by Gian Bordin
Once alone in their bedroom, Atun took her into his arms. "You have accomplished your task, love."
"Almost. There’s only grandfather left to face." She kissed him.
"Is it true that you love me? I need to know."
"Atun, have I ever told you an untruth?"
"No, you haven’t."
"I do love you, Atun. It took me a long time to find out. It felt like coming home to a warm, unwavering flame that will be there for you I hope forever … not a devouring fire that may burn itself out quickly. I know that it will be good to share my life with you, to have you as the father of my children."
She offered him her lips, responding to his gentle touch with rising urgency, already impatient to fuse with him in the promised play of love.
26
She spent Sunday morning with her uncle sitting on the veranda of the villa which looked out over the lawn to the shore of the lake, while Atun with Anouk’s help went to the Mall to buy suitable conservative clothing for Kwong Fook. She sensed that her uncle was bewildered, feeling lost by having been torn from his familiar routine with the monks. He hardly talked. She told him more about life on Aros, about her mother, about becoming the woman she was on Aros after her parent’s death. There were often tears clouding his eyes and he would hold on to her hands.
"Uncle, there is one final step you will have to take today. Face your father and your brother." She knew he was frightened. "I will be with you and you don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. There is only one thing that I ask you to do." She waited to get his full attention. "Do not say any untruths. If you don’t want to reveal something, just say so." She paused again. "I know you are afraid of grandfather. But he has no power over you anymore. When he sees you, he will know that my parents’ death has become a matter solely between him and me." His face expressed his doubts. "Believe me, uncle. It is so." After a while she added: "We will go to grandfather’s house for the traditional Sunday dinner."
The clothes Atun and Anouk brought fitted reasonably well. He looked a different man, and this seemed to give him some needed confidence. She called the Young mansion’s butler and told him that she would bring a guest for dinner.
They walked up to the house and timed their arrival so that they were bound to be the last. As they approached the dining room, she could sense that everybody was there, including her grandfather. She entered behind Atun, Kwong Fook at her side. One could have heard a pin fall onto the parquet. She saw how her grandfather’s face turned ashen and then Ko Young rushed forward, crying: "Kwong Fook," and embraced him. They hugged, holding each other, both trying to stifle their tears. Finally, they separated.
"Oh brother, I’m so glad that you have come back. Come, you must meet my children. They don’t know you. You have been away for so long."
He introduced Bee and Dan, Pat and Susan, and last Mai. She was crying. Yuen-mong saw Ming with her nursemaid near the window. She held out her hands and the girl came running.
"And this, uncle, is Bee’s darling daughter, Ming." The girl hid her face on her shoulder. "Ming, look at Kwong Fook. He is a very kind man, and I’m sure you will learn to like him."
Ming turned her face and smiled at Kwong Fook who smiled through wet eyes.
"Why is he crying?" she whispered in Yuen-mong’s ear.
"Because he has been away a long, long time, and is happy to be back."
With Ming still in her arm, she led her uncle to her grandfather. She knew that she must do this now to put the seal on his years of absence.
"So Yuen-mong has brought you back," remarked her grandfather, as the two stood face to face.
"Yes, grandfather," Yuen-mong replied in her uncle’s place. "I have. Did you ever have any doubts?"
"No, nothing surprises me about you anymore."
"You may hug each other. I guess you haven’t done that for a long time."
Her grandfather smiled and put his arms somewhat stiffly around his oldest son.
"You see, son, I am completely in her hands."
* * *
At the end of the meal, Yuen-mong chimed a spoon to her glass. When she had the attention of everybody, she said: "Grandfather, it is your turn now."
He looked at her for a long minute and then let his eyes roam around the table, from person to person. "I guess there is no avoiding it, not when Yuen-mong has set her mind to it, nor will less than the full truth do, because she will know." He paused, looking at his two sons, coming to rest again on her. "Yuen-mong, it was me and Kao Deng who took the decision to prevent your father from realizing his invention. We offered to buy it, but he was asking too much. He wanted control of the UniCom, and neither Kao Deng nor I were willing to give him that. So he threatened to form his own company, and we saw the ruin of UniCom. He agreed to complete the HST extension to Santori as his last project with UniCom. While there he was asked to detour to Aros on his way back to get rock samples from its ring for our exploration division. We knew that nobody had ever escaped Aros."
He paused for a while, pain covering his face like a shadow. "It did not occur to me that my daughter would go with him, not after I told her that I wanted her to remain in Androma and finish the work she was engaged in. If I had known I would have stopped the matter, but a few days before they left for Santori I had already off for Quartum, a forty-day trip each way, to negotiate one of the biggest expansions of HST, and Kao Deng did not let me know that Zoshan had joined her husband. By the time Kwong Fook’s message reached me, there was no way to contact your parents anymore. They had already left Santori. When I came back I ordered Kwong Fook to keep silent about the matter, but he said he could not. That is why he went to the Monastery of Repentance, the only human intrusion in the Blue Mountains Wilderness."
Nobody spoke and nobody but Yuen-mong faced him. They all looked down to their dessert plates.
"Grandfather, why didn’t you tell me that before?" she murmured.
"Because I had lost my daughter, I did not want to lose you too."
"Why did you think you would lose me, especially after getting to know me better? … And didn’t you know that I would not stop searching until I had uncovered the truth?"
"By the time I realized that, it was too late."
"It is never too late, grandfather."
"What are you going to do now, Yuen-mong?"
An amused smile appeared on her face, she felt, much to the shock of the people around the table, except Atun. He knows me. I love him. "You remember, grandfather, that I promised I would not take any rash action neither before nor after I found out, but would ask you for your advice? The time has come for you to decide how you want to spend the rest of your life living with your guilt and remorse."
He smiled faintly. She could not tell whether it was in irony or not, but it did not matter.
"You are a hard woman."
"I don’t think so. My parents’ taught me that we all are responsible for our actions and their consequences and that applies even to what you are going to do now. You decide, I will abide by your decision."
"Do I have to give an answer right now?"
"No, grandfather, the ball is in your court."
"Thank you, granddaughter." He got up and slowly walked out of the room.
For a while, nobody talked. Some occasionally looked at her and she regretted the fear she sensed, but what she had just told her grandfather applied equally to her own actions — she could not shed the responsibility for their consequences.
She got up and everybody followed.
"Bee, may I spend more time with Ming, please."
"Yes, do," Bee replied and quickly went next door to fetch the little girl.
When she left with her uncle, Mai came running after her and hugged her. "Oh, Yuen-mong, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry," she whispered sobbing.
* * *
She went to her grandfather for her usual Tuesday afternoon visit. She wore again her Chinese ceremonial dress and knelt before him.
&n
bsp; "Rise, granddaughter. It is not you who should kneel before me, but I who should kneel before you asking for forgiveness."
She got up, approached slowly and stood facing him silently.
He took both her hands and said: "Can you forgive me, even if I cannot forgive myself?"
"Yes, grandfather, I have forgiven you."
"And can you still love me?"
"I will love you…"
"But?"
"Whether I can respect you will depend on your action. What have you decided?"
He searched her eyes for a long time. "I have decided that I will retire to the Monastery of Repentance."
"May I come and visit you? And sometimes bring May and Ming along? … And in time my own children?"
"The abbot does not allow women to visit."
"Then he will have to change his mind, won’t he?"
She saw his smile and was glad.
"You say, your own children?"
"Yes, Atun and I will get married. Will you give us your blessing?"
"Yuen-mong, you have my blessing. I think you have chosen well."
"Thank you, grandfather, and may I visit?"
"Yes, granddaughter, I would like that."
And every time the sight of my face will remind him of the daughter he sent to her death, but I cannot help that either, even if I love him.
THE END
Sequel to Yuen-mong’s Revenge:
YUEN-MONG’s CHALLENGE
When Yuen-mong prods the Foundation into adopting a more democratic rule where women are given an equal voice to men, its conservative male leadership plots to get rid of her. After two failed attempts by its secret service to create an accident, they successfully destroy her spacecraft while she visits Aros, and report that her space craft has been hit by meteorites. Atun concludes that his love has perished.
Resuming her previous life on Aros, Yuen-mong discovers that she is pregnant. She names her daughter Sue-ghen — ‘born to wisdom’. The child has inherited her empathic talents and when she is eight, they manage to reach Anouk’s mind by mentally combining their skills. Atun secretly comes to fetch them. She only returns to Andromatis to challenge the Foundation. Doing the seemingly impossible, she and Atum bring about the Foundation’s dramatic downfall, heralding in democratic rule on the Andromatis.
Other novels by Gian Bordin:
Historical fiction:
Summer of Love
The Twins
A Threesome
Anna, the Reluctant Courtesan
Chiara’s Revenge
Thrillers:
Ultimate Dare
Kidnapped
Frame-up
