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The Tiger Mom's Tale

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by Lyn Liao Butler




  BERKLEY

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  penguinrandomhouse.com

  Copyright © 2021 by Lyn Liao Butler

  Readers Guide copyright © 2021 by Lyn Liao Butler

  Excerpt from Red Thread of Fate copyright © 2021 by Lyn Liao Butler

  Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Butler, Lyn Liao, author.

  Title: The tiger mom’s tale / Lyn Liao Butler.

  Description: First edition. | New York: Berkley, 2021.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2021002706 (print) | LCCN 2021002707 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593198728 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780593198735 (ebook)

  Subjects: LCSH: Racially mixed women—Fiction. | Taiwanese

  Americans—Fiction. | Families—Fiction. | Inheritance and succession—Fiction. | Taiwan—Fiction.

  Classification: LCC PS3602.U8757 T54 2021 (print) | LCC PS3602.U8757 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002706

  LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021002707

  First Edition: July 2021

  Book design by Elke Sigal, adapted for ebook by Kelly Brennan

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  pid_prh_5.7.0_c0_r0

  To Pinot and Lokie, my heart and soul

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Acknowledgments

  Readers Guide

  Excerpt from Red Thread of Fate

  About the Author

  1

  Alexa Thomas had just bitten into a sesame ball when her mother told her she was in love with a woman.

  Lexa wasn’t really listening. She was absorbed in the Chinese pastry, her eyes closed and her elbows propped on the marble countertop in her sister’s kitchen. Her teeth sank into the crispy exterior coated with sesame seeds, and just like the first time she’d eaten one in Taichung when she was eight, her taste buds exploded with the sweetness of the red bean paste in the center. Back then, her delighted exclamation caused her Taiwanese father to beam a smile on her so full of warmth she could still feel it all these years later.

  “Did you hear me? Are you upset?”

  Lexa’s eyes opened at her mother’s question. Sunlight streamed through the window, and she squinted, trying to see her mom’s expression. It took her a moment to focus. She didn’t have many pleasant recollections of her father and was reluctant to let go of the nostalgia caused by the memory of his smile and the scent of sandalwood she associated with him.

  “I’m leaving Greg,” Susan said.

  Lexa froze, her teeth clamped around the chewy treat. “Hmpf?”

  “There’s someone else.” Susan cleared her throat. “It’s . . . she’s a woman.”

  Caught off guard, Lexa inhaled sharply and choked. Brilliant. But really, what was the proper response when your sixty-one-year-old mom told you she was leaving your stepfather for a woman? She coughed and spat the sticky rice into her hand. “Who? How?”

  “Phoenix. My acupuncturist. She’s half-Asian like you,” Susan said with false cheer, as if that made everything okay.

  “Cool.” Cool? Lexa’s brain had stopped working. And boy, was Maddie going to flip out when she got back to her apartment.

  “I’m happy. But I feel terrible about Greg.” Susan sighed. “He’s upset.”

  “You think?” Lexa’s stomach twisted. “Sorry, it’s just . . . poor Dad.” Greg had adopted her when he married her mom soon after Lexa’s first birthday.

  “There’s more.” Susan took a deep breath. “I also quit my job to get my yoga teacher certification. I thought you’d understand, being a personal trainer.”

  “What?” Lexa’s jaw dropped, and her hands flew up; she forgot about the morsel in her hand until it stuck to her hair. She cursed, just as her sister burst into the apartment.

  “Sorry I had to leave.” Maddie was breathless as she plopped onto the stool between Lexa and their mom at the breakfast bar, her face flushed from the early June heat. She pulled at the collar of her bright pink hoodie. “What did I miss?”

  “Well . . . uh . . .” Lexa glanced at their mom.

  “Corey get to school okay?” Susan asked, her voice still not quite right. Maddie had run out soon after they arrived at her apartment to take her three-year-old to afternoon preschool.

  “Yes.” Maddie stared at the side of Lexa’s head. “What’s that in your hair?”

  “Um . . . sesame ball.” Lexa waved a hand in the air as Maddie’s gaze darted between Lexa and their mom. When Maddie narrowed her eyes, Lexa looked away. She concentrated instead on extricating the gelatinous mess from her long black hair, which she’d always lamented wasn’t blond like the rest of her family’s.

  “Okay, what’s going on here?” Maddie asked, and poked Lexa in the side.

  Lexa gave her sister a don’t-look-at-me face.

  “Why don’t you eat something? I brought your favorite. The wrap is gluten-free.” Susan handed Maddie a chicken Caesar wrap and then reached behind Maddie to pluck the mess out of Lexa’s hair.

  “Thanks,” Maddie and Lexa both said at the same time.

  “So what’s the occasion? Are you trying to bribe us or something?” Maddie gestured to the sesame balls, Lexa’s favorite, and the other goodies spread out on her counter.

  Lexa av
erted her gaze, tracing the veins in the white marble countertop as her brain scrambled to compute that her mom was leaving Greg . . . for a woman. As their mom told Maddie the news, Lexa hunched her shoulders, braced for her drama queen sister’s reaction.

  “What?” Maddie dropped the wrap, her mouth open like Lexa’s had been a while earlier.

  For a few seconds no one spoke, and the only sound in Maddie’s apartment was the muffled traffic noise from Third Avenue, seventeen floors below.

  Then Maddie found her voice. “So first you had a fling with Lexa’s father all those years ago, and now you’re leaving Dad for another Asian? Is it because he’s white and you’re, like, totally obsessed with anyone who’s Asian? You don’t even care if it’s a pussy or a dick.”

  “Maddie!” Lexa gasped. “What’s wrong with you?” She’d known Maddie would lash out, but this was a new one.

  “Don’t be crass, Madison.” Susan rubbed her temple. “It’s not about ethnicity. I would love Phoenix even if she was from Mars and had purple skin.” She put a hand on Maddie’s arm, but Maddie shook her off and moved her stool closer to Lexa’s. Lexa bumped her shoulder against Maddie’s, something she’d always done when her younger sister needed her.

  “But she’s, like . . . she’s . . . a female,” Maddie sputtered.

  “It’s not about gender or ethnicity. Sometimes you just connect with someone.” Susan sighed and shifted out of the beam of sunlight, and suddenly Lexa could see her face clearly. She was startled at the intensity in her mother’s eyes.

  “So, what, it just happened?” Lexa was still struggling to understand. Her mom and Greg had been married for over thirty years, and before that, she’d had that fling with Lexa’s Taiwanese father. She’d never mentioned being attracted to women.

  “Yes. It’s about the soul. She gets me on a level that no one ever has.” Susan looked at Lexa. “Except maybe your father, all those years ago.”

  “Oh my God!” Maddie clapped a hand to her mouth. “You’ve been carrying a torch for Lexa’s father all these years? You never really loved Dad?”

  “Yes, I mean, no . . . I mean, yes! I love Greg.” Lexa was surprised to see how flustered their normally unflappable mother was. “It’s just a different kind of love.”

  “You really felt like that for my father?” Lexa could hear a touch of longing in her own voice and mentally shook herself. She wasn’t that naïve little girl anymore, yearning for any news about her birth father, who lived so far away in Taiwan.

  “Hello?” Maddie rapped the counter with her knuckles. “We’re talking about Mom leaving Dad for a woman. Not about your father, who couldn’t care less about you.”

  Lexa stood, her hands on her hips. “That’s not true.” But actually, Maddie was right.

  “It’s not like you care either.” Maddie turned back to their mom. “I can’t believe you’d do that to Dad. How did you just suddenly turn gay?”

  “Leave her alone.” Lexa was curious too, but she couldn’t help defending their mom. “It’s her life, and she deserves to be happy.”

  Maddie turned on Lexa. “Are you saying she wasn’t happy with Dad? You would side with her. Dad isn’t your real dad, so it’s fine if Mom leaves him heartbroken and all alone.”

  Lexa drew herself up to her full height of five three and glared at Maddie. She was four years older, but Maddie had two inches on her.

  “There are no sides. And Greg is my real dad. He’s the one who raised me.”

  “Girls, stop. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to break up our family.” Susan slumped over the forgotten feast she’d brought. “Please don’t fight about this.”

  “What happens now?” Lexa couldn’t bear the defeated look on her mom’s face and went to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

  “We’re putting the house on the market. I’m moving in with Phoenix, and Greg is moving to the apartment in the city.” Susan reached back and laid a hand over Lexa’s.

  Maddie let out a cry and jumped off her stool. Lexa swallowed hard. This was really happening. If she was this shocked, she couldn’t imagine what the news was doing to Greg.

  “I invited Phoenix to our dim sum brunch next Saturday. I want you to meet her.”

  Lexa’s hand slipped off her mom’s shoulder. Meet her mom’s new lover? Already?

  “No way. I’m not going.” Maddie stamped her foot like she was a child having a tantrum, rather than the thirty-one-year-old mother of two that she was. She glared at them and stormed out her front door, leaving Lexa and her mom to stare at each other.

  A moment later, Maddie slammed back in. “No. You get out.”

  Lexa picked up her purse and sidled toward the door.

  “Not you,” Maddie said. “Her.”

  “I have to go.” Lexa eyed the door. She could go back to the gym early. She needed to think, to process this. She hated family drama. Maybe that was why she’d never wanted kids.

  “What, you have a client?” Maddie asked. “They’re more important than family?”

  “They’re not more important, but they need me.”

  Maddie stood in front of Lexa, blocking her way. “I need you. You’re always so busy, with your clients and your friends and dating. I’m surprised you made time for us today.”

  Lexa shrugged. She did have a busy life. She’d worked hard over the years and had an impressive list of personal training clients. “Mom said it was important.”

  Maddie pointed to their mom and said, “You. I want you to leave.”

  “Maddie, don’t be like this.” Susan pressed a hand to her heart, and Lexa’s resolve to leave cracked. As much as Lexa wanted to get out of there, she realized she had to stay and take control. She’d always been the one to smooth things between her mom and Maddie. Lexa figured that was why their mom had told her first.

  “Mom.” The look that passed between them spoke volumes.

  “What?” Maddie looked back and forth between them. “What are you saying to each other? You always leave me out.”

  Susan turned to Maddie. “I’m sorry.” She picked up her purse. “I love you.”

  Maddie didn’t answer, and their mom left, after one last look at Lexa. When they were alone, Maddie sank onto her stool and stared at her counter. “I can’t believe she’s doing this to Dad.” Gone were the anger and bravado she’d shown just moments before.

  “I know, but it’s not like she did it on purpose. Don’t be so hard on her.”

  Maddie suddenly sat up straight. “Did you know? Did she tell you first?”

  “Uh . . .” Lexa plucked the sesame ball off the counter to give her hands something to do. “She told me literally a minute before you came back.”

  Maddie pursed her lips. “You guys always have secrets from me.”

  “Maddie, we don’t . . .” Lexa stopped because she had kept a secret from Maddie—a big one. “Anyways, this is Mom. How can she be gay? Or is it bisexual?” She frowned, thinking. “And I can’t believe she quit her job to be a yoga teacher. She hates to exercise.” Too late, Lexa realized her mom hadn’t told Maddie that last part yet.

  “What? She quit her job too?” Maddie’s iPhone rang, and she looked down at the display. “Oh, no. It’s the nurse from Connor’s school.”

  While Maddie was on the phone, Lexa paced her sister’s two-bedroom apartment, which was filled with real furniture from Ethan Allen, unlike Lexa’s own studio, which was furnished with castaways. How could she help Maddie accept their mom’s situation when she herself was still reeling? Get a grip, Lexa. It’s not as if someone died.

  Maddie ended the call and stood to grab her keys off the counter. “I have to get Connor. He’s sick.” She pointed a finger at Lexa. “And just for the record, Mom’s making a big mistake.”

  “Give her a break. I’m as upset as you are. But we need to support her and Dad.”

&n
bsp; “No, we don’t. I’m never speaking to Mom again.”

  Great. Maddie wasn’t going to make this easy for their mom. Lexa already had a dysfunctional relationship with her Taiwanese father. She wasn’t going to let her American family fall apart too. “You can’t do that.”

  “Watch me.” And Maddie slammed out her front door for the second time, leaving Lexa alone with the half-eaten sesame ball in her hand, wondering what had just happened to their family.

  2

  A week later, Lexa’s client Andi Versacci handed her a bag of sesame balls before hopping on a treadmill in the crowded gym. Andi jabbed at the start button as if it had offended her.

  “Where did you get sesame balls at eight in the morning on the Upper East Side?” Lexa held the bag away from her with two fingers, eyeing it with apprehension.

  “Don’t ask,” Andi said. “And go easy on me today. My head is killing me.”

  Lexa tore her gaze off the bag and studied her client. Manhattan’s newest celebrity chef was in old sweats and wore no makeup, her curly dark hair shoved into a messy bun. Lexa didn’t comment, knowing Andi would tell her eventually. Her clients always told her everything.

  It took only three minutes. “I got them in Chinatown this morning.”

  “And what were you doing in Chinatown on a Tuesday morning when you live up here?”

  “I had a hankering for Chinese food?”

  Lexa raised her eyebrows and placed the bag on top of her clipboard.

  “Okay, fine. I hooked up with a guy last night. He lives down there and I stayed over.”

  “How was it?” Lexa asked with interest. They’d recently joined a dating site together.

  Andi glowered. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  Lexa stopped the treadmill. “That bad, huh?” She wasn’t having much luck either. Although there was that guy from San Francisco she’d met at the gym the previous month . . .

  “So I treated myself to those paper-wrapped sponge cakes you got me once.” Andi gave Lexa a sidelong look as they walked onto the weight floor. Weights clanged and machines whirled, competing with the buzz of conversation and the music pumping from the speakers.

 

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