White Tiger

children.
    He quickly worked it out. ‘About fifteen.’
    ‘You’re one of five?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘Oldest? Youngest?’ ‘Youngest.’
    I looked at his mother, a kind, smiling woman. ‘Why aren’t there any photos of your father?’
    ‘He died when I was fifteen,’ Leo said. ‘Enough.’ He took the photos into his room and didn’t come out for a long time.
    A couple of weeks later I met April in the lobby of the hotel in Causeway Bay. ‘Where’s Louise?’ I said.
    ‘She’s not coming. I wanted to talk to you by yourself.’
    We went up the escalators into the upmarket Chinese restaurant and were seated at a table large enough for eight, some distance from the nearest diners. The waiter provided us with a list of the yum cha snacks; there weren’t trolleys, we had to fill out the order.
    As soon as the waiter left us, April grabbed my hand. She held it so tight it was painful. Her face was rigid with control.
    ‘What is it, April?’
    ‘I’m pregnant.’
    ‘That’s wonderful!’ I cried. ‘Just what you wanted. What does Andy think?’
    She looked down at the table. ‘He wants an abortion. He wants me to lose this baby.’
    ‘Oh my God,’ I said softly. ‘He doesn’t want you to abort it because it’s a girl, does he?’
    ‘He has another wife, Emma. He already has a son with her. He said he doesn’t want any more boys. He wants a girl.’
    I inhaled sharply. ‘Another wife?’
    ‘He has a lot of girls on the Mainland, as well as the other wife. He didn’t come to Australia at Chinese New Year, so I came here to see him. He picked me up at the hotel and brought the other wife along. Just to shame me.’
    I was speechless.
    ‘And he says that since he has a son with her, he doesn’t want another boy. This child is a boy—I found out from the ultrasound in January. He says lose it, have another. If I have a girl, he’ll drop the other wife and come to Australia.’
    ‘I thought boys were better.’
    ‘Not for him. He’s in a bad business. If he has a son, then the son may become involved. He doesn’t want that.’
    ‘Bad business?’
    She dropped her voice. ‘Triad business.’
    ‘Oh my God, he’s a gangster ?’ I hissed softly.
    She waved it away; unimportant. ‘I’m his wife. I have nothing to do with his business. That’s his business.’ The despair showed for a fleeting second. ‘What am I going to do, Emma? Should I do what he asks? If I have a girl for him, he’ll keep me. We’ll be a family. Or I could divorce him and forget about it. I had plenty of men ask me out when I was in Australia.’
    I shook my head. I didn’t know what to say.
    ‘Or I could keep the baby. Once he sees the baby, he’ll be happy, I know he will. He loves me. We’ll be a family.’
    ‘What do your family say?’
    ‘They say I should stay with him, that I’m the real wife. The other woman is just a mistress. His family, the houses of Kwok and Ho, are very wealthy. Very prestigious. My family gain a lot of face from the marriage.’
    ‘I can’t believe it.’
    ‘If I have the child then he can apply for Australian citizenship through the child. I don’t want him to be able to do that. Then he won’t need me.’
    The dim sum arrived and she tucked into them as if nothing was amiss. ‘The morning sickness isn’t too bad now. It was bad a few weeks ago.’ She poured the tea. ‘And what about you, Emma? You have a man? Louise said you had something with this Chen man, but I don’t think you’re that stupid, involved with the employer. You have another man?’
    ‘No. Nobody.’
    ‘You in love with your employer.’ It wasn’t a question.
    I looked down at the table. I didn’t know what to say.
    ‘Any chance?’
    I hesitated. I shook my head.
    ‘You are a stupid, Emma,’ April said.
    I didn’t move. She was right.
    ‘Eat,’ she said, waving her chopsticks at the steamers. ‘I saw a fortune teller last week, he said my face is very happy. Both of us will be happy.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
    O nce Chinese New Year had finished and things in the Chen household returned to their usual chaotic normality, Mr Chen started me on energy work.
    ‘Sit,’ he said, gesturing towards the centre of the mats in the training room. He sat cross-legged across from me. He was silent for a while, looking down, and I waited.
    ‘If you are able to do energy work, you are exceptional. Only about one in ten thousand humans gains the ability, usually only if they are taught from an early