Golden Lies - Barbara Freethy [138]
"We're not dying," Riley said as he ripped the curtains off the rod and stomped on them until there was nothing left but smoke.
An-Mei looked at Wallace with hatred in her eyes. "It is your fault. You make it all happen. You promise much gold and prosperity. But you curse us all."
"I made us a fortune. I brought your husband to this country. He was nothing without me. Then he betrayed me."
Wallace's eyes suddenly lit up, and as Paige followed his gaze, she saw the dragon on a table that was set up like an altar, the statue surrounded by dripping candles, one of which had fallen on its side, lighting the bedroom curtains that were now water-soaked and blackened. The dragon stared at them mockingly, as if wondering why it had taken them so long to come. Its jade eyes flashed through the lingering smoke, throwing colors across the ancient bronze.
"Oh, my God," Paige said.
"You had it all along," Jasmine said in a daze. "I saw it here before. You were praying at the altar. I came up to you and asked you about it. You threw me in the closet. You locked the door. It was dark. I could hear the fireworks. I was terrified." She looked at her mother. "And when you pulled me out, you almost broke my arm. You spanked me many times and told me I was bad, I must forget. I must never tell." Jasmine turned to her father, who stood in the doorway of the bedroom. "Did you know what she did to me? Did you?"
Lee Chen didn't answer right away. He stared at his wife, who was holding her arms around her waist and rocking back and forth. "An-Mei," he said softly. "It's all right."
"It's not all right," Jasmine said. "Don't you understand that?"
Lee wasn't looking at his daughter. He was looking at his wife.
"The dragons were not meant to belong to any of us," An-Mei said. "They should have been returned years ago."
Wallace turned to Lee. "After all we had been through together, you betrayed me. You stole this dragon. But you couldn't do anything without the other dragon and the box. So you kept this one hidden away all these years. Did you know Ned had the other dragon?"
"I wasn't sure," Lee said, coughing as he finished speaking.
"We should get out of this smoke," Paige said.
"She's right," Riley echoed.
No one moved. No one wanted to leave the dragon on the altar. But no one seemed to have the nerve to touch it.
Riley took a step forward. Paige called him back. "Don't," she said. "Don't touch it. It might really be cursed."
He hesitated, then moved ahead in typical Riley fashion. He picked up the dragon statue and walked out of the room. There was a scramble to follow him, people bumping into one another as they made their way into the living room. Paige was the last one out, closing the bedroom door behind her.
"Time for some straight talk." Riley set the dragon on the coffee table. "Where did the dragons come from?"
"Tell him, Wallace," An-Mei ordered. "Tell him you steal dragons from China."
"I didn't do it alone," Wallace retorted.
"Then, how did you do it?" David asked his father.
"It was Lee," Wallace said. "He found the crate in the woods. It must have fallen off a truck. It was just waiting there, a treasure to be discovered. I knew right away we should keep it. We might need to trade it for freedom. It was wartime. The enemy was getting closer every day. Lee agreed with me. So did your grandfather," he added, looking at Riley. "We were good friends then, brothers. We smuggled the crate out of China and brought it back here to San Francisco. Inside, there were many artifacts from the museum."
"More than just the dragons and the box?" Paige asked.
"Yes," Wallace said shortly. "We knew we were sitting on a potential gold mine. We made a pact to sell the objects one at a time, discreetly of course, so no one would know. Ned and Lee worked at the store with me. We shared the profits from those sales equally. Until she"—he tipped his head at An-Mei -- "started worrying about the damn curse.