Now it’s Vera’s turn to be confused. Alex has been so proud of the way Marshall left groceries for him every week.
“I did that,” Oliver says quietly.
Alex nods. “Yes, I figure that. All these years, I lose my relationship with you, and why? All this time, I think Marshall is only good one. When he go toilet, he leave his phone on table. I look through his messages, so many of them are from people demanding their money. And not just that, but one or two are saying thing like: ‘Those stupid fucks, made some good money out of them.’ I don’t know what Marshall up to, but I know is nothing good, is all about cheating people.
“After dinner, I ask him back here for tea. I beg him not to do this to his wife and child. That is when he turn ugly to me. He say he is not going to be like me, living in this shithole apartment just because I can’t let go of everyone who is pulling me back. He say he is glad when his mom die, because she always holding him back, always favoring Oliver. The things he say—” Alex weeps. “I feel like everything falling down. Everything is lie. I take out the tea from Vera and I think of how she is so kind to me, every day, and how I always tell her Marshall this, Marshall that. Marshall so good, Marshall so smart. I see that one of them has bird’s nest. I know Marshall is allergic to bird dander. I don’t know why—I don’t know what I am thinking—but I choose that tea. I give to Marshall. I watch him drink.”
For a few moments, the entire apartment is so silent that Vera can practically hear everybody’s hearts beating.
“I kill him,” Alex says quietly. “I kill my own son. His breathing get rough, he try to get his phone, but he can’t type, his vision must be blurry, his hands all swollen. I watch him dying. He run out of here, stumble down street. Everything close by then. He cannot talk anymore. He see Vera’s teahouse and he break inside. I think he want to give clue, that the bird dander is from tea.”
Vera nods.
“But why was he holding a flash drive?” Riki says.
“Maybe to create more suspicion? Make it clear that this wasn’t a simple death,” Julia mutters. She stares at Alex with a mixture of pity and anger on her face. “Did you—” She shakes her head as though trying to clear it. “When I was taking photos of Cassie, I felt like someone was watching me . . .”
Alex nods, once. “It was me. I just want to make sure you are okay, even without Marshall. I follow Vera too, especially when she has Emma. I just—I can’t believe I take away her baba.” His voice cracks. “I have to make sure you are all okay.”
One corner of Julia’s mouth twitches into a half smile. “We’re okay. We’re better than okay. You don’t have to worry about us.” She is still steely-eyed. Vera no longer recognizes the sniffly, frightened woman that Julia was when they first met. Julia now looks like nothing could possibly tear her down. Vera can’t be any prouder of her.
Oliver, on the other hand, is sobbing like a child. “Baba,” he moans. “I can’t believe this.”
“I am sorry, son.” Alex walks to him slowly and puts his arms gingerly around Oliver. “I am so sorry for everything I’ve done to you. All those times I told you that you were worthless,” he whispers in Mandarin. Oliver only nods, crying harder. “You are not worthless. You are not.”
“I don’t want to lose you, Baba.”
“Me neither. Come and visit me, and we will talk.” Alex grasps Oliver’s hands so tight that his knuckles turn white. “We will talk.”
Vera hopes that down the road, Oliver will look back on this moment and find a way of healing.
Later, they wait outside on the curb together, Oliver with an arm around his father’s frail shoulders. As Alex is helped into the police cruiser, he meets Vera’s eyes and says, “Thank you for everything, Vera. You are a true friend.”
And Vera smiles through her tears and nods. She is already wondering what bento boxes she will be allowed to bring for Alex in prison.
EPILOGUE
Vera Wong Zhuzhu is a pig, but she really should have been born a rooster. At four thirty a.m. on the dot, her eyes shoot open and she levitates from the bed. She goes through her usual ritual of brushing her teeth with furious efficiency before heading to the kitchen to begin preparing breakfast. She has settled nicely into Julia’s house. The youngsters are taking their sweet time clearing out all the junk from Vera’s house, and Vera isn’t hurrying them along. Julia has said multiple times over that she and Emma would like Vera to stay on at their house, and though Vera keeps waving them off and saying, “Oh, you’ll want me out of your hair soon enough,” in truth she is more than happy to stay. So for now, here Vera will remain.
Emma has requested a break from congee today. She wants an omelet. Vera has looked at a dozen different omelet recipes on the Google and hasn’t figured out what the point of an omelet is, but for Emma’s sake she is willing to try. Say anything about Vera, but she is extremely flexible.
At five in the morning, Emma, who is, in fact, a rooster, wakes up and shuffles down the hallway, rubbing her eyes with her knuckles. Vera hears her footsteps and calls to her in a soft whisper to go brush her teeth. By the time Emma gets into the dining room, there are four different omelets waiting for her—a cheese one, a mushroom and cheese one, a ham and cheese one, and a Chinese-style tomato and scrambled eggs. Vera narrows her eyes and meaningfully keeps her silence as Emma considers the four dishes. Then the little girl points to the tomato and egg dish and says, “That one,” and Vera nods solemnly, though on the inside she is jumping with joy.
Surprisingly, this morning, as Vera and Emma have their breakfast, they are joined by Julia, who appears at the dining room with crazy hair. “Morning.” She yawns.
“Oh, you are up early,” Vera says. “No judgment, of course, but usually you let the whole morning pass by before you wake up.”
“You do realize saying ‘no judgment’ before saying something very judgy doesn’t make it less judgy?” Julia says, lowering herself onto one of the seats. “Ooh, omelets. They look good.”
Vera and Emma share a secret smile.
“Anyway, I thought I’d go with you to the teahouse today,” Julia says through a mouthful of mushroom and cheese omelet. “The photos I posted of it online have really good engagement, so I thought I’d take a few more.”
“Hmm.” Vera sniffs. “I should start charging you for modeling fee.” Although she wouldn’t, of course, because she loves being in front of Julia’s camera way too much. Julia has already taken countless photos of Vera in the process of making various teas, and Vera has discovered that she is quite the peacock. But if Julia wanted to, she could easily pay Vera. She could easily pay anyone, now that the first installment check from Marshall’s life insurance has been paid out. Julia has given a large chunk of it to Riki to pay him for the work he did for Marshall, which made Riki burst into tears. Apparently, Riki’s little brother, Adi, will be joining them in the Bay Area any day now. Vera can’t wait to spoil Adi rotten.