one bragging about his weekend trips to golf at Pebble Beach! What fucking bullshit to say it’s all been handed to me, when he inherited every cent of his obscene fortune and I’ve worked so goddamn hard my whole life!
Suddenly it was as if a flare went off inside his head. He had been going to his mother-in-law’s house on Nassim Road, but now he slammed on the brakes, made a U-turn, and raced back to his office.
Krystal was on her computer surfing websites for cheap travel deals to the Maldives when he came bursting into the office and started going through the filing cabinets.
“Where are all the files related to the sale of Cloud Nine Solutions, my first company?”
“Acherley,*5 wouldn’t those old files be in the archive room on forty-third floor?” Krystal suggested.
“Come with me, we need to find those files now!”
They raced down to the archive room, which Michael had never even entered before, and began digging through the file drawers. “I need to find the original contracts from 2010,” he said urgently.
“Wah, so many files here! Search and search until vomit blood!” Krystal complained.
After searching for twenty minutes, they came across a set of large orange binders that contained all the relevant documents. “Here it is!” Michael said excitedly.
“Wah, you damn heng!*6 I thought we never find!”
“Okay, Krystal, you can go back upstairs now.” Michael began rifling through the pages until he came to the one he was looking for. It was the Share Purchase Agreement authorizing the sale of his company to Promenade Technologies of Mountain View, California. There, buried within the dozens of various entities that were involved in the buyout of his tech firm, one name stood out—the ultimate parent company of the acquisition vehicle, some shell corporation based in Mauritius. He held the piece of paper in his hands, staring intently at the name in disbelief and denial, his heart pounding more furiously than it ever had before: Pebble Beach HoldCo IV-A, LTD.
It’s all been handed to you! His father-in-law’s words suddenly took on a whole new meaning.
* * *
*1 Singlish for “disturb” (Malay origin).
*2 Correct Singlish pronunciation for “government.”
*3 A gift from his friend His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent.
*4 A Hokkien term for cowards that literally means “no balls.”
*5 Correct Singlish pronunciation for “actually.”
*6 Hokkien for “lucky,” “fortunate.”
6
IMPERIAL TREASURE RESTAURANT
SHANGHAI
“I hope you don’t mind—I invited Colette to join us,” Carlton said breezily to his parents as the two of them entered the private dining room of Imperial Treasure. The Baos, who had summoned their son to dinner as soon as the gossip about Paris had reached their ears, couldn’t mask their looks of surprise when Colette walked in, followed by the ubiquitous Roxanne with a large beribboned hamper full of gifts from Paris.
“It’s always a pleasure to have you with us, Colette,” Gaoliang said, forcing a smile as he stared grimly at Carlton’s purplish eye. So the story about his fight with Richie Yang was true.
Shaoyen was less restrained. She got up from the table and rushed toward her son, putting her hands on his face. “Look at you! You look like a raccoon that went for lip fillers! My God, after all you went through with your reconstructive surgeries, how could you let this happen?”
“I’m fine, Mother. It’s nothing,” Carlton said gruffly, trying to shrug her off.
“Mrs. Bao, I brought you some presents from Paris. I know how much you love the pâtés de fruits at Hédiard.” Colette gestured to the hamper, hoping to distract them.
“Hiyah, had I known you were coming, I would have arranged dinner at someplace special. This was just a last-minute family dinner,” Shaoyen said, hoping her emphasis on the word family would make the girl feel especially unwelcome.
“Oh, this is one of my family’s favorite restaurants too! I know the menu very well,” Colette chirped, seemingly oblivious to the tension in the room.
“Why don’t you do the ordering then? Be sure to get all your favorite dishes,” Shaoyen replied solicitously.
“No, no, I’ll just keep it simple.” Colette turned to the waiter and smiled. “Let’s start with the deep-fried crab claws stuffed with minced shrimp, followed by the live Venus clams steamed in XO sauce, the barbecued roast pork with honey sauce, the sautéed scallops with Italian white truffle oil, and the stewed chicken with diced abalone and salted fish in clay pot. Oh, and of course we must have the roasted suckling pig—make sure it’s a fat one—and the steamed sliced garoupa with mushroom