Alexandra was two hours late. Her deal was done but she’d missed dinner with Zhang and his colleagues. She sprinted in her heels down some stairs lined on one side with hundreds of cute gold cat charms with waving paws set in neat lines against a rough concrete wall. Each cat was to bring luck and food fortune—just like the ones that sat on shop countertops right across China. Then she passed a peacock mural and descended into a dark basement. As her eyes adjusted to the light—and her ears the thumping music—she scanned the packed restaurant for Zhang.

He was sitting at the end booth alone, sipping a beer. Empty plates were scattered on the table.

Alexandra winced. ‘I’m so sorry, Zhang. The meeting took twice as long as I expected. I couldn’t leave until it was signed off. Then they wanted to discuss all this other stuff…’ She leaned over and kissed him on the lips, but he didn’t return the kiss. She sat down beside him.

‘That’s okay,’ said Zhang, taking a deep breath as he called the waiter over for a drink. ‘Are we celebrating?’ he asked in a flat voice.

‘I said I was sorry,’ said Alexandra, exhausted. Zhang was disappointed in her. She was disappointed too—she’d wanted to meet his colleagues. She ordered a dry martini and a beer for Zhang, a plate of the pork and cabbage dumplings, noodles and some ‘drunken clams’.

‘The deal went well?’ said Zhang.

‘Oh, fine. It’s just—’

‘What?’

‘Since I’ve been in Shanghai, I haven’t really had the rush I usually get when I make a deal.’

Zhang put his hand over Alexandra’s. ‘That’s understandable. You’re still grieving.’

She nodded. She wasn’t sure this grief would ever pass.

‘Do you ever think, maybe, of making a change? I mean, just because you loved it in London, doesn’t mean you have to love it in Shanghai.’

She shrugged. ‘What else would I do?’

‘Anything. Your grasp of numbers is brilliant, you can manage a team. Your work ethic is clearly insane.’ He raised his eyebrows pointedly. ‘You could do anything.’

‘Thanks,’ said Alexandra. ‘It’s something I’ve been considering.’ Alexandra didn’t say that with Hugo the workload hadn’t mattered because it was what united them. But since she’d been with Zhang, she wanted more time for herself—for them.

‘What was the “other stuff” you had to stay back for?’ Zhang looked concerned.

‘Oh.’ Alexandra felt the martini burn a little in her stomach. ‘We just had to go over some guidelines for new projections.’

‘In English, please.’ He smiled.

‘I raised some questions about benchmarks for reafforestation and the occasional relocation of local villages.’

‘Okay,’ Zhang said slowly. ‘I’m across the revegetation, but relocation? You mean forcing people to leave their homes?’

‘They are definitely not forced. There’s strict consultation and protocols—’

‘Sounds like semantics to me. No wonder you’re having second thoughts.’

Zhang was right: the world was hungry for the commodities she traded, but at what cost? At least her Hong Kong superiors had had the grace to look contrite when she left the office tonight. That was a start.

She took a sip of her martini, before turning to Zhang. ‘You’re right. I’m having second thoughts about this job. But I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water. I meet a lot of interesting people—the real decision-makers. What if I can get them to make different decisions? I need to think about this more on my own, tease it out.’ She shrugged. ‘I also need to be sure my career rethink is for the right reasons, not just because a gorgeous full-time landscape architect and part-time philosopher is sitting in front of me.’

Zhang smiled and nodded. ‘I get that.’

And it was true. When she was with Hugo she’d become the player, not the dispassionate bystander mathematician she’d assured her Oxford lecturer she’d remain. She’d lost her boundaries somewhere in the city of London.

Romy never said anything, but Alexandra had always wondered if she wished her granddaughter was more like Sophia. Her mother’s work helped countless families find answers to why their baby was born with an inherited trait.

Alexandra thought about those algebraic formulas in the back of her mother’s old diary—they were early workings in algebra that led to her PhD, she was sure of it. She’d compared the workings with her mother’s Oxford thesis. Was it any surprise that the teenage Sophia grew up to have a fascination with genetic algebra?

But lately, I’ve been wondering if my body shape, if my eyes, if my maths, come from my real mother and father.

‘Do you think this search for your heritage—’

‘Maybe,’ she cut him off as the food filled the booth with the scent of lemongrass and basil. Alexandra tasted the noodles. ‘These are so good.’ As Alexandra ate she told him about her meeting with the consultant that afternoon and about the forged certificate.

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘Don’t know,’ she said as she finished a dumpling and licked her fingers. ‘I’ll go back to Shanghai and start again. I want to know more about the Ho family so maybe I’ll look around the shop. Cynthia said I was welcome any time.’

Zhang ate a dumpling.

‘Speaking of Cynthia,’ said Alexandra, suddenly feeling shy, ‘are you still planning to come back to Shanghai for the party?’

Zhang looked her in the eye. ‘Do you mean am I coming to the party, or am I coming for you?’

‘Both,’ she said, and took a sip of her martini as her cheeks started to warm.

‘I’m coming for you,’ said Zhang as he slid closer to her on the banquette. His thigh was pressing against hers now and she rested her head on his shoulder. ‘I want to do this, Alexandra. Us. Properly. I know it’s early and you’ve got so much going on but I want to find a way for us to be together.’

She sat back up and turned to face him. ‘I do too. It’s just…’

‘What?’

‘It’s just that with my work hours and the travel and living in different cities…’

Zhang put his hand on her cheek and leaned in for a slow kiss. Alexandra was grateful for their hidden corner booth and the dim lighting as she kissed him back. She wanted to be with him, but she didn’t know how to make it work. But she did know that she wanted whatever this was with Zhang to work. She adored this poised, calm man.

Zhang stood up and reached for her hand. ‘Let’s go back to the hotel. I don’t want to miss a minute with you.’