Page 71 of The Manor of Dreams

She stared at her open jewelry drawer. “My pearl necklace is missing.”

Edith met her eyes and her brows knit together. With the back of her hand, she brushed her hair from her forehead and stood. “You lost it?”

Vivian insisted, “No, it was here. And now it’s gone.”

There was a long and almost intolerable silence in which they could have had a whole conversation, and in a sense they did. Edith shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know where it could have gone. I’ll look around for it.”

Vivian nodded. She waited for Edith to retreat, but her figure grew larger in the mirror. Edith sat on the edge of the bed. “I wanted to talk to you about something, if you have a moment.”

Vivian turned.

Edith wrung her hands. “I want to ask you if everything is all right with your husband.”

Vivian steeled herself.

“I don’t know if it is my place. I know that sometimes there are… disagreements in a marriage. And I don’t mean to pry or intrude. But I saw what looked like a bruise the other day. Did he hurt you?”

Vivian went perfectly still.

Edith came forward and kneeled next to the vanity, clasping Vivian’s hands with her weathered ones. “You deserve a husband who is good to you, Lian-er. Come, tell me. What is going on? I know something is wrong. Both Josiah and I do.”

Vivian finally whispered, “What does Josiah say?”

Edith gave her a small smile and a squeeze. “We pray for you at church. For you both.?. Double happiness, for both our families. Remember?”

It was pity, then. Or was it care? Either way, Vivian felt like she had been split open, stunned and defenseless. Edith cradled her hand gently. “Tell me,” she said in Mandarin.

?. Tears came to Vivian’s eyes. She imagined what it would be like to scrub away her makeup and tell Edith everything. She would have, at one point. She blinked furiously and saw the two of them sitting at the kitchen counter, laughing over a glass of wine. Walking in the garden together. Singing Shanghainese songs in the car when they went shopping, just the two of them. Watching the girls play in the garden from the terrace. She blinked again and remembered Edith and Josiah coming around the corner with a cake the night she won the Oscar.

It would be so easy to tell Edith everything. But Vivian looked upon the face of the closest person to family she had had in these last few lonely years, and thought of what her husband had said to her.

You’re going to abandon this life we built together. This family.

If she told Edith, then the truth would be out and they’d have to do something about it. This would become something she couldn’t control. Maybe they’d divorce. But they would all have nothing without him. Her family, the Dengs. He was their root, and without him they would shrivel.

“Your family is happy, aren’t they?” Vivian asked. “Elaine is enjoying college, isn’t she?”

Edith tilted her head in confusion. “Yes. But we’re not talking about—”

Vivian extracted her hand. “I’m going to be late for my audition.”

Edith stood up sharply. “Lian-er.” When Vivian didn’t respond, Edith tried again. “Lian-er,please,listen to me. I am worried for you. This isn’t normal.”

Vivian couldn’t stand Edith’s pitying expression. She snatched up her jacket and threw it over her shoulders. She stood up straight and looked Edith in the eye.

“I’m going to ask one thing of you. Don’teverintrude into my marriage with Richard again. For your own good.”

Edith blanched.

“We’re fine.” Vivian’s lip trembled as she lied. “What goes on is between us.”

twenty-six

JUNE 1990

VIVIANwas tense that summer. It was hot and dry and even the air seemed to stand still, waiting. Edith wouldn’t look her in the eye. Josiah was on the phone all the time. His father had fallen ill back in Jiaxing. Vivian kept telling him to go back and visit. She offered to buy him a plane ticket. She had been thinking of visiting her bà, too. Sometime next year, she promised herself. Maybe Richard would let her take the girls.

Lucille always locked herself in her room these days. Vivian finally understood what she had pointed to in the copy ofPride and Prejudice.Ada and Sophie had feelings for each other. But Vivian didn’t know how to confront her daughter about it, not yet.

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