“Hiyah, everything is ruined!” Kerry Chu cried.

When the propellers of the AgustaWestland AW109 finally ground to a halt, the forward door opened and a burly man in dark sunglasses jumped out to open the main cabin door. A Chinese woman clad in a chic saffron-colored pantsuit stepped out.

“Jesus, of course it’s Auntie Eleanor!” Astrid groaned.

Rachel went absolutely numb as she watched Nick sprint across the lawn toward his mother. Colin and Araminta rushed up behind her, followed by a Chinese lady with a bad perm, who was for some reason brandishing a gun.

“Let’s get you back to the house,” Colin said.

“No, no, I’ll be fine,” Rachel replied. Witnessing the sheer absurdity of the situation, a sudden realization had come over her. She had absolutely nothing to fear. Nick’s mother was the one who was filled with fear. She was so afraid of this marriage actually taking place that she would go to all the trouble of chartering a helicopter and landing right in the friggin’ middle of their wedding site! Rachel found herself involuntarily walking onto the lawn toward Nick. She wanted to be by his side.

Nick stormed up to his mother in fury. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Eleanor looked at her son calmly and said, “I knew you were going to be mad. But there was no other way to reach you since you refused to return any of my calls!”

“So you think you could stop my wedding by launching this…this invasion? You’re out of your fucking mind!”

“Nicky, stop using that kind of language! I did not come here to stop your wedding. I have no intention of doing that. In fact, I want you to marry Rachel—”

“We’re calling security—you need to get off the premises right now!”

By this point, Rachel was beside him. Nick glanced at her quickly in concern, and Rachel smiled at him reassuringly. “Hello, Mrs. Young,” she said, finding a renewed confidence in her voice.

“Hello, Rachel. Can we please speak somewhere private?” Eleanor asked.

“No, Rachel is not speaking to you in private! Haven’t you already done enough?” Nick interjected.

“Alamak, I’ll pay to have everything fixed. Actually, you should be thanking me that rickety bamboo thing came down—that was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Listen to me, I’m really not here to ruin your wedding. I came here to ask for your forgiveness. I want to give you my blessing.”

“It’s a bit late for that. Please just LEAVE US ALONE!”

“Trust me, I know where I’m not wanted, and I will gladly leave. But I felt that I needed to make things right for Rachel before she walks down the aisle. Do you really want to deprive her of meeting her father before her wedding?”

Nick stared at his mother as if she was deranged. “What are you talking about?”

Eleanor ignored her son and looked Rachel straight in the eyes. “I’m talking about your real father, Rachel. I found him for you! That’s what I’ve been trying to tell the both of you for the past month!”

“I don’t believe you!” Nick said defiantly.

“I don’t care if you believe me. I met Rachel’s father’s wife through your cousin Eddie when I was in London last year—you can ask him yourself. It was all a complete coincidence, but I managed to put two and two together and confirmed that he really is her father. Rachel, your father’s name is Bao Gaoliang, and he’s one of the top politicians in Beijing.”

“Bao Gaoliang…” Rachel said the name slowly, in utter disbelief.

“And right now, he’s at the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara, and he’s hoping to see your mother, Kerry, again. And he’s dying to meet you. Come with me, Rachel, and I’ll take all of you to him.”

“This is another bullshit scheme of yours. You’re not taking Rachel anywhere.” Nick was seething.

? ? ?

Rachel put her hand on Nick’s arm. “It’s fine. I want to meet this guy. Let’s see if he’s really my father.”

Rachel did not speak during the short helicopter ride to the hotel. She clutched Nick’s hand tightly and looked pensively at her mother sitting across from her. She realized from her mother’s expression that all this was much more difficult for her, since it was the first time in more than three decades that Kerry would be seeing the man she had been in love with, the man who had rescued her from her abusive husband and the terror of his family.

As they disembarked from the helicopter, Rachel had to pause for a moment before continuing into the hotel.

“Are you going to be okay?” Nick asked.

“I think so…it’s all happening too fast,” Rachel said. This was not how she had imagined it would happen. She didn’t really have a set vision of how things might unfold, but after the disappointment of her last two trips to China, she had begun to lose hope that she would ever find her father. Or else, it would happen years from now, after making a long, arduous journey to some far outpost. She never thought that she would meet him for the first time at a resort in Santa Barbara on the day before her wedding.

Rachel and her mother were led through the mimosa-scented lobby, then down a long Mediterranean-tiled corridor, and outside again. As they walked through the lush gardens toward one of the private cottage suites, Rachel felt as though she were floating through some strange, nebulous dream. Time seemed to have sped up, and everything seemed so unreal. It was all too bright, too tropical for such a momentous occasion. Before she could fully collect herself, they were at the front of the cottage, and Nick’s mother was giving the Mission-style wooden door a few rapid knocks.

Rachel took a deep breath.

“I’m right here with you,” Nick whispered from behind, giving her shoulder an affectionate squeeze.

The door was opened by a man with an earpiece who Rachel assumed was some sort of bodyguard. Inside the room was another man in an open-collared shirt and a pale yellow sweater vest, sitting in front of the fireplace. His rimless glasses framed a vibrant, fair-complexioned face, and his jet-black hair, meticulously combed with a part on the left, had a few graying streaks at the temples. Could this really be her father?

Kerry stood at the doorway hesitantly, but as the man got up and came toward the light, she suddenly put her hands to her mouth and let out a small gasp. “Kao Wei!”

The man came up to Rachel’s mother and stared into her face searchingly for a split second, before scooping her into a tight embrace.

“Kerry Ching. You are even prettier than I remember,” he said in Mandarin.

Kerry broke out in loud, violent sobs, and Rachel found her eyes flooding uncontrollably with tears as she watched her mother crying against the man’s chest. Managing to collect herself after a few moments, Kerry turned to her daughter and said, “Rachel, this is your father.”

Rachel couldn’t believe she was hearing those words. She stood by the doorway, suddenly feeling as if she were five years old again.

Standing outside the cottage, Eleanor turned to her son and said in a rather choked-up voice, “Come on, let’s give them some privacy.”

Nick, a little misty-eyed himself, answered, “That’s the best thing I’ve heard you say in a long time, Mum.”

11

FOUR SEASONS BILTMORE

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA

Comfortably ensconced in the hotel lounge with her requisite cup of hot water and lemon, Eleanor proceeded to recount to Nick the full story of how she came to discover Rachel’s real father.

“Bao Shaoyen was so grateful to all of us in London. Your hopeless cousin Eddie left after a few days, after getting fitted for his new suits, and Shaoyen didn’t know a soul in London. So we took care of her. We took her to visit Carlton every day in the hospital while he was recovering from his surgeries, we took her to eat at the halfway decent Chinese restaurants, and Francesca even drove all of us to the Bicester Village outlets one day. Shaoyen was in seventh heaven when she discovered that they had a Loro Piana outlet store there. My God, you should have seen how much cashmere that woman bought! I think she had to buy three big suitcases at the Tumi outlet just to fit everything.

“As soon as Carlton was out of intensive care, I encouraged Shaoyen to let him do his rehabilitation in Singapore. I even called up Dr. Chia at NUH to pull strings and get Carlton into the best physical therapy program. So of course Carlton’s father came down to visit from Beijing, and I got to know the family well over the next few months. Meanwhile, Auntie Lorena’s private investigator in China went to dig up everything he could on the family.”