“You didn’t answer my question. If I can get us ten billion, do we have a deal?”

The aunties looked at one another.

“Okay, we will give you one month,” Felicity finally relented.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SENTOSA ISLAND, SINGAPORE

Twice a year, the acquisitions board of the Singapore Museum of Modern Art convened to go over potential new purchases for the permanent collection. The exclusive board was composed of the city’s young elite collectors, mostly descended from the country’s most powerful families. As with most entitled scions, it simply wouldn’t do for them to actually have to perform their duties at the museum’s perfectly nice but rather ordinary offices, so some new fabulous location with celebrity-chef-prepared cuisine was always selected for the acquisitions board meetings.

Today, the meeting took place over breakfast at the Capella on Sentosa, the island playground off Singapore’s southern coast. When the museum’s curator Felipe Hsu arrived at the gorgeous reception room overlooking a beautiful tiered infinity pool, he found the atmosphere positively buzzing among the dozen or so members that had already assembled.

“I couldn’t believe it! Absolutely couldn’t believe it!” Lauren Lee Liang (the wife of Roderick Liang of the Liang Finance Liangs, and a granddaughter of Mrs. Lee Yong Chien) whispered in a corner to Sarita Singh (former Bollywood actress and daughter-in-law of Gayatri Singh).

“How can you possibly recover from something like that?” Sarita shook her head as she fingered the mother-of-pearl medallions on her Van Cleef and Arpels necklace as if they were rosary beads.

“Well, the one consolation is that her tits did look great. I wonder if she’s had them lifted?” Lauren said as she shielded her mouth with her VBH clutch.

Felipe strolled over to the buffet to help himself to two soft-boiled eggs and some toast points. Patricia Lim (of the Lim Rubber Lims), who was standing next to him trying to decide between eggs Benedict or eggs Norwegian, gave him a look. “What a morning, huh?”

“Yes, it seems like everyone’s caffeinated and ready to go! Good, good, we have quite a long agenda today.”

“Are you thinking of making any sort of announcement, or do you plan to maintain a dignified silence?”

“I’m not sure what you’re referring to, Pat.” The curator frowned.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Felipe! Oh dear lord…SHE’S ACTUALLY HERE!”

The room went dead silent as Astrid entered. She said hi to her cousin Sophie Khoo (of the Khoo Enterprises Khoos),* grabbed a pain au chocolat from the buffet and sat down at the head of the long marble table as everyone took their places. Then she stood up abruptly. “Good morning, everyone. Before we dive headlong into our agenda, I have a confession to make.”

Most of the board members gasped audibly as they stared wide-eyed at Astrid.

“When it comes to Anish Kapoor, I am totally biased. I have loved his work for many years now, and as you probably know I own several of his pieces and yes, I was the anonymous donor who helped to fund the new installation in Antwerp. So we will be examining two new artworks from him for possible acquisition, and I will recuse myself from that vote.” Astrid smiled at everyone and sat down again.

“Un fucking believable…” Lauren Lee muttered under her breath.

Sarita Singh tapped on her coffee mug with her spoon, and everyone looked at her as she spoke up in a righteous tone. “I was expecting our chairwoman to humbly announce her resignation, but since she has shown no intention of doing that, I’d like to start a motion for Astrid Leong’s immediate removal from the acquisitions board.”

Astrid stared at Sarita in shock.

“I second that motion,” Lauren Lee immediately said.

“What the hell?” Felipe blurted out, his mouth still full of soft-boiled egg as the room erupted in commotion.

“Sarita, why are you suddenly suggesting this motion?” Astrid asked.

“Astrid, let’s be perfectly honest here. We’re going to lose funding now because of your actions. The entire museum’s reputation is going to be affected because of you. I can’t even believe you dared to show up here this morning.”

“I’m really not following…is this because of my divorce?” Astrid asked, trying to remain gracious and calm.

From the other end of the table, Sophie Khoo stood up and ran over to Astrid’s side. “Come with me now,” she whispered, taking hold of her arm.

Astrid stood up and followed Sophie out of the room. “What is going on in there?” she asked, absolutely bewildered.

“Astrid, it just became apparent to me that you don’t even know yet.”

“Know what?”

Sophie closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled. “There is a video of you that leaked late last night. It’s gone viral.”

“A video?” Astrid still didn’t catch on.

“Yes, of you…with Charlie Wu.”

All the color drained from Astrid’s face. “Oh my God.”

“I’m so sorry…” Sophie began.

Astrid stood stock-still for a moment, and then she snapped into crisis-management mode. “I need to go. I need to get Cassian out of school. Please tell them I needed to go,” Astrid said, as she made a run for her car.

As Astrid sped along the Sentosa Gateway heading back to Singapore, she found herself unusually calm and collected. She tried ringing Charlie from her Bluetooth but his cell kept going straight to voice mail. Finally, she left a message: “Charlie, I suspect you’ve already heard about the video leak since you’re not answering. I just found out minutes ago. I’m fine, don’t worry, I’m on my way to ACS now to get Cassian. I would suggest doing the same for Chloe and Delphine. If they haven’t found out already, it’s better coming from us than from some classmate. You know how kids can be. I’ll talk to you soon.”

The minute Astrid ended the call, her phone started ringing again. “Charlie?”

There was a brief silence on the other end, and then a screeching voice filled her car. “Oh my God, you are still talking to that horrible pervert! I can’t believe you!” It was her mother.

“Mum, please calm down.”

“A sex tape! Ohmygod, in my worst nightmare I never imagined I would ever hear those words uttered about one of my children! I just got home from showing Tyersall Park to some dreadful Chinese people, and now I hear this news from Cassandra Shang? Your father is so angry, I’m worried he’s going to drop dead of a heart attack!” Felicity cried.

Astrid couldn’t help but notice how her mother always managed to sob hysterically, scold, and guilt-trip her simultaneously. “Mother, we did nothing wrong! Michael secretly videotaped us in the privacy of Charlie’s home, and now he’s leaked the video everywhere. This is a crime, Mum.”

“The crime is you sleeping with Charlie in the first place!”

“How is that a crime?”

“You’re a harlot! Your reputation has gone down the toilet, and you’re branded for life now!”

“Did you even see the video? It’s ten seconds of grainy footage—”