11
Residences at One Cairnhill
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SINGAPORE
Eleanor was just sitting down to her usual breakfast of toasted seven-grain bread, low-fat butter, and low-sugar marmalade when the phone rang. Whenever the phone rang this early in the morning, she knew it had to be one of her siblings in America. This was probably her brother in Seattle, begging for another loan. When Consuelo entered the breakfast room with the phone, Eleanor shook her head and mouthed silently, “Tell him I’m still asleep.”
“No, no, ma’am, not Seattle brother. It’s Mrs. Foo.”
“Oh,” Eleanor said, grabbing the phone as she took a bite of her toast. “Daisy, what are you doing up so early? Did you have indigestion too after that awful wedding banquet?”
“No, no, Elle, I have breaking news!” Daisy said excitedly.
“What, what?” Eleanor asked in anticipation. She said a quick prayer and hoped Daisy was going to report on the tragic breakup of Nicky and Rachel. Francesca had winked at her during the fireworks last night and whispered two words—It’s done—and Eleanor noticed during the ferry ride home that Rachel looked like she had been hit in the face with a durian.
“Guess who just woke up from a coma?” Daisy announced.
“Oh. Who?” Eleanor asked, a little crestfallen.
“Just guess, lah!”
“I don’t know . . . that von Bülow woman?”
“Aiyah, no lah! Sir Ronald Shaw woke up! Nadine’s father-in-law!”
“Alamak!” Eleanor almost spat out her toast. “I thought he was a living vegetable.”
“Well, somehow the vegetable woke up, and he’s even talking! The cousin of my maid’s daughter-in-law is the night nurse at Mount E, and apparently she got the shock of her life when Patient Shaw woke up at four this morning and started demanding his Kopi-O.”
“How long has he been in a coma?” Eleanor asked, looking up and noticing Nick stroll into the kitchen. Oh my. Nick was over bright and early. Something must have happened!
“Six years now. Nadine, Ronnie, Francesca, the whole family have rushed to his bedside, and the news crews are just arriving.”
“Huh. Do you think we should go down too?” Eleanor asked.
“I think let’s wait. Let’s see. You know, I hear that sometimes these coma victims wake up right before they die.”
“If he’s asking for Kopi-O, something tells me he’s not going to kick the bucket anytime soon,” Eleanor surmised. She said goodbye to Daisy and focused her attention on Nick.
“Francesca’s grandfather woke up from his coma this morning,” Eleanor relayed, buttering another piece of toast.
“I didn’t even realize he was still alive,” Nick said disinterestedly.
“What are you doing here so early? Do you want some breakfast? Some kaya toast?”
“No, no, I already ate.”
“Where’s Rachel this morning?” Eleanor asked a little too eagerly. Was the girl tossed out in the middle of the night like garbage?
“Rachel’s still asleep. I got up early to talk to you and Dad. Is he up yet?”
“Alamak, your father sleeps till ten, at the earliest.”
“Well then, I’ll tell you first. I’m going away with Rachel for a few days, and if all goes according to plan, I intend to propose to her while we’re away,” Nick declared.
Eleanor put down her toast and gave him a look of unconcealed horror. “Nicky, you can’t be serious!”
“I’m totally serious,” Nick said, taking a seat at the table. “I know you don’t know her very well yet, but that’s been my fault entirely—I haven’t given you or Dad the chance to meet her until now. But I can assure you that you’ll soon discover what an amazing human being she is. She is going to be a fantastic daughter-in-law to you, Mum.”
“Why are you rushing into this?”
“I’m not rushing into anything. We’ve dated for nearly two years. We’ve practically been living together for the past year. I was planning to propose on our two-year anniversary this October, but some stuff happened, and I need to show Rachel how important she is to me, right now.”
“What stuff?”
Nick sighed. “It’s a long story, but Rachel’s been treated badly by a few people since arriving—Francesca especially.”
“What did Francesca do?” Eleanor asked innocently.
“It doesn’t matter what she did. What matters is that I have to put things right.”
Eleanor’s mind raced in circles. What the hell happened last night? That stupid Francesca! Alamak, her plan must have backfired. “You don’t have to marry her just to put things right, Nicky. Don’t let this girl pressure you,” Eleanor urged.
“I’m not being pressured. The truth is, I have been thinking about marrying Rachel almost since the day I met her. And now, more than ever, I know she is the one for me. She is so smart, Mum, and such a good person.”
Eleanor was seething inside, but she tried to speak in a measured voice. “I’m sure Rachel is a nice girl, but she can never be your wife.”
“And why is that?” Nick leaned back in his chair, amused by the absurdity of his mother’s words.
“She is just not suitable for you, Nicky. She does not come from the right background.”
“Nobody is ever going to come from ‘the right background’ in your eyes,” Nick scoffed.
“I’m only telling you what everyone is already thinking, Nick. You haven’t heard the horrible things I’ve heard. Do you know her family comes from Mainland China?”
“Stop it, Mum. I’m so fed up with this ridiculous snobbery you and your friends have toward the Mainland Chinese. We are all Chinese. Just because some people actually work for their money doesn’t mean they are beneath you.”
Eleanor shook her head and continued in a graver tone, “Nicky, you don’t understand. She will never be accepted. And I’m not talking about your dad and me—I’m talking about your dear Ah Ma and the rest of the family. Take it from me—even though I have been married to your father for thirty-four years, I am still considered an outsider. I am a Sung—I came from a respectable family, a rich family, but in their eyes I was never good enough. Do you want to see Rachel suffer like that? Look at how they have frozen out that Kitty Pong girl!”
“How can you even compare Rachel to Kitty? Rachel isn’t a soap-opera star who runs around in skimpy clothes—she’s an economist with a PhD. And everyone in the family has been perfectly nice to her.”
“It is one thing to be polite to your guest, but I can assure you that if they really thought she had any chance of being your wife, they would not be so nice.”
“That’s nonsense.”
“No, Nicky, that is a fact,” Eleanor snapped. “Ah Ma will never allow you to marry Rachel, no matter how accomplished she is. Come on, Nicky, you know this! It’s been told to you a thousand times since you were a little boy. You are a Young.”
Nick shook his head and laughed. “This is all so unbelievably archaic. We’re living in the twenty-first century, and Singapore is one of the most progressive countries on the planet. I can assure you Ah Ma doesn’t feel the way she did thirty years ago.”
“Alamak, I’ve known your grandmother a lot longer than you have. You don’t know how important bloodlines are to her.”
Nick rolled his eyes. “To her, or to you? I haven’t researched Rachel’s genealogy, but if necessary I’m sure I can find some dead Ming emperor somewhere in her bloodline. Besides, she comes from a very respectable family. One of her cousins is even a famous film director.”
“Nicky, there are things about Rachel’s family that you don’t realize.”
“And how would you know this? Did Cassandra invent some story about Rachel’s family or something?”
Eleanor kept silent on that score. She simply warned, “Save yourself and Rachel the heartache, Nicky. You have to give her up now, before things go any further.”
“She’s not something I can just give up, Mum. I love her, and I’m going to marry her. I don’t need anyone’s approval,” Nick said forcefully, rising from the table.
“Stupid boy! Ah Ma will disinherit you!”
“Like I care.”
“Nicky, listen to me. I haven’t sacrificed my whole life for you just to see you waste everything on that girl,” Eleanor said anxiously.
“Sacrificed your whole life? I’m not sure what you mean, when you’re sitting here at the chef’s table of your twenty-million-dollar apartment,” Nick huffed.
“You have no idea! If you marry Rachel you will be ruining all our lives. Make her your mistress if you need to, but for heaven’s sake, don’t throw away your entire future by marrying her,” Eleanor pleaded.
Nick snorted in disgust and stood up, kicking away the chair behind him as he stormed out of the breakfast alcove. Eleanor winced as the chrome chair legs cut across the Calacatta marble floor. She stared at the perfectly aligned rows of Astier de Villatte porcelain that lined the exposed stainless-steel shelves of her kitchen, reflecting on the heated exchange she had just endured. Every effort she had made to prevent her son from careening into this disastrous situation had failed, and now there was but one option left. Eleanor sat absolutely still for a few long moments, summoning the courage for the conversation she had been trying to avoid for so long.
“Consuelo!” she shouted. “Tell Ahmad to get the car ready. I need to go to Tyersall Park in fifteen minutes.”