“If you’ve set aside so much money for your darling daughter, who by the way won’t even speak to you anymore, and her half-breed children, that haven’t even been born yet, what are you doing for your other children and your poor wife?”
“I don’t understand your question. What do I do for you? I work my balls off for you, and you have a fantastic life and get everything your heart desires. Didn’t you just spend ten million dollars in Paris?”
“It was only nine point five—I’m a Chanel Privé preferred client, and they gave me a special discount. But say something happens to you? What happens to me?” Kitty demanded.
“Nothing’s going to happen to me. But don’t worry, you’ll be well taken care of.”
“What do you mean by ‘well taken care of’?”
“You’ll also get a two-billion-dollar trust.”
So, I’m not worth as much as your daughter, Kitty thought to herself, feeling her anger boil up. “And how much is Harvard getting?”
“Harvard is my son. He will get everything else of course, and let me remind you that’s a great deal more than five billion dollars.”
“And Gisele?”
“I don’t see why I need to leave Gisele anything. She is going to inherit all the Tai billions one day.”
Kitty stood up from the chaise lounge and walked toward the door. “It is so interesting to know all this. I can see where your true priorities lie now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re not really thinking of me…or our children,” Kitty said, her voice shaking with emotion.
“Of course I am!”
“No, you’re not! You’re not thinking of us at all.”
“Babylove, don’t be unreasonable…ooohhwwhhh…not so hard there!” Jack yelled at the therapist who had climbed up on the massage table and was now kneading his ass with the full weight of her bare feet.
“Sir, you spend too much time sitting—that is why your buttocks hurt so much. I am barely stepping on them,” the woman said in a soothing tone.
“I cannot believe you would give your daughter five billion dollars just like that! After all she’s done to you!” Kitty cried.
“Ouch…aww…Kitty, you’re not making any sense! Colette is my only daughter—why should it matter if she gets five billion, when I give you everything you want? Aii-yowwww!” Jack moaned.
“Stomp harder on his ass! And stomp on his saggy balls while you’re at it!” Kitty shouted, fleeing the room in tears.
* * *
* Kitty also had the attractive eastern European therapists that Colette kept on staff replaced with middle-aged Chinese women who resembled Madame Mao.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
HONG KONG
Chloe had finally fallen asleep after he had rubbed her back for half an hour, and Charlie tiptoed quietly up to his bedroom. He sat leaning against the foot of the bed, facing the floor-to-ceiling window with its panoramic view of Victoria Harbour and dialed Astrid’s private line in Singapore. It rang a few times, and just as Charlie began to think he was calling too late, a sleepy-sounding Astrid picked up.
“Sorry, did I wake you up?” Charlie half whispered.
“No, I was reading. Did you just get home?”
“I’ve been in all night, but I was putting out a few fires.”
“Isabel again?”
Charlie sighed. “No, nothing to do with her this time. Chloe had been bugging me for weeks to let her watch this movie, and I stupidly allowed her and Delphine to see it tonight…The Fault in Our Stars.”