“Testing your moli.” At least she doesn’t bother to deflect with accusations of invading her privacy, but such a straight answer demonstrates a mind-blowing lack of shame. All the intimacy of the evening vanishes.
“What do you mean? Have you been sneaking it to my clients?” I’m not at the point where I can get angry, not yet, but I can feel the first gusts of it on the horizon. “Is that why you liked being at work with me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Luling. Do you think I’d do that after your Kelsey debacle?”
The way she’s minimizing what’s going on causes those winds tostrengthen enough for the clouds to come roiling in. “I’m going to ask again, what have youdone?”
Her expression remains unruffled. “I asked some of our oldest and most loyal clients if they would test it. I told them the truth, so there’s no need to accuse me of trickery or worse.”
“What truth?” The wind grows to a squall, lashing the waves into small white crests.
“That we didn’t know what was going on and it may or may not summon their true love. Three were willing to take the chance, and I decanted samples from your two fragrances for them to try.”
I’m disgusted my first and most urgent need is to find out the result of this utter betrayal. The look on Mom’s face answers the question that lies between us, and she tells me without waiting.
“None of them found their true love, Luling.”
“That’s impossible.” The denial comes out before I can stop it. “Impossible. Kelsey’s clients did. I did everything I was supposed to. Those are moli fragrances. They might need more time.”
Mom only shakes her head. Her doubt has been proven. I look at her carefully. “Did you give them the samples to test? Or sell them?”
She looks insulted. “I didn’t charge what I would have, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Did you give them away for free?” It’s like all my blood has rushed to my hands, leaving them overheated and heavy, while my starved muscles shake.
Her expression, along with my knowledge of the kind of woman my mother is, answers me.
“You sold them,” I say.
“Nothing comes free in this world.”
She said that often when I was growing up, and it wasn’t only about money. Mastery took effort. Family took proving oneself. No, nothing was ever free.
Mom took my efforts and she sold them to get the rent so shewouldn’t lose her store. She never believed in me. She saw a business opportunity and she took it. Was she was going to keep having me create scents to send out as tests to old clients? Damn, at some point she’d probably cut me out completely and simply stick my huo on any old perfume. It was a test, she’d say, no guarantees, but a good price because of the risk. Caveat emptor. She would have me branded and rebranded a failure, but at least the goddamn store would survive.
“You finally got what you wanted,” I say.
“What do I want?” she demands.
“Money for Yixiang.”
“Not for Yixiang. For you.”
She has thenerveto say that to me. “Stop lying! For once, admit the truth.”
“What truth, Luling? I told you the truth. I sent some trusted clients your moli fragrance. You asked, and I told you.”
“I told you not to do this. Would you have told me if I hadn’t found the bottles?”
“No.” Her eyes meet mine. “You need to keep working to understand what’s happening, and I didn’t want to discourage you. What happened here proves nothing.”
“I hate it when you make me doubt myself.”
“I don’t do that.”
How do you fight with someone with a different perception of reality? There’s no common ground. “You do.”
“I don’t.” No surprise that she’s doubled down, and it makes me furious she won’t listen. She won’t see me or hear me the way I am.
