Chapter 6

“Calm down and stop…..stop packing. Stop throwing things around.” Ling grabbed Meilei’s wrists to haul her away from her erratic throwing of clothes into the suitcase on the bed and yanked her to face her. Battling her friend's fight or flight response to meeting Kai today.

The room was a mess, strewn with Yue and Meilei’s things and highlighting the panicking cyclone she must have been since getting here. It looked like someone had gone through all her possessions in a robbery. The case sat wide open and was a riot of strewn clothes, unfolded with hangers and odd shoes. The space around it was littered with Yue’s toys and pictures. It was the sign of a woman in meltdown trying to pack.

“You didn’t see him… you didn’t hear him….. he won’t let me go…. He warned me…..” Meilei was crying hard, her face awash with tears and stifled sobs. Drenched and pitiful, Ling was struggling to keep her in one place. “He knows I work there… my department, my job role. All he has to do is look at my file, and he knows where we live… He has access to all personnel files without question. He’s the CEO!! What if he comes here?” Meilei was in fresh hell, freaking out with all the possibilities of what he could do. She had run out of work midday, left without a word, and left Ling a hysterical voicemail while hurrying to pack her things.

“Where are you going to go? Drag Yue out of her home and life and do what?..... Stop and think…breathe. You are panicking.” Ling was still reeling from the shock of knowing Kai had come face to face with her, and she knew this was bad, but Meilei taking Yue and running was worse.

“You don’t understand…… he thinks I killed Yuelin… he always did. He thinks all these years, I have forgotten her and never cared. You didn’t see how much hatred he still had when he saw me. Nothing has changed between us.”

“Be rational…. Meilei, listen to me.” Ling gripped her friend's arms to keep her still and breathed deeply to calm her spiraling concern. “He can’t do anything to you or Yue outside of OTS…. And if he does come after your career, he risks ruining his reputation.”

Ling hoped that was true. She had no idea how someone connected like him, with that kind of money, would seek revenge on someone like Meilei, but she knew he couldn’t directly aim. People would talk, and gossip would run rampant. If it became obvious he targeted Meilei, people would dig and drag up their past. He was smart enough to know this. With a family like his, they avoided scandals like the plague. It was probably why they left and went abroad after Yuelins’ death.

“He’s her father…. He will take her.” Meilei was lost in her head and despair, sobbing her words and shaking from head to foot. Not thinking clearly or trying to rationalize. Sometimes, this side of her made Ling crazy. How quick she was to cave to hysteria instead of thinking a problem through. She was never like this in school and often wondered if her PTSD was at the root of this.

“This isn’t the Middle Ages….you were never married, and he has no relationship with her. Getting custody isn’t as easy as walking in and taking her, Meilei. Calm down.” Ling was losing her cool while dealing with a side of Meilei she hadn’t seen in a long time. This crumbling mess of tears and fear they once scraped up and tried to piece back together. She hadn’t been this much of a wreck since Yue was a baby.

“In this country, money can do much…you know this. He’s the CEO of our company, the heir to the Yanhue Corp…..he has more money than we can ever dream of seeing in our lifetime. You don’t think he has the means to take her?” Meilei despaired, feeling that Ling was not taking this seriously.

“He doesn’t know about her…. and he won’t.”

“How can I protect her… how can I hide her?” It was all that was racing through Meilei’s mind. She didn’t care about losing everything else…her job, home, career, and reputation as long as her daughter remained unharmed and by her side.

She would die without Yue.

“If he does show up here….we’re here…Yue is mine or Suying’s. He won’t know any different, and your employee records say nothing about a child.”

“Look at her……Look at her!!!” Meilei stopped and almost shouted it in Ling's face, startling her with aggression. “She looks exactly like him, only with my eyes… Do you think he’s stupid? He will see through that lie with one glimpse of her. He just needs to do the math to know I fell pregnant before Yuelin died.” Ling tried to ignore the outburst, but her own temper was tingling. She gritted her teeth. Even understanding this behavior in her friend, it still riled the hostile parts of her.

“Then we lie….. if he finds out about her, she’s San’s child… Do you understand? You said they looked alike… almost like brothers…he would believe that. It would probably be his first thought anyway, given the past.”

It was the wrong thing to say, and Meilei exploded.

“How could you say that?… You know I never went there with him……She isn’t San’s; she couldn’t be his, and I would rather run than ever put that bastard's name on my child. He doesn’t deserve even to be her fake father.” Meilei lost her temper, and instead of trembling fear, there was real venom in her tone. Raised loud and high, she gripped Ling’s arms in rage. A fight rose out of somewhere deep at the mere mention of his name. Anger Ling had not seen in her since high school.

“Stop yelling at me and think.” Ling started getting seriously irate and wished Suying was here to help calm this crazy girl. “I know that she’s not Sans…I know there is no possible way she ever could be…I’m not saying she is…I am saying HE will believe she is. HE can’t take a child that isn’t his.” Ling tried to spell it out slowly and carefully, trying to calm the manic panic as Meilei sniffed back another wave of sobs, returning to sadness instead of anger and losing that slight spark once more. Ling wished the fight in her would stay, and maybe she might face this head-on instead of recoiling into her shell and thinking leaving was the only answer.

What that son of a bitch did to her spirit seriously pissed Ling off.

“And confirm that we were cheating on him?” She wailed in despair, knowing how stupid she was about not wanting to admit that even for this. Something deep inside, maybe her pride, perhaps her hatred for San, she didn't know. She would not let her lie about what happened between her and San back then.

“He believes it anyway….so what difference does it make if he thinks Yue is the product of that affair?” Ling didn’t understand what was happening in her head, and her frustration made her snappy. She was the last person ever to want to shake Meilei, but in this second, she had the urge to do so.

Meilei stopped and shook her head of her own accord. Tears still cascaded like a waterfall down her face.

“I can’t…. I can’t ever bring myself to pretend that San and I were something when he’s the cause of everything that went wrong…. He ruined my life…he doesn’t get to claim my child for any reason. I won’t mark her with that black smear even to shield her from Kai. I would rather go.”

“Oh my god, Meilei….. You're being a complete fucking moron of an idiot.” Ling’s temper snapped, and instant remorse hit her at Meilei's wide-eyed expression of hurt. Ling had never insulted her, screamed abuse in her face before, and rarely had real fights.

Ling groaned and wanted to slap herself for the outburst, quickly doing what she did best and yanking it all behind the calm mask of authority.

“Okay….okay….let’s calm down and be rational… Let’s take a breath. I’m sorry… I’m just frustrated and scared too. I am trying to figure out a solution, Meilei.” Ling knew they were spiraling into a bigger fight that would help nothing. Meilei was over-emotional and lost in her head. She needed gentle handling.

God damn, she needed Suying at a time like this and thought about calling her to come home pronto. Ling had the ability to hold patience like a snapped string could hold a boulder and was never good with these kinds of confrontations.

“We can go to my grandmother’s house for a while….. until I think…until he’s gone. He won’t think of coming there because he never did. He won’t know where it is.” Meilei was scrambling for ideas. Thinking of the house she inherited when her grandmother passed away a week after she returned home.

“That house is being rented right now and putting much-needed funds into its upkeep…you can’t go there. We can’t evict the tenants…you signed a contract for a long-term lease.” Ling brushed the hair sticking to her friend's face back, trying to reel herself back to the present, her gentler side. She needed Meilei to calm down, reason with her, and stop her hurtling to school and dragging Yue out early.

“It has the …Ummm….the little outhouse room… we could stay there. It’s big enough. Yue is only small.” The desperation and look of a child in panic-stricken fear softened Ling and made her remorseful for yelling. Sometimes, Meilei looked like a lost, broken little girl with no one to protect her, and at this moment, there she was in all her glory. So, like Yue, sometimes it pained Ling to see the deep scars resurfacing.

“Meilei, that’s no more than a tin can shed…are you really going to take Yue out of her home and all she has grown with to make her live roughly in the height of summer? What about school? What about us?” Ling was softer, holding her temper and lowering her volume in hopes it would calm Meilei down, too.

Meilei was coming down from her hysterical high, gasping through tears and snot and trying to stop her chaotic brain from a complete meltdown. Kai had turned her upside down and sent her into a mental implode. His effects on her hadn’t diminished, no matter how long it had been. Ling never knew how one man could hold so much power over one shattered heart. It was not a weakness she suffered from.

“I’ll quit OTS…. We…. we can stay away… four months, right? Then he will go….. but what if he doesn’t? What if seeing me means he stays…and he makes my life a living hell? What if he uses Yue as a weapon?”

“What if he was just venting.. scaring you and in shock from seeing you… What if……it’s nothing but empty threats to make you resign, and he has no intention of crossing paths with you again? You need to think, Meilei. He won’t risk everything to exact revenge, or else he will be completely stupid. He would have come back and pursued you long ago if that was his intention. He has way more to lose in his field and his position than a team leader of IT tech.”

It sounded harsh even to Ling’s ears, but she had to be the voice of reason here. Yes, she was worried too, but she was trying to look at the bigger picture and the reality of what he could do.

Kai was human…and not some all-encompassing dark power who would suck Meilei’s entire life away as she imagined. There were laws, and he seemed smarter than some abusive thug who would go after someone like Meilei in any illegal way. She was sure he said things to scare her and that his intentions were nowhere near as dark….the girl was working herself into another panic attack.

“Where is she? I’m here…. I’m here…” Suying’s voice came echoing from the front hall, along with a clatter of shoes and belongings being dropped on the hard floor. Ling physically sank with relief… the patient and gentle one was here, thank god.

She must have picked up Ling’s voicemail and hightailed it home. One thing Meilei could rely on with them was they would drop anything to gather around their friend and protect Yue.

“We’re in here, Meilei’s room,” Ling yelled, still keeping Meilei hostage because she knew she would go right back to panic packing in her bid to run away.

“Woah….this place looks like someone ransacked it.” Suying stepped over the riot of mess on the floor and immediately slid between her two friends, releasing Meilei’s wrists from a less gentle Ling and wrapping her friend in a bear hug. “Cry it out….. it’s okay. We’re here…. We got you…. no one will hurt you or Yue, do you understand? They would have to go through me and that crazy bitch behind me, and that’s no easy feat.”

Suying held her tight so she couldn’t escape, and a second wave of tears was unleashed as Meilei gave into her embrace. This was Suying’s forte. Being the maternal one, offering hugs and comfort, while Ling was the sassy queen who would kick any man’s ass.

“He told me he wouldn’t let me go this time…. he wants to destroy me for Yuelin… for San.” She bubbled it out with a whiny, childlike sprew of words, and Suying began swaying her side to side, patting her back and molding her cheek to cheek. Her hugs were the best kind and had a magical effect. She could calm and restrain Meilei and Yue with a simple motherly cuddle. For being a tomboy, Suying was the one who inherited all the love and tender touches. Her soft, pure heart shone through with so little effort.

“You really think he would get through us? All he can do is fire you….. mess with your resume.. that’s it.” Ling exhaled, seeing Meilei calm to a blubbering mess instead of an erratic one, and pushed the stuff off the bed to sit down. There was a tumble of objects ungracefully hitting the floor that she swiped away, and she sank heavily onto the mattress. “I’ll buy a gun and then see who tries to do anything to our girl.” She was only half joking, and Suying threw her a frown that said, ‘That’s not helpful.’

“Granted…. he has the means to end your career…but we don’t know what he will do. At this point, we’re guessing and speculating and probably thinking way worse than what he actually will do… He might just fire you…. he might make it so that no one will ever hire you, but there are ways around that. You have talent and the skills to start over on your own.” Ling crossed her arms over her chest and sighed.

Suying cradled Meilei like a small child, folding her now limp arms between them to hug her better, and leaned in to talk gently. Taking her cue from Ling and trying for an upbeat and positive tone.

“Design a kick-ass app that will earn you billions, and bingo…who needs OTS?… You design apps in your sleep. We have enough money to feed us for however long it takes. The joys of co-parenting with rich bitches.” Suying bopped her on the head, trying hard to lighten the mood. She wasn't entirely joking and knew Meilei could go it alone if they had no other choice, although her job mattered greatly to her. All three of them valued their careers.

“Who’s rich? You? Pahhh. On your doctor’s salary... I am definitely the breadwinner of this family…I will take care of us… Don’t you worry, Meilei. I’ll be your husband, and you can rely on me to pay the way for our princess too.” Ling was adamant and always arrogant about her position and income because she earned more than most men in the company. She was in with the executives and could afford to care for all of them if needed. She had spent her life making sure she was a rival among men, self-sufficient, and financially stable. It was the most important thing to her to never need anyone else to care for her.

This apartment was modest, small, and cheap because they started here when Yue was a baby, and none of them had any money and agreed not to move until she was older. They could have been living in a modern high-end complex nearer OTS on Ling's salary alone. Maybe now she might convince them to move.

“Do you hear that? How she belittles me… I’m well paid as a specialist, thank you very much. I have husbandly qualities too, you know!” Suying stuck her tongue out at Ling before returning to Meilei and tilting her chin with a firm finger pressed underneath. Eye to eye, reverting to a more serious soft smile. “Resign….yes you lose what you worked hard for….but you will snap up a new job somewhere else without him hanging over you, and if he does block your way…we will invest….watch you start something of your own. We are not struggling for money.”

“You make it sound so easy and nothing…. it’s not easy or nothing.” Meilei whimpered into Suying’s chest, curled small so she seemed considerably shorter. She was smaller than Suying and Ling but seemed tiny and fragile this way.

“We know it’s not easy, but we must be practical. Yue is better off with us here, at home…. We will cross that bridge if it happens. But for now….OTS is all he holds over you; all he can do is take your job…. Resign, and he can’t do a thing. It’s better to leave before he can cause misunderstandings and drum up false reasons to fire you. If you resign, we might be able to safeguard your reputation and all you have achieved.”

“Normally, I would be against this…. I am all for standing up and fighting someone, but she's right. You can work somewhere else and start over….he’s OTS now. Even if he leaves, it still belongs to his family. It’s a constant cloud over you. Get out now, and we can figure something else out before he damages your career. He can’t hold the upper hand if we take all our chips off the board.”

Meilei finally stopped crying, resting in her friend's safe hold, and stared blankly at Ling while she considered it. Deep down, she knew they were right and should listen to them. Let them make the decisions she was incapable of making. They hadn’t led her astray all these years.

Running with Yue was her knee-jerk reaction, and she knew she was over-dramatizing what he could do to her but couldn’t help it. They didn’t see him after Yuelin died…they didn’t see how someone who had once loved you so much could turn icy cold and treat you like worthless trash so quickly, how he turned hard and cruel and pushed her away with no chance to redeem herself.

On the day of Yuelin’s funeral, he dragged her away, pushed her down onto the soggy grass in rage for her appearance, and told her he never wanted to lay eyes on her ever again. He had never physically harmed her before, and even though he didn’t hit her, being dragged and thrown down felt the same. It was an aggressive and restrained reaction to seeing her. It left a wound on her heart, adding to the dozens she ended up with.

“If I resign, what will happen to Inhale?” That project had been her baby for the last eighteen months, and they were on the precipice of getting it ready for launch. Her team had worked hard, and she didn’t want to see their efforts destroyed by her leaving.

Now, she was no longer spinning out of control; her thoughts were simmering, and the remorse and loss were starting to fade into her rational thoughts.

“They have poured a lot of money into the app, and it’s nearly done. They won’t scrap it. They’ll assign Chou as your stand-in because she knows it as well as you do and will see it to its end before they decide on your team’s permanent leader…. Your leaving won’t harm it now you have gotten it this far. Don’t worry about it.” Ling could understand her. Being someone who valued her job, her efforts, and those of her team. Coworkers were like family, and projects became something dear to you when you worked on them as long as Meilei had been developing the women’s health app.

“How about I take some leave…we go take a long weekend trip and spoil Yue for a few days. You can apply for leave and take your time to think it through.” Suying was in proactive mode, knowing her family needed her to step up and play her part. Ling always took on a lot because she worked with Meilei, but she was too valuable to take leave anytime soon. The new managerial changes made it even more impossible.

“Do that… get out of the city where he can’t touch you and decide what you want to do. Take Yue somewhere fun and take a breather. We’ll support you no matter what that is…. I know OTS means a lot to you, but….. you don’t have to end there.” Ling stood up and joined the huddle, pushing up behind Meilei, wrapping her arms around Meilei, and then Suying before squishing them tightly. Being the taller girl meant she fit comfortably around them.

“We’re a family… if he thinks he has a rat’s chance in hell of messing with our girl or our princess, he has another thing coming.” Ling frowned, catching Suying’s eye over the top of Ling’s head, and couldn’t deny the genuine worry and doubt reflected at her.