Daiyu gave a humorless laugh. “My father travels a lot for business. But I have never been outside of Taipei.” She nodded at my suit sitting in its glass pod set in the corner of my apartment. “He’s grooming me to take over the company business. I spend a lot of my time at Jin Corp, not on trips abroad. Secretly, I keep hoping that he’ll have another child. And my new sibling could take over the job.”

Surprised that she would reveal so much to me, we sat silent for a moment as I lightly tapped the glass table with my finger. “So you’re an only child?” I made a pretense of asking; I knew that she was.

She nodded.

“You must be close?”

She smiled an enigmatic smile. It did not reach her eyes. “My father is a hard man to get close to. Most times he treats me like another product he’s created—another investment.”

Daiyu gazed out the wall of windows as I took in what she said. Finally, I asked, “Daiyu, why are you here?”

I didn’t want to push her away. But it was a natural question to ask given the situation. And I needed to make this encounter as normal as I could. It’s what I would ask any girl I barely knew who just appeared at my doorstep. “Do you do this a lot?” I went on. “Show up at a near stranger’s door?”

“No,” she interjected. “I never do this. It’s just that meeting you last night . . . I thought you were interesting. Familiar almost.” She turned and smiled at me, and I forced myself to keep my pose natural, feeling suddenly naked for sitting at a glass table. “I’ve always wanted to visit California,” she said in English tinged with a posh British accent.

“There are many mountains there,” I replied, also in English. “Maybe you can attend a university in California?”

“I wish.” She reverted to her precise and educated Mandarin, giving me a wistful sidelong glance. “I’ll be going to National Taiwan University. I don’t think Father will ever allow me to leave this city. And even here, I’m trailed by three bodyguards everywhere I go.”

I raised my eyebrows, remembering the beefy you boy I had punched in the nose at the night market.

“They’re downstairs now,” she said, mistaking my expression for surprise. “I wouldn’t let them come up. They can wait in the damned lobby forever as far as I’m concerned.”

I laughed, because she sounded like every rebellious teen I knew, even given her vast wealth and privilege. “I’d love to visit Jin Corp,” I said, trying to sound as casual as possible. I curled my fingers into a loose fist. If I were anywhere but here, I’d be spinning my butterfly knife to ease my nervous energy—but rich you boys didn’t do that.