Crazy Rich Asians

“So a couple of days later, in the middle of lunch, I excused myself to go to the toilet. I walked down the hallway toward the downstairs toilet, which was across from the servants’ quarters, where you were being kept in a cot while the family ate. The servants were all having their lunch in the kitchen, so I went into their room, scooped you into my arms, and walked straight out the back door. I kept walking until I came to the bus stop, and I got on the next bus. I didn’t know any of the bus routes or anything — I just wanted to get as far away from the Zhou house as possible. When I thought I was far enough, I got off the bus and found a phone to call Kao Wei. I told him I had just had a baby and was running away from my husband, and he came to the rescue immediately. He hired a taxi — in those days it was very expensive to hire one, but somehow he managed — and came to pick me up.

“All that time, he was already devising a plan to get me out of Xiamen. He knew that my in-laws would have alerted the police as soon as they discovered that the baby was missing, and police would be searching for a woman and her baby. So he insisted on coming with me so that we could pretend to be a couple. We bought two tickets on the six o’clock train, which was the busiest train, and we sat in the most crowded car, trying to blend in with all the other families. Thank goodness no police ever came on board the train. Kao Wei took me all the way to my home village in Guangdong Province, and made sure I was safely with my parents before he left. That was the kind of man he was. I will always be glad that your real father was the one who rescued us, and that he at least had the chance to spend a few days with you.”

“But didn’t he mind leaving me?” Rachel asked, her eyes welling up with tears.

“He didn’t know you were his, Rachel.”

Rachel looked at her mother in shock. “Why didn’t you tell him?”

Kerry sighed. “Kao Wei was already far too mixed up in my problems — the problems of another man’s wife. I didn’t want to burden him with the knowledge that you were his child. I knew he was the type of man who would have wanted to do the honorable thing, that he would have wanted to take care of us somehow. But he had a bright future ahead of him. He was very smart and was doing well at school in science. I knew he would get into university, and I didn’t want to ruin his future.”

“You don’t think he suspected he was my father?”

“I don’t think so. He was eighteen, remember, and I think at that age, fatherhood is the last thing on a boy’s mind. And besides, I was now a criminal, a kidnapper. So Kao Wei was worrying about us getting caught more than anything else. My awful husband and my in-laws used the situation to blame me for everything and plaster my name in all the newspapers. I don’t think they really cared about you — they were glad the baby girl was out of their lives — but they wanted to punish me. Usually the police didn’t get involved in family matters like this, but that politician uncle of Fang Min’s put pressure on the police, and they came looking for me in my parents’ village.”

“What happened then?”

“Well, they put my poor mother and father under house arrest and subjected them to weeks of interrogation. Meanwhile, I was already in hiding. Your grandparents sent me to a distant cousin of theirs in Shenzhen, a Chu, and through her, the opportunity came up for me to bring you to America. A Chu cousin in California had heard about my situation — your uncle Walt — and he offered to fund our way to America. He was the one who sponsored us, and that is how I came to change your name and my name to Chu.”

“What happened to your parents? My real grandparents? Are they still in Guangdong?” Rachel asked nervously, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

“No, they both died rather young — in their early sixties. The Zhou family used their influence to destroy your grandfather’s career, and it destroyed his health, from what I know. I was never able to see them, because I never dared to return to China or to try to make contact with them. If you had flown to China this morning to meet Zhou Fang Min, I would not have dared to follow you. That’s why when Nick found out about your China plans and told me, I flew straight to Singapore.”

“And what happened to Kao Wei?”

Kerry’s face clouded over. “I have no idea what happened to Kao Wei. For the first few years, I would send him letters and postcards from America as often as possible, from every town and city we lived in. I always used a secret name we had devised together, but I never got a single response. I don’t know if my letters ever got to him.”

“Aren’t you curious to find him?” Rachel asked, her voice cracking with emotion.

“I’ve tried my hardest not to look back, daughter. When I got on that plane with you to come to America, I knew I had to leave my past behind.”