Chapter 7 #4
been originally intended for someone else, it was Roses’s modus operandi to insert her plans into other people. This was how,
in the future, she was going to be able to look back at this conversation and say that everything had been all his idea.
But Wayward was not going to play it her way. Not this time.
“I think you owe me an apology,” he replied.
She looked at him like he had spoken in pig latin. “Sorry, what was that?” she asked, more confounded than anything. No one had ever asked Roses Sun for an apology before, because everyone knew that she never apologized.
Wayward folded his hands on top of the table. “I’ve devoted the last few years working toward something that you dangled in
front of me as a real possibility. Had I known that it had such huge caveats, that I was technically never qualified for the
position of president—”
“You would have what?” Roses interrupted. “Gone back to rehab? Wayward, I did not tell you because I didn’t even realize back
then that you would one day be qualified for the position. I offered you a job in the mailroom as a lifeline, or have you
forgotten that already?”
Wayward shook his head. “I appreciate that, but it still felt like a setup.”
Under the table, Roses’s fists were clenched, but she stayed calm. She was not going to be outmaneuvered by her protégé, not
after all she had done for him. “It was no more a setup than what you did to April, when you surpassed her at the company.”
Wayward nodded. “I take no pride in that. And I would prefer not to hurt her again.”
“Who said anything about hurting April?” Roses snapped.
“Auntie Roses,” Wayward replied, taking a deep breath. “We need to talk about your grandson. We need to talk about Lewis.”
A few miles south down the Pacific Coast Highway, Cristiano had stopped the minivan at a gas station. After starting the pump,
he told April and Meadow that he was going to use the restroom.
“Grab me a Diet Coke,” April said.
Cristiano entered the food mart and walked the aisles, searching. He was not looking for soda.
“Cristiano.”
He spun around. Wearing a vintage brown leather jacket and her motorcycle helmet was Lola Sun.
“There you are,” Cristiano said, smiling. “Thanks for meeting me here.”
Lola glanced out the window, where she could see April in the minivan, seemingly napping. Still, she kept her helmet on. “You
asked to meet in person,” the baby cousin said. “Here I am.”
“Appreciate it,” her cousin-in-law replied. He shifted on his feet. “So Wayward just got to the compound. He’s meeting with
Roses as we speak.”
Lola nodded, digesting this. She would have preferred that Cristiano had stayed to spy on Roses and Wayward’s conversation,
but Cristiano was not a perfect mole, just a well-placed one. “Do you think he’s going to do as she asks? Do you think he’s
going to try to have a baby boy?”
“To be honest, I’d say it’s fifty-fifty. He did ask me about being a dad the other day, but who knows? I’ll let you know how
Roses is when we come back tonight. I’m sure it will be pretty obvious how their talk went.”
“Good point.” Lola nodded. “Well, I’m off then.”
“Wait,” Cristiano said.
Lola turned back. “What’s up?”
Cristiano shifted his feet again. “I was wondering if you could do me a favor, Lo.”
For years now, Cristiano had been Lola’s willing informant in the Malibu compound, feeding the baby cousin valuable information
about the Sun matriarch. Normally, he did this without any expectation of quid pro quo. Having known Lola since they were
both children, Cristiano knew that she was an invaluable ally when it came to navigating the Sun Clan dynamics—as well as
a brutal enemy. He considered it a long-term investment to be on her good side.
Lola cocked her head. “Of course.” Actually she was somewhat relieved that he was finally asking her for something in return. She didn’t trust selfless people, especially ones that had perfected the puppy-dog act as well as Cristiano Baccay had.
Cristiano leaned forward and whispered something into the side of Lola’s helmet.
Lola did a double-take. “What do you want THAT for?”
Cristiano smiled a bit sheepishly. “Hey, dads can have fun too.”
Lola shrugged. “Sure, why not? I’ll ask around.” With that, she left the food mart, walking in the opposite direction of an
oblivious April in the minivan.
Humming to himself, Cristiano grabbed a Diet Coke.
“Lewis?” Roses asked, blinking rapidly. “What does he have to do with this?”
Wayward shook his head sadly. “Your grandson has everything to do with this, Auntie Roses, and if you can’t admit that simple
truth, I can’t be any part of this.”
Wayward remembered Lewis’s funeral, which in accordance with Chinese tradition had happened in complete silence: no eulogy,
no prayers, no words of kindness or comfort. The only sound had been that of everyone sobbing.
That silence over Lewis still continued to this day . . . but today, Wayward was going to break it.
“It is bad luck to talk about these sorts of things,” Roses said quietly, “when we are discussing the future.”
“I’ll never forget,” Wayward pressed on gently, “watching you and April in the front row of his funeral as you held onto each
other and wept. Have you ever held April like that again?”
Roses glared at him, refusing to answer this outrageous line of questioning. But her eyes were wet.
“It was around that time when you started working with Master Chu, isn’t it?” Wayward continued.
Roses nodded as she brushed her fingers under her eyes.
“Has he given you comfort? Has he helped you process Lewis’s passing?” Wayward asked.
His aunt shook her head wearily. “I am not self-indulgent in the Western ways. That was never Master Chu’s purpose. After
Lewis left, Big Boss Sun soon followed, and the Sun Clan was left with an existential crisis. We have no male heirs to pass
on the family name. This dilemma of ours has many facets, as you might imagine, Wayward.”
“And at what point was I brought up as a potential solution? Whose idea was it?” Wayward leaned in, seeing if Roses was going
to lie.
In truth, Roses had been planning to lie. But instead she picked a different poison. “It was your mother’s idea actually,
Weiwei. She had been planning for you to start a family for a while. After seeing you and Jamaal together for a few years,
she thought you were ready to have that option.”
Wayward nodded, satisfied. He added his mother, Iris, to the long list of conversations he needed to have after that evening.
With her, he would be the one starting with the apology. “And then Master Chu gave his approval of me?” he asked.
“More than just approval, Wayward,” Roses replied. Then she relinquished a small smile. “He says that it was predestined that
my family help you create a child, that it was the reason why you were born the way you were. He says that together, the Sun
Clan and you will create a lineage that will be auspicious. He calls it the ‘lucky seed.’”
Wayward looked down at his hands. “This fortune teller of yours tells you many things. But did he tell you that I would try
to kill myself today?”
Roses gasped. “What are you talking about!?”
“This morning, I was standing on the roof of the Sunfang Global Building,” Wayward said emotionlessly, “and I was going to
jump.”
Roses stood up to walk over to his side of the table. She sat down at the chair next to him and grasped his hands. “But you didn’t,” she said, truly relieved.
Wayward chuckled. “I’m sorry to disappoint, but I did. I tipped all the way over the edge. I was ready to fall.”
“Weiwei! Then how you are alive?”
Wayward shrugged. “You know, it’s funny. When it happened, it didn’t feel like a big deal. But now as I’m telling you about
it, I’m realizing that something incredibly profound happened at that moment.”
“Tell me.”
He looked up at her. “There was a sudden strong wind that knocked me away from the edge. It felt like the air itself pushed
me back.”
With this, Roses released his hands and buried her face in hers. She was nodding. “That wasn’t the air, Weiwei,” she said.
“What was it then?” Wayward asked.
When she moved her hands from her face, Roses was finally crying, though she was smiling through the tears. For the first
time in a very long time, Roses Sun was at peace, gratified that Master Chu was right:
Wayward was indeed chosen.
Roses stood up, taking the manila folder with her.
“Follow me, nephew,” she said. “We are going to feed the hungry ghosts.”
Thirty-five miles away in Hollywood, Sunbern and Shannon Shoo were walking out of her old apartment complex, tucked on the
hill under the Magic Castle.
Sunbern was on cloud nine. He and Shannon had just made unprotected love all morning. He could have continued into the afternoon,
had he not booked his first modeling gig in nearly two years. Because Shannon Shoo had taken him back, the internet had uncanceled
him and he was getting work again.
“Love you, Mooncakes,” he crooned, going in for another tongue-heavy kiss.
After he got picked up in his Lyft, Shannon stayed on the sidewalk, waiting patiently. About five minutes after Sunbern had
left, a blue Tesla pulled up to the curb.
Shannon Shoo’s face lit up with the unabashed brilliance of a lab-grown diamond upon seeing the dashing young man get out
of the car.
“Fenix,” she sighed, rushing over to throw her arms around him.
This pair of lovers also kissed—less tongue but just as passionate—and she led him into her apartment with a certain sparkle
in her eye, one only reserved for this mysterious man named Fenix.
Sitting under the shade of the porch of Roses’s sprawling courtyard, Wayward Sun-Kwok looked down at the red hell banknotes,
inspecting the depiction of the Jade Emperor staring serenely back at him. He had seen joss papers before, likening them to
silly Monopoly money when he was a child, but for some reason, they now felt as serious as life and death in his hands.