“What photo of Rachel do you have?” Nick asked.

Eleanor blushed. “It’s the one from her California driver’s license that I got from the first detective I hired in Beverly Hills. Anyway, Gaoliang took one look at the photo and went into complete shock. He immediately asked, ‘Who is this girl?’ It’s just so obvious—the girl in the picture looks exactly like Carlton, but with long hair and makeup, of course. So I said, ‘That girl is the daughter of a woman who goes by the name of Kerry Chu. She now lives in California, but she used to live in Xiamen when she was married to a man by the name of Zhou Fang Min.’ And that’s when Gaoliang finally cracked.”

“Wow. You should do this professionally,” Nick said with a raised eyebrow.

“You can make fun of me all you want, but Rachel wouldn’t be meeting her father today if it wasn’t for my interfering.”

“No, no, I wasn’t being sarcastic, I meant it as a compliment.”

“I know you are still angry with me for all that’s happened, but I want you to know that everything I did, I did for your sake.”

Nick shook his head indignantly. “How do you expect me to react? You almost ruined the love of my life. You didn’t trust my judgment, and you just assumed the worst of Rachel from the beginning. You thought she was a gold digger even before you met her.”

“Hiyah, how many times can I say I’m sorry? I misjudged her. I misjudged you. Gold digger or not, I didn’t want you to marry Rachel because I knew that it would lead to heartache for you as soon as your grandmother became involved. I knew Ah Ma would never approve, and I wanted to spare you her wrath. Because once upon a time, I was that unacceptable daughter-in-law. And I was not even the daughter of a single mother from Mainland China! Believe me, I know what it feels like to suffer under her disapproval. But you never saw that side of her. I protected you from that. She adored you from the day you were born, and I never wanted that to change.”

Nick noticed the tears brimming in his mother’s eyes, and he softened his stance. A waiter walked by, and Nick gestured to him. “Excuse me, could we please have another cup of hot water with lemon slices on the side? Thank you.”

“Very hot, please,” Eleanor added, as she dabbed away her tears with the crumpled pieces of Kleenex she always seemed to have in her purse.

“Well, I’m sure you know that Ah Ma plans to disinherit me now. Jacqueline Ling told me just as much a few weeks ago.”

“That Jacqueline always does your Ah Ma’s dirty work! But you can never be sure what Ah Ma is going to do. Anyway, it doesn’t matter as much, because you have Rachel. I truly mean it now when I say I am very glad she is going to be your wife.”