“Luling, for once, listen to me. She might not want to change what she’s done. She’s making money off it; that’s all she wants.”
I keep thelike youout of my mouth. “It’s the right thing to do. It’s also my problem and my choice how to solve it.”
She blows out a breath. “No. This is what you constantly refuse to believe. It is not your problem. It isourproblem because you are a Hua, and we are a family.”
“Oh, now we’re a family.”
“We have always been a family.”
Silence falls in the room. “I’m going to do it my way,” I say finally.
She throws up her hands and walks away. “I can’t stop you,” she says over her shoulder. “I never could.”
18
Hua Liqiu
Southern Song dynasty. Liqiu was the first Hua to have her feet bound.
Heart note //Lift gloominess
Base note //Benzoin
As always, although I know I’m doing the right thing, my mother’s disapproval has me second-guessing myself. The best way I’ve found to deal with it is to simply do whatever the thing is as quickly as possible to reduce the chances of Mom getting too deep in my head. With that in mind, I prepare the ghost-scent samples and get ready to leave.
The store door slams open.
It’s Kelsey. She’s dressed, but her lips are pale without lipstick and her eyes are small and faded. I never realized how much of her face was painted on; like this, she looks brittle and exposed. Real. I feel a pang of guilt that she’s been dragged into this, all because she wanted a pretty scent for her luxury gift bags.
“I came to talk to you.” She doesn’t take her eyes off my mother.
I can tell Mom is on the verge of telling her it’s not a good time, so I intervene. We might as well get this over with. “If we stay here, we’llhave to watch for customers coming in. We can go to the break room.”
I flip the OPEN sign around for the second time that day, and my mother sighs before she leads the way to the back. Kelsey looks around. “This isn’t where you make the perfumes,” she says.
“The lab is through there,” says my mother, pointing to the door. I don’t think either of us are surprised when Kelsey opens it to take a look without asking permission.
“Were you lying last night? About the witch thing?” She speaks to the empty room.
“We’re not witches as you think of them, but it’s close enough,” I say.
She turns around and runs her tongue over her front teeth. “My clients weren’t falling in love because it’s spring, or whatever. You manipulated them.”
I don’t appreciate her word choice, but I suppose it’s technically accurate, so I nod.
“I want to know more about this.”
“What in particular?” asks Mom. She sits down on an armless chair and crosses her ankles.
Kelsey shuts the lab door with such determination it’s almost a slam. “All of it. What it means for my kids. What it means for Eric. Me. My clients.”
“It doesn’t mean anything for you, and apart from this mess, it doesn’t impact you at all.” Mom speaks with the authority of a professor giving a lecture. “Your children inherit none of the Hua ability, as the gift only comes through the eldest daughter. That’s Luling.”
“So, Eric—” Kelsey starts.
“Has nothing,” finishes Mom. “He is completely normal.”
Kelsey rouses herself. “He’s a good man.”
