Page 17 of The Friend Zone Experiment

“My eldest brother ended up in the papers last year for getting a college student pregnant,” she went on. “But I haven’t heard about a divorce, so his wife’s probably forgiven him. My second brother lost a huge amount of money in a cryptocurrency scam. That’s not public, though—my dad told me that. I haven’t seen any of them since I moved to London.”

Remembering the conversation with her father earlier that day, Renee shivered. She hadn’t mentioned it to anyone yet. There wasn’t really anybody in her life she could talk to about that kind of thing, now she was no longer in therapy. Maybe Nathalie, but it was hard to vent to Nathalie about her problems, these days. Nathalie had enough to worry about, what with her kid and her husband and her job.

Even Jason had never heard that much about Renee’s family.She’d had a clear sense of what he wanted from her, and her family baggage was decidedly not included in that.

“You managed to persuade your father, in the end,” Ket Siong said.

She’d told him all about her dreams to leave the family home and seek out wider horizons beyond Singapore. It was nice he remembered.

“No,” said Renee.

Even thinking about the circumstances of her move made her stomach hurt, bitterness spreading on her tongue. She had never talked about them before, except to her therapist. She heard herself say:

“I got accused of ripping off my designs for Virtu. That’s how it began. This art student said I cheated her, took her work and didn’t pay her. It was all over social media. The press picked up on it, and then the other allegations started coming. They said I underpaid my staff, cut corners. A model claimed she got sexually harassed on a shoot for Virtu and I told her if she talked about it, she’d never work again.

“It was a very well-judged character assassination,” said Renee. “My brand is all about empowerment and equity. Our customers tend to be socially aware, they’re willing to pay a premium for a business that shares their values. I lawyered up, hired enquiry agents. It was only when I told my brothers I was going to take legal action that my dad stepped in and got them to stop.”

She rubbed her temple. “The most incredible part is that my brothers even understood Virtu well enough to take it down. That’s why it took me so long to believe they were behind it. It was probably their wives who came up with the accusations. They’re pretty smart.”

Ket Siong said, “Why…” before he thought better of the question, trailing off.

Renee didn’t mind being asked. She’d given the matter a lot of thought over the years.

“They were already pissed off at me,” she said. “Virtu was starting to take off. I was going to therapy and challenging some of the dynamics in my family. But the trigger was my flat—my great-aunt’s flat, I mean. You know the one.”

Ket Siong nodded.

“Auntie Mindy gave it to me when I graduated,” said Renee. “She was always beefing with my parents, that was probably why. It caused some ill feeling at the time, but then Auntie Mindy passed and it turned out she’d willed all she had to charity. Causes calculated to annoy my dad—LGBT rights groups, modern art galleries, animal shelters.” Renee laughed. “There’s a donkey sanctuary in Sussex that got a huge bequest. I went to visit a couple of years ago. You’ve never seen such spoilt donkeys in your life.

“My dad and brothers challenged the will. And they included the flat. The proceedings dragged on for years.”

She paused. Ket Siong’s eyes were on her, his gaze steady and kind. It felt safe to speak, safe to go on.

“I’m not saying I deserved the flat,” said Renee. “I know Auntie Mindy was mostly trolling my dad when she left it to me. But that wasn’t all it was. We always got along. She was the only one in my family who supported me over going to Central Saint Martins. And the flat was valued at three million pounds. Obviously, that’s a lot of money, but compared to the rest of the estate?”

Renee shook her head. “They didn’t need to do that. It was because my brothers couldn’t stand the idea of me having something they didn’t. When the court ruled in my favour, they weren’t happy. A few months after that, they launched their campaign against Virtu.

“Dad made them fix things. They got the press to print corrections. The model withdrew her allegations. But the damage was done by then. So I packed up and came here.” She smiled faintly. “To my flat.”

“I’m sorry,” said Ket Siong.

Renee shrugged. If she looked at him, there was a real risk she would cry, so she took a slug of beer instead. They’d been sitting there for long enough that it was warm.

“I was lucky. It didn’t affect our markets outside of Singapore. I’ve been wanting to build up the brand in the West anyway. That will help with cracking China. It’s taken a while, but we’re finally getting some traction. We need funding to really level up, that’s the next thing on the list.”

Focusing on work calmed her, as it always did. She raised her eyes to Ket Siong’s, now they were no longer stinging.

But there was something uncomfortable about meeting his gaze. Ket Siong had always seen a little too much about her. The warmth in his eyes now was both reassuring and a little frightening.

Renee looked away.

“It’s a long list,” she said brightly.

“I can imagine.” Ket Siong paused. “You’re still in touch with your father.”

Renee nodded. “He called me today, actually.”

Now she’d started talking about her family, it was hard to stop. She told Ket Siong about the call with Dad, her shoulders loosening as the words flowed out.

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