Chapter 20 #2
“Good question,” Wayward replied. He leaned next to her on the wall, both of them looking out the window at the increasingly snowy lake.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I mean, I know that he loves me, but this is .
. . a lot.” He turned to meet her eyes. “It’s why I work so hard to stay clean and sober, Bessie.
That man . . .” He paused and dabbed the corner of his eye with his fingertip, brushing away the wetness. “That man deserves the best of me.”
Bessie rested her head on his shoulder, and he tucked her hair under his chin. “I’m proud of you, jefe,” she said. “But I
think I know why Jamaal does it.”
“Tell me.”
She smiled, and patted her belly as she felt the baby girl shift inside. “I think he can’t wait to be a dad.”
Wayward grinned as well. “You know what? I think you’re right.” He placed his hand next to hers on her belly. “It’s so trippy
that I’m going to be a dad soon, in addition to launching Promessa.”
“You and Jamaal are going to be very different dads,” Bessie said. “But that’s what will make you amazing parents.”
“I hope so. My dad isn’t exactly Father of the Year. After he lost my mom’s inheritance, we stopped talking. Other than my
name, there isn’t much else he’s imparted upon me.”
“What will you name her? Another flower like your mom and aunties?”
Wayward snorted. “Definitely not.” He stood up and offered her his hand. As he hoisted her up, he said, “I was thinking of
naming her ‘Jamala.’”
Bessie’s face lit up and she let out a very uncharacteristic squeal. “Oh my god, Wayward, that is so frickin’ cute! I love
it!” She threw her arms around him as they sandwiched little Jamala between them.
“Uncle Weiwei! Where are you?” From outside the room, Meadow’s voice was echoing throughout the hallways.
Wayward’s face lit up at the sound of his goddaughter.
Meadow skipped through the halls of the Big Bear sanctuary, knowing its mazelike passageways by heart having spent many Christmases there. Following her was her step-grandfather, Teddy, winded but no less overjoyed at their reunion.
“Slow down, kiddo,” Teddy huffed. “Don’t trip and hurt yourself!”
Meadow crashed in a full-on collision into Wayward as he exited Bessie’s room. Without missing a beat, he picked her up and
swung her around, both of them yipping like puppies. Teddy caught up to them, his chest heaving.
“Uncle Weiwei, I heard this is your baby shower!” Meadow said, playing with one of her pigtails. “Am I finally going to get
a little brother? Like how Mom and you were?”
Wayward crouched down to put his hands gently on Meadow’s shoulders. “Yes, Meadow, I’m having a baby, and you are going to
be the greatest big sister of all time.” He kissed her on both cheeks. “I missed you! You must’ve grown a foot taller!” He
looked around them. “Where’s your mom and dad?”
Meadow pointed beneath them. “They’re in our room on the first floor.” Her voice dropped to a very hoarse and completely audible
whisper. “Mom got fat.”
“Let’s not say that to anyone else,” Wayward replied as he and Teddy both laughed. He looked up. “Uncle Teddy, we’re doing
a rooftop mixer for the adults soon, but there are snacks in the kitchen for her if you don’t mind taking her.”
As Teddy led Meadow back downstairs, Wayward could hear the Big Bear sanctuary humming to life as more members of the Sun
Clan filled the space. Whereas most immediate families within the clan went to the sanctuary at least once every year or so,
they treated it more like a timeshare. Never had they stayed there all together at once.
“You packed so light. Are you sure you brought enough layers?” The distinct sound of Jamaal’s Southern drawl was somewhere nearby.
Wayward walked down the hall to the main stairs, following the sound and descending one floor of the spiraling wooden steps.
But midway down, he came to a standstill when he heard his mother’s voice.
“Oh, I don’t mind the cold. I’ll just stay indoors.”
Wayward peeked around the bend to watch as Jamaal carried Iris’s bag to the door of her room. He placed them on the ground
and accepted the key from her, jiggling at the old lock to open it.
“Thank you, J,” Iris said. “Such a gentleman, as always.”
Wayward narrowed his eyes in confusion. Since when did his mother and his boyfriend ever have such a casual tone with each
other? He had never seen them talk beyond basic pleasantries.
Jamaal patted her on the shoulder affectionately. “When he comes to you . . .”
“You mean, if he comes to me,” Iris countered.
“When,” Jamaal insisted, “he comes to you, promise me you won’t tell him. Our secret, right?”
Iris nodded, then smiled. “Right.”
She entered her bedroom and Jamaal headed back to the ground floor, but Wayward felt immobilized on the staircase. He had
seen his mother only in passing ever since their last conversation in front of Big Boss Sun’s empty mausoleum, and clearly
he had missed something major.
Wayward could not help it; he felt triggered.
“What secret?” he whispered to himself.
Back at the sanctuary front entrance, a queer showdown was taking place.
“I’m sorry, but there are only eleven prepared bedrooms,” Kat said matter-of-factly as she tapped a pen against her clipboard.
“Wayward’s baby shower is family only. I’m not sure we can accommodate you.”
This was actually true. While there were many more bedrooms in the sanctuary, they were not furnished—even their mattresses were missing.
Galahad smiled back at her, batting his bedroom eyes. “I would daresay I’m more family to the Suns than you are, Miss Norfolk.”
But Miss Norfolk was unmoved, crossing her arms across her chest.
This standoff was nothing new. From the moment they met soon after she had moved into the Malibu compound with Bessie, there
was no love lost between Galahad and Kat. Even if Kat had not been privy to Wayward’s theory about how Galahad had been weaponized
by Roses, she just thought he was plain creepy, with his overly pronounced English accent and leering smile. Yes, Galahad
was beautiful, but to Kat, he was beautiful the way the most poisonous of snakes are beautiful.
“It’s fine, Kat,” Roses said as she approached the sanctuary from the car lot draped in a rabbit fur coat. “Galahad came at
my request. You can give him my brother George’s room. He just texted me saying that he can’t make it.”
Galahad winked at Kat, who in turn gritted her teeth as she made a note of it on her notebook. “Whatever you say, Roses.”
She had just checked in George’s wife, Tingting, but they had separate rooms anyway, so Kat had no excuse.
But when she looked up at Roses, she was startled. Early that morning, Kat had rushed into Roses’s bedroom after hearing her
screaming, but had been assured by her it was just a bad dream. Yet seeing her now, Kat was still concerned.
“Are you okay, Roses? You look a bit pale.”
This was an understatement. Roses matched the falling snow around them as she allowed Galahad to take her arm to help her
into the sanctuary. “Just didn’t get enough sleep, as you know,” the Sun matriarch mumbled as she handed Kat her phone.
Kat accepted Roses’s phone, but she was surprised that Roses parted with it so readily.
When Wayward, Jamaal, Bessie, and she were planning the baby shower, none of them had told her about this entry requirement.
If Roses was using the Sunfang phones to spy on all of them, would she be so nonchalant about relinquishing hers?
Kat watched as Galahad walked Roses into the sanctuary, and then looked down at her clipboard. Other than George Sun, everyone
else had shown up, and now they were all unpacking and unwinding in their rooms, dispersed throughout the sanctuary, before
the afternoon mixer, followed by the welcome dinner.
Staying in seven individual bedrooms were Iris Sun-Kwok, Hyacinth Sun-Bernard, Sunbern, Shannon Shoo, Tingting Fang, and Lola
Sun. Kat crossed out George’s name and wrote in “Galahad Chu.”
There just so happened to be four larger suites in the sanctuary, and those were assigned to Roses Sun and Teddy Grinspan;
Wayward Sun and Jamaal Golightly; Bessie Machado and Kat herself; and finally, April Sun, Cristiano Baccay, and Meadow Sun
in the primary bedroom on the first floor.
Now jumpy from the cold, Kat jogged over to the main gate in front of the entire estate, past the fleet of parked vehicles,
and pressed a button. The gate rumbled to life until it slid shut securely.
As she walked past a blue Tesla, Kat looked up at the Big Bear sanctuary in all its wooden immensity, now fully occupied by
its tumultuous Suns.
“Gird your loins,” she said to herself, and indeed, to everyone.