Crazy Rich Asians (34 page)

The man took out three items from the suitcase and placed them on the table in front
of the ladies. There was a small rectangular paper box, a manila envelope, and one
photocopy of a newspaper clipping. Lorena opened the manila envelope and fished out
a yellowed piece of paper, while Eleanor opened the box. She peered into it, and then
looked at the piece of paper Lorena was holding. She only read very basic Mandarin,
so she was mystified by it. “What does all this mean?”

“Just give me a minute to finish, Elle,” Lorena said, scanning the last document up
and down. “Oh my God, Elle,” she exclaimed, suddenly staring at Mr. Wong and the informer.
“Are you
sure
this is completely accurate? There will be big trouble for all of you if it isn’t.”

“I swear on the life of my firstborn son,” the man replied haltingly.

“What is it? What is it?” Eleanor asked urgently, hardly able to contain herself.
Lorena whispered into Eleanor’s right ear. Her eyes grew large, and she looked up
at Mr. Wong.

“Mr. Wong, I’ll give you thirty thousand yuan in cash if you can take me right now,”
Eleanor commanded.

Rachel

Sophie was splashing some water on her face when she heard an urgent rapping. She
went to the door and found Rachel standing there, her lips white and her whole body
shaking.

“What’s wrong? Are you cold?” Sophie asked.

“I … think … I think I’m in shock,” Rachel stuttered.

“WHAT? What happened?”

“My room … I can’t describe it. Go see for yourself,” Rachel said numbly.

“Are you okay? Should I call for help?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine. I’m just shaking involuntarily.”

Sophie immediately slipped into doctor mode, grabbing hold of Rachel’s wrist. “Your
pulse
is
a bit elevated,” she noted. She grabbed the cashmere throw on her chaise lounge and
handed it to Rachel. “Sit down. Take long, slow breaths. Wrap this around yourself
and wait right here,” she instructed.

A few minutes later, Sophie returned to the villa, ablaze in anger. “I can’t believe
it! This is outrageous!”

Rachel nodded slowly, having calmed down a little by this point. “Can you call hotel
security for me?”

“Of course!” Sophie headed for the phone and scanned the list on it, looking for the
right button to press. She turned back to Rachel
and gave her a thoughtful look. “Actually, I’m wondering whether it’s the best idea
to call security. What exactly could they do?”

“We can find out who did this! There are security cameras everywhere, and surely they
must have footage of who went into my room,” Rachel said.

“Well … what would that really achieve?” Sophie ventured. “Hear me out for a second … No
one’s committed any real crime. I mean, I feel bad for the fish, and it was certainly
traumatizing for you, but if you think about it, this was just a nasty prank. We’re
on an island. We know it had to be one of these girls, or maybe even a group of them.
Do you really care who did it? Are you going to confront someone and make a scene?
They’re just trying to mess with you—why give them more fuel? I’m sure they’re on
the beach right now just
waiting
for you to go hysterical and ruin Araminta’s bachelorette party. They wanted to provoke
you.”

Rachel considered what Sophie had said for a moment. “You know, you’re right. I’m
sure these girls are just dying for some drama so they can talk about it back in Singapore.”
She got up from the sofa and paced around the room, not quite sure what to do next.
“But there must be
something
we can do.”

“Doing nothing can sometimes be the most effective form of action,” Sophie remarked.
“If you do nothing, you’ll be sending a clear message: that you’re stronger than they
think you are. Not to mention a lot classier. Think about it.”

Rachel mulled it over for a few minutes and decided that Sophie was right. “Did anyone
ever tell you how brilliant you are, Sophie?” she said with a sigh.

Sophie smiled. “Here, I saw some verveine tea in the bathroom. Let me make some. It’ll
calm both our nerves.”

With warm cups of tea nestled on their laps, Rachel and Sophie sat on a pair of lounge
chairs on the deck. The moon hung like a giant gong in the sky, lighting the ocean
so brightly that Rachel could see the tiny schools of fish shimmering as they darted
around the wooden piers of the bungalow.

Sophie looked intently at Rachel. “You weren’t prepared for any of this, were you?
Astrid was so perceptive when she asked me to look out for you. She was a little worried
about you tagging along with this particular crowd.”

“Astrid is so sweet. I guess I just never expected to encounter this kind of viciousness,
that’s all. The way these girls are acting, it’s as if Nick is the last man in all
of Asia! Look, I get it now—his family’s rich, he’s considered a good catch. But isn’t
Singapore supposed to be filled with other rich families like his?”

Sophie sighed sympathetically. “First of all, Nick is so inordinately good-looking,
most of these girls have had mad crushes on him since childhood. Then you have to
understand something about his family. There’s a certain mystique that surrounds them
because they are so intensely private. Most people don’t even realize they exist,
but for the small circle of old families that do, they inspire a level of fascination
that’s hard to describe. Nick is the scion of this noble clan, and for some of these
girls, that’s all that matters. They may not know the first thing about him, but they
are all vying to become Mrs. Nicholas Young.”

Rachel took it all in quietly. It felt like Sophie was talking about some character
of fiction, someone who bore no resemblance to the man she knew and had fallen in
love with. It was as if she were Sleeping Beauty—only, she never asked to be awakened
by a prince.

“You know, Nick has told me very little about his family. I still don’t know much
about them,” Rachel mused.

“That’s the way Nick was raised. I’m sure he was taught from a very young age never
to talk about his family, where he lived, that sort of thing. He was brought up in
such a cloistered environment. Can you imagine growing up in that house with no other
kids around—no one but your parents, grandparents, and all those servants? I remember
going over there as a child, and Nick always seemed so grateful whenever there were
other kids to play with.”

Rachel gazed at the moon. Suddenly the rabbit-like figure on the moon reminded her
of Nick, a little boy stuck up there in that glittering palace all by himself. “Do
you want to know the craziest part of all this?”

“Tell me.”

“I just came for a summer vacation. Everyone here assumes that Nick and I are a done
deal, that we’re going to run off and tie the knot tomorrow or something. Nobody knows
that marriage is something we’ve never even discussed.”

“Really, you haven’t?” Sophie asked in surprise. “But don’t you ever think about it?
Don’t you want to marry Nick?”

“To be completely honest, Nick is the
first
guy I’ve dated who I could imagine being married to. But I was never raised to believe
that marriage was supposed to be my life’s goal. My mother wanted me to get the best
education first. She never wanted me to end up having to wash dishes in a restaurant.”

“That’s not the case over here. No matter how advanced we’ve become, there’s still
tremendous pressure for girls to get married. Here, it doesn’t matter how successful
a woman is professionally. She isn’t considered complete until she is married and
has children. Why do you think Araminta is so eager to get married?”

“Do you think Araminta shouldn’t be getting married, then?”

“Well, that’s a difficult question for me to answer. I mean, she
is
about to become my sister-in-law.”

Rachel looked at Sophie in surprise. “Wait a minute … Colin is
your brother
?”

“Yes.” Sophie giggled. “I thought you knew that all along.”

Rachel stared at her with renewed wonder. “I had no idea. I thought you were Astrid’s
cousin. So … the Khoos are related to the Leongs?”

“Yes, of course. My mother was born a Leong. She was Harry Leong’s sister.”

Rachel noticed that Sophie used the past tense in talking about her mother. “Is your
mother no longer around?”

“She passed away when we were kids. She had a heart attack.”

“Oh,” Rachel said, realizing why she felt a connection with the girl she had met only
hours earlier. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I understand now why you’re so
different from the other girls.”

Sophie smiled. “Growing up with only one parent—especially in a place where everyone
goes to such great lengths to present a picture-perfect family—really sets you apart.
I was always the girl whose mother died too young. But you know, it had its advantages.
It allowed me to get away from the frying pan. After my mum died, I was sent to school
in Australia, and I stayed there all through uni. I suppose that’s what makes me a
little different.”

“A
lot
different,” Rachel corrected. She thought of another thing that made her like Sophie.
Her candor and complete lack of pretension reminded her so much of Nick. Rachel peered
up at the moon, and this time, the rabbit boy didn’t look so alone anymore.

Astrid and Michael

The minute Harry Leong’s Armani-suited security men entered her hospital room and
did their usual sweep, Astrid knew that she had been found out. Minutes later, her
parents rushed into the room in a huff. “Astrid, are you okay? How’s Cassian? Where
is he?” her mother asked anxiously.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Michael is with Cassian in the children’s ward, signing his release
forms.”

Astrid’s father eyed the elderly Chinese woman a few feet away vigorously rubbing
Tiger Balm onto her ankle. “Why did they bring you to a public hospital, and why on
earth are you not in your own room? I’m going to tell them to move you immediately,”
Harry whispered irritatedly.

“It’s okay, Daddy. I had a slight concussion, so they just put me in this ward for
monitoring. Like I said, we’re about to get released. How did you know I was here?”
Astrid demanded, not bothering to hide her annoyance.

“Aiyoh, you’ve been in the hospital for two days without telling us, and all you care
about is how we found out!” Felicity sighed.

“Don’t get so
kan cheong
, Mum. Nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened? Cassandra called up at seven this morning from England. She scared
us half to death, making it sound like you were Princess Diana in that tunnel in Paris!”
Felicity lamented.

“Just be glad she didn’t call the
Straits Times
,” Harry added.

Astrid rolled her eyes. Radio One Asia had struck again. How in the world did Cassandra
know about her accident? She had specifically told the ambulance driver to take her
to General Hospital—not one of the private hospitals like Mount Elizabeth or Gleneagles—so
that she might avoid being recognized. Of course, that hadn’t worked.

“This is it. You are no longer allowed to drive. You are going to get rid of that
lousy Japanese car of yours and I am going to assign Youssef to you from now on. He
can use one of the Vanden Plas,” Harry declared.

“Stop treating me like a six-year-old, Daddy! It was such a minor accident. My concussion
was from the air bag, that’s all.”

“The fact that your air bag deployed means that the accident was more serious than
you think. If you don’t value your life, do as you wish. But I’m not going to let
you put my grandson’s life in danger. What’s the use of having all these drivers when
no one uses them? Youssef will drive Cassian from now on,” Harry insisted.

“Daddy, Cassian only got a few cuts.”

“Aiyoh, a few cuts!” Felicity sighed, shaking her head in dismay just as Michael entered
the room with Cassian. “Oh, Cassian, my poor darling,” she exclaimed, rushing toward
the child, who was happily clutching a red balloon.