her to break.

"I didn't-" she tries to protest, but it's like he doesn't even hear her.

"You should have been watching her." He spits, and there it is - that old fire. She's rekindled it now, and his words fan the flame.

"She's 12 years old - 13 now. She's allowed to do her own thing." She straightens up, eyes sharp. He always was too controlling.

"Look where that got you! You know, Aimi didn't want her, insisted we should start our own family, but as soon as you took custody I knew I should have taken her. She needs discipline." Tanya's once more glad for his new wife's xenophobia. Daichi would have stifled Maya, suffocated her. She wouldn't have been able to grow strong under his care.

"She needs freedom. And you didn't take her, did you? You were too infatuated with your pretty, young, Japanese wife. You couldn't have that lovely Japanese family your mother wanted you to have with Maya there. It wouldn't surprise me if that's why she ran away." The words come spilling out without her consent, and once they start coming, they don't stop. Her voice is wildfire. All he can do now is let it burn until there is no more fuel left.

"Don't you dare try to blame this on me-"

"You think she didn't know? She's a smart girl, always has been. She knew that you didn't want her, she knew why Aimi looked down on her. Do you have any idea what it did to her? How she felt knowing that she wasn't good enough for you?" Her voice rises steadily, like flames licking at the sky. She goes shrill, cracking like burning wood.

"Enough!" He roars.

"Don't you shout at me-" she snaps back. This is just like every other fight. Nothing changes with him, even though her world is falling apart, he's still the same. She used to love that. Now it makes her chest tight and her eyes skin and her blood boil.

"Don't blame me because you can't control your own daughter!"

"My own? You were part of her life too, you know. You can't just deny all that now."

"I'm not denying anything-" he knows he's made a mistake, she can tell. He sounds cowed. He always does when he realises how angry he's made her, but distance doesn't change the fact that she would never lay a hand on him. That is not how they do things in this family, broken as it is.

"Then why is she my daughter now? Why isn't she ours?" She demands. He can't say anything to that.

"Goodbye, Daichi. I'll have the police call you when they make a verification." She sighs, and hangs up without waiting for a reply. He always knows just where to hit her to make it hurt.

She slumps back down at the table, drops her head in her hands, and waits for the call.

A/N: Who knows what's going on? Not me! I was gonna have Maya's body wash up, but then I realised I'd have to explain all that and I couldn't think of anything so have this mess!
Ta-ta~