Rich People Problems (40 page)

As soon as Oliver had left the room, Victoria spoke up. “You know, I've been thinking…there is something to all this that's just been so serendipitous, so impossible to believe, this has to be a sign. Nicky, this incredible offer from the Bings, I think part of it is because they are atoning for what happened to Rachel. I think this is all Mummy's work. She is looking out for us from heaven.”

Nick rolled his eyes in frustration.

“It is hard to believe that anyone would pay this much over the market value for Tyersall Park—” Alix began.

“Mummy had it planned all along. She knew we wouldn't be getting any money from the Shang Trust, and so she wanted us all to get the most money possible out of Tyersall Park. That's why she split it up like she did, and now she's working a miracle for us.” Victoria's voice brimmed with conviction.

Nick suddenly stood up and looked at his aunties. “Look, you can tell yourself any story you want if it helps you to sleep at night. Personally, I can't stand the idea of this house going to the family that almost killed my wife! I don't think we can trust them to keep their word about preserving the house—I can tell that Kitty's just waiting to get her claws into redesigning it from top to bottom. But if I can match Jack's offer, will you sell it to me?”

Rachel looked at him in surprise, while Alix answered, “Nicky, don't be silly. It would be absurd for you to buy this house at that price! We couldn't let you do that!”

“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.

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—”

“Ohmygod, if I were to actually see the video I think I would instantly go blind! How could you have slept with that man when you're not even married to him? This is God punishing you!”

“I'm sorry, I've had sex before marriage, okay, and I've had sex with Charlie, who, by the way, I was having sex with the first time he was my fiancé over a decade ago!”

“The two of you have brought nothing but disgrace onto us. You have disgraced your father and me and you have disgraced your family for generations! And you have ruined poor Cassian's life! How will he ever show his face at ACS again?”

“I'm on my way to get Cassian now.”

“We already got him. Ludivine just collected him from school and is bringing him over here.”

“Oh good, I'll be there in ten minutes.”

“Absolutely not! What are you thinking? We don't want you anywhere near this house!”

“Stop being ridiculous, Mum—”

“Ridiculous? I don't know how I'm ever going to recover from this! You need to leave Singapore and not come back until things blow over! Don't you realize what this scandal has done to your father's reputation? Good grief, this might affect the next election! This might throw the sale of Tyersall Park into jeopardy! My God, the price might come tumbling down! I can feel my blood pressure skyrocketing now. Oh my goodness I need my pills. Sunali, where are my pills?” Felicity shrieked to one of her maids.

“Calm down, Mum, I don't see how this has anything to do with Tyersall Park!”

“How can you not see it? You have tainted the family legacy! Do not come over to Nassim Road, do you understand? Your father does not want to see your face! He says you are dead to him!”

Astrid felt winded for a few moments, overwhelmed by her mother's attack. Thankfully, her phone beeped and Charlie's number flashed on the screen.

“Okay, Mum, don't worry, I'm not coming over. I'm not going to shame you for one moment longer,” she said, switching over to Charlie.

There was a short pause, and then Charlie's voice came through. “Astrid, are you okay?”

“Yes, thank God it's you!” Astrid said with a heavy sigh.

“Are you driving?”

“Yes, I was on the way to get Cassian out of school, but—”

“Can you find someplace to pull over?” Charlie's voice sounded strange.

“Sure, I just got to Tanglin Road. Let me pull over into this Esso right here.”

Astrid parked in the gas station and relaxed into her seat. “Okay, I'm parked.”

“Good, good. First of all, are you okay?” Charlie asked.

“Well, my mum just screamed at me in a way I've never heard before and ordered me to leave the country. Otherwise, life is peachy. How has your day been so far?”

“I'm not sure how to tell you this, Astrid,” Charlie said in a shaky voice.

“Let me guess, you found out why Michael leaked the video?”

“Actually, Michael didn't leak it.”

“He didn't?”

“No. It was Isabel.”

“
ISABEL?
How did she even get the video?”

“We're not sure…we're still trying to piece it all together, but the video came from her phone. She posted it to the gossip blog.”

“Why on earth would she do that?”

“She had another psychotic episode, Astrid. And this time, she tried to hang herself.”

“She
what
?” Astrid found herself going numb.

“She tried hanging herself in our new house, on the dining-room chandelier. She wanted to curse the house and curse our marriage forever.”

“So what happened?” Astrid barely got the words out.

“The chandelier broke, and that saved her. But now she's on life support. She's in a coma, and they don't know if she'll ever come out of it,” Charlie said, his voice cracking in grief.

“No. No, no, no, no, no,” Astrid cried, breaking down into uncontrollable sobs.

*
Sophie is the sister of Colin Khoo, and they are cousins to Astrid through their late mother, who was Harry Leong's sister. Yes, Singapore is a very small world, and even smaller within the high-net-worth crowd.

I often think how unfairly life's good fortune is sometimes distributed.

—LEO TOLSTOY,
WAR
AND
PEACE

What's a soup kitchen?

—PARIS HILTON

Four days after Isabel's suicide attempt, an exclusive story broke in
The Daily Post
:

HEIRESS DRIVES RIVAL TO SUICIDE ATTEMPT AFTER SEX VIDEO LEAK!

The gorgeous Singaporean heiress
Astrid Leong's
sensational $5 billion divorce from venture capitalist
Michael Teo
continues to pile up collateral damage. The latest victim is
Isabel Wu
, the ex-wife of Astrid's current boyfriend, tech billionaire
Charles Wu.

Apparently, an explicit video of Ms. Leong in bed with Mr. Wu sent Mrs. Wu into an emotional tailspin, and after leaking the video to a popular Chinese gossip blog, Mrs. Wu tried to hang herself at the spectacular new Tom Kundig–designed mansion that her ex-husband has been building in Shek O.

Isabel has been in a coma at Hong Kong Sanatorium for over a week, where sources say there had been a concerted attempt by Mr. Wu to keep the tragedy under wraps. But Isabel's mother,
The Hon. Madam Justice Deirdre Lai,
demands a further investigation into her daughter's suicide attempt. “Charlie and Astrid are responsible, and I want the world to know what they have done to my daughter!” sobbed the Hong Kong High Court Judge.

The scandal has become the talk of Asia, splitting Hong Kong society as friends and family take opposing sides. An insider on Team Charlie says, “Isabel has been suffering from mental health issues for over two decades. The footage in question was secretly recorded long after Isabel and Charlie's marriage fell apart, and Isabel leaked it while she was suffering from a manic episode. Charlie and Astrid are the real victims here.”

“Nonsense!” counters an insider from Team Isabel. “Izzie was devastated by this video. It was recorded while Isabel and Charlie were happily married, and it really put her over the edge to learn just how long their affair had been going on.”

Deirdre Lai says, “My poor granddaughters Chloe and Delphine! First they have a porn star for a father, and now they might lose their mother! Can you believe that after all this, that dirty woman dared to show up at the hospital where my poor daughter lies in a coma?”

The Daily Post
tried to contact Ms. Leong for a comment, but since her appearance at Hong Kong Sanatorium, Ms. Leong has seemingly vanished. When we contacted her family's company, Leong Holdings, for comment, spokeswoman
Zoe Quan
said, “Astrid Leong has no functioning role in this company, and we have no comment.” When we inquired as to Astrid's whereabouts, Ms. Quan hurriedly barked, “No idea,
lah
! She is out of the country for an indefinite period.”