SAMSARA ISLAND

Sophie was splashing some water on her face when she heard an urgent rapping. She went to the door and found Rachel standing there, her lips white and her whole body shaking.

“What’s wrong? Are you cold?” Sophie asked.

“I … think … I think I’m in shock,” Rachel stuttered.

“WHAT? What happened?”

“My room … I can’t describe it. Go see for yourself,” Rachel said numbly.

“Are you okay? Should I call for help?”

“No, no, I’ll be fine. I’m just shaking involuntarily.”

Sophie immediately slipped into doctor mode, grabbing hold of Rachel’s wrist. “Your pulse is a bit elevated,” she noted. She grabbed the cashmere throw on her chaise lounge and handed it to Rachel. “Sit down. Take long, slow breaths. Wrap this around yourself and wait right here,” she instructed.

A few minutes later, Sophie returned to the villa, ablaze in anger. “I can’t believe it! This is outrageous!”

Rachel nodded slowly, having calmed down a little by this point. “Can you call hotel security for me?”

“Of course!” Sophie headed for the phone and scanned the list on it, looking for the right button to press. She turned back to Rachel and gave her a thoughtful look. “Actually, I’m wondering whether it’s the best idea to call security. What exactly could they do?”

“We can find out who did this! There are security cameras everywhere, and surely they must have footage of who went into my room,” Rachel said.

“Well … what would that really achieve?” Sophie ventured. “Hear me out for a second … No one’s committed any real crime. I mean, I feel bad for the fish, and it was certainly traumatizing for you, but if you think about it, this was just a nasty prank. We’re on an island. We know it had to be one of these girls, or maybe even a group of them. Do you really care who did it? Are you going to confront someone and make a scene? They’re just trying to mess with you—why give them more fuel? I’m sure they’re on the beach right now just waiting for you to go hysterical and ruin Araminta’s bachelorette party. They wanted to provoke you.”

Rachel considered what Sophie had said for a moment. “You know, you’re right. I’m sure these girls are just dying for some drama so they can talk about it back in Singapore.” She got up from the sofa and paced around the room, not quite sure what to do next. “But there must be something we can do.”

“Doing nothing can sometimes be the most effective form of action,” Sophie remarked. “If you do nothing, you’ll be sending a clear message: that you’re stronger than they think you are. Not to mention a lot classier. Think about it.”

Rachel mulled it over for a few minutes and decided that Sophie was right. “Did anyone ever tell you how brilliant you are, Sophie?” she said with a sigh.

Sophie smiled. “Here, I saw some verveine tea in the bathroom. Let me make some. It’ll calm both our nerves.”

With warm cups of tea nestled on their laps, Rachel and Sophie sat on a pair of lounge chairs on the deck. The moon hung like a giant gong in the sky, lighting the ocean so brightly that Rachel could see the tiny schools of fish shimmering as they darted around the wooden piers of the bungalow.

Sophie looked intently at Rachel. “You weren’t prepared for any of this, were you? Astrid was so perceptive when she asked me to look out for you. She was a little worried about you tagging along with this particular crowd.”

“Astrid is so sweet. I guess I just never expected to encounter this kind of viciousness, that’s all. The way these girls are acting, it’s as if Nick is the last man in all of Asia! Look, I get it now—his family’s rich, he’s considered a good catch. But isn’t Singapore supposed to be filled with other rich families like his?”

Sophie sighed sympathetically. “First of all, Nick is so inordinately good-looking, most of these girls have had mad crushes on him since childhood. Then you have to understand something about his family. There’s a certain mystique that surrounds them because they are so intensely private. Most people don’t even realize they exist, but for the small circle of old families that do, they inspire a level of fascination that’s hard to describe. Nick is the scion of this noble clan, and for some of these girls, that’s all that matters. They may not know the first thing about him, but they are all vying to become Mrs. Nicholas Young.”

Rachel took it all in quietly. It felt like Sophie was talking about some character of fiction, someone who bore no resemblance to the man she knew and had fallen in love with. It was as if she were Sleeping Beauty—only, she never asked to be awakened by a prince.

“You know, Nick has told me very little about his family. I still don’t know much about them,” Rachel mused.

“That’s the way Nick was raised. I’m sure he was taught from a very young age never to talk about his family, where he lived, that sort of thing. He was brought up in such a cloistered environment. Can you imagine growing up in that house with no other kids around—no one but your parents, grandparents, and all those servants? I remember going over there as a child, and Nick always seemed so grateful whenever there were other kids to play with.”

Rachel gazed at the moon. Suddenly the rabbit-like figure on the moon reminded her of Nick, a little boy stuck up there in that glittering palace all by himself. “Do you want to know the craziest part of all this?”

“Tell me.”

“I just came for a summer vacation. Everyone here assumes that Nick and I are a done deal, that we’re going to run off and tie the knot tomorrow or something. Nobody knows that marriage is something we’ve never even discussed.”

“Really, you haven’t?” Sophie asked in surprise. “But don’t you ever think about it? Don’t you want to marry Nick?”

“To be completely honest, Nick is the first guy I’ve dated who I could imagine being married to. But I was never raised to believe that marriage was supposed to be my life’s goal. My mother wanted me to get the best education first. She never wanted me to end up having to wash dishes in a restaurant.”

“That’s not the case over here. No matter how advanced we’ve become, there’s still tremendous pressure for girls to get married. Here, it doesn’t matter how successful a woman is professionally. She isn’t considered complete until she is married and has children. Why do you think Araminta is so eager to get married?”

“Do you think Araminta shouldn’t be getting married, then?”

“Well, that’s a difficult question for me to answer. I mean, she is about to become my sister-in-law.”

Rachel looked at Sophie in surprise. “Wait a minute … Colin is your brother?”

“Yes.” Sophie giggled. “I thought you knew that all along.”

Rachel stared at her with renewed wonder. “I had no idea. I thought you were Astrid’s cousin. So … the Khoos are related to the Leongs?”

“Yes, of course. My mother was born a Leong. She was Harry Leong’s sister.”

Rachel noticed that Sophie used the past tense in talking about her mother. “Is your mother no longer around?”