“What do you mean? I am struggling to get tenure, and I don’t see how Rachel meeting my grandmother will change things.”
“Come on, Nicky, don’t be naïve. The minute she walks into that house, it will affect your relationship. I’m not saying that things are going to be bad, necessarily, but an innocence will be lost. You won’t be able to go back to the way it was before, that’s for sure. No matter what, you’ll forever be transformed in her eyes, just like all my former girlfriends the minute they found out I was that Colin Khoo. I’m only trying to prepare you a bit.”
Nick pondered what Colin had just said for a while. “I think you’re wrong, Colin. First of all, our situations are so completely different. My family isn’t like yours. You’ve been groomed since day one to be the future CEO of the Khoo Organization, but nothing of the sort exists in my family. We don’t even have a family business. And yes, I might have well-to-do cousins and all that, but you know my situation isn’t like theirs. I’m not like Astrid, who inherited all her great-aunt’s money, or my Shang cousins.”
Colin shook his head. “Nicky, Nicky, this is why I love you. You are the only person in all of Asia who doesn’t realize how rich you are, or should I say, how rich you will be one day. Here, hand over your wallet.”
Nick was puzzled, but he took his well-worn brown leather wallet out of his back pocket and handed it to Colin. “You’ll see I have about fifty dollars inside.”
Colin fished out Nick’s New York State driver’s license and held it in front of his face. “Tell me what this says.”
Nick rolled his eyes but played along. “Nicholas A. Young.”
“Yes, that’s it. YOUNG. Now, out of your entire family, are there any other male cousins with this surname?”
“No.”
“My point exactly. Besides your father, you are the only Young left in the line. You are the heir apparent, whether you choose to believe it or not. What’s more, your grandmother adores you. And everyone knows your grandmother controls both the Shang and Young fortunes.”
Nick shook his head, partly in disbelief at Colin’s presumption, but more because speaking of such things — even with his best friend — made him rather uneasy. It was something that had been conditioned into him since an early age. (He could still remember the time when he was seven, coming home from school and asking his grandmother at teatime, “My classmate Bernard Tai says that his father is very very rich, and that we’re very very rich too. Is that true?” His aunt Victoria, immersed in her London Times, suddenly put her paper down and launched into him, “Nicky, boys with proper manners do not ever ask questions like that. You do not ever ask people if they are rich or discuss matters concerning money. We are not rich — we are simply well-off. Now, apologize to your Ah Ma.”)
Colin continued. “Why do you think my grandfather, who treats everyone so dismissively, treats you like a visiting prince every time he sees you?”
“And here I thought your grandfather just liked me.”
“My grandfather is an asshole. He only cares about power and prestige and expanding the fucking Khoo empire. That’s why he encouraged this whole thing with Araminta to begin with, and that’s why he’s always dictated whom I could be friends with. Even when we were kids, I remember him saying, ‘You be nice to that Nicholas. Remember, we are nothing compared to the Youngs.’ ”
“Your grandfather is going senile, I think. Anyway, all this inheritance nonsense is really beside the point, because, as you’ll soon see, Rachel is not the sort of girl who cares about any of that. She may be an economist, but she’s the least materialistic person I know.”
“Well, then, I wish you the best. But you do realize that even in the here and now, dark forces are at work plotting against you?”
“What is this, Harry Potter?” Nick sniggered. “That’s what you just sounded like. Yes, I am aware that even now dark forces are trying to sabotage me, as you put it. Astrid’s already warned me, my mother inexplicably decided to go to China right when I arrived, and I had to enlist my great-aunt to persuade my grandmother into inviting Rachel tonight. But you know what? I don’t really give a damn.”
“I don’t think it’s your mother you have to worry about.”
“Then whom should I be worried about, exactly? Tell me who is bored enough to waste their time trying to ruin my relationship, and why?”
“Practically every girl of marriageable age on the island and their mothers.”
Nick laughed. “Wait a minute — why me? Aren’t you Asia’s most eligible bachelor?”
“I’m a lame duck. Everyone knows that nothing in the world is going to stop Araminta from walking down that aisle next week. I hereby pass the crown on to you.” Colin chuckled, folding his paper napkin into a pyramid and placing it on Nick’s head. “Now you are a marked man.”
18
Rachel and Peik Lin
SINGAPORE
After they had finished lunch, Neena insisted on giving Rachel a complete tour of Villa d’Oro’s other wing (which, not surprisingly, was done up in the baroque-on-crack style Rachel had gotten a whiff of earlier). Neena also proudly showed off her rose garden and the Canova sculpture they had recently installed there (thankfully spared the gold treatment). With the tour finally over, Peik Lin suggested that they head back to the hotel to relax over afternoon tea, since Rachel was still feeling a bit jet-lagged. “Your hotel serves a terrific high tea, with fabulous nyonya kueh.”[41]
“But I’m still full from lunch,” Rachel protested.
“Well, you’ll just have to get used to the Singaporean eating schedule. We eat five times a day here — breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner, and late-night supper.”
“God, I’m going to put on so much weight while I’m here.”
“No you won’t. That’s the one good thing about this heat — you’ll sweat it all out!”
“You might be right about that — I don’t know how you guys deal with this weather,” Rachel said. “I’ll have tea, but let’s find the coldest spot inside.”
They made themselves comfortable in the terrace café, which had a view of the pool but was blessedly air-conditioned. Smartly uniformed waiters walked by with trays bearing a selection of tea cakes, pastries, and nyonya delicacies.
“Mmmm … you need to try this kueh,” Peik Lin said, putting a slice of glutinous rice-and-coconut custard on Rachel’s plate. Rachel took a bite, finding the juxtaposition of subtly sweet custard with almost-savory sticky rice to be surprisingly addictive. She looked around at the bucolic garden, most of the deck chairs now occupied by guests asleep in the late-afternoon sun.
“I still can’t believe Colin’s family owns this hotel,” Rachel said, taking another bite of the kueh.
“Believe it, Rachel. And they own a lot more besides — hotels all over the world, commercial properties, banks, mining companies. The list goes on and on.”
“Colin seems so modest. I mean, we went to one of those outdoor food markets for dinner.”
“There’s nothing unusual about that. Everyone here loves the hawker centers. Remember, this is Asia, and first impressions can be deceiving. You know how most Asians hoard their money. The rich are even more extreme. Many of the wealthiest people here make an effort not to stand out, and most of the time, you would never know you were standing next to a billionaire.”
41
Peranakan dessert cakes. These addictive, delicately flavored, and colorful