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“I won't tell Cece that you're here,” Jane assured her mother. “Probably best for all of us.”
“Yes. Iwouldlike to see her before I depart for London, but why don't we say that I'm stopping by on my way there and I'd love to have dinner or lunch to touch base and ensure that she's healthy. Give her some warning.”
“Brilliant plan, Mum. Why don't we arrange a good day for that right now and I will tell her the big news when we're all home later.”
Before Jane was allowed to leave, Willow insisted she take most of the seafood fried rice with her. “For Cece,” Willow said. “It's her favorite. Don't tell her it's from me.”
“That's…” Well, that was one way to make sure Jane took it with her instead of wondering why her mother was like this. “Very sweet of you, Ma.”
“Yes, well…” Willow held one hand atop the other as she accepted her bag from the maître d' of the Chinese fine dining establishment. “She's my granddaughter. I hope you've noticed throughout your life that I've done many of the same things for you.”
Jane was inclined to think this was another passive-aggressive jab from her mother, but when she was in the car, seafood fried rice resting in the seat next to her, she remembered a time in her childhood when this was her favorite dish as well.
It's a coincidence.She thought that while turning the engine and donning her sunglasses to survive the sun beaming straight through her windshield.Just a stupid coincidence that has nothing to do with anything.
Now, how was she going to break the news to her niece, who thought she was free fromNgui Po’sinfluence?
Chapter 13
Rebecca
She knew she had driven past Warren Manor multiple times over the years, but she had never been beyond the ivy-laden gates that separated the urban world from the quiet oasis that was the horseshoe-shaped manor on the edge of downtown.Everything around here is expensive as shit.Becca only knew that even the one-story ranch houses were worth millions because she had done plenty of digging into real estate quotes since working for her girlfriends… and since looking for a new place to call theirs, because good God, there was some expensive property to be had.
Jane had been here before. She and Caitlyn were good acquaintances of the lesbian heiress Eva Warren who still called this place her primary home while also maintaining a small apartment in a high-rise. But they weren't here to see Eva. They were here to seeLady Warren,the current matriarch in residence.
“Does this place remind you of White Fir, love?” Jane asked as they idled in the driveway past the locked fence. However, Jane was not in a hurry to take up one of the guest parking spaces between the entrance and the modest fountain spraying a heavy mist in the middle of the yard. “It has more acreage, but the same feel, isn't it?”
Becca gathered her things, preparing to jump out of the SUV at any moment. “White Fir iswaymore imposing than Warren Manor. That's all there is to it.”
“What! Intimidating?”
“Jane, your childhood home feels like walking into a lion's den full of servants ready to report on everything you do to your mother.” Who, by the way, was apparently in town. Becca had been there when Jane told Cecelia her grandmother was stopping by for a short visit, and the moment she had a chance before bed, Becca teased out of her partner that things were more interesting than Cecelia was led to believe.“Where do you think that food came from? Not me!”“There is about as much freedom in there as a prison. At least this place looks like it's lived in by the kind of wealthy people who are too absorbed in their problems to care about yours.”
Jane inched the car into a parking spot. “Hm. Suppose you are right, Becca.” She turned off the engine. “Shall we go see what kinds of problems these people have?”
Becca was way ahead of her.
There were some striking similarities between the Western sensibilities of the Warrens and the Eastern traditions that still permeated the Wongs’ abode back in Hong Kong.Lots of staff.So many people for a family that wasn’t bigger than five people at any given time! Becca heard from her friend Nadia, the wife of Eva Warren, that most of the family time was spent in the Main House, the center of the horseshoe where parties and dinners were thrown. That included for the family, who converged therefor supper together if they weren’t having dinner on their own. But that didn’t stop the west and east wings, where Eva and her brother Henry lived respectively, from having their dedicated staff who cleaned and looked after the spoiled heirs and their more middle-class wives.“They all clear out after seven,”Nadia had said of life in the west wing after marrying Eva,“but I will never get used to waking up to see a Latvian woman named Estere beating my curtains.”
Jane and Becca were received in the Main House, where Monica doubtlessly preferred to hold these meetings with people who were not close friends ofherfamily.Considering I’ve never seen where Nadia lives in the west wing, I guess we’re not that close!Whenever Becca visited her friend from the Thomas-Cole building, it was in the downtown apartment she shared with Eva. Becca had long stopped trying to understand how that worked.
“This part of the house is bigger than anywhere my rich friends lived when I was growing up,” Becca muttered as she and Jane sat in a salon overlooking the back garden. “If we move somewhere, it won’t be this big, right?”
“Aw, love, are you saying that you prefer being in closer contact with the rest of us?”
“Definitely.”
They were offered their choice of cucumber water, juice, or coffee. While Jane was delighted to know the butler could make her a cappuccino with soy milk, Becca asked if she could get something carbonated.
“You can raid my stash of La Croix, Justin,” Monica said to the butler on her way in. “We shall focus on making our guests comfortable.”
“Yes, Mrs. Warren.”
“You hear that,” Jane hissed as Monica came up behind them, “you get to raid her stash.”
“Lemon or coconut,” Monica asked above their heads. “I can have Justin also make you some from our carbonation drink station. What can I say? Both Eva and I became addicted during the pandemic.”
“Uh, a can of coconut is fine with me, thank you.”
