"This was the perfect idea. How did you know I was craving T&S for lunch?" Nick asked as he tucked into his usual English bacon, avocado, and tomato sandwich.
Taking advantage of his good mood, Rachel got right to the point. "So I spoke to my mom a little earlier. Apparently, our mothers have been talking-"
"Oh God, not the grandchildren talk again!"
"No, this time it was all about you."
"Let me guess … my mother has enlisted her help to convince me to return to Singapore."
"You're psychic."
Nick rolled his eyes. "My mother is so predictable. You know, I don't think she really cares about my grandmother dying-she's just fixated on me getting Tyersall Park. It's her entire raison d'être."
Rachel broke the thick golden pastry crust of her chicken pie with a fork and let some of the steam escape. She took her first tentative bite of the piping-hot creamy sauce before speaking again. "What I've never really understood is why everyone thinks the house is supposed to go to you. What about your father, or your aunts? Don't they have more right to the house?"
Nick sighed. "Ah Ma, as you know, is an old-fashioned Chinese woman. She has always favored her son over her daughters-they were all just supposed to marry and be taken care of by their husband's families, while my father got Tyersall Park. It's this warped mash-up of archaic Chinese customs and the British rules of primogeniture."
"But that's so unfair," Rachel muttered.
"I know, but that's the way things are and my aunts grew up always knowing they would get the short end of the stick. Mind you, each of them is still going to inherit from Ah Ma's financial holdings-so no one's going to be hurting for cash here."
"So then how is it that you suddenly got to be first in line to inherit Tyersall Park?"
Nick leaned back in his chair. "Do you remember when Jacqueline Ling came to New York a couple of years ago and summoned me to lunch aboard her yacht?"
"Oh yeah, she had two Swedish blondes kidnap you in the middle of a lecture!" Rachel laughed.
"Yes. Jacqueline is Ah Ma's goddaughter, and they've always been extremely close. Jacqueline revealed to me that back in the early nineties, when my father decided to move to Australia pretty much full-time, it so angered my grandmother that she decided to change her will and disinherit him from Tyersall Park. She skipped a generation and made me the heir to the property. But then after I married you, she supposedly changed her will again."
"Who do you think is currently in her favor to get Tyersall Park?"
"I honestly have no idea. Maybe Eddie, maybe one of my cousins in Thailand, maybe she's going to leave it all to her beloved guava trees. The point is, Ah Ma uses her fortune to control the family. She's always changing her will according to her latest whim. No one really knows what she's going to do, and at this point, I've stopped caring."
Rachel looked Nick straight in the face. "Here's the thing. I know that you don't care what happens to your grandmother's fortune, but you can't pretend that you don't still care for her. And that's the only reason why I think you should go back now."
Nick stared out of the fogged-up window for a moment, avoiding her eyes. "I dunno … I think part of me is still so angry at her for how she treated you."
"Nick, please don't hold on to this because of me. I forgave your grandmother long ago."
Nick looked at her skeptically.
Rachel put her hand on his. "I have. Truly. I realized it was a waste of time to be mad at her, because she never really got to know me. She never gave me a chance-I was this girl who came out of left field and stole her grandson's heart. But the more time passes, I find myself actually feeling grateful toward her now."
"Grateful?"
"Think about it, Nick. If your grandmother hadn't been so resistant to us being together, if she hadn't supported your mom in all her crazy shenanigans, I would never have found my real father. I would have never met Carlton. Can you imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't met them?"
Nick softened for a moment at the mention of Rachel's half brother. "Well, I can imagine what Carlton's life would be like if he'd never met you-he probably would have wrecked a dozen more sports cars by now."
"Oh God, don't even say that! The point I'm trying to make is, I think you need to find some way to forgive your grandmother. Because it's clearly an issue for you, and it's going to keep eating you up inside if you don't. Remember what that radio host Delilah always says? 'Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves.' If you think you're able to let things go without ever seeing her again, more power to you. I'm not going to force you to get on a plane. But I think you need to see her in person, and I'm guessing she probably really wants to see you too but-like you-she's too damn proud to admit it."