The Paper Daughters of Chinatown - Heather B. Moore Page 0,110
eyes, then escaping onto her cheeks. “You have done too much. I could not live with myself if something else happened to you.”
Huan Sun only tightened his hold on her hand. “I feel the same way, Mei Lien. I want to take you away from this place. We will marry, and we will live a good life. Away from San Francisco and men like Zhang Wei and women like Ah-Peen Oie.”
Mei Lien drew in a breath. His words sounded like a dream—one she had never thought she could have. But the constant knot in her stomach reminded her of her added responsibility. She had more than one person to care for now. “Where would we go?”
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I will find a place, and I will come back for you.”
Mei Lien stared into the warm brown eyes of Huan Sun. “You would do that for me? You care that much for me?”
He ran his thumb over her wrist. “Have I not already proven it?”
Yes, he had. Many times. But Mei Lien, her hope shredded, had been too afraid to believe. To think that her life might truly change and become something good. Still, she worried. “What about the child I’m carrying? It might be Zhang Wei’s.”
Huan Sun brought her wrist to his lips and pressed a soft kiss on her skin. “It doesn’t matter. From the moment I met you, I felt something between us. And I believe you felt the same.”
“I did,” Mei Lien whispered. “But I didn’t recognize it. My life had changed so much. And you were the first . . .”
Huan Sun released her hand and ran the tips of his fingers alongside her face. “I need to leave before the sun rises. Miss Cameron doesn’t want me here when the girls wake up.”
“Take the pearls,” she said. “They can buy your way.”
“No, they are yours.” He rested a hand on her shoulder. “I will find a way. I want to learn English and study the Bible. The mission ladies said I need to be Christian to marry you.”
Mei Lien hadn’t heard of this. “Why?”
“They are very strict about who they let their girls marry.”
“Then I will leave.”
“No,” Huan Sun said. “I want you safe. Here. Wait for me, Mei Lien.”
Mei Lien nodded, then wiped at the tears now coursing down her face. “I will wait.”
And she did wait.
Weeks passed, and she still waited. Her belly grew with her child. And yet Huan Sun did not return. No word was sent—no letter, no message—and Mei Lien was left to wonder.
The days blended into endless weeks, and the weeks became one month, then two, then three. She worried about Huan Sun’s safety. She worried the tong would return and kidnap her. Or perhaps they had found a way to punish her mother. What if they came when her child was born and stole him away?
The first labor pains began when Mei Lien was with Tien Fu Wu, working on her English. The low, deep pains in her back soon wrapped around to her stomach, spreading like a quick-burning flame.
“What is it?” Tien Fu Wu rose from the table, her expression already alert.
Mei Lien’s eyes slid shut as the pain ebbed, bringing a sweet but temporary relief. “The baby . . . is coming.”
Everything after that was a blur as Tien Fu Wu ran from the room shouting for help. Miss Cameron came. Other women in the house crowded around her, and people were giving orders in both Chinese and English.
Tears burned Mei Lien’s eyes as her belly contracted and the pain elevated once again, getting stronger now. She wanted her mother. “Ah Ma,” she whispered over and over again, but her mother never came. Her mother would never know this grandchild of hers.
“It’s a boy,” someone said in Chinese, and then Tien Fu Wu was smoothing back her hair, a huge smile on her face. “He is healthy.”
Miss Cameron’s face came into view, and she presented to Mei Lien the smallest of bundles. A baby. Mei Lien’s baby. Carefully, she took the warm bundle and pressed her lips against the baby’s damp forehead. His hair was dark, his eyes closed, and his eyelashes a perfect row. He was perfect. No matter who his father might be, she was his mother.
“My son,” she whispered because her voice was too raw to make a sound. She had never felt so elated or so miserable at the same time. Even as she gazed down at the beautiful