FADE NOT AWAY

Once again she felt loneliness envelop her as she watched the plane bound for Taipei take off, taking along with it her parents, Shage, Qing He, Xi Men, Mei Zuo and Xiao Qiao.

Of course she had foreseen this. They also have their own loves to go back to in Taipei, and they have been kind enough to have stayed with them in Madrid for the past week since the wedding. They all have to go back.

She felt A Si's arm tighten around her shoulder. "Don't be sad, he said. We'll see them again, maybe in Taipei when we return."

Shancai turned to look up at him. "I thought you didn't want to go back."

He looked at her in exasperation. "Did I tell you I don t want to? Taipei is still our home. Of course someday soon we'll go back there. Just...not yet."

"Oh," she said. "Where's Hua Ze Lei?"

A Si pointed at the parking area where Lei stood by their rental car, talking to Jing.

Shancai sighed. "I wished Lei wouldn't have to leave so soon," she said. "He and Jing need more time together."

"If they are meant to be, then they are meant to be. Besides, Lei could not be dissuaded. He has decided to go back to Japan. Let's just let the two of them speak while he has less than thirty minutes before his plane leaves."

Shancai nodded and leaned her head on his chest. "Even Sis will be leaving tomorrow. We'll be left alone again."

"And again you insult me. Don't you want to spend time with me? Me? Your husband?"

Alarmed that she might have angered him, Shancai looked up to apologize but when she saw the laughter in his eyes, she hit at his chest. "You oaf!" she exclaimed. A Si winced and stepped back, trying to evade her blows.

"Hey! I was only kidding! Honestly, you still hit hard!"

But Shancai wouldn't quit as she playfully sparred with him.

The sound of Shancai's laughter caught Hua Ze Lei s attention and he turned to look at A Si and Shancai playing around not too far away.

Jing saw this and said softly, "You still have feelings for her, don't you?"

He turned away as A Si finally caught Shancai s arms and had her in a tight embrace. He turned to look at Jing, who is eyeing him with something akin to sadness in her eyes.

"She's already married," he said, as though it answered everything.

"But that doesn't stop you from loving her," Jing remarked, not a question, but a statement.

"What do you want?" he asked patiently. Jing did not immediately reply. She seemed to be having an internal battle, as though she wanted to say something but didn't know how.

When at last she spoke, she only said, "Did you miss me at all?"

"You're my friend. Of course I missed you."

Clearly it was not the answer she wanted to hear, but all she gave was a small smile. "I see," she said.

The Spanish operator at the airport gave the last call to board the plane bound for Tokyo. Lei straightened, glancing at his watch.

"I have to go," he said and reached for his suitcase from the trunk of the car.

"Just answer one question, Lei," Jing said in a pleading voice. "Do you still love Shancai?"

When it seemed as though Lei wouldn't answer her, Jing looked down, trying to hide the tears. But Lei said, "I will always love Shancai," and walked away.

Through eyes blurred with tears, Jing watched as Lei met A Si and Shancai, giving both warm hugs and bidding goodbye. Lei walked away, and not once did he turn to look back. He just kept on, moving forward, moving onward.

To Japan.

Later that evening, while Shancai was busy cleaning up at the kitchen, A Si sauntered into the room occupied by Dao Ming Zhuang to find her packing. He stood by the doorway, his arms folded, watching her.

"What time do you leave tomorrow?"

"Two o clock," she replied, folding a pair of trousers. "I'm surprised you opted to go to New York and not Switzerland."

He walked in and sat down at the edge of the bed. "I would've thought you wanted to be as far away from Ma as possible."

"There's nothing left for me in Geneva anymore," Sis said. "In two weeks the divorce will be finalized. As for New York...well, let's just say I don't need to fear Ma anymore."

His brows creased. "Why not?"

Dao Ming Zhuang laid down the shirt she was folding and sat down beside her brother. "I have found a new ally, for us both. Papa."

A bitter smile surfaced. "Papa?" He scoffed. "Since when did he start caring?"

Dao Ming Zhuang didn't answer him. Instead she said, "What are your plans after this? How long do you plan on staying here?"

"I'm not sure."

"Either way, you have to admit you can't stay here forever. Madrid is a very beautiful place, but it's not home. And once you get back to Taipei, things will be different."

"Different how?"

"For one, you will no longer have the comforts the Dao Ming name can give you. Ma has made sure of that."

He smirked. "You think I care about that? I have shed myself of that identity a long time ago and still here I am, standing. I was the one who left in the first place."

Dao Ming Zhuang nodded in agreement. "Yes, I know, and for that I am proud. But this isn't like before. You're now married, with a wife. You are about to start a family." She sighed. "The real world is about to be opened to you. Sooner or later you have to leave this dream behind."

"It is not a dream, Sis."

Dao Ming Zhuang gave a pause. "What I'm saying is, I know you and Shancai can make your way around. Both of you are capable of that, I have no doubts."

"Stop beating around the bush and get to the point," he said impatiently.

"OK." Dao Ming Zhuang sighed, bracing herself. "Go to New York. Papa wants to talk to you."

Abruptly A Si stood up and stepped away from his sister as though he had just scalded her. "Are you serious?!"

Dao Ming Zhuang stood up to placate him. "A Si..."

Breathing hard, making an effort to calm himself, A Si shook his head. "He was never a father to you and me. Why should I go to him? For sure this is just one of Ma's schemes!"

"I talked to Papa many times since I went to visit New York last month." Dao Ming Zhuang confessed, ignoring A Si s shocked look. "He's changed, A Si. He has helped me with the divorce...He means well, I can see that."

A Si shook his head again, not willing to accept what she's saying. "Are you taking their side now?"

"I am not taking sides!" she insisted, desperate to make her brother see. "He is not in league with Ma, I can guarantee that! I'm just thinking of your family's future!"

"I have cut myself off from anything remotely connected to the Dao Ming fortune except my name. I've turned my back on Ma, on the money, and that includes Papa. Don't make me turn my back on you as well." He turned around to walk out of the door.

"If you don't care about your future, think about Shancai's!" Dao Ming Si paused at the doorway, gave a shake of the head, and left the room.

Outside, Shancai moved to the side, careful not to let A Si see her standing there, hearing every word. Carefully Shancai crept into the room and was not surprised to find A Si looking out the window, his hands on the sill, his eyes boring the darkness outside. She tried to keep her voice sound as normal as she could.

"You're still up! Aren't you exhausted?"

As though he was woken up from sleep, A Si looked up and smiled at her. "I was waiting for you."

She smiled as he walked towards her and took her in his arms. "You're so like a kid," she remarked, "who couldn't sleep without his mother." The mention of mother must have had an effect on him as he slowly let her go and walked into the middle of the room.

"Shancai...are you really content with what we have?"

"What kind of a question is that?" she asked, not believing he's actually asking her this. "Have I ever made you feel like I was wanting for anything?"

He smiled at her apologetically. "No, no. I just wondered." He drew a deep breath. "Before, I had this all planned. I would give you everything you could ever want, bring you to all the places you want to go But that was when I was still Dao Ming Si, the scion of the Dao Ming Corporation."

Shancai shook her head, knowing where this is going, seeking to reassure him. "I never cared about that, and you know it. And didn't you tell me before? We don't need anyone. We have each other."

He sighed and sat down at the edge of the bed, his head down. "Sis told me that Papa wants to talk to me in New York."

Dread suddenly began to fill her, but she kept her voice light. "Well, isn't that good news? How long has it been since you last saw him?"

"More than three years." He lifted his head and a sardonic smile showed on his face. "What I don't understand is why he should want to see me now. Maybe it's a last-ditch effort for me to return."

"What if he just wants to talk to his son?" she suggested hopefully.

"We barely even know each other!" he retorted, his voice going up a notch louder. "I don't even remember us having a conversation longer than ten minutes! And now he wants to talk?"

Shancai walked towards him and knelt on the floor before him, lifting her eyes to his. They were stormy, indicative of the strong wave of emotions overwhelming him. She smiled.

"He's still your father," she said, reaching for his hand. "You said you want a new beginning for us. Don't you think the best way to move forward is to take a step back and level the path, at least even a little?"

A Si searched her eyes. "Aren't you afraid they will try to rip us apart again?"

Shancai could have said yes. She could have expressed her deep-rooted fear of being kept away from him even for a day, of her fear that something might happen and he might not come back to her again. But she just couldn't get herself to say those words.

Instead she tried to look reassuring. "I have faith in us," she declared. "Besides, if they will try one of their tricks again, I won't let it all go without a fight."

A Si's stormy face smoothed and a smile finally appeared. Suddenly he pulled her towards him. I m tired.

"Why don't you put me to sleep?" Shancai laughed and let him pull her up onto the wide soft bed.

As she held him in her arms like a babe she uttered a small prayer.

'Please...if this were but a dream, please don't let it end...

In a high-rise building in upstate New York, Dao Ming Feng laid the phone down, the wheels in her mind turning. That was their contact in the Madrid Registry, confirming the news given to her by one of her men a week ago.

Her son A Si has indeed married that weed Shancai, and all the documents are proper. There is no way to go through it and make it void. She breathed deeply, barely controlling her anger.

When A Si had left the mansion over four months ago she had not expected him to go back to Spain where everything had been messed up for him. But there he did go, to follow Shancai. And only last week she heard the first news of the wedding. And apparently Dao Ming Zhuang knew of it!

She would have none of this, she decided and reached for the phone. But before she could do so, the door to her study opened. Dao Ming Feng stood up in surprise as a man came in, followed by two tall American bodyguards.

"Cheng!" she exclaimed, surprised to see her husband, Dao Ming Cheng.

Dao Ming Cheng, a tall and robust man in his late fifties, strode in purposefully and stopped in front of her table. He dipped his head slightly to the side.

"A Feng," he spoke ever so softly that she wasn't sure she heard him.

"What are you doing, bursting in here like that?" she demanded. "I thought you were in Denver."

He nodded, looking around at the elegant office. "I was. I flew in an hour ago. How long has it been since I came here in your place? Six months? Really, A Feng, your obsession for redecorating worries me." Cheng sat down on one of the plush couches and crossed his legs. "You like to rearrange everything," he continued, "and you almost succeed. Well, except me, of course. I could only imagine how much you hate me because you cannot control me."

Dao Ming Feng's chin lifted. "What do you want?"

He became all business-like. "I had a nice long talk with my daughter not a long time ago, and she told me quite an interesting tale about you trying to, shall we say, reorganize our children's lives?"

"That's nonsense."

"Is it?" He leaned back on his chair and regarded her thoughtfully. "I became lenient, A Feng. I left the children to you because I know mothers know best. But I guess I must have had that wrong. You're not a mother. You're a businesswoman."

Outrage filled her. "Are you questioning my actions?"

"Questioning? No! I am merely wondering how a mother could have her own son kidnapped, drugged and use her son's memory loss as a business tool." He shrugged. "I wonder about a lot of things about you, but then I realize...Why else should I wonder? You are no mother."

"You came all the way here just to tell me this?" Dao Ming Feng said scornfully, not letting him see her discomfiture.

"No." He stood up and leaned forward, his hands on top of the table, his face close to hers. She stood her ground and forced herself to look back into his eyes, and all she saw was contempt for her. "I came here to warn you, A Feng. From now on, you leave my children alone. I don't want to smell your scent anywhere near my daughter, my son and his wife. I want you to stay out of Dao Ming Zhuang's divorce, or A Si's newfound life."

Losing her cool, Dao Ming Feng yelled at him. "How dare you! You would let a girl like Shancai into the family!"

"Family!" Cheng exclaimed, followed by loud laughter. "You leave her to me. I promise you I will succeed where you failed miserably. But for now," he smoothed his tie, "stay away. Don't thwart me, A Feng. You know as well as I do that if no one can ruin you and bring you to your knees, I can."

When he left she remained standing there, her arms balled into fists, tears of frustration threatening to flow. With a scream she picked up a glass paperweight and threw it against the wall, watching the shattered pieces fall into the floor.

Outside, Dao Ming Cheng heard the loud crash. He smiled to himself and nodded at his two bodyguards and walked towards the elevator.

Shancai opened her eyes and blinked against the sunlight streaming through the open window. The first thing she noticed as she fully came awake was the empty space beside her on the bed.

She sat up, wondering where he went. She was already dressed in her pajamas when he came in through the door and smiled to see her awake.

"Good morning!" he said cheerfully, greeting her with a kiss. Wondering at his good mood, she smiled uncertainly.

"Where have you been?" she asked, letting him lead her out of the room and into the kitchen. "Where's Sis?"

"She went to town to do some last-minute shopping," he said, pushing Shancai to a chair and proceeding to making coffee. "I went out. To think."

Shancai didn't say anything, waiting with trepidation for him to say he has decided to go to New York to meet his father, and that she would have to stay behind here in Madrid and wait until he returns.

She gave him a weak smile as he handed her a cup of brewed coffee, something he has mastered since they came to Barcelona, and something she had looked forward to every single waking day.

His next words surprised her.

"How would you feel about going back to Taipei?"

"Soon?" she asked, confused. Why, only a few days ago he said he can't go back just yet and now...Maybe...

"Would you like that?" She nodded, the thought of going back home filling her with delight.

"Of course!"

"That's great," he said, grinning. "But before that, would you mind if we take a detour?" He paused for a while, then said, "I have decided to meet my father in New York. And we're going together."

The last sentence was what cinched it for her. Forgetting her coffee she jumped up out of her seat and ran into his arms, grateful that her worst fears were unfounded.