CEO of my Heart 246 246

Ellie switched from the cheeses to the meat. She would at interval feed Henry who would nervously bit quickly to cause pieces to float in the water around them. Ellie fished them out before laughing. Henry liked that she hadn't complained and was alright if he made small mistakes here and there with her.

As they finished the board, they sank into their wines. Even though it was store bought, as Henry was good company she did not mine the oversweet taste. The wine was watery too, by her standards. There wasn't enough alcohol for her taste, she much preferred the wines in the downstairs of Stanford Hall. She liked that he knew supermarket brands as well as he did high end ones, this was a side to Henry Wong she knew he preferred to keep hidden.

"That was delicious and satisfying." Ellie lay back against his chest while touching her slightly distended stomach. "You know people never understand how this simple gestures are important. Eating together and spending time with the other half of your whole. My mother would always remind me that the strength of Asians is that we always keep our family in our heart, that no matter how Westernized we got to remember not to hold our own ideals too highly as we owed our lives to the ones who made it. I think it's a bit extreme, but I do agree with the idea of it rather than a full mindful devotion to it."

"The neblus of that idea is unfortunately not Asia. It's in Mexico. It's in South America. It's true even in Africa. Let's call it the strength of the common people. Europe to some extent it exists too, although family can be easily discarded."

"There you go, you're forgetting I'm technically European too. Although to be honest, I do often forget myself as my father and mother spoke to me in Cantonese. My father wanted to understand all of my mother so he could love all of her."

"It's Stanford Hall isn't it? You can see like a ghostly apparation over the crest of the hill. I wish I could not hear these beautiful stories of your parents and long to have lived with you during that time. I would love to have switched places with my pesky brother-in-law, if only for a couple months. I probably wouldn't be having the troubles I am now." He leaned forwards towards Ellie as she reached out to thread her hands through his. "I wish people spoke of my parents as highly as they do yours. People always tell me I need to be fierce in business because my father would step on everyone to get to the top. If you really think about it, it's not a very nice way of running a group of people. No one even mentions the other person who made me."

Ellie's hands threaded through his. "They will, you just have to remind them that she was awesome too. That's your job to do. It's not a bad thing that she isn't remembered for being hard to deal with. You should talk to the staff you had around then or someone who knew her."

Henry deftly changed the subject. "How did an English Baron come to be married to a Chinese national? It's so strange to me that they would meet. I'd always think the two would be in separate social circles."

"It's a stupid story. My grandfather sold Ferraris after immigrating to England from China. He worked in an auto factory for a while selling and fixing the parts before he got enough spares to make his own custom model. He make custom Ferraris not regular ones, my mother would always tell me. My mom was an amateur circuit racer in her college days and she met my father during one of her races. She was showing off the car that grandfather had built for her when she saw my dad standing next to her as she crossed the finish line. My mom was a lot cooler than me at her age. My parents both had a taste for speed and each other. They were friends who bonded over engines for a while. He would come to the garage where my mom was working whenever he felt stuck and she would fix him too while she was fixing his engine." Ellie laughed as she recalled that her father would finish the story before her mother could as it was his favorite part. "Sometimes she would charge him when all she did was twist a cap on and off for forty minutes. She was funny in that way so one time instead of talking to her while she was under the hood, my father decided to take her out on a real date. Even though my mom didn't have the perfect bloodlines to be married to him, he didn't really care. He was his own rock-and-roll rebel to keep her anyways. They always did their own thing, so they continued to do so until that ended."

"That sounds like a bona fide Hollywood love story." Henry remarked with interest. He knew when he returned to Stanford Hall, he would keep an eye out for photos of the young couple. He hoped that Ellie had some saved away somewhere. It was something he would need to see to believe.

"My dad did his duty as he had his heirs through someone his father decided was good enough. She was the daughter of a family friend who was close to the queen. The former wife was really into being seen with the right people and making sure to have the trendiest things. She drilled those things into my step sisters so my mom was like their worst nightmare. Mom always regretted that she never got their trust. She understood what it was like to lose a parent when she was young, but whatever she tried was just never enough."

Henry's eyes were trained on hers as he poured himself another glass of wine before topping her glass as well. "Let me ask you the million dollar question. Do you feel more American or British or do you connect more with your Chinese roots?"

Ellie weighed the question carefully as she took a long drink of wine. "I think I didn't ever have a choice. From the way I look, people would instantly know I'm Chinese. I don't even look half. Nolan can pass as white a lot more easily as I can so I would say Chinese American from my upbringing. I did the public school system, I sang the national anthem at football games. You know I was a cheerleader? I was just that all-American everything. It's pretty easy to just fit it as long as you do what everyone's doing. But you know when it comes to tea . . . I need my English Breakfast." Ellie shrugged. "I can't start my morning without it. Maybe it has to do with growing up aristocratic, but when I told people my dad had a castle no one believed me. When I pointed out there should be a Lady in front of my name people laughed. I don't know. I always struggled to be English. But under all that American stuffing it stayed there. It's in the way I say water and bath. I have very British sense of humor and it makes me think of my dad, who I still love."

Chapter end

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