Lies and Weddings(24)
His mind suddenly wandered back to Rene Tan, the man who had battled his own demons and conquered the global construction industry, but who was now in the battle of his life, quite literally.
For the past four years, Rene had been fighting pancreatic cancer—a disease with one of the lowest survival rates—and it was a miracle he was even still alive. Last autumn, with cancer metastasizing throughout Rene’s body, Thomas had made a last-ditch effort on behalf of his old friend. He’d had Rene secretly flown on a medical transport jet to Houston.
Thomas had done his oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center and knew of the pioneering treatments that were done there—it was consistently rated the top cancer center in the world, the place that celebrities, royals, heads of state, and the most desperately ill patients would flock to hoping for miraculous cures. Five months later, Rene remained in Houston undergoing an experimental clinical trial. It was the real reason why Thomas didn’t want to approach him for another loan on behalf of the Greshams. In the best of times, Rene was a mercurial and unpredictable soul, but now he was downright dangerous. Just like one shouldn’t disturb the sharks in the water, Thomas didn’t wish to rattle a man who was staring his mortality squarely in the face, desperately chasing his own myths.
VI
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai
BIG ISLAND, HAWAII ? LATER THAT AFTERNOON
The dream was always the same. She was six, maybe seven years old. Her mother, dressed in a white Lacoste piqué polo and a flared tennis skirt, would come into the room and ask her, “I’m going to the supermarket. Do you want to come on a walk with me?” Eden would shake her head. Minutes after her mother had left the house, Eden would miss her terribly and decide to run after her. She would run out the door of the redbrick house and down a long hill, chasing the figure in white at the end of the road. But for some reason she could never catch up with her mother. She would run and run, her heart pounding so fast she could barely breathe, but the figure in white only got smaller and smaller.
Eden suddenly awoke, out of breath and drenched in sweat. She was someplace unfamiliar, and the bed felt like a big puffy cloud. Was this still a dream? As her vision came into focus, she noticed a very stylish midcentury modern lamp next to an equally stylish armchair accented with a marble and brushed bronze side table. She realized where she was—a luxuriously appointed suite at the Four Seasons resort, where she had been rushed to in the moment of her distress. She vaguely remembered someone carrying her into the room and drawing the curtains…was it Rufus? She rose from the bed reluctantly and went into the huge marble bathroom to splash some water on her face. Feeling a bit more refreshed, she entered the suite’s living room to find her father sitting on a leather club chair flipping through a magazine.
“How’s the patient?” he asked.
“Much better, oddly enough,” Eden said, sinking into the curved sofa across from him. “How long was I out?”
“Three or four hours, I’d imagine. I only got here half an hour ago. I was having lunch with Francis.”
“You really needn’t have come…”
Thomas ignored her, leaning over to examine her pupils. “Any headache or nausea?”
“Not anymore. I’m fine, Dad, I got seasick, that’s all. And being hungover and jet-lagged didn’t help.”
Thomas placed a hand on her cheek to feel her temperature. “You could have had heatstroke. Most people don’t realize they have heatstroke until it’s too late.”
“Dr. Tong, in case you forgot, I am a qualified doctor too.”
“Doctors make the worst patients—you especially,” Thomas chided as he walked over to the bar, opened the minifridge behind the wenge wood cabinet, and took out a bottle of water. He retrieved a small packet of electrolytes from his pocket and mixed it with water in a tall glass. He handed the foaming elixir to Eden. “Here, drink. You need to replenish your system.”
“Thanks,” Eden said, gulping down the drink. “Dad, did Mum ever play tennis?”
“Tennis? I don’t think so…why?”
“I keep seeing her in my dreams, and she’s wearing either a sparkly silver ball gown or a white tennis outfit.”
“Hmm. I don’t recall her having either, but she could have played tennis in her younger days. Or maybe badminton, which was quite popular in Hong Kong in the early nineties,” Thomas mused as he slid open the wooden slatted doors to reveal a large balcony.
“So this is how the other half live. Whose room are we in?” Eden asked as she wandered onto the balcony and took in the view of the infinity pool surrounded by white tented cabanas and the pristine beach beyond.
“I assumed it’s Bea’s. She was the one who let me in. By the way, speaking of sparkly dresses, wait till you see the dress Bea dropped off for tonight’s festivities. Only if you’re feeling up to it, of course.”
“What’s happening tonight? I can’t keep track of all the events.”
“Rosina is hosting a fancy-dress party in honor of Prince Max’s parents.”
Eden raised an eyebrow. “The great and glorious Rosina Leung actually deigned to host a party that’s not in honor of herself?”
Thomas grinned. “We mustn’t miss out on this historic event.”