17 Her DNA and mine don't match

Matt took out his phone and dialed a number for the police. It didn't him take long. He depressed the call and looked at An Ning.

"They'll be here soon," he said.

An Ning nodded then walked towards the prone body.

"Do you have one of those things?" she asked, turning to Matt.

Matt took out a pair of handcuffs from his back pocket and threw it at An Ning, who caught it easily. She knelt down and snapped the cuff on the woman's wrists.

An Ma watched her in bewildered silence.

"Who is she, An Ning?" he asked quietly.

"Not my mother," An Ning said, meeting his eyes.

An Ma's face literally drained of all color.

"I don't know how she did it but she's not the woman who gave birth to me."

"That's impossible," An Ma said, shaking his head. "I should know the woman I'm married to for 20 years, right?"

"Her DNA and mine don't match, dad. It's not even close."

An Ma gaped at her like she was spouting Latin.

"How did this happen?" he asked, bewildered. "How did you know?"

"I don't know how but ever since I lost my memory, I've developed some really deep shit trust issues. It's probably self-preservation kicking in but I had a bad feeling about this woman ever since I saw her when she came to visit me in Richard's house.

"You were insistent on taking me home while she just sat there listening to us argue. I thought it was strange for a mother to behave like that. Compared to Richard's mom, she was practically frigid ice so I listened to my instinct and went and hired a private detective."

"You didn't trust me?" An Ma was hurt and incredulous.

"Not you. You understood what I was going through, how lost I was and you offered to help. I didn't expect you to leave me all your worldly belongings though. Shocked the hell out of me." An Ning said with a smile.

"Based on that you started trusting me?"

"Because you treated me like a daughter who needed your help, dad. You were there for me. This woman," she added, nodding towards the prone body on the floor, "she was very nice and behaved exceedingly lovey dovey towards me but I didn't trust her eyes. She looked at me like I was crap so my suspicions were aroused."

"What do you mean?"

"When we arrived that first night, she behaved like I was a guest. Maya was obviously angry and An Yu Yan was faking the whole welcome thing."

"You got all that from just two encounters?"

"You forget that I don't remember any of these people so I naturally saw them for what they really were, strangers. What I picked up from that night was that they didn't want me here. Yu Yan tried to mask her hatred of me but as I said, I saw the expression in her eyes. Since I didn't want to be killed in my sleep, I hired Matthew to help me. I set it up so he could work here and keep an eye on me at the same time."

"What did you find out?" An Ma said, turning to Matt.

"Her DNA and An Ning's don't match. Hers and that other woman does though."

"Maya?" An Ma was surprised.

"99.9 percent similar."

An Ma staggered to a chair. He looked really shook up, like he had trouble understanding what the hell was happening.

"When did you meet my real mother, dad?"

An Ma looked up, a softened and faraway look in his eyes.

"Her maiden name was Meng Yu Yan. She lived in a village up north. My car broke down and she helped me. I fell in love with her at first sight. I stayed in the village that whole summer. We got together and were very happy. Then she disappeared and the next time I saw her she already had you. I recently lost my parents in a car crash so we got married and lived here ever since."

"What do you mean she disappeared?"

"I think somebody got to her and told her maybe I wasn't serious about her. An Ning, I was the son of a very rich man and Yu Yan was a very simple girl who didn't even own a cellphone. It wouldn't have been difficult to plant some doubt in her mind about me and my intentions. But I loved her and I wanted to marry her.

"I searched for her for months and just when I was quietly going out of my mind with worry, there she was in my house, carrying you and begging me to take her back. Take her back? Didn't she know how much I loved her?"

"So you got married...when did Maya figure in all of this?"

"When you turned three, Yu Yan went back to her village. I knew about this after she told me when I arrived home from a business trip abroad. She came back with Maya. Yu Yan said she was a niece and that her parents were killed in an accident. So, she begged me to help her. I didn't like Maya. There was something that wasn't right about her but your mother...this woman... insisted."

"We didn't formally adopt her, thank god. I'm not so stupid as to adopt a kid I didn't like and call her daughter but she stayed with us. She stayed away from me and you, too, because I saw her bullying you one day and nearly kicked her out of the house then."

"How did she bully me back then?"

"She was trying to feed you worms," An Ma still looked angry at the memory. "You were five and she was trying to feed you worms. I think seeing that poisoned my relationship with Yu Yan. I confronted her about it and she said it was just a prank. Maya tried to apologize but I never trusted her after that. I rehired my old nurse back and she was the one who raised you until you turned 16."

"We still don't know who this woman is though," Matt pointed out. "You lived with her for 20 years and during that time you never suspected anything at all?"

"What is there to suspect? She's the same woman I fell in love with, the same woman I got pregnant...there's no reason for me to suspect her. I admit there were some problems in our marriage, mainly because of my dislike of Maya, but she had been an exemplary wife. What is there to suspect her of?"

"What's the name of this village you found her, dad?"

"Saravia. I think it was Saravia," An Ma said.

"What bothers me is if she's not who she says she is then where is my real mother?" An Ning asked.

An Ma looked at her, surprised.

"You think the real Yu Yan is still alive?" he said, a strange light in his eyes.

"I don't know, dad. I'd like to think she is so I could meet her. But if we want to know what really happened, one of us needs to go to this village and check it out," An Ning said, looking pointedly at Matt.

"I want triple the amount you paid me."

"Done."

"I'm going with you," An Ma chimed in.

"Are you sure, dad?" An Ning frowned worriedly.

Her eyes suddenly fell on the body on the floor. She uttered a surprise gasp when the woman met her startled gaze and stood up. In quick, assured strides, the woman reached her side. An Ning tried to dodge the claws that went straight for her throat but she was too late.

The woman's hands squeezed around her windpipe like steel bands. An Ning was trapped, twisting and turning to break free but to no avail. With an angry howl, An Ma tried to pull the woman off An Ning but he was pushed back. The woman elbowed him away viciously. An Ma staggered like a drunk, his feet unsteady until he finally collapsed on a table, gasping for breath.

Matt repeatedly kicked the woman on the back and on her sides, the thudding sound of limb hitting flesh getting louder and uglier. The woman snarled at Matt then swiped a vicious hand down his perspiring face. Blood sprayed down the opened and torn flesh, temporarily blinding Matt as he, too, collapsed howling with pain on the floor,

An Ning was nearly losing consciousness when her hand finally gained traction on a spot of flesh and dug in. Her nails viciously scoured the exposed flesh until she hit bones. The woman screamed but still did not let An Ning go.

An Ning balled her hands in fists and started pounding at the woman relentlessly. She bent her knees and allowed her body to free fall. The hands on her throat loosened a bit as the woman fell with her.

Just as they were about to reach the ground, An Ning clamped and bent her legs, caught the woman's falling body on top and gave a powerful push. The woman was thrown off the side along with the sound of breaking glass.

An Ning got to her feet and started punching at the woman's face and body with her fists. The strength of her hands tore the woman's clothes off her body; buttons flew, exposing her neck and the long chain around it. An Ning grabbed the chain and viciously tagged it tighter around the woman's throat. The woman gagged, her eyes rolling from her head.

The chain was too thin and started to cut at the woman's bloodied throat like a saw. Suddenly, it broke and something round and small rolled down the woman's body to the floor. It twirled around like a top then stopped. With a loud and maddened growl, the woman flung herself away from An Ning and tried to reach for the stone with her hand.

An Ning reached for a piece of broken glass and repeatedly stabbed the woman's hand with it until the bones broke and gave an ugly crunch. The woman screamed. An Ning pushed herself on the wet, bloodied floor and snatched the stone away. The woman looked at her, suddenly panicked.

"This is important to you," An Ning said, holding up the stone and smiling inhumanely.

"Give it back," the woman snarled. "It's mine! Give it back!"

"Let's see if it's really yours, shall we?" An Ning asked, then brutally hacked at the stone with the heel of her leather shoe until it splintered and broke.

The woman's agonizing howl echoed in the house loud as a bullhorn. She thrashed and twisted like a giant snake, spitting saliva and blood in all directions. An Ning watched with unblinking eyes as the body started to stiffen and writhe in the throes of death.

The body that had been hearty and hale as her own collapsed in on itself then caught fire. There was a strange popping sound as the blaze consumed flesh and bones in seconds. An Ning stood up and drew nearer to the body, which was slowly being turned into ash.

"What just happened, An Ning?" Matt asked through numb lips while holding up the torn flesh on his face with a trembling hand. "What the fuck just happened?"

An Ning poked at the ash with her toe and didn't answer. She was wondering about the sound she heard when she was stabbing the woman with the broken glass. It was almost like laughter. From children.