Wang Felt Better After Telling Everything To Ben

"Remind me where we are up to in the deal again?" He asked as Ben answered the phone.

"Handover happens in Jules and Romey's office tomorrow at nine," Ben said easily. "Everything went through like clockwork, helped along by the fact that we made a cash offer and didn't have to worry about finance."

"Great, and then I can go in and start making changes tomorrow afternoon," Wang said with determination.

"Sure if you want to," Ben laughed. "I thought you might have wanted to hang out at the farm a bit and keep an eye on things."

"She's not at the farm. Papa took her to the Battaglia," Wang admitted knowing they would all find out, it was just a matter of time but grateful that Carlo had said nothing, letting him deal with it the way he needed to.

"Shit! When? Why?" Ben sputtered into the phone.

"Last night, she walked off one plane and on the other when we arrived at the farm," Wang admitted being ambushed and let his apprehension show in his voice. "The Twelve insisted. Apparently it was the best of several bad choices." He shook his head knowing Ben couldn't see him through the hands-free call."

"You were ambushed at the airstrip?" Ben asked incredulously.

"Something like that. She's gone for a month, and not a lot anyone can do about it," Wang said woodenly.

"Yeah maybe, but I think you and I might have to go down and visit Baozhai just to see how she is fairing and if we happen upon Changying at the same time all the better," Ben's voice had taken on the authoritative tone he used when dealing with family business. He was a born leader, and Wang smiled not having thought of such a solution. It would be good to know they were both okay for himself rather than relying solely on his father for information.

"Mightn't be the best time to leave Emily," Wang said after a moment's thought. "Maybe D. would make the trip with me," he suggested.

"We'll talk about it. Where are you now?" Ben asked.

"Driving back to the city, should be home in half an hour or so," Wang looked at the dashboard clock.

"Great, come for dinner, I'll get D. and Lio over as well," Ben said making it more of a command than an invitation.

"Yeah alright, that'll give me time to swing past home and do a few things first. See you about six-ish?"

"Yeah works for me, I'll give D. a call and let him know," Ben said and hung up.

Wang felt better for having told Ben and hearing his reaction to the news. As much as he loved Carlo, his casual tough love approaches to life could be irritating. He just accepted whatever lemons came his way and either made lemonade or washed them down with tequila until he didn't care anymore. Well, the tequila method hadn't worked out to well last night, so it was time for Wang to see about some lemonade with his brothers help.

Wang arrived back at his apartment and dumped his bag. Everywhere he looked he could see signs of her. Worry ate away at him, so he picked up the hard copy of his sisters novel and flopped onto a couch to begin to read. At half past five, he reluctantly put the book down questioning what he knew about his sister and seeing her in an entirely different light. He was not even half way through it, and he knew he would probably stay up tonight finishing it. If she hadn't alluded to the fact that this was her story, Wang never would have believed it. He wondered if any of his siblings knew.

He showered and changed for a second time that day and having thought about what he had read so far he sent Lucia a text saying simply, "I love you." Then he headed over to Ben's taking the book with him in case he got the opportunity to read more during the evening.