He never asked. Maybe he knew—in the old days we shared as much knowledge by not speaking as we did by speaking. It’s different from how Westerners like to confess every little thing and imagine that doing so heals them. He probably knew. I suspect so because he sent Second Mother Polly to visit us at the Stable, where I’d returned when the invasion started and where Emily often visited, though her official residence was Cheung’s old house in Tai Hang. Second Mother Polly came to the Stable in a floral-patterned suit, her stick out in front of her, feeling her way forward. Her daughter Pineapple kept trying to take her arm, but, ever stubborn and independent, Second Mother Polly pushed her away. As I told you, we weren’t close with her. She had her own family to take care of, and we, as the daughters of the first wife, posed a minor threat within the logic of Chinese family politics. But still she came with our half-sister Pineapple, and she brought us half a dozen pork buns, a rare treat that was very hard to get in a time of such scarcity. She didn’t ask us what had happened. She just came, sat with us, and spoke kindly. That was how she showed care, and how Old Mah showed his care for us through her. We were lucky. Lots of women committed suicide after such atrocities. Some were disowned by their families. Emily did not commit suicide and Old Mah did not disown us. He showed love through a judiciously pitched kind of silence. We didn’t speak of the events, just as many Chinese women did not, all driven by the powerful and intractable value of saving face.

But in fact, we didn’t see Old Mah at all for the next couple of months. Right at the hour when Second Mother Polly and Pineapple were visiting us, the Kempeitai went to the Kimblewick and took him away. We didn’t find out where until much later. He was kept incommunicado at the Hong Kong Hotel, one of the many once-glorious establishments where Emily used to sing with Izzy Davis Wong and His Cosmopolitan Elites. There Mah was pressured, in every way you can imagine and some I’m sure you can’t, to “voluntarily” support the new government and Japan’s project in Asia.