Once the doors were closed, Jinhai took his phone out and called his assistant, Xin. It picked up on the second ring.
"Hello?" A male voice came through the phone.
"Do some digging. Find me all the information on Shawn Cheung's personal life." Jinhai said the gentleness gone. He was careful to keep his voice low.
"You want me to look up Mrs. Cheung?" His assistant asked.
"Do not call her that anymore. It's Ms. Wei." Jinhai reverted to her maiden name. He killed the thought of calling her Mrs. Li before it formed.
"No. I need you to find me information on that woman he has on the side." Jinhai said.
"What? He has a woman on the side?" The assistant asked the surprise in his voice was evident. Jinhai didn't answer his assistant's question.
"You have one day." Jinhai said before he hung up. He gripped his phone tightly in his hand to stop himself from chucking his phone. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths to calm himself down.
Evelyn's voice was so calm as she recalled everything, but she hurt herself. It was a habit he knew well. He had done something very similar in the past. Being the heir to such a large corporate empire, a lot was placed on his shoulder from a young age.
His grandfather took him under his wing and taught him all the ruthlessness of the world. He taught him how to run things with an iron tight fist. He was taught to control his emotions, to never let it show on his face.
It was Evelyn that noticed all those years ago. She was about four at the time, he had just turned nine. She was running around with his little brother in the garden. When she saw him she stopped chasing Zain.
"Zain, who's that?" She asked her head tilting to the side as she looked at Jinhai.
"My brother, Jinhai. Don't worry about him, Xiaoli . He's no fun." Zain said trying to regain her attention. When Jinhai heard Zain, his hand curled into fists. His nails were digging painfully into his skin but he ignored it. When she saw his hands balled into fists at his side she ran to him. She stopped in front of him and grabbed his hand.
"Don't do that. You're hurting yourself." She said. He looked at her feeling shocked.
"Why do you care?" He had said to her coldly.
"Of course I care. We're friends." She beamed at him. She used her fingers to try to pry his fingers open. She was too weak, but he slowly relaxed his fingers letting her smooth her palm over it.
"When I do this, my mommy says its bad." She said as she kept rubbing his palm where the marks were.
"We're friends?" He said looking at her.
"Of course! My name's Evelyn but my friend's call me Xiaoli. You can call me Xiaoli," she said smiling broadly up at him. He felt a small tug at his lips.
"Eh eh eh eh," Zain had ran up to them. He snatched Evelyn's hands away.
"Da Ge, doesn't like to be touched." He said. Jinhai narrowed his eyes at his brother.
"I don't like when you touch me. But she's okay." Jinhai said. This caused Evelyn to smile and laugh joyfully. She jumped up and down while clapping her hands.
"You want to be my friend too!" She said.
"Mm," he said simply before he turned away.
He doubted that Evelyn even remembered their first encounter, but he did. It was the first time anyone besides his parents expressed care for him. She didn't stay away from him like most kids did.
- - - -
OUTSIDE THE BATHROOM
"Li Li, why did you hurt yourself?" Phoenix asked Evelyn. Evelyn frowned. She really didn't notice how badly she hurt herself.
"I didn't realize." She replied. She honestly didn't realize how much pressure she was using. If Jinhai hadn't said anything she probably wouldn't have even noticed.
"I know you're sad, but don't do this again." Phoenix said. Evelyn didn't reply. Phoenix put all the stuff back into the first aid kit and closed it.
"He really hurt you, didn't he?" Phoenix said in a gentle tone. Evelyn's eyes welled up. She tried to blink them away but it only succeeded in causing a tear to roll down her cheek.
"Why did you tear up the divorce papers? Do you want to change his mind?" Phoenix asked her. At the time Evelyn tore the papers up because was angry at the conditions in them. But she thought about it, did she want him back?
She couldn't deny that part of her was longing for it. But she would never try. Phoenix shook Evelyn's shoulders when she didn't answer for a while.
"Huh, what?" Evelyn said turning to Phoenix.
"I said, why did you tear up the divorce papers? Do you want to be with him?" Phoenix asked. The bathroom door opened.
"He breached the prenup he and I signed. But he said I breached it as well and that because of it, I couldn't get 17.5 percent of his shares. He was giving me 5 percent in the divorce papers." Evelyn said.
"What did you breach?" Phoenix asked frowning. Evelyn had never told her the specifics of the prenup. When Evelyn told her about it before she got married, she was annoyed at needing one.
"He said there was a stipulation that I didn't bear him a child at least until three months." Evelyn said.
"But you miscarried both times at two months. So isn't he right?" Phoenix asked, slowly realizing this sounded offensive. Evelyn bit her lip and shook her head.
"What? He isn't?" Phoenix eyebrows furrowed in confusion before she lit up.
"Wait, are you pregnant?" Phoenix shouted. She reached a hand out as if she was going to touch Evelyn's stomach and Evelyn slapped it away.
"Of course not," Evelyn snapped.
"I miscarried again. But the baby was three months and a day. So I actually fulfilled my end of the prenup." Evelyn said.
"What?" Phoenix and Jinhai said at the same time. Evelyn turned to him, she had momentarily forgotten about him.
"What do you mean again? You were pregnant?" Phoenix asked.
"I miscarried two weeks ago." Evelyn said. Phoenix's eyes widened. She remembered the first two times Evelyn was pregnant. She was so excited to be a mother. She celebrated it with all of her family and friends. When she had miscarried the first time she hid away for months refusing to see anyone besides Shawn.
The second time she was every bit as happy. When she miscarried again she lost a lot of weight and looked sickly. It took a long time for her to get back up after that. She couldn't imagine what her friend was going through for a third time. She understood now why she wanted to drink so badly.
"Li Li," Phoenix said reaching for her friend to hug her. Evelyn held still and let her. After a while she gently shrugged her off.
"I don't want to talk about this anymore tonight okay?" Evelyn said standing up.
"First to three shots," Evelyn said walking back to the dining table to where the shots were.
Phoenix looked at Jinhai. His face was unreadable. His eyes were downright murderous. Phoenix got up and waved a hand in front of his face. He cleared his face and turned to her. Phoenix gave a nod at Evelyn's direction. He turned to follow her.
When they arrived Evelyn had already lined up three lines of three shots. When they got there she handed them both a shot before grabbing one for herself.
"Ready, set, go," Evelyn said and raced to down the shots. Phoenix met Jinhai's gaze behind Evelyn's back. She held it in her hands without drinking. Jinhai tossed the drink back before reaching to grab the other. Phoenix didn't drink any.
Evelyn finished all three first before Jinhai could grab his third drink. When she finished she turned to Phoenix.
"Why aren't you drinking?" She asked her.
"Someone needs to be your designated driver." She replied.
"Driver Chung is driving me tonight. So no excuse, drink." Evelyn said. Phoenix looked at her for a second before tipping the drink back.
Phoenix actually didn't like drinking. She saw what an alcoholic her mother was and hated it.
Evelyn sat down then and passed Jinhai another drink before she took another shot. There were a total of twenty-one shots on the tray. Phoenix had two, Jinhai had four, and Evelyn had the rest that night.
When she slammed the last cup down she coughed. She started to forget her problems around the tenth shot but when she kept drinking her thoughts turned sour. She couldn't help thinking about Shawn and the baby she lost. She became delirious and in tears.