Chapter 27
For a moment, April simply closed her eyes. Upon reopening them and still finding herself in front of Chinoiserie’s estate
lawyer, she realized that she wasn’t dreaming.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” she whispered. A single tear streaked its way down her cheek. “What do you mean? Where’s
Serie?”
Lori gently motioned to the chair behind April. “Please, Ms. Sun, sit back down. I can explain everything.” She reached out
toward April to assist her.
But April pulled away, shaking her head. “That’s impossible,” she said, her voice still eerily monotone and flat. “Impossible.”
As Lori and the receptionist looked at each other, April walked to the law office’s front doors and exited the building. There,
she stood outside, looking around at the empty sidewalk.
“Serie?” she asked, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “Where’d you go, Serie?”
But there was no one there.
April let out an anguished sob, but choked it down quickly. “Serie!” she called out, this time louder.
There was no response.
All April could hear were both heartbeats within her racing.
“Serie . . .” she murmured, sinking to the ground. “What’s happening? Where are you?”
She heard someone crouch down next to her, and turned to face Lori, who spoke kindly to her. “Ms. Sun. Please. Come back inside.”
She followed Lori back into the office building. “I’m sorry, I’m just so confused,” April said, her face in her hands. “You
say Serie is dead. But she was just here. She was the one who told me to come here. She walked in here with me, just now.”
Lori frowned. “You came here with someone claiming to be Chinoiserie Fan?”
“No, it was definitely her,” April insisted. “I came here with her, she was alive, as alive as you are in front of me.”
Lori was studying her intently, but there was no judgment in her eyes. She turned to her receptionist. “Could you pull up
our security camera footage on your computer?” She motioned for April to follow her.
Looking over the receptionist’s shoulder, April and Lori watched on the screen as April’s car pulled up to the parking space
in front of the office.
In the footage, April watched herself get out of her car alone. She watched herself walk the pathway toward Lori’s office
alone. Then the camera switched, and April saw herself enter the reception area alone.
Chinoiserie was nowhere to be seen.
April could feel both Lori and her assistant’s eyes upon her. She was shaking. “Oh my god,” she gasped. “I’m crazy.” She covered
her open mouth with her hand. “I’m actually going crazy.”
Lori turned to the assistant. “I’m going to take Ms. Sun to my office so we can chat. Please bring her a bottle of water.”
“I’m crazy, aren’t I?” April asked Lori. “I can’t explain it though, I really did see . . .”
Gently holding up her hand, Lori interrupted her. “I believe you, Ms. Sun, and I don’t think you are crazy. Come with me to
my office. Let’s talk about Serie.”
Under the shadow of the Sunfang Global Building, Fenix stood on the Avenue of the Stars, staring up through his aviator sunglasses at the names of both his clans. He heard the footsteps of Wayward approaching.
“You did good in there,” Fenix said without looking down. “Somewhere Big Boss Sun is proud.”
Wayward chuckled. “My philosophy is to do everything different than he would, so that’d be ironic.”
Fenix turned to him. “You definitely have shaken things up.”
“Listen, Fenix, I’m sorry about—”
“Thank you, Weiwei,” Fenix interrupted him.
Wayward cocked his head, surprised. “For what?”
“When I came out to our family up in Big Bear, when I reintroduced myself to you all, you didn’t even blink. You accepted
me immediately. You made me feel like I belonged. I really appreciated that, because I was really scared.”
“Cousin,” Wayward said, laying a hand on his shoulder, “of course I’m going to accept who you are! You are Fenix Sun, you
are my family, and you are finally exactly who you’re meant to be. I just have so much regret that we didn’t have the type
of relationship where I could have supported you as you went through this transition. I hope we can change that.”
Fenix smiled, his eyes creased with genuine emotion. He placed his hand over Wayward’s. “I think we already have. Did you
really have no idea about me?”
Wayward sighed as he released Fenix. “No, I didn’t. But I do have a question, and I really hope it doesn’t offend you.”
“Go ahead.”
“I think it’s so admirable that your mother and her clan accepted you and supported your transition. But the way that it all
played out . . .”
Fenix looked down. “You’re wondering if they accepted me only because they wanted me to claim the Sunfang Trust.”
“I’m sorry to bring it up,” Wayward said. “But it did cross my mind, because I can relate.”
Fenix spoke slowly. “Once when I was a teenager, Big Boss Fang walked in on me wearing my dad’s clothes with my breasts bound.
I thought he was going to disown me right there and then. But instead he told my mom that I was who I was because it was my
destiny, and that she should cherish me.” He looked back up at Wayward. “Before that, my mom had been so ashamed of me, but
suddenly she was able to see me in a new light. So to answer your question, I don’t know. What I do know is that no one teaches
our elders how to love people like you and me, Weiwei.”
Wayward nodded sadly. “Like us, their love can be complicated. But how our generation loves one another, maybe that can be
simpler. Imagine, had I simply known what you were planning, I would have been so glad for you to claim the—”
“It doesn’t matter now,” Fenix interrupted. “The Sunfang Trust is now inextricable from Promessa, and that was your prerogative
as president. The Fang Clan went way too far when it came to Big Boss Sun’s ashes; I had no idea about that. While the rest
of us were running around scheming, you were being a boss.”
“Oh, I did plenty of scheming too,” Wayward laughed. “She’s due in a couple months!”
Fenix joined in, laughing as well. Then he let out a sigh. “I’ve been reading a lot about Promessa. It’s . . . insane. In
a great way. In a save-the-world way. I love it, I really do, Weiwei.”
Wayward’s eyes lit up with pride. “And I love hearing that, because I’m going to be counting on your continued support of
Promessa when you replace me as president.”
Fenix did a double-take. “Wait, what?”
“You are the Sunfang heir,” Wayward said. “It is an unwritten bylaw of Sunfang Global that the president is meant to be a
role within the Sun Clan passed down via their male bloodline, and that’s exactly what you are, Fenix Sun.” He grinned. “And
who are we to mess with patriarchy and tradition?”
“But . . .” Fenix stammered, “You . . . Roses . . .”
“I’ve already spoken to Roses, and she agreed that it is time for all of us to heal. She will mentor you until you are ready
to step into the role. She’s not an easy boss, but you will learn a lot from her for the next few years. That said, if she
ever invites you to the Malibu compound and tries to feed you lobster, say no to whatever she asks.”
“Weiwei,” Fenix breathed, still in disbelief, “but what about you?”
There was a palm tree next to them on the sidewalk, and Wayward leaned against it, now gazing up at their building with a
somewhat dreamy look in his eyes. “I’ve been cooped up in my office for too long. Jamaal and I used to travel the world, and
it’s how we fell in love. I think it’s time for a new adventure.”
“Promessa! You want to move to S?o Paulo?”
“With you here at Sunfang Global, I can be on the ground at Promessa and make sure it’s launched to success. It’ll be win-win
for us.”
Fenix surprised Wayward by suddenly swooping him up in a huge hug. Wayward wrapped his arms around Fenix as well.
When they released each other, Wayward held out his hand. “Cousin to cousin, let’s shake on it.”
And as Wayward Sun and Fenix Sun shook hands over a deal that rocked the foundations of Sunfang Global and dismantled its
generations of greed and destruction . . .
Somewhere Big Boss Sun was proud.
“I don’t know why I have to stay here at the hospital,” Iris clucked. “It’s all a big deal over nothing.”
“Mom,” Wayward said, aghast, “you broke both your legs!”
After meeting with Fenix, Wayward had headed over to Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where Iris had been recovering since she had been
rescued from her car along the side of Route 330, about ten miles up the San Bernardino Mountains.
“Don’t exaggerate,” Iris said, waving away the casts on her legs. “They’re just hairline fractures.” But there was a very maternal side of her that loved how worried Wayward looked.
At the end of the bed, Jamaal was arranging the pink irises they had brought for her in a large vase. “Let us fuss over you,
Iris. It’s what we gays do best for our mothers, and we are long overdue.”
Iris giggled. “And I have two of you, how lucky am I!”
Jamaal nodded at Wayward and then said to Iris, “I’m going to grab you some snacks from the gift shop. You two catch up a
bit.”
When Jamaal had left, Wayward sat down beside Iris, his eyes still sad. “Mom . . . you could’ve died.”
“Weiwei, no need to think about bad things that did not happen.”
“No, but if you had been more hurt, I’d never forgive myself. Back at Big Boss Sun’s mausoleum, you finally told me your truth,
you trusted me with your pain, and in return I shut you out.”
Iris reached out to take Wayward’s hand into hers. “I shut you out too for many years, as I searched for Big Boss Sun’s ashes.
I understood why you couldn’t trust me. These things take time.”
“But still you helped me,” Wayward said. “This morning at Sunfang Global, Shannon said something odd. She said that she overheard
a conversation between you and Auntie Hyacinth at MiNT Wellness. At first I didn’t understand, but I realize now what you
did for me.”
Iris was smiling at him. “Go on.”
“A few months ago, when Hyacinth let go of the Sunfang Trust seemingly out of the blue, I thought I was just lucky. To be