After the guests left, Sharon pried details from her mother. She was shocked to learn that the church was engineering a stealthy takeover bid. Mrs Shi was among the many church members who had obeyed instructions from the church leaders to sign up for membership with AWARE over the last two months. It was their plan to turn up unannounced at the impending annual general meeting, vote their own church members into the executive committee and wrestle power from the old guard.

Christina was curious when Sharon requested a private lunch with her the next day. She became solemn as Sharon revealed what she learnt. The AGM was in less than a week. She would have to move fast.

Sharon made it clear that Christina had her support. She was, however, stumped when Christina wanted her to contact her circle of friends, urge them to apply for AWARE membership and to turn up for the AGM in support of the old guard. The truth was that Sharon did not have many friends, but she kept that to herself.

Despite the forewarning, Christina and her team were caught off-guard by the robust turnout of the hostile newcomers. The old guard lost six out of the 11 seats in the executive committee. The presidency went to a Josie Thio, an academic who sat on the church executive committee.

Christina was furious. Together with what remained of her team, she set about organising an extraordinary general meeting the following month. The intervening weeks saw aggressive recruitment efforts by both the old guard and the newly-elected executive committee. By the time the EGM swung around, membership in AWARE had ballooned tenfold. Accusations and arguments flew during the six-hour session when Christina and her supporters pushed for a vote of no confidence. They pointed out the impropriety of asserting conservative Christian values by the new executive committee in a secular organisation such as AWARE and urged supporters to call out Josie Thio’s power grab for what it was—a hostile takeover by the church. Eventually, Thio’s team admitted defeat and handed the reins back to the old guard.

Once victory had been secured, Christina made strategic moves to consolidate her army. She roped in Sharon to serve as an executive member of AWARE and made it clear at the Economic Development Board that she had taken Sharon under her wing. That was the pass Sharon needed to squeeze through the crack in the glass ceiling.

Sharon was ecstatic. She knew that winning Christina’s trust was pivotal in her ambition to cross over to the top echelon in the civil service. What she did not anticipate was the bonus that came attached to it—Christina’s husband.

If Christina was a power player in the Economic Development Board, Elvis Overee was a power broker in the national arena. He was, after all, a cabinet minister and held the foreign affairs portfolio. Elvis was in his early fifties and exuded an intelligent and confident charm. He seemed to be genuinely fond of Sharon and treated her like the daughter he never had. Elvis and Christina Overee had no children.