CHAPTER SEVEN

THE LAW OFFICES OF TAN AND TAN, SINGAPORE

The OCBC Centre at 65 Chulia Street was nicknamed “the calculator” because of its flat shape and windows that resemble button pads. The architect I. M. Pei had intended for the hulking gray tower to be a symbol of strength and permanence, since it was the headquarters of the Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, the island’s oldest bank.

Unbeknownst to most people, the thirty-eighth floor of the tower was home to Tan and Tan, a small law firm that kept an exceedingly low profile but was undoubtedly one of the most influential legal powerhouses in the country. The firm almost exclusively represented Singapore’s establishment families and did not take on new clients—one had to be specially recommended.

Today, the glowing mahogany-and-glass reception counter had been given an extra polish, fresh-cut roses bloomed in the guest toilets, and every member of the staff had been told to dress in their smartest outfits. At around fifteen minutes to ten, the elevator doors began to work overtime as the descendants of Shang Su Yi started to arrive en masse. The Leongs showed up first—Harry, Felicity, Henry Jr., Peter, and Astrid were joined by Victoria Young and the Aakaras. At 9:55 a.m., Philip, Eleanor, and Nick joined the others in the discreet reception room with its imitation Le Corbusier leather couches.

Sitting down next to Astrid, Nick asked, “You okay?” He could always sense whenever things weren’t right with his cousin.

Astrid smiled, trying to reassure him. “I’m fine. I just didn’t get enough sleep last night, that’s all.”

“I haven’t been sleeping much either. Rachel thinks my body’s just catching up to the grief, but it all still feels like some bizarre dream,” Nick said. As he made that comment, the grandfather clock in the lobby began to chime ten, and Alix Young Cheng entered with her husband, Malcolm, and Eddie, Cecilia, and Alistair. Eddie cleared his throat as if he were going to make a speech, but he was interrupted by Cathleen Kah, who came out into the reception area to greet the family.

Cathleen shepherded everyone down the corridor and through the double doors into the main conference room. A massive dark oak table dominated the room, placed in front of the bank of windows framing a panoramic view of the bay. Sitting at one end of the table was Freddie Tan, Su Yi’s longtime lawyer, having coffee with Alfred Shang, Leonard Shang, and Oliver T’sien.

I knew Uncle Alfred would be part of this, but what the hell are Leonard and Oliver doing here? Eddie thought to himself.

“Good morning, everyone,” Freddie said jovially. “Please make yourselves comfortable.”

Everyone took their seats around the table, clustered more or less in their family units, except for Eddie, who positioned himself at the head of the table.

“That was quite the send-off yesterday, wasn’t it? Eddie, I never knew you could sing like that,” Freddie remarked.

“Thank you, Freddie. Shall we begin?” Eddie eagerly suggested.

“Relax, kiddo. We’re just waiting for one more person,” Freddie said.

“Who else is coming?” Eddie asked, suddenly alarmed.

At that moment, the sound of expensive designer heels making soft clicks against marble could be heard in the corridor outside, and the receptionist opened the conference room doors. “This way, ma’am.”

Jacqueline Ling breezed into the room in a deep purple wrap dress, her Res Rei sunglasses still on and a Mitford blue Yves Saint Laurent couture overcoat flung across her shoulders. “So sorry to keep you all waiting! Would you believe my driver took me to the wrong place? He thought we were going to the Singapore Land Tower for some reason.”

“No need to apologize. It’s just a few minutes past ten, so you’re fashionably late, haha,” Freddie joked.

Jacqueline took a seat next to Nick, who leaned over and gave her a friendly peck on the cheek. Freddie looked around at the anxiously assembled group and decided it was time to put them out of their misery. “Well, we all know why we’re here, so let’s get on with it.”

Eleanor smiled pensively, while Philip leaned back in his chair. Alfred peered down at the sumptuously lacquered wood grain, wondering whether the table had been made by David Linley. Nick winked at Astrid seated across from him, and Astrid smiled back.

Freddie pressed a button on the telephone next to him. “Tuan, you can bring it in now.” An assistant, nattily dressed in a red sweater vest and striped tie, entered the room, ceremoniously holding an oversize parchment envelope folder. The assistant placed the folder on the table next to Freddie, and then handed him a horn-handled letter opener. Everyone could see Su Yi’s personal wax seal on the envelope flap. Freddie took the letter opener and dramatically flicked the blade underneath the bloodred wax. Eddie inhaled audibly.

Freddie carefully slid out a legal-size document from the envelope, held it up to the room so everyone could clearly see what it was, and then he began to read:

I, Shang Su Yi of Tyersall Park, Tyersall Avenue, Singapore, revoke all former wills and testamentary dispositions heretofore made by me and declare this to be my last Will.

(Eddie darted his eyes over at his cousins, a little dismayed. Why in the world would Ah Ma choose them as the executors? Oliver I can handle but, ugh, now I have to suck up to that pretentious Leonard!)

(Victoria smiled. Oh good, she deserves it.)

(Victoria, shaking her head: Ah Ching’s going to throw a fit when she realizes she got less than Ah Ling. Better not eat the soup tonight!)

(Eleanor: Wah, so generous! I wonder if Old Lady knew that he made a fortune with his day trading?)

(Alfred: Damn, I wanted the Hispano! I guess I can buy it off him.)

(Cecilia Cheng Moncur: I wonder why she bothered. Everyone knows Astrid already got all the good shit.)

(Alix: Hahaha! Felicity and her OCD. Mummy sure had a sense of humor when she wrote her will!)

(Victoria: Criticize me from the grave all you want, but I’ve already been town-house shopping on Sothebysrealty.com.)

(Philip: Did I remember to program the DVR to record the new season of Arrow? Can’t wait to get back to Sydney. This is such a colossal waste of time!)

(All the women in the room gasped audibly, while Eleanor simply broke out in laughter. Nick glanced at his mother, not understanding. Jacqueline whispered to Nick, “She’s letting everyone know she thinks your mother was a dirty woman.”)

(Oliver: Niiiiiice.)

(Eddie: Phwoar! But enough with this piddly shit—can we just get on to the main event?)

(Henry Leong Jr.: What generous legacy? Gong Gong only left me $1 million, and I was just a little kid!)

(Jacqueline’s cool, collected visage hid what she was feeling inside: Dear, dear Su Yi, you’ve liberated me! My God, I wish I could hug you right now! Felicity and her sisters frowned a little, not quite understanding what all this meant, but Eleanor, who was on top of the market, immediately started doing the math in her head: One million shares, and Ling Holdings is around $145 per share today. Jesus, Jacqueline is getting a huge windfall!)

(Harry Leong was stunned. This was such a slap to his face! Felicity didn’t dare look at her husband, but Astrid couldn’t help but smile: I can’t wait to Skype Alex. I want to see the look on his face when he finds out that Ah Ma left the incredible heritage estate in Malaysia to HIM—the son who’s been disowned by his father for marrying a native Malay girl.)

(Catherine started to sob, while Felicity, Victoria, and Alix all bolted up in their seats, staring at her in shock. What estate in Chiang Mai?)

Freddie Tan paused for a moment, and without a hint of fanfare, read the final clause of the will.

SIGNED by SHANG SU YI

Freddie put the document down and looked up at everyone. Felicity, Victoria, and Alix were still trying to digest the surprising news that their mother had owned a secret estate in Thailand.

“Go on!” Eddie said impatiently.

“I’m finished,” Freddie answered.

“What do you mean you’re finished? What about Tyersall Park?”

“I just read you that clause.”

“What do you mean? You didn’t mention Tyersall Park at all!” Eddie insisted.

Freddie sighed and began to recite the final clause again. When he was finally done, the room was completely silent for a moment, and then things erupted as everyone started talking at once.

“We all have a share in Tyersall Park?” Felicity asked, utterly confused.

“Yes, you specifically have a 12.5 percent share in the property,” Freddie explained.

“Twelve point five percent…what does this even mean?” Victoria grumbled.

Eleanor smiled triumphantly at Nick, and then she whispered in Philip’s ear, “Your mother can insult me all she wants, but at the end of the day you and Nicky got the majority share and that’s what counts!”

Nick glanced across the table at his cousin Alistair, who shook his head in disbelief. “I can’t believe Ah Ma actually left me something in her will.”

“More than a little something,” Nick said with a grin.

Witnessing Nick’s exchange with his brother, Eddie grew more livid by the moment. Suddenly he jumped out of his chair, shouting, “THIS IS TOTAL BULLSHIT! Where’s my share in Tyersall Park? Let me see that will! Are you sure this is even the latest version?”

Freddie looked at him calmly. “I can assure you this is your grandmother’s Last Will and Testament. I was present when she signed it.”

Eddie snatched the document from his hands and flipped through to the last page. There, on the bottom of the page, was the notarized seal, accompanied by the following words:

Signed in the presence of FIONA TUNG CHENG and ALFRED SHANG

on this the Ninth day of June 2009

Eddie’s eyes almost bulged out of his head. “Fucky fuck, my wife was a witness?”

“Indeed she was,” Freddie replied.

“That bitch never told me! And the will was signed in 2009? How is this possible?” Eddie said, almost shrieking.

“Stop asking stupid questions, you goblok! She took a pen and signed it!” Alfred scolded him, getting fed up.

Eddie ignored his great-uncle. “But this means she never changed her will? Not even when Nicky married Rachel?”

Nick realized his cousin was right. After all the endless speculation about being disinherited, it turned out his grandmother never once waivered from her original plan. She left a majority stake of Tyersall Park to his father, knowing one day it would be passed down to him. Suddenly he felt an enormous wave of guilt wash over him. Why did he waste so many years being mad at Ah Ma?

But Eddie wasn’t done with his tirade. He stormed over to Freddie Tan’s chair and looked him in the eye accusingly. “The other day when you came to see my grandma, you told me I was going to be the main beneficiary!”

Freddie looked startled. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I said no such thing.”

“You told me I was the ‘man of the hour’!”

Freddie almost began to laugh, but seeing the look on Eddie’s face, he tried to soften the blow. “Eddie, I was making a pun about the Patek Philippe you were wearing. You had on the 150th-anniversary Jump Hour Reference 3969 watch. One of my favorite models.”

Eddie glared at him incredulously before crumbling into his chair in embarrassment. Alix gave her son a pitiful look, and then turned to the lawyer. “Freddie, I’m not clear about how my mother’s financial holdings are going to be divvied up. What about her other stocks and her share of Shang Enterprises?”

Freddie looked very uncomfortable and swiveled his chair in Alfred’s direction.

“Your mother had no other stocks, aside from Ling Holdings,” Alfred said.

“But Mummy had a huge stock portfolio—she told me she had every blue-chip counter! Wasn’t she the biggest private shareholder in Keppel Land, Robinson’s, Singapore Press Holdings?” Felicity argued.

Alfred shook his head. “No, I am.”

“But doesn’t she share all that with you? As co-owner of Shang Enterprises?”

Alfred leaned back in his chair and looked at Felicity. “You need to understand something…Shang Enterprises—the shipping company, the trading firm, all our various business interests around the world—are controlled by the Shang Loong Ma Trust. Your mother was a beneficiary of the Trust, but never a co-owner.”

“So who owns Shang Enterprises?” Alix asked.

“Once again, the Trust owns Shang Enterprises, and I am the chief custodian of the Trust. Your grandfather’s will stipulated that the Trust would be passed down through the male line. Only the Shang men could inherit. He was extremely old-fashioned, as you know.”

“So how did my mummy get all her income?” Alix asked.

“She had no income, but the Trust paid for all her expenses. My father’s wording in his will was very specific. He stipulated that ‘Su Yi’s every need, desire, and whim is to be taken care of in her lifetime by the Trust.’ So we did.”

“The Trust paid for everything?” Felicity was incredulous.

Alfred sighed. “Everything. As you well know, your mother did not have any concept of money. She was born to live like a princess, and she continued to live this way for nine decades. Supporting all of you, maintaining her lifestyle at Tyersall Park, in Cameron Highlands, everywhere she traveled. How much do you think it costs to keep a staff of seventy for so many years? To throw grand parties every Friday night? Believe me, your mother blew through a vast amount.”

“What will the Trust pay for now?” Victoria asked.

Alfred leaned back in his chair. “Well…nothing. The Trust has met all its fiduciary duties to your mother.”

Victoria looked at her uncle, almost afraid to ask the next question. “So are you telling us that we are inheriting nothing from the Shang Trust?”

Alfred shook his head solemnly. The room went silent for a moment as everyone soaked in this bombshell.

Felicity was silent, the enormity of her uncle’s words slowly sinking in. All this time she thought her mother the great heiress had been co-owner of an empire worth hundreds of billions, and now it turns out she had never even been part of the equation. This meant in turn that she would inherit nothing from Shang Enterprises. She was not a great heiress to anything. She had only been left 12.5 percent of the house, just like the rest of her sisters. But this wasn’t right. She was the eldest child. How could Mummy do this to her? Collecting herself, Felicity steeled herself and looked Alfred in the eye with a question. “How much does Mummy have in her bank accounts?”

“Not much, really. Some of her accounts are absolutely ancient. Hoare’s only has about three million pounds—she inherited that account from my mother, and that was Mum’s shopping account when she ordered things from Harrods. Landolt & Cie in Switzerland holds her gold bullion, and that was really just in case the world went to absolute hell. I’d say she has about forty-five, fifty million total.”

Freddie chimed in, “But that money will automatically go toward paying for all the legacies she left—to Ah Ching, Ah Ling, and so forth.”

Victoria frowned at Freddie accusingly. “I don’t believe this! I don’t believe that all this time Mummy had so little money!”

Freddie sighed. “Well, she did have one major income-producing asset, and that was her Ling Holdings Preference Shares. She had one million shares that paid a considerable dividend, but she reinvested it all in buying more shares. Her shares are valued at about half a billion dollars today, but as you all know, that’s spoken for now.”

The sisters stared at Jacqueline in absolute horror. Su Yi’s beautiful goddaughter had automatically inherited more money from their mother’s estate than they did.

“So you’re telling me the only thing of any income-generating value we’re inheriting from our mother is Tyersall Park?” Felicity said slowly, as if not quite believing her own words.

“Well, that isn’t exactly chopped liver. Tyersall Park is worth about a billion dollars today if you sold it,” Freddie remarked.

“Two billion,” Alfred piped up.

Victoria shook her head vehemently. “But we could never sell Tyersall Park! It has to stay in the family. Where does that leave us? We get nothing! Am I supposed to live off the proceeds of one miserable Vuillard?”

Felicity looked at her husband with tears in her eyes and said in a quivering voice, “If we are forced to sell Tyersall Park I only get a few hundred million. I’m going to be a nobody now!”

Harry squeezed her hand encouragingly. “Darling, you’re my wife. You’re Puan Sri Harry Leong and we have our own money. You’ll never be a nobody.”

Philip got up from the table abruptly and spoke for the first time. “This was obviously Mum’s plan all along. If she wanted one of us to get Tyersall Park, she would have left it to that person outright. But the way she divided it up, she knew there would be only one thing we could do. She wanted us to sell the damned house!”

---

The Leongs’ third son, Alexander, who married a Malay woman and has three children with her, lives in Brentwood, California. He has neither returned to Singapore nor spoken to his father in eleven years.

None of the grandchildren’s spouses were invited to this meeting, with the exception of Henry Leong’s wife, Cathleen Kah. The fact that she is a senior partner at Tan and Tan and is descended from the distinguished family that provides the firm with forty percent of its billable hours might have had something to do with it.

For comparison, a 1936 Hispano-Suiza Type 68 J12 Cabriolet sold at 2010 auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $1,400,000.

Indonesian slang for someone that is stupid or retarded.