Chapter 9 - I MET JANG AGAIN TWO YEARS LATER
By then, she was no longer Jang Chin Tong, terrifying secretary.
Just Chin Tong.
She worked as an operations director for a hospitality company.
Smaller.
Different industry.
We met by accident at a professional conference.
I saw her across the lobby.
She saw me.
Neither could pretend.
So I walked over.
“Chin Tong.”
“Vivian.”
No titles.
Progress.
She looked different.
Not physically much.
Less armored.
Then:
“I heard Meridian is doing well.”
“It is.”
“I heard Nora became a vice president.”
“She did.”
Jang smiled faintly.
“She deserved it.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Then she said:
“I owe her an apology.”
“Have you given one?”
“Yes.”
“Did she accept?”
“No.”
Good.
Chin Tong nodded.
“I deserved that.”
Then:
“Are you still married?”
Direct.
I almost laughed.
“Yes.”
Her face changed.
Shiaoza and I had reconciled one year after separation.
Not because he begged.
Not because I discovered he “never really cheated.”
He had.
Emotionally.
We reconciled because after a year of individual therapy, couples work, transparency, and separate lives, I decided I wanted to try.
Not forgive and forget.
Try.
He resigned as president six months into our separation.
His choice.
Not because I forced him.
He said he needed to rebuild professional identity outside the office where he had blurred everything.
He later joined another firm as a nonexecutive advisor, then built a smaller investment practice.
No secretary acting as emotional spouse.
No heroic poverty.
Still wealthy.
Different scale.
We started dating again.
Actual dates.
No shared household at first.
No assumption.
Then eventually:
Home.
Marriage rebuilt as something new, not restored to the old version.
Chin Tong absorbed that.
Then said:
“I’m glad.”
I believed her.
That surprised me.
Then she looked down.
“I was convinced if you disappeared, he would choose me.”
“I know.”
“He didn’t.”
“No.”
“But even if he had…”
She paused.
“I don’t think I would have liked who I became.”
That was more important.
Then she said:
“I really did love him.”
“I know.”
“Do you hate me?”
“No.”
She looked surprised.
“I was angry.”
“Yes.”
“But Shiaoza was married to me.”
I let that sit.
“He owed me the boundary.”
She nodded.
That did not absolve her workplace behavior.
Different responsibility.
Then Chin Tong smiled slightly.
“You sold the watch.”
“Yes.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Evelyn told me.”
Of course.
“She said where the money went.”
“Emergency fund.”
“I hated it.”
“I heard.”
She laughed.
Then:
“Now I think it was probably right.”
We shook hands.
No hug.
No friendship.
No theatrical forgiveness.
Then walked away.
Some people belong in the chapter that changes you.
May you like
Not the life that follows.
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