Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 90852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Everyone remained silent, and I thought back to the day when I really accepted Dad was not returning. It had been a month, and I’d already confirmed through Snow that he had been at their casino bar, laughing with some chick the night before.
I spent the rest of the day on my knees scrubbing the kitchen floor.
Weak from her new medication, Mom watched me with tired eyes. “There's no smell, baby. It's all in your head.”
“I’ll stop when I don’t smell it.”
“Moni, please.” Mom coughed. “Go rest. You have work—"
“Ma, we have to take Moni to the looney doctor or something.” Jo walked in and sucked her teeth. “You're tripping, Moni. I can't smell a thing.”
“I can smell it.”
I shook that memory out of my mind. “No Dad meant that we needed more money. Instead of my taking Mom to the hospital, I got a job at the Chicken Factory and Jo would leave school early to take Mom to treatments. Jo barely graduated that year.”
Fucking son of a bitch. You could have at least taken your wife to the hospital.
“All this time, I thought Mom died with the stank of that cologne as one of her last memories.” My eyes watered. “But today I learned that. . .”
Lei leaned forward. “What did you learn, Moni?”
“I learned that she got to smell your mother’s garden. All those beautiful, perfumed flowers. She was in the East, saw Lotus Blossom, and smiled in her last months of life.” Tears spilled from my eyes. “For that. . .I would rep the East for life.”
Lei considered what I said and then muttered, “Your mother knew my mother?”
Nodding, I wiped tears from my eyes. “Leo showed me a whole photo album of photos with them—”
“No.” Chen shook his head in disbelief. “That doesn’t make any sense. I used to prepare Aunt Jing’s weekly schedule for security reasons. She didn’t have many engagements—”
“There’s pictures of them together, laughing and enjoying themselves, even Lei is in one.” I wiped more tears. “Lei’s mother took Mom to the fair, the beach, the garden right at Lotus Blossom—”
“Hold on.” Shock covered Lei’s face. “Are you talking about Mrs. KiKi? That’s the only person my mother spent time with in her last years.”
Duck bobbed his head. “It has to be Mrs. KiKi. Now I can kind of see the resemblance.”
More tears left me. “Mom told you all her nickname? Banks started calling her that at three when he couldn’t pronounce Kiana.”
Chen touched his forehead. “The sick woman that became Aunt Jing’s bestie. The one. . .Aunt Jing got depressed over when. . .”
Lei finished for him. “When she passed. I remember that month. Mom barely left the garden. She would just sit there in that one spot and stare blankly at the flowers.”
The SUV fell silent, the only sound coming from the hum of the engine and distant chatter of the East outside.
Jesus.
We all sat there, lost in our own thoughts, grappling with the new revelation.
Then, Chen spoke, “Well. . .that does change everything.”
Hu nodded. “Now I understand why Uncle Leo chose Monique. At least I’m beginning to understand.”
Lei’s eyes watered. “Where’s the photo album?”
“At Lotus Blossom. I dropped it when Leo put the blade to my throat.” Then, I thought about my ladies-in-waiting. “Oh no. We have to go back and get my ladies-in-waiting too. I left them there.”
“Tell the driver to take us to Lotus Blossom.” Lei still appeared to be holding back tears.
Was it the thought of his mother?
Or did my own tears make him sad?
Meanwhile, Chen blurted out, “You left your what?”
“My ladies-in-waiting.”
“How the hell did you get ladies-in-waiting today?”
“Aunt Suzi and Aunt Min—”
“No.” Chen wagged his finger. “I am the only person that can pick them.”
I shrugged. “Well, you’re about to pick the ones that I have because I like them and only them.”
Chen touched his chest. “You all are about to give me a heart attack.”
I eyed Lei. “What happened to your aunts? I saw them being escorted away from Lotus Blossom.”
“They’re in the palace dungeon to serve thirty days.”
I opened my mouth in shock. “No. You have to let them go.”
“And why would I do that?”
“Because they’re my. . .trainers.” I shrugged again. “The M.M.I.T. needs trainers.”
Chen groaned in annoyance.
Chapter eighteen
Where Love Blooms
Lei
Moni’s confession and raw vulnerability in the car had done something to my heart.
There had been so many deep and personal truths. Even more, the sad memory of her father’s cologne lingered in my mind.
I’m glad Dad killed him. No one that hurts her that way, deserves to live.
Then, there was the revelation that our mothers had known each other—a connection that seemed destined to intertwine our love story in a way I could never imagine. The idea that her mother had laughed with mine, shared moments of joy and intimacy, and created a bond that extended beyond time and space was staggering.