There was genuine concern in her voice, not disapproval, but worry that perhaps Shuyin was sacrificing something important for them. The child had learned early that adults who didn't work faced consequences, that jobs were fragile things that could disappear if not carefully maintained.
"Work can always wait," Shuyin said with absolute confidence, her tone leaving no room for doubt. "Some things are more important than sitting in an office."
What she didn't say, couldn't say in front of the children, was that she had other priorities today. Her mother, still unconscious in St. Catherine's Private Hospital, is healing from fifteen years of imprisonment. The Lin family, currently locked in holding cells, exactly where she wanted them. The revenge that was finally, finally unfolding according to plan.
