Chapter 23
Not since Sunbern and Shannon Shoo’s paparazzi-infested beach proposal had the Suns been more eager to escape a family event.
Even before daybreak, there was a mad dash of packing bags as everyone prepared for the drive back down to Los Angeles.
Plans for the baby shower brunch were scrapped, much to Kat’s chagrin. Not only had she created an entirely tofu-based menu
that she had been eager to test on Asians, but she also made a cheeky playlist for the occasion consisting of classic songs
that touted the presumed gender of Wayward’s baby. (They included “Macho Man” by Village People, “It’s Raining Men” by The
Weather Girls, “If I Was a Boy” by Beyoncé, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” from the Mulan soundtrack . . . The list went on.)
But what pissed her off the most was that she had taken a sleeping pill and passed out next to deep sleeper Bessie, and neither
of them had gotten to witness the night’s astonishing shenanigans.
“Blink around these people,” Kat marveled to Bessie as they made their bed, “and you’ll miss an entire generation of trauma.”
“?Cono de la madre!” Bessie exclaimed. “Don’t call them ‘these people’!”
“Babe, I finally looked up what ‘cono’ means,” Kat replied, “and it’s pretty rude too.”
Carrying the box that had contained all the weekend’s confiscated phones, Jamaal made his way to the last room with the final
two, the primary bedroom suite on the ground floor. He knocked on the door. “Cris? You awake?”
Almost instantly, the door popped open and Jamaal found himself face-to-face with an absolutely haunted Cristiano, eyes manic
and bloodshot, hair unkempt, his movie-star looks twisted and gaunt, still wearing the same wrinkled outfit from the day before.
Jamaal tried not to react. “Um, I have yours and April’s phones. She never collected hers when she . . . Yo, Cris, are you
okay?”
Cristiano blinked rapidly, as though just recognizing Jamaal. “Uh, yeah, I’m fine.” He grabbed the phones out of the box.
“Rough night.”
Jamaal realized just then that Cristiano had not come out of his room after April had left, despite the pandemonium. “Where’s
Meadow?” he asked, peeking around Cristiano into the darkened bedroom.
Cristiano motioned at the front entrance. “She and Teddy already left. She’s going to spend some quality time with the grandparents
at the Malibu compound.”
In truth, he had sent his daughter down the mountain first because he knew that he would have to stay behind to deal with
Lola’s body. Like they had been doing all night, his eyes darted down to the basement below.
“Oh, that’s nice,” Jamaal said. “Listen, I’m sorry about April.”
“Who?” Cristiano’s head jerked back up from the floor. “Oh, April, right.”
Jamaal had no idea what to say next, but he was saved by a chime. Their phones all lit up with a group text from Roses:
“Please meet at the dock before we all go.”
At the midpoint between Big Bear Lake and Los Angeles, Iris pulled up to a large house at the end of a cul-de-sac. To get
here had taken her a lot longer than anticipated; the melting roads down the mountain had been slippery and unwieldy, and
she’d had to drive slowly.
She parked her car and walked to the front door. She rang the bell.
When the door opened, she took off her pitch-black sunglasses. Twin Brother, she said in Taiwanese.
George Sun was taken aback to see Iris. Twin Sister? What’s going on? Come inside.
Only when Iris stood next to her brother, a very rare occurrence, was it apparent just how identical they were. Individually,
no one ever saw it. But side by side, the twins had exactly the same face.
I thought you were all at Big Bear for the baby shower, George said as he helped take off her coat to hang it.
Iris looked him dead in the eye. I suppose you had no way of knowing, since Wayward took away our phones.
George frowned. I don’t understand.
“Theo G,” Iris said, switching to English. “I’ve heard this name a few times over past few months, but only through Lola.
All I knew was that this Theo G is a very technologically clever person who was somehow able to secretly record Sunbern remotely,
resulting in his audio that was leaked to the public.”
George sat down on the bench in his entry, looking down. He did not reply.
Standing over him, Iris continued. “But when I heard Roses say this name, I finally understood. Because Theo G is not the
correct name at all, is it, George?”
George slowly shook his head.
It had been Roses’s playground taunt toward George from the moment he’d started talking. His lateral lisp sliced and crackled
through his s and t sounds, and Roses would mimic him when they were little. She even bequeathed upon him a childhood nickname, a bastardization
of the Taiwanese term for little brother, which normally sounded like “sió-tǐ.”
But when Roses applied George’s impediment, it sounded like she was saying . . . “Theo G.”
Iris sat next to him on the bench. To this day, she must know what a cruel nickname this is, because she only uses it around Little Sister and me. Not even your
own daughter knew who this Theo G was.
George smiled grimly to himself. Our Big Sister really has a way with words, doesn’t she?
Twin Brother, Iris demanded. Look at me.
Slowly he turned to her. Yes, Twin Sister.
George, our family has a shameful history of espionage and phone tapping. It was how Big Boss Sun wrested control of Sun &
Fang Constructions from the Fang Clan. It was how he blackmailed governments into expanding Sunfang Global’s interests. And
it was how Big Sister snatched your birthright and company away from you.
George was blinking rapidly behind his thick glasses. What are you saying, Iris?
Iris leaned toward him. So knowing all this, Twin Brother, why are you now working with Galahad Chu to spy on your own family?
Up in the San Bernardino Mountains, the snow was beginning to fall again, though it was more light and airy this morning, wafting in the breeze, never quite seeming to land.
High in the trees, shivering birds chirped under the shelter of frozen branches, no doubt twittering dismay at this strange weather.
Beyond the archipelago upon which the sanctuary stood, Big Bear Lake was frozen solid, immobilizing the Sun Clan’s pontoon
boat to the old wooden dock that their late patriarch had built with his bare hands. Right in front of this dock, there was
a raised pavilion, covering a ring of nine chairs and wreathed by a semicircle of cemented stones.
Other than the seat to the right of Roses, the rest were occupied by the remaining survivors of the fiasco weekend: Wayward,
Jamaal, Hyacinth, Sunbern, Bessie, Kat, and Cristiano sat in the ring, with varying degrees of comfort and restlessness, but
all ready to leave Big Bear. Hyacinth was the most visibly upset, constantly glancing at Sunbern’s bruised face and wincing
between shooting death stares at Roses. Cristiano still looked like he had been dragged to hell and back.
Roses tried her best to smile at the beleaguered group. “I know that this weekend had a few bumps, but I cannot as the eldest
of this family let us leave on a bad note. The whole point of this weekend was to celebrate Wayward and Jamaal’s baby that
Bessie has been so thoughtfully carrying. This baby boy will be the future of the Sun Clan, and really, he is all that matters.
So I hope you all feel hopeful for our future, and our family.”
“Hear, hear!” a posh voice rang out. Everyone turned to watch Galahad Chu approaching in dramatic black robes, looking freshly
rested and cheery as ever.
As the holy man took the seat next to Roses, Wayward noticed his aunt’s face darken. She cleared her throat, and continued,
“Wayward, would you like to say a few words as well? This weekend was your idea, and you should send us all off with auspicious
thoughts and good luck so that we can look forward to the arrival of your son.”
Wayward stood up, adjusting his red turtleneck. Indeed, this weekend had been his idea, and he had always meant to make this announcement, but he had had no idea how many left turns his baby shower would take.
“Thank you, Roses,” he said, without a clue what he was going to say next. He glanced over to look at Jamaal, who nodded at
him. “You are right that a baby represents the future of a family. Any baby, doesn’t matter who he . . . or she is.”
Kat was leaning so forward in her seat she almost tumbled out of it. Bessie pushed her back down.
“You know what I love about the Suns?” Wayward continued. “How strong we are. Strength is sometimes misunderstood, especially
when it comes to women.” He looked at the Sun matriarch. “I’m sure you can relate, Roses.” He paused, his throat a little
dry. It was now or never. “That’s why I know that my baby is going to have the best role models in life, with all the strong
women in our clan.”
“That’s very sweet, Weiwei!” Hyacinth said, charmed.
But Roses was unmoving as the revelation fell upon her. She opened her mouth, but no words came out. Wayward nodded at her.
“I hope you will all be as excited as Jamaal and me . . . when we welcome our little girl into the world.”
A hush fell over Big Bear Lake. Even the birds stopped chirping.
Jamaal stood up to join Wayward at his side. “We’re having a girl!” Jamaal exclaimed proudly.
“Oh, wow!” Sunbern leaped up and threw his arms around Wayward and Jamaal. “Congrats, Shortcake and J-Man! A little girl!
That’s so adorable!”
Hyacinth had stood up as well, patting Wayward on the shoulder. “I’m not sure how that happened, but I’m so happy for you,
Weiwei,” she said, smiling.
“Thank you, both of you,” Wayward said gratefully. Hesitantly, he turned back to Roses, bracing himself.
But Roses had the oddest reaction. She was not looking at Wayward. Instead, she had turned to Galahad, her eyes full of venom and vitriol. Galahad, in turn, looked nervous for the first time ever, an uncomfortable grimace warping his pretty face.