Chapter 12

Jane

Nobody was more grateful that nothing came out of her niece's homecoming dance than Jane, who decided not to chastise Cece for coming back half an hour past curfew. She wasn't drunk or otherwise inebriated. She apologized for being late. The only thing she asked was if it was okay to heat one of Jane's previously prepared meals because she was "starving." How can I say no? Even if Cecelia had returned screaming her hatred for her family and daring Jane to punish her for her insolence, Jane would have still given her whatever she wanted.

Such it was to be spoiled.

Caitlyn's long absence, however, made it difficult to balance work. While Caitlyn did some remote work out in Iowa, it wasn't the same without her in the office almost every day. Jane was compelled to be there instead, otherwise some of their employees wouldn't be paid. Which meant Rebecca either stayed home or only accompanied her partner to the office in the morning. The last thing Jane wanted was everyone getting in trouble because Cecelia, a foreign minor, was home alone.

Even though the girl seemed quite capable of taking care of herself in a different country.

"What the bloody hell is a ‘haunted corn maze?'" Jane asked her girlfriend when Rebecca brought in some meeting notes she had typed up that morning. "What is a corn maze for that matter? Something in Iowa?"

"Probably where it originated, for all I know." Rebecca tucked her notes into a folder on Jane's desk. It's like she knows I'll get to it later. "It's when you carve a maze into a cornfield. It's really popular the last few years. You make it haunted by including monsters, jump scares, stuff like that. I've been to a few when I was younger and you basically piss your pants when dudes in masks chase you with chainsaws."

"I am sorry, was that in English?" Jane guffawed. "Cecelia has been invited to one?"

"She'll probably have fun."

"I'm not cleaning her ‘pissed pants' if that is the case."

"Since when do you do laundry?"

Jane asserted that was beside the point. Then, "Have you had a chance to speak to Caitlyn? She has been ‘ghosting' me regarding the deal between Monica Warren and Culver Hospitality. Bah!" She tossed her fountain pen onto her desk. "How am I supposed to figure this out without her around? She is literally half of our monetary team. Can I make it any more…" She searched for the word.

Rebecca was utterly unhelpful when she suggested, "Obvious?"

"If that is a reference to something, I do not get it."

Rebecca assured her she would get right on it before heading to Winchester Academy to pick up Cecelia. Sometimes she got a ride home from school from one of her friends, but Jane preferred it if someone in the family did it. Less liability that way. For some reason, she had a strange feeling as of late, and she had been in America long enough to ignore the "spooky" bollocks projected everywhere at this time of year.

The moment Rebecca left the office, a call came through for Jane.

"If you are wondering how it is going, Damon," she said without any other greeting, "it is not. I am still holding out for Caitlyn to get back to me about the latest numbers your team sent over after that awkward meeting with Monica last week." Jane wished she could banish it from her head. When they were merely socializing, Damon and Monica got along quite well. When business was in order? My God, he turns into an ogre, and she is like Medusa out to stone a bloke. Jane was stuck in between them, attempting to pitch her great idea to expand Le Salon while also investing in Culver Hospitality's new "penthouse experience" that still didn't have a name. Caitlyn would have been great grease to keep the negotiations going, but was she here? No! All Jane had was Rebecca, who was better at notetaking than negotiating, and Alice, who had learned to be as ruthless as her husband. The fact she was hormonal again from pregnancy only made her bark hit more than her bite.

So, here was Jane, sitting in her office in the Thomas-Cole Building, which always aligned itself with Monica and the Warrens. More than once, Adrienne Thomas had stopped by to ask "What the fuck does Monica have up her ass this time? She won't leave my business partner alone!" Adrienne only shut up when Jane quipped, "I'm assuming whatever is up there belongs to that giant of a husband she has." Jane could be ungodly and crass when she wanted someone to shut up.

Suddenly, she realized that the other person on the phone had yet to say anything. "Are you there, love? Or are you already hanging up because you have all the info you need?"

"Sorry to hear about Caitlyn," said a feminine voice. "Hello, Jane."

Jane pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers. "Lovely day to you, Alice!" Her ability to sound perky even when her face was scrunched was legendary to women like Caitlyn. Hopefully, it was to Alice as well. "I was expecting Damon to call."

"He left the office early to pick up our daughter from school. He promised her this morning at breakfast."

Wow, he really is a family man now. The Damon Monroe Jane attended Cambridge with would have sold his father to the mafia if it got him ahead in business. "Hope everything is all right over there." She briefly recalled Damon saying something about Clarise still suffering with "an attitude" at school. "Anyway, about this business with Monica Warren, I say we give her an ultimatum that…"

Alice cut her off. "Damon and I would like to put the idea on hold."

"Oh… I hope it was not something I did, love."

"More like there's a chance the penthouse will come down in price again. If it's enough, we can jump on it, possibly negotiating it even further down. In that case, we won't need as much of an investment from outside sources."

"Oh."

"Not saying it's not a good idea, Jane. But I also question how well Damon and Monica can work together, even with a third party mediating everything. They're both irrationally independent people. We all know Monica should have sold Le Chateau years ago. Especially with her legal troubles."

"What legal troubles?"

Alice skipped right over that. "Anyway, we'll touch base with you again should things change. You have our number."

She hung up. Jane was almost insulted.

She didn't have much time to be insulted when another call came through from a very different person.

"I've heard the Monroes are putting their investment plans with you on hiatus." How the hell Monica knew that Jane had no idea, and it only made her fear the fierce businesswoman even more. "However, if you don't mind, I'd love to continue talking to you about your plan for me to expand the Salon. The more I look into the numbers, the more they make sense, if I'm careful with my moves."

"Well, I'm not entirely opposed…"

"Fantastic. Are you available soon? I can personally entertain you at my home."

"Ah… Caitlyn is in Iowa, as I'm sure you've also heard."

"Yes, best of luck to her in her pageant endeavors. Our family will be watching."

Jane tried not to cringe at the thought. "I'll talk it over with her and Rebecca. I'll get back to you when I can."

"I appreciate it, Ms. Wong.'

"Christ." Jane appreciated the silence of her office when she hung up again. "What oh what do I do about this?"

Try not to answer her personal phone, for one thing.

Granted, her phone wasn't ringing. It was merely an assertive text alert that made her hair stand on end.

All the message contained was an address for a local restaurant and the words "Meet me now. Do not tell Cecelia."

Nothing made the blood drain from Jane's face faster than that.

"No," she proclaimed when the ma?tre d' confirmed the worst of her suspicions. "Absolutely not? This is my personal nightmare, I hope you know that."

The woman sitting at the table scoffed in contempt, but Willow Wong was not a woman known for making a scene whenever she could help it. "The longer you are in this country, the more incorrigible you become." She gestured to the only other chair at her table. "Sit."

"Why?"

"Unbelievable," Willow said in her baby tongue of Mandarin. "My daughter talks to me like this."

"I am not sitting until you tell me why the hell you're here, Ma," Jane spat back in the same language, a firm reminder that Willow couldn't pull any wool over her eyes. I know every proverb, every insult you can hurl in Mandarin. The same was true in Cantonese and English. This is my home base, Ma. If only Jane had the nerve to say that out loud.

"Please," Willow more softly bade. "Sit. I've already ordered a dish for us to share."

Although Jane completed the corporeal slog to the chair, she said, "I've already had lunch. Even if I hadn't, you know I don't like to eat heavy meals before dinner."

"I taught you that."

"The bloody hell you did," Jane spat in English.

Willow sniffed as she stole a sip of her sparkling water. "You may be shorter than me, but you have my natural figure. We both get it from my mother. Ah, such a delicate woman," she reminisced. "None of us are big eaters. But I still eat more than a grapefruit for breakfast."

"Who said I still did that?"

"Caitlyn. I've asked."

Don't tell her that Cecelia eats the same breakfast as me. At first, Jane didn't know where her grapefruits were disappearing so quickly. Then she caught her niece red-handed. Cutting it all wrong, no less! Jane never thought she'd see the day when she had to teach someone how to properly cut fruit, but there she was, at six in the morning in her kitchen while wearing her pajamas. After that day, she asked Rebecca to buy double the number of grapefruits when ordering their weekly groceries.

"Your grandparents would reincarnate to smack you on the head to hear that you didn't eat more than…"

"Ma." Jane didn't have time for this. She barely had time for the heart attack still gearing up to take her out over this shock. Am I really that shocked, though? This woman is always in my business. It had been two years since Jane last saw her mother here in America, but they had recently seen each other that spring in Hong Kong when Jane visited on her own to talk to Cecelia about the move and to pay her respects to Lilian and Frank over his mother's death. "Why are you here? Completely unannounced, by the way. Let me guess. You flew First Class?"

Willow ignored that insolence. "We need to discuss what's been going on with Cecelia. It sounds dire, and I'm surprised that you of all people let it get this bad."

Jane waved away the waiter's requests for her drink order. "I'm sorry, but what? Cece's doing great. Good grades, her teachers are happy, she's making friends…"

"Academically she may be sound, but it's her personal life I think you know what I'm talking about."

"What about it? She hasn't been in trouble at all."

Willow leveled her apocalyptic gaze on her daughter. "Who is ‘Perry Merryweather?'"

Ah, shit. That's what this was about? Willow flew all the way out here over Perry? A boy Jane had barely heard about since that dance? Something about taking home somewhere. Football, school spirit, some shit.

Jane went ahead three steps in this conversation. "Someone with a very un-Chinese name, Ma."

"Oh, good. I don't have to spell it out for you."

"To be fair, if she was dating someone like Philip Cheung, you'd still be mad because you didn't pick him out for her."

"Who is Philip Cheung? Does he come from a good family? Does he get good grades?"

"Ma, I made him up. There is no Philip Cheung."

"Of course there is! It's a common name. You must have heard this name somewhere around here for you to think of it. Think harder, Lin Hua. Your niece relies on you. Your sister relies on you."

"There is no Philip Cheung! Get away from thinking about an imaginary boy!"

"Maybe he doesn't attend this Winchester Academy. There is still time to arrange a meeting between them if you think he is a worthy boy in the appropriate age range. No more than two years. My granddaughter isn't quite yet sixteen."

Jane hung her head over the back of her chair, the blood going straight to her brain. "Personal. Nightmare."

Clearing her throat, Willow conceded that maybe there was no Philip Cheung available for Cecelia to date. Cecelia Cheung is a name too delicious for my mother to ignore. Then again, for every affluent and well-bred Cheung back in Hong Kong, there was a peasant family with the same name. Had Jane more warning about her mother's arrival in town, she could have woven quite the fabric of a fake story.

"When your niece left Hong Kong this August," Willow said with a warning bite to her voice, "she was a virgin. Her other grandmother assured me of this before her sudden passing."

"Oh. My. God."

"Do you think Louisa didn't discuss these things with me when she sensed her time was coming? I am now Cecelia's only living grandmother. She needs an older woman to guide her through life, and since you are… you… and your sister is blinded by her motherly connection, it is up to me to ensure Cecelia's future. And the other children, of course, but your niece is at the crossroads of her adolescence. When I was her age, I would have been betrothed to someone had my parents the same level of status in Hong Kong as they did in China. The only reason we don't do that now is because it's a faux pas. We must instead direct these things in the shadows!"

"Nothing stopped you from shipping your oldest daughter to a geriatric like Frank."

"Oh, and aren't you lucky that it wasn't you?"

"It would have never been me!"

"No, I suppose I'm the lucky one here. The most willful daughters a mother could be cursed with."

"Yet you say you love that about us."

"Love? No. Grateful? I count my blessings." Willow motioned for the waiter to deliver the shareable dish to the center of the table. Seafood fried rice. Someone was feeling homey that day. Although Willow served Jane first, they both knew she wasn't going to eat much, if anything. "Like I count my blessings that your brother is as docile of a son as I could have asked for. This is the universe's way of ensuring there remains balance in every family."

Jane struggled to remember what led to this "discussion." "I'm pretty sure that Cecelia did not engage in anything untoward with Perry Merryweather. My God, I want to throw up saying those words out loud."

Willow dug into her food. She ate just famished enough that Jane suspected her mother had come straight here after checking into her hotel. "Do you think she would tell you? Because I don't, to be frank."

"Yeah, well, to be fair, I wouldn't tell you either."

"I know you're not at all that familiar with a man's way with women – do not give me that sorry look, you are old enough to hear this, Lin Hua – but it doesn't matter if they're teenagers or grandfathers. It doesn't truly change, especially if there's a pretty girl with money in the picture. And your niece is set to inherit a joint fortune from both Frank's and your father's wealth. Anyone who looks her up will know that she might inherit Cypress Ridge, never mind White Fir."

"Are we forgetting Bart's kids?" Jane asked, referring to her brother.

"One never knows what goes through the mind of an American boy. All I'm saying is that you need to protect your niece's honor. I am very aware that both you and Lilian were burning harlots during your youth. While you were embarrassing us with every girl you could get your hands on, at least I knew you weren't possibly getting pregnant. Lilian, though… oh, don't ask me how much we covered up back then."

"I'd love to play ‘count my sister's abortions' someday, but not right now. Especially if we're talking about my fifteen-year-old niece. My God, Ma, did you fly all the way out here to discuss this with me? What does Lilian think?"

"Nobody but your father knows I'm here. Last I heard, Lilian was in Indonesia with that woman of hers under the guise of some silent retreat in the jungle. Honestly, what hogwash." Food was in Willow's chopsticks as quickly as she swallowed. Heimlich Maneuver in three… two… "I am fulfilling my promise to Louisa Lam that I would oversee Cecelia's progress since she no longer could. There were several fine young Chinese boys even out here that she was working behind the scenes to introduce our granddaughter to. Perry Merryweather was not one of them, I probably don't have to tell you."

"Ma." Jane finally relented to pick up the lacquered chopsticks dropped off at the table for her. With a piece of shrimp between them, she said, "If Cecelia isn't a virgin, it happened under Louisa's so-called watch. Cece has been nothing but blissfully boring since she got here. She goes to the mall with her female friends, school-sanctioned activities, and things like poolside birthday parties with plenty of adults in attendance." Jane thought it best to not explain what a haunted corn maze was right now. "I was admittedly a bit worried that she might act out when she tasted freedom here, but nobody's noticed a thing."

"It's you and Rebecca right now, is it not?"

"Yeah? So?"

Willow slammed her chopsticks on her plate and folded her hands beneath her chin. "Caitlyn would see something. She has a keen eye for other people's personal business."

"My wife is visiting her own family right now."

"Yes, something about a beauty pageant. How… quaint."

"She's doing an old friend a favor for the great state of Iowa."

"I do not know what Iowa is, and I do not care."

"Good call, Ma. It's a very boring place. That's why I'm not there and am staying in civilization here with the rest of my domestic family. Oh, but if you're that worried about Cecelia, we could abscond with her to the rural lakefronts of Iowa. Her chastity will be assured there, but I can't guarantee the status of her sanity."

Willow gave her the look that said, "Very funny, but I'm not buying it." As Jane resigned herself to eating some of the fried rice with shrimp and oysters, her mother said, "I will be in town for at least a few days. I think we shouldn't tell Cece that I am here. Unless you think we should?"

Is she asking for my opinion? What a wild day! "Cece is very smart. She'll know you're not here for any good reason. Let's keep her unaware. Now…" Jane brought up the other thing poisoning her sense of security. "Lilian is not coming, right? I'm not going to have to deal with you both at the same time, right?"

"You make us sound like a burden instead of your honorable mother and older sister."

"Oh! You think Lilian is honorable? After all the smack I've heard you talk about her?"

Willow sniffed. "It doesn't matter what I think of your sister. She's my daughter. My opinion is tainted."

"But Cece is a darling doll that must be protected? I see how this is."

"By the time I was aware of your lack of chastity, it was much too late. I consoled myself that you were still technically a virgin because a man had not touched you, but how was I supposed to introduce you to potential husbands knowing your history?"

"Wow. Just wow."

"You may feel empowered to speak to me like this now, Lin Hua, but I am still affected."

"I was definitely not a virgin. Let's clear that up, okay?" Jane realized what she had said and closed her eyes. "Why are we talking about this?" she asked in English.

Willow responded in kind. "Because you are now old enough to know where I am coming from. Admit it, you worry for your niece."

"Maybe not for the same reasons as you."

"But we are united in a desire to see her safe and happy. So, let us discuss how that best happens under your watch."

"I'm not going to stop her from dating whoever she wants. Even if I hated the boy, it would be pointless. She'd find a way, like Lilian and I did. Hell, it's even easier now! Cell phones have changed the game in ways I could only have dreamed of when I was her age."

"I don't know if I should be scandalized or relieved."

"Relieved. Feel relieved about me, Ma."

"So, I am scandalized about my granddaughter."

She's getting it! Jane kept her amusement to herself. "Please don't worry about Cecelia so much that you're flying across the world to check in on her. This whole conversation could have been done over the phone."

"I suppose it's a crime for a mother to want to check in on her daughter as well? I haven't been here in two years. I have to make sure that everything you're telling me when you're in Hong Kong is the truth. For all I know, you could be divorced again. It's not like you brought Caitlyn with you last time you visited."

"Ma, I'm still married. I'm still doing the same job. Pretty soon, I'll even qualify for a green card! Heck, I might already!"

Willow's breath hitched in her chest. "Green card? You mean, you'll be abandoning Hong Kong for…" She lowered her voice. "America?"

"Who said anything about abandoning a place I haven't properly lived at in years? Even when I lived there with Cait, all I had going for me was the language. And everyone speaks English anyway. Can't say the same thing about this country. Although, I've learned several Spanish phrases since moving here. Like, Donde esta la biblioteca?"

Willow was not amused.

"It's asking where the library is, Mum," Jane said in English.

"You do what you must for your livelihood. Just don't completely abandon your Hong Kong citizenship. Some of us worked incredibly hard and suffered through much to ensure you could grow up there."

Jane knew she wasn't going to win this battle of wits. She would be lucky if Willow went back to her hotel peacefully and didn't bother Jane without Caitlyn for a buffer. Instead, I'm Cece's buffer between her and Grandmum. Jane didn't know how this had come about in her life, but here she was, suffering for it.

"I won't tell Cece that you're here," Jane assured her mother. "Probably best for all of us."

"Yes. I would like to see her before I depart for London, but why don't we say that I'm stopping by on my way there and I'd love to have dinner or lunch to touch base and ensure that she's healthy. Give her some warning."

"Brilliant plan, Mum. Why don't we arrange a good day for that right now and I will tell her the big news when we're all home later."

Before Jane was allowed to leave, Willow insisted she take most of the seafood fried rice with her. "For Cece," Willow said. "It's her favorite. Don't tell her it's from me."

"That's…" Well, that was one way to make sure Jane took it with her instead of wondering why her mother was like this. "Very sweet of you, Ma."

"Yes, well…" Willow held one hand atop the other as she accepted her bag from the ma?tre d' of the Chinese fine dining establishment. "She's my granddaughter. I hope you've noticed throughout your life that I've done many of the same things for you."

Jane was inclined to think this was another passive-aggressive jab from her mother, but when she was in the car, seafood fried rice resting in the seat next to her, she remembered a time in her childhood when this was her favorite dish as well.

It's a coincidence. She thought that while turning the engine and donning her sunglasses to survive the sun beaming straight through her windshield. Just a stupid coincidence that has nothing to do with anything.

Now, how was she going to break the news to her niece, who thought she was free from Ngui Po's influence?