Chapter 13 #3
If I am going to be with him again, I want to make sure that he and I are better than we were before. Knowing more about his
past would help me with that. Does that make sense?”
Hyacinth nodded enthusiastically. “It makes perfect sense, Shannon, and I do see now how much you’ve matured. I was actually
thinking of introducing you to someone . . .”
“Oh?” Shannon asked. “Who?” Though she knew exactly who, as the elusive cult leader SANTI was the next step in her unfinished
business.
“He is a great teacher,” the elder woman said, her eyes clouding over with reverence, “who has aided me in my times of need
and provided me Sense of Self. And I actually think you are in the perfect place in your life to meet him and hear what wisdom
he has to impart to you.”
Shannon bowed her head obediently. “If you think I am ready, I would love to meet him.” Then she looked back up at Hyacinth.
“But first, I have just one request.”
“What is it, Shannon?”
“Tell me about Sunbern’s father.”
Hyacinth hesitated. Other than with SANTI and Big Boss Sun, she never spoke about Sunbern’s dead father to anyone, let alone outside of the Sun Clan. But she looked again into Shannon’s genuine eyes, acknowledging she had cruelly misjudged this sweet girl all along.
“All right,” Hyacinth said. After a deep breath, she began telling Shannon about a French boy with a green eye and a hazel
eye.
“Mom, you’re kicking us out!?” April gasped, her face as red as her gown.
Calmly sitting behind the bloodwood desk in her elegant home office, Roses did not look at or respond to her daughter, instead
signing check after check for the hired help that day.
Infuriated, April reached over and snatched the pen from her mother’s hand and threw it against the wall behind her. Upon
impact, its cartridge exploded, splattering black ink upon the hand-painted wallpaper that had been imported from Istanbul.
Roses turned around to emotionlessly inspect the irreversible damage, then retrieved another pen from her desk, and continued
signing her checks.
“Mom,” April snapped. “MOM!”
Though she still would not look at her, Roses finally replied. “There is a Chinese proverb,” she said, before switching to
Mandarin. The best kind of closed door is the one you can leave unlocked.
Pacing back and forth in her couture, April had to control herself from flinging the desk next. “What the fuck does that even
mean?” she snapped.
Roses put her new pen down and finally looked up at her daughter, her steely gaze stopping April in her tracks. It means, daughter, that above all, trust is most important in this household. And without it, this is not a home. Not for
you, at least.
April placed both hands on her mother’s desk and leaned down over Roses, who remained steady and undaunted. “And who between us has acted in a way that is untrustworthy, Mom? I’d love to hear your assessment on that.”
With that, Roses stood up so that mother and daughter were face-to-face. Daughter, she replied, we have coexisted in this house nearly your entire life. But it is no longer a home, because within it you have turned traitor
against me.
April opened her mouth to retort, but Roses pounded her fist onto the desk, and the younger woman fell silent.
Just now, you followed me without my knowledge and spied on my son-and-law and me. And before that, you plotted against me
with my sister. How do you expect us to continue to live under this same roof together?
Laughing bitterly to herself, April shook her head. “I can’t fucking believe you.”
Ignoring her, Roses continued with a chilling stillness. “Choose wherever you’d like to live in Los Angeles, and I will set
it up for you. Then we can heal separately and learn how to trust each other from afar. But I would like you to leave the
Malibu compound by next week. Maybe then this place will have a chance to become a home again. And maybe someday you can return.”
April stood straight back up again, so that she could look down at her mother, though she felt like she was staring into a
vast canyon. “And what about your granddaughter? What about Meadow?”
For the first time, a streak of sadness flashed across Roses’s face, but she quickly composed herself. “Of course Meadow can
stay here with me. This will be her home forever.”
April shook her head, the rage within her bubbling toward its boiling point. “Roses Sun,” she whispered, because if she let
herself get any louder she would’ve been screaming. “If you think I am going to leave Meadow here with you alone so that you
can traumatize and ruin her the same way you did me . . . you should be institutionalized.”
Roses sat back down. “Since that is the way you think, it seems as though my decision is sound. Once you find a place, you can let my office know and they will take care of it.”
April turned to leave, drowning in her hatred. As she approached the closed door, she turned back to look at Roses. “I don’t
want one fucking thing from you, Mom. You are a MONSTER who is kicking out her own family, and there’s no money in the world
that can change that.”
April then reached for the handle of the door and turned it, only to find that it had automatically locked. She chuckled darkly
to herself as she stared at the door. “That’s the thing, Mom. After we lost Lewis, it was you who locked every door on me.”
With that, she let herself out.
Roses stared after her daughter for a moment, then went back to signing checks.
April was frantically searching for Chinoiserie on the ground floor, brushing past the bustling servers and event staff, when
she spotted Cristiano walking in from the backyard. She quickly ducked into a hallway to avoid bumping into him—lest she torch
another fundamental relationship in quick succession.
In the quiet hall, she found Houyi sleeping on the ground, hiding from the hustle and bustle of strangers in his domain. He
got up to greet her. April in turn got on her knees and wrapped her arms around his neck, and began to sob. The woman sobbed
and sobbed, salty infuriation pouring out of her and running onto the old pit bull’s furry neck, as she cursed everything
and everyone in her terrible life.
Feeling every ounce of her pain, Houyi whimpered back onto her, little hot puffs of air from his wet nose warming her shoulders.
April was being banished from her own home. What was she going to do now? Where were they going to go? How would this affect
Meadow?
Suddenly, Houyi’s whimpers turned into the low rumble of a menacing growl, one that grew louder and louder as unfamiliar footsteps approached them.
“You know very well that it doesn’t have to be like this,” said a velvety British voice.
Startled, April looked up, and before them was a holy man with a cropped Mohawk and a breathtaking face. His arms were covered
in colorful bracelets, and he was wrapped in scarlet robes.
“Who the fuck are you?” April blurted out, already hating him. At her side, Houyi was also snarling, baring his teeth at the
intruder. Though she was used to Houyi being territorial, he was displaying a primal vitriol that surprised her. She stood
up and gently pushed the old dog behind her.
Now is not yet the time, thought Houyi as he lumbered off into another part of the compound, but not before shooting a final
warning glare at his nemesis.
“Happy Lunar New Year,” the young man began cheerfully. “I am Galahad Chu, the grandson of Master Chu, who has advised your
mother for—”
“You mean, scammed my mother for years!” April interrupted, her eyes flashing. “Did your grandfather send you here to finish
the job? Shall I save you some time and just show you where we keep the money?”
Galahad only smiled his enigmatic smile at her.
“Well, let me tell you something about my family,” April continued. “We are a black hole, a soulless vacuum that sucks all
the goodness and the joy out of everyone and turns their lives to shit. So, welcome, Galahad! Welcome to hell!”
Galahad held up his hands as though in offering. “I don’t believe in hell,” he replied softly.
April scoffed. “Isn’t that your grandfather’s whole racket? Fear-mongering old Chinese ladies with curses of the afterlife?
What about the fucking hungry ghosts? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it, to aid my mother on her crazy crusade?”
“I leave necromantic affairs to my far superior grandfather,” Galahad countered. “For me, I prefer to study the living.”
“And now you are here to study the Suns,” April retorted. “Well, what are your findings then? Why don’t you start with me?”
“April Sun, once celebrated as the shining Sunfang princess,” the holy man said, “but now cast aside into the shadows, first
eclipsed and then extinguished by your younger cousin Wayward.” His smooth voice irked her ears despite its velveteen poshness.
“And for that, I pity you.”
“Join the fucking club, asshole,” April snapped as she turned to leave. “Leave me the fuck alone until you actually have something
new to say.”
“Yet it is Cristiano you resent the most.”
April froze in her tracks. “What are you talking about?”
Again Galahad smiled. “Your perfect and handsome prince, Cristiano Baccay. Lifelong friend to your family. Devoted father
to your daughter. And loyal son-in-law to your mother.”
April turned around, her eyes narrowing at him. “How do you— How dare you—”
Galahad shrugged apologetically at her. “You said you wanted to hear something new, April. But here is what I can’t quite
figure out.”
“What is it?” April spit.
Though her anger was radiating off of her like solar flares, Galahad began to take step after step toward her as he spoke.
“The solution to all your problems is so very simple. Just give your mother what she wants and have another boy with Cristiano.
But you refuse. And that’s why I know you resent him. This is a resentment that has burrowed itself deep into your womb. Your
womanhood literally rejects him.”
April opened her mouth to protest, but there was no protest within her.
Now only a pace away from her, Galahad smirked.
“Tell me, when was the last time you two made love?” His eyes flicked toward the ceiling as though he was receiving a transmission from an unseen signal.
Then they lit up, and he looked back at her as he added, “Made love . . . and completed the deed?”
April let out an involuntary gasp as though she had been kneed in the stomach. She recovered and glared at Galahad. “You’re
very impressive, Galahad Chu. But let me tell you something about my family: Just when you think you’ve figured us out, we
will surprise you. The thing about a family with no moral compass is that there’s no predicting where we’re headed. So don’t
get too smug.”
Galahad bent in a slight bow. “Thank you for the advice, April. But I hope you know that I am here for one reason only . . .
to help you.”
April shook her head. “You said it yourself, I’ve been cast aside. There’s no helping me.”
He startled her by reaching up to place a hand on her shoulder, as she stood a couple inches taller than him. “What if I told
you that you were going to solve all your problems, and very soon?” he asked. “What if I told you that you are destined to
birth another boy? That the Sunfang heir is to come from you?”
Exasperated, she shook his hand off her shoulder. “With the man who you say I resent?”
Galahad arched an eyebrow at her. “There are ways to overcome resentment. Just ask your husband.” He had a sudden gleaming
deviousness in his dark bedroom eyes that unsettled her.
This is no mere fortune teller, April thought. Who the hell is this Galahad Chu anyway, and how does he know what he knows?
“Now if you’ll excuse me,” Galahad was saying, “I am late for my appointment with your mother.” With that, he swept off, his
robes fluttering behind him.
Shaking her head to herself, April fell back against the wall behind her. With this strange boy and his astonishing abilities,
it was no wonder that her mother had become so emboldened. What chance did she have, a wounded soldier within her family,
to stand against such uncanny forces?
“Oh, there you are, honey!”
April turned to see Chinoiserie rushing over, looking like Hello Kitty’s wicked stepmother in her own spectacular dress featuring
a glorious gradient of pinks that complemented her silvery lilac hair. Perched above her overflowing décolletage was a massive
diamond necklace with enough carats to choke a field of rabbits.
“Sweet Buddha, no eating today, I can barely breathe in this!” she panted as she leaned against the wall for support. “I’ve
been looking for you everywhere. The party is about to start and we haven’t even begun with your hair and makeup!”
April leaned her head onto Chinoiserie’s shoulder with a defeated groan. “Serie, I don’t know if I can make it through today.
It just keeps getting worse and worse.”
“Honey,” Chinoiserie cooed as she took April by the arm, “you’ll feel better once you see yourself in my new gossamer Heavenly
Lashes. We humanely farm them from living minks in Utah that are uncaged and fed sushi-grade bluefin tuna, so their fur is
outrageously soft.”
“Lucky minks,” April muttered as they walked toward her bedroom. “Do they need a roommate?”
The doorbell rang. The first guests were already arriving.
“Goddamn these punctual Asians,” April cursed. “I’m supposed to be the one greeting them at the door. Let’s get a move on,
I guess.”
“By the way, who were you talking to just now? That very pretty boy in the funny costume?” Chinoiserie asked as they ascended
the stairs. “I passed him on the way to you.”
April’s face went dark as she thought of what Galahad had just said to her, and she let out a wary sigh.
“He is chaos,” she replied.