Chapter 5 - MY MOTHER-IN-LAW RETURNED THE WATCH
She came to my office carrying the box.
Evelyn Shiao, seventy-two.
Elegant.
Traditional.
Sharp enough to make senior directors nervous.
She placed the white watch on my desk.
I stared.
“How did you get it?”
“Tong returned it.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Why to you?”
“Because she knew it was supposed to be mine.”
My stomach tightened.
“So she always knew.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn sat.
Then:
“I owe you an apology.”
I looked at her.
That week everyone apparently discovered apologies.
“For?”
“I knew Shiaoza gave it to her.”
“And you said nothing.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She wanted it.”
I almost laughed.
“What?”
“Tong admired it when he showed me the photograph.”
Evelyn’s expression tightened.
“I told him I preferred the bracelet.”
That part was true.
“So he gave her the watch.”
“Yes.”
“And that seemed normal?”
“At the time.”
I stared.
She looked away.
There.
Not normal.
Convenient.
Then Evelyn said:
“She has been helping me for years.”
That was the missing piece.
Jang scheduled doctors.
Arranged medication deliveries.
Visited after surgery.
Handled household repairs when Shiaoza traveled.
Remembered anniversaries.
Sent flowers in his name.
In mine too, sometimes.
I froze.
“What?”
Evelyn looked embarrassed.
“The orchids you sent after my hospital stay.”
“I didn’t send orchids.”
Silence.
Jang had.
Using a card:
Love, Vivian and Shiaoza.
My skin went cold.
How many pieces of my marriage had been outsourced without my knowledge?
Then Evelyn said:
“Do not blame only her.”
“I don’t.”
Good.
“Blame my son.”
I stared.
Unexpected.
“He allowed it.”
Yes.
Then she added:
“And me.”
Also yes.
Evelyn had liked Jang.
Why?
Jang was available.
I wasn’t.
That hurt.
I had been building Meridian’s overseas business at the board’s request.
Years of flights.
Hotels.
Conference calls.
I believed family understood the sacrifice.
Maybe they did.
But absence creates vacancies.
And someone filled mine.
Not as wife.
As presence.
Again:
Explanation.
Not permission.
Then Evelyn said something harder.
“I thought you cared more about the company than marriage.”
I stared.
“Did Shiaoza say that?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“You were always gone.”
I took a breath.
“Because Chairman Hsu asked me to rescue Europe.”
“I know.”
“Because Shiaoza said headquarters was stable.”
“I know.”
“Because we agreed.”
“I know.”
“Then why am I the one who gets blamed for honoring the plan?”
Evelyn looked down.
Fair.
Then:
“Did you know employees feared her?”
“No.”
“Did you know she called herself Shiaoza’s gatekeeper?”
“No.”
“Did you know about the condo loan?”
Evelyn’s face changed.
“No.”
“Twenty-three-thousand-dollar medical bill?”
“No.”
“Jewelry?”
She hesitated.
Some.
There.
Then I asked:
“Did you think they were having an affair?”
Long silence.
Evelyn answered:
“I wondered.”
That hurt more than almost anything else.
“You wondered.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me.”
“I told myself if there was something to know, my son would tell you.”
I laughed once.
“That logic protected everyone except me.”
She nodded.
“I know.”
Then she pushed the watch toward me.
“What do you want me to do with this?”
“I don’t want it.”
“Neither do I.”
We stared at the white watch.
Forty-eight thousand dollars.
Ten in the world.
Suddenly worthless.
Then I said:
“Sell it.”
Evelyn looked up.
“What?”
“Sell it.”
We later did.
The proceeds went to Meridian’s employee emergency fund.
Not as some grand public gesture.
No press release.
No plaque.
Just money redirected from a symbol of blurred boundaries into something useful.
Jang hated that.
I learned later.
That reaction told me she had not viewed the watch as a casual gift.
To her, it represented position.
Proof.
She had been chosen.
May you like
Maybe she believed that even more strongly than I did.
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