“Yeah, Minty’s dad made her doctor sign this gigantic stack of NDAs, even though you know all psychologists are already bound by a confidentiality code. But Peter Lee needed assurance that the doctor would never even admit that Minty is a client of his, or that she would ever need something as shameful as therapy.”
Nick shook his head. “It amazes me that there’s still such a huge stigma about mental illness here.”
“?‘Stigma’ implies that something exists but society is prejudiced against it. Here, everyone’s in denial that it even exists!”
“Well, that explains why you’re not locked up,” Nick deadpanned.
Colin punched Nick playfully. “It’s so great to see you, to be able to say this stuff out loud!”
“Surely there are other people you can talk to?”
“Nobody wants to hear that Colin Khoo and Araminta Lee have any kind of problems. We’re too rich to have problems. We’re the golden couple, right?”
“You are the golden couple. And I’ve seen the pictures to prove it!”
Colin scoffed, remembering the infamous fashion shoot for Elle Singapore where he dressed up like James Bond and Araminta was painted in gold from head to toe. “Biggest mistake of my life was doing that photo shoot! I’m never going to live that down. You know, I was taking a piss at the bathroom at Paragon the other day when the guy at the next urinal suddenly looked at me and said, ‘Wah lao! Aren’t you that Golden God?’?”
Nick burst out laughing. “So did you give him your number?”
“Fuck you!” Colin replied. “Strangely enough, guess who’s been a good friend to Minty lately? Kitty Pong!”
“Kitty! Really?”
“Yes, she was the one who connected Minty to her psychologist. I think it’s because Kitty’s not a local—she doesn’t have the same sort of baggage that we have, and Araminta feels like she can speak frankly with her because she’s completely removed from our tight little circle. She didn’t go to Raffles, MGS, or SCGS,*2 and she’s not a Churchill Club member. She hangs with that foreign billionaire crowd.”
“It’s only fitting. She’s Mrs. Jack Bing now.”
“Yeah, I feel a bit sorry for Bernard Tai. As much of an idiot as he used to be, he did become a good father, from what I hear. But he totally got burned by Kitty. I don’t think he ever saw that Jack Bing thing coming. Hey, what ever happened to that daughter of his?”
“Colette? Hell if I know. After she had Rachel poisoned, we made sure to steer clear of her. I wanted to press charges against her, you know? But Rachel wouldn’t hear of it.”
“Hmm…Rachel sure is a forgiving person.”
“That she is. And that’s why I’m here. I’m under specific orders to come back and make peace with Ah Ma.”
“And is that what you want to do?”
Nick paused for a moment. “I’m not sure, quite honestly. Part of me feels like all this happened a lifetime ago. Our daily lives are so removed from everything going on here. On the one hand, I can’t ever forget the way Rachel was treated and how my grandmother couldn’t trust me, but on the other hand, her acceptance is kind of irrelevant now.”
“Everything ends up seeming irrelevant in the face of loss,” Colin said as he sped onto East Coast Parkway. “So am I taking you straight to the house, or do you want to grab a bite first?”
“You know what, it’s so late, I probably should go straight to the house. I’m sure there will be food for us there. With everyone in town, I think Ah Ching’s kitchen staff must be churning out food nonstop.”
“No problem. Tyersall Park, coming right up! I’m just going to visualize a hundred sticks of satay awaiting me there. You know, not to push you in any way, but I like your grandmother. She’s always been good to me. Remember how I ran away from home after my stepmonster threatened to ship me off to boarding school in Tasmania, and your grandma let us hide out in the tree house at Tyersall Park?”
“Yeah! And every morning, she would make the cook send a big basket full of breakfast goodies up to the tree,” Nick added.
“That’s what I mean! All my associations with your grandma revolve around food. I’ll never forget the chee cheong fun and char siew baos delivered on those bamboo trays, and the freshly baked roti prata! We were feasting like kings up there! When I finally got sent home, I wanted to find any excuse I could to run away to that little tree house again. Our cook was nothing compared to yours!”
“Haha! I remember you ran away from home so many times.”
“Yep. My stepmonster made life so miserable. You only ran away once, if I remember correctly.”
Nick nodded as the memory began to unfurl in his mind, taking him back to when he was eight years old…
They had been in the middle of dinner, just the three of them. His father, mother, and him, eating in the breakfast room off the kitchen, as they did when his parents weren’t entertaining guests in the formal dining room. He could even remember what they ate that night. Bak ku teh. He had poured too much of the rich, aromatic broth over his rice, making it too watery for his liking, but his mother had insisted he finish his bowl before she would let him redo it. She was more irritable than usual—it seemed like both his parents had been so tense for days now.
Someone came speeding up the driveway, too fast, and instead of parking by the front porch like all the guests would, the car kept going until it reached the back of the house, stopping just behind the garage. Nick looked out the window and saw Auntie Audrey, his parents’ good friend, emerging from her Honda Prelude. He liked Auntie Audrey, she always made the most delicious nyonya kuey. Was she bringing something yummy for dessert tonight? She came bursting through the back door, and Nick saw immediately that Auntie Audrey’s face was puffy and bruised, her lip bleeding. The sleeve from her blouse was torn, and she looked totally dazed.
“Alamak, Audrey! What happened?” His mother gasped, as several maids came rushing into the room.
Audrey ignored her, staring instead at his father, Philip. “Look what my husband did to me! I wanted you to see what the monster did to me!”
His mother rushed to Auntie Audrey’s side. “Desmond did this? Oh my dear!”
“Don’t touch me!” Audrey cried out as she crumpled to the floor.
His father stood up from the table. “Nicky, upstairs now!”
“But Dad—”
“NOW!” his father shouted.
Ling Jeh rushed to Nick’s side and steered him out of the dining room.
“What is happening? Is Auntie Audrey okay?” Nick asked worriedly.
“Don’t worry about her, let’s go to your room. I’ll play dominoes with you,” his nanny replied in her soothing Cantonese as she rushed him up the stairs.
They sat there in his bedroom for about fifteen minutes. Ling Jeh had laid out the dominoes, but he was too distracted by the sounds coming from downstairs. He could hear muffled shouts and a woman weeping. Was it his mum or Auntie Audrey? He ran out to the landing and overheard Auntie Audrey shouting, “Just because you are Youngs, you think you can go around fucking anyone you want?”