Chapter 23 #2
“Well,” Galahad said, almost to himself, “what a surprising turn of events.” He adjusted his black robes, refusing to make
eye contact with Roses.
“Galahad Chu,” Roses seethed, her voice low but simmering. “How is it that you know so much, that you seem to have impossible
psychic abilities . . . except when it came to the most important thing: the babies? You had no idea about April’s baby! You
had no idea Shannon was faking hers! And you had no idea that Wayward is going to have a girl!”
Galahad glanced over at her, flustered. “Now, my dear Mrs. Sun, I predicted you would have a male heir to the Sunfang Trust,
and I was right. Your daughter, April . . .”
“Yes!” Cristiano suddenly sprang to life and scurried over to Roses, where he knelt at her feet like a peon. “April and I
are going to have a baby boy, Ma, and I promise you I will convince her to come back, even if it kills me!”
“Even if it kills who?” A young woman’s voice suddenly rang out, and everyone turned to her as she approached the pavilion
in a high-gloss black leather jacket, its many metal buckles clinking together as she moved to take her place in the circle.
Everyone, that was, except Cristiano Baccay, who froze at the sound of a ghost, then began to tremble all over. Slowly, he
twisted his body so he could look behind him.
There, lounging in his chair with one leg propped up on the seat, Lola Sun looked back at him with an eerie blankness in her
eyes.
“Oh my god, where have you been, Lo?” Sunbern demanded, immensely relieved.
Lola shrugged. “Fell into a hole.”
Without another word, Cristiano scurried away from the pavilion like a wounded animal, back into the sanctuary to hide from
the ghost of the girl he had murdered.
Roses retrained her focus on Galahad. “Don’t mince words with me, Galahad. You told me specifically that Big Boss Sun’s lineage had to perpetuate through Wayward, that he has the lucky seed!”
“Ew, seriously?” Kat whispered to Bessie, captivated.
Roses stood up, fully enraged. “And it was you who gave me the exorcism sword, the one that I almost killed Sunbern with!”
“Wait, what sword?” Sunbern gasped. “I thought I just tripped.”
“Hold up!” Wayward said, now entirely befuddled. “Roses, are you acting right now? Why are you so surprised that Galahad is
a fraud?”
“Are you a fraud?” Roses demanded of Galahad, who continued to shrink away from her. “Have you and Master Chu been lying to
me this whole time?”
“Master Chu is dead,” Lola chimed in. “His body was found in his Hong Kong flat last Lunar New Year.”
“WHAT!?” Roses was nearing her breaking point.
Wayward placed his hand on his aunt’s shoulder to turn her to him. “Roses,” he urged, “look at me. Galahad knew all the information
about us because he’s been spying on us through our Sunfang phones. But you were the one who set it up, right?”
“What are you talking about, Weiwei?” Roses cried. “Of course not. I would never allow a stranger that sort of access!”
Wayward’s mind was racing so fast that his head began to hurt. He massaged his temple as he tried to think. “Roses, this whole
time, I thought Galahad was working for you to spy on us!”
“That’s only partially true,” Galahad finally said, silencing the group. “I have been spying on you all, but I don’t work
for Roses.”
Turning to him, Wayward stuck a finger into the fraudulent holy man’s chest. “Then tell us finally, Galahad. Who do you work
for?”
Galahad looked over Wayward’s shoulder. “You’ll be meeting them shortly. Patience.”
“Then tell us finally, Galahad Chu. Who do you work for?” Wayward’s voice was crisp and clear in the transmission playing on the computer in George Sun’s home office in Chino Hills.
Iris turned to her brother, shocked. Like Wayward, I had figured out we were being recorded, but hearing it now in person . . . Twin Brother, I am stunned by you.
“You’ll be meeting them shortly. Patience.” Now the wire was picking up Galahad’s reply, eighty miles away.
Twin Sister, George insisted, I have no idea who this Galahad Chu is.
Iris was furious. Yet how is it that you are the one who has been spying on our family this entire time?
George held up his hands in protest. It’s not like that! Before I stepped down as president to make way for Big Sister, I negotiated a deal with her. So that she
could never spy on our family ever again, I became the first cybersecurity contractor for Sunfang Global. So yes, our Sunfang
phones still have the capability to record their users, but that is meant to be a nuclear option. I certainly don’t spy on
our family, and as for Roses, it is to be used only in the rarest of cases. She’s not allowed to exploit it, not with me in
charge.
Roses scoffed. But you did let her use it, when it came to Sunbern’s audio. That hardly feels nuclear.
George shook his head. That is the only time I’ve ever allowed it to happen. And that’s because it wasn’t Roses who asked me. It was Little Sister.
Iris leaned against his desk, crossing her arms as she scrutinized him. And you said yes, not to Big Sister, but to Hyacinth. Your favorite sister.
George looked down and nodded.
Iris sighed, her arms falling to her side. But someone did weaponize our phones against us. Perhaps someone hacked into your system.
Unlikely, but not impossible, her brother replied.
What has confounded me this whole time, Iris said, is motive. Whoever is doing this, I don’t understand why. How is any of this helpful if their ultimate goal is the Sunfang Trust?
And that was when Iris Sun-Kwok had her epiphany, one that was inspired by the surprise gender reveal of Wayward’s baby. She
realized who it was.
She turned to George. Twin Brother, who else has access to this room?
“Enough stalling, Galahad Chu!” Wayward said. “Spit it out. Who have you been working with?”
“All right,” Galahad replied. “I will tell you everything. Starting with a correction. That is not my real name.”
“No shit,” Sunbern replied dryly. “What kind of dumb name is Galahad?”
Galahad frowned a bit. “I’m not talking about my first name. I’m talking about my family name.” He stood up finally, and bowed
hello to his audience.
“My real name is Galahad Fang.”
Upon hearing his true surname, everyone standing fell back down into their seats, as though it was a cursed incantation.
Lola spoke first, though she whispered it. “Fang, as in . . . Sunfang?”
“Yes,” Galahad said to her. “My dear cousin Lola.”
Wayward stared at Galahad Fang. “If you’re a Fang, does that mean you’re working with . . .?”
“He’s working with us,” a woman interrupted.
Standing at the entry of the pavilion was Shannon Shoo in her triumphant return. But it was not she who had spoken.
Beside her, finally dressed in lucky red and clutching a large handbag, was Tingting Fang: mother of Lola, wife of George,
and matriarch of the Fang Clan.
Roses Sun clutched her heart to keep it from leaping out of her. “You!”
“Shannon, what the hell!?” Sunbern roared. “You’ve been working with these people!?”
Wayward shot a questioning look at Lola, who shook her head at him. He could see she was just as confounded as the rest of
them about this sudden appearance of her mother.
Tingting Fang held out her arm, and Shannon assisted her up the stairs. They walked to the center of the ring like an empress
and her attendant.
Lola tried to catch her mother’s eye, but the Fang matriarch purposely avoided meeting hers.
“But why?” Wayward demanded. “Why have the three of you been spying on us? Why fool us with a fake fortune teller? Why send
Roses on this desperate quest for baby boys?”
Tingting responded to him. “Weiwei, there is an old Chinese proverb that your Aunt Roses should know well, as both Big Boss
Fang and Big Boss Sun were scholars of The Art of War.” She spoke it in Mandarin: In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.
Roses was grim as she translated it into English. “‘Chaos creates opportunity.’ I understand, Tingting. But what is your opportunity?”
“I can answer that,” said Galahad as he and Shannon smirked at each other. “While the lot of you have been infighting and
obsessing over mythical baby boys, you have all failed to pay attention to the most important part of Big Boss Sun’s will
regarding the Sunfang Trust. Namely, the first part of it.”
From memory, Roses recited, “‘In the event that Big Boss Sun does not have a paternal grandson by blood . . .’” She shook
her head, confounded. “And he doesn’t!”
There was the sound of a door opening. Turning to the Big Bear sanctuary, they watched as a young man walked toward the pavilion.
This man had been hiding in the sanctuary since very early that morning, after his bedmate, Shannon, had been abruptly ejected.
It was Fenix.
As he neared the pavilion, the Sun Clan ogled at him, taking in this striking stranger.
“Who the fuck is this?” Sunbern snapped. “Another rando Fang?”
And indeed, Shannon’s secret lover did seem familiar to them, even if none of them had ever met him before.
He paused at the entryway of the pavilion, meeting the eyes of each member of the Suns.
That was when Lola craned her neck, her mouth agape in disbelief. She tried to speak, but no words came out. Finally, Fenix
looked directly at her, and nodded.
Lola finally gasped out a single name. “Felicia?!”
Wayward clasped his hands over his mouth.
Sunbern yelled out a nonsensical string of noises.
Roses let out a silent scream, and Hyacinth fell out of her chair.
Yet Lola was wrong.
No, this man was not Lola’s older sister, Felicia. Felicia had left for Southeast Asia eight and a half months ago, never
to return again. There, Felicia had undergone extensive gender-affirming procedures performed by the best surgeons in Bangkok.
After months of difficult recovery and rehabilitation, he then came back to Los Angeles. In another months-long process, the
person formally known as Felicia successfully petitioned the California Court to amend his birth certificate, correcting his
gender to male.
Felicia was a dead name. Felicia Sun was long gone.
This young man was the only paternal grandson of Big Boss Sun, and as the legal son of George Sun and Tingting Fang, he was
the true heir to the Sunfang Trust.
“Hello, family,” said Fenix Sun.