“Thank you,” Luli murmured, keeping the wallet in her lap.
“Please don’t be alarmed if you hear a noise in the rear of the plane as we ascend. Our design reduces the sonic boom to the decibel of a car door slamming, but you may still notice it. It’s perfectly normal.” The attendant closed the bin and walked away.
“Your plane travels faster than sound?”
“This one does, yes. There are laws as to where they can be used so I have others for airspaces where we have to travel subsonic.”
Others. Plural.
The passage of landscape beyond the windows became a rushing blur before it fell away without any bumps or noises to indicate they had left the ground. She listened and thought she heard the clap, but wasn’t sure.
Luli fingered the buckle on the adorable wallet, releasing it to reveal it did conceal a phone. A very feminine and pretty phone in rose-gold-colored metal with crystals embedded around a casing designed with a graceful swoop that set it a world apart from every boring rectangle out there. She wanted to draw it from its custom pocket, to examine it from every angle, but was afraid to mar its shine with her fingerprints.
A light blinked once and a modulated, feminine voice said, “Hello, Luli.” The words appeared on the screen then faded against the home screen that showed Gabriel’s logo and a handful of icons for apps.
“How—?”
“Facial recognition.”
“That’s why it took so long to take my passport photo yesterday? You were scanning my face?”
“If you don’t like it, you can change it in Settings. I don’t always want my phone to open when I glance at it so I also require my fingerprint.”
“I know you manufacture all of this technology, but it’s still very expensive.”
“Very,” he interjected dryly. “That’s real gold and those are genuine diamonds. Kindly take care of it.”
“What?” The priceless phone slipped from her fingers and landed in her lap. She scrambled to pick it up again, mortified. “Why would you give me something like this?”
“You’re my wife. People will expect you to have the best.”
She shook her head, still not clear on what all was expected of his “wife.”
She reached for a sip of water, trying to collect herself, and was promptly distracted by the diamond-cut cubes inside her crystal glass. Judging by the weight, they were plated gold if not solid.
Gabriel’s drink was poured over similar chilling stones. Each one was engraved with his dragon symbol.
“You’re very different from your grandmother. Mae didn’t like her wealth to be obvious. She was afraid people would be encouraged to steal from her if they knew how much she really had.”
“Which explains why she kept you locked away and allowed the rest of the staff to think it was okay to treat you poorly. She didn’t want anyone to know exactly how much she needed you.”
What would it say about her value if he let his staff wait on her and she flaunted the fancy telephone he had given her?
“What was she like?” Gabriel asked. “If my mother told me anything about her, I was too young to remember.”
“She didn’t care to leave the house. Once she realized how much she could accomplish online, she worked from home and only went into Chen Enterprises for meetings.”
“Don’t make excuses for her. She didn’t take an active role in my life because she didn’t approve of her daughter running off to marry an American.”
“That’s true,” she murmured, setting aside her glass. “She had strong views on loyalty and didn’t trust easily. Someone must have damaged her trust in the past.”
“My mother?” he suggested.
“Perhaps.” She closed the pocketbook over the sparkling phone. “But she particularly didn’t trust men. It goes back to that business manager, I think. She would only employ a man if he was married and she was introduced to his wife. With her female servants, she didn’t want them to be married or have boyfriends, thinking it distracted them and split their loyalty. She fired a maid who was dating without her permission.”
“Controlling.”
“Yes, but she was kind in her way. I caught a virus once and she had the doctor come, brought me soup and sat with me, even though I was just sleeping.” She swallowed back the lump of emotion that swelled in her throat. “I’m going to miss her.”
“Have you heard of Stockholm syndrome?” The stones clinked in his glass as he drained it. “It’s the bond of trust and loyalty a hostage feels for their captor.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Was it?
Was that what she was starting to feel toward him? She had nearly given him free rein over her body a little while ago, even though she didn’t know him well at all.
“She never spoke about my mother other than to complain about her disobedience?” He looked into his empty glass, making it seem a very idle inquiry, but she sensed a deeper need for knowledge inside the question.
“Mae wasn’t one to confide or reexamine the past. She never admitted to mistakes or regrets. I only learned she had a daughter when she came back from your father’s funeral. I sat in as she directed her attorney to rewrite her will to include you. Until that day, I thought she followed your investments for business reasons.”
“Many do.”
“I do,” she admitted, idly opening a pocket on the wallet to find a metal credit card made of actual platinum. It had an electronic chip on one end, his logo on one side and her name on the other. She shoved it back in its pocket, not ready to contemplate that she had funds at her disposal. “I, um, I’ve learned a lot from you. I like to imagine that one day I’ll have my own money and will manage it wisely and create my own fortune, instead of doing it for someone else.”
She smiled at the silly dream of it, but she had needed something to get her through the endless days of feeling like the girl in the tower. A fairy-tale fantasy of building her own castle was a lot more fun to dwell on than facing the reality of her situation or worrying there was a darker future in store for her.
Never in her wildest imaginings had she pictured this.
“I think your grandmother was proud of you,” she said.
His dark brow went up with skepticism.
“I don’t mean that as flattery. Maybe I should say she took a certain amount of credit for your success.”
“Her DNA made me what I am? Perhaps. God knows I didn’t get any hidden talents from my father. But I’m beginning to think she owes her success to you.”
“I would never make such a claim.” Not without expecting a sharp rebuke from Mae.
The plane leveled off and the ultrapleasant attendant appeared with a fresh drink for Gabriel and a fresh smile for Luli. “May I bring anything to ensure your comfort?”
“The lavender thing is popular. You should try it,” Gabriel advised.
She was curious. She nodded.
“There’s a lovely iced-mint cookie that pairs with it. I’ll bring that, too.” The attendant melted away.
“You don’t have to be so...nice.” Luli wondered what the attendant was going to say to the rest of the crew behind her back. “Do you feel sorry for me or something?”
“You