The red soup bubbled, the scent of beetroot, ginger and liquorice riding on the steam that rose up to her nose. Alex ladled the soup into a bowl, then added herbs from a jar labelled 'T'.

"You aren't mad at me anymore, are you?" Yu Yan asked from the other side of the kitchen, craning her neck to see what Alex was putting in the pot.

"I am," Alex grumbled.

"No you're not," Yu Yan dismissed, then she put her hands under her chin and batted her lashes coyly. "I'm too cute, you can't stay mad at me for long."

Alex gave a short laugh. No, she wasn't mad at Yu Yan. Last night's debacle was hardly her fault after all. Remembering the overcrowded night club brought on yet another wave of frustration. Even after spending hours in that horrid place, she had not managed to find him.

"Fine, I'm not mad at you." Alex narrowed her eyes on the petite waitress. "Still. You can't get sick again. Ever."

"Yes, boss!" Yu Yan gave her a mock salute, then moved back to make space for Alex as she came forward to put the soup on the tray. "But, Alex are you sure everything is alright? Bohai said you were doing Kung Fu training an hour earlier than usual this morning..."

Bohai and his big mouth. A black belt in Shuai Jiao, Yu Yan's brother was the restaurant's unofficial security guard. He often came by during the early hours of the morning to check their security cameras and the surrounding area before going to his day job in the village just down the hill. "Has Bohai been watching too many spy movies lately? His nosiness is getting out of control."

Yu Yan didn't laugh. "You are fine, right?"

"I exercised a little earlier than usual, it's not a big deal!" Alex turned back to the stove to check the oven. The fruit tartlets were rising nicely.

"That's true for other people, but you run your life like clockwork. Any deviation is a sign of something wrong..." Yu Yan took in the sweet scent of the pastries with appreciation. "Fine. If you save me a bit of that, I'll stop nagging you."

"Resorting to blackmail as if she doesn't get to eat everything I make anyway," Alex mumbled, sniffing the ginseng chicken in the clay pot. The morning dew she had collected off of the red maple leaves had mixed perfectly with the reishi mushrooms. "You're letting the soup go cold," she said over her shoulder.

"I forgot the soup!" Yu Yan scrambled, grabbing the tray and disappearing through the kitchen door. The sound of diners filtered into the kitchen for a moment, then there was peace once more.

Despite all her nagging, Alex knew that she was lucky to have found someone like Yu Yan. She might have a curious nature, but she knew how to keep secrets and when to stop asking questions. In the three years they had been working together, Yu Yan had not once asked Alex to explain why she wore a veil when the restaurant was open, why she never spoke about her past or why she refused to be touched.

In truth, even if Yu Yan had asked, Alex would not have been able to explain. How could she explain something she barely understood herself?

After the accident 10 years ago, Alex had fallen into a coma for nine months. When she finally did wake, everything had changed. Despite doctors assurances that there was nothing physically wrong with her, Alex spent her first waking hours alone and impaired by constant nausea and pain. It wasn't until the second day, after a second set of Hong Kong policemen took down her account of the crash that Lauren turned up.

Alex still remembered the expression on her face, somewhere between pity and disgust, as she approached the hospital bed. Lauren told her that James had spent a month at Alex's bedside before the Blake Corp board of directors would no longer put off the emergency meetings. He had been forced to return to Boston to stop distant relatives from wresting power and ripping apart their parents company and had been travelling to Hong Kong every chance he got.

"He can't know you're awake," Lauren told her. "You've already taken his parents from him. If he comes here now, and the world finds out about his crazy sister, he will lose the company too."

It was the first time Alex had been called crazy and over the next few days, Alex started thinking her brother's girlfriend might be right. The nausea didn't end and the seemingly random bouts of pain had no medical explanation. The doctors gave up trying to treat her physically and called in the psychiatry department. The police voided her witness statement, giving up their search for the man with the blue circle tattoo due to her mental instability.

On the 12th day after she woke, Lauren asked Alex to die.

She had everything set up. A fake I.D., a penthouse apartment in Hong Kong and a credit card attached to an account Lauren would put monthly payments into. The paid-off doctors would claim Alex suffered cardiac arrest whilst in a comma. The paid off morgue officials would claim there was a mix up with bodies and that they had cremated her body by accident. Lauren had put all of her families influence and funds into her little 'kill Alex' project. She said it was for the good of James, Blake Corp and their baby.

Lauren was three months pregnant.

Alex didn't want to hurt her brother. She didn't want to hurt her unborn nephew. Plus, with the never ending pain she was feeling, she didn't believe she had long to live. So, Alex had agreed.

It was full moon when Alex left the hospital through a back door. Her head was splitting with pain and her stomach was empty after two bouts of nausea. She knew Lauren was upstairs, phoning James with the news of her death. Alex felt like she was truly dead. Living a new life in Hong Kong? That had never been an option in her mind, not when all she could feel was pain.

To this day Alex wasn't sure what she had intended to do as she walked across the grassy field behind the hospital. She had no idea what would have become of her if two monks hadn't found her where she passed out. She had no idea if she would have survived if they hadn't taken her in.

But they had.

"Oh, my, God! The two guests for table three just arrived and they are so hot!" Yu Yan burst into the kitchen, her eyes wide with excitement. Alex gave a quick stir to the pots, then turned down the heat.

"No allergies?"

"No allergies. They are short on time so they asked for everything at once." Yu Yan leaned forward, showing her overlapping front teeth in her wide smile. "Did I mention they are super hot?"

"You did," Alex laughed when the girl wriggled her eyebrows. Getting the bamboo ceviche from the fridge, Alex nodded towards the brown pot. "Ladle the soup."

Yu Yan grabbed two bowls from the stack of dishes on the far counter. "I wonder why they are in a hurry. They might be leaving town, they look like Americans."

"Americans?" Alex frowned. They got customers from as far away as Beijing, but foreigners were rare. Alex refused to do interviews with magazines and cooking shows precisely so they wouldn't attract Westerners. "Alright, take these through. You wont be able to fit more on the table."

Yu Yan nodded as she picked up the tray laden with bowls of soup, ceviche, ginseng chicken and herbed rice. "I'll ask them if they need forks." She winked then disappeared back through the door.

Ten minutes later, Alex was putting the finishing touches on the fruit tartlets when the door swung open again.

"Is table one ready for desert?"

"Yes, but Alex?"

Alex looked up, eyebrows rising when she saw Yu Yan's flushed face.

"What is it? Are the reporters back?" The newspapers had been more persistent than usual lately.

"No, no. It's not that, but the guests at table three, you know the hot guys? " Yu Yan placed a pot of rose petal tea onto her empty tray. "They are insisting that they need to speak to you."

"You know I don't speak to anyone," Alex scooped ginger ice-cream beside the fruit tart, drizzled it with pine syrup then put the plate on Yu Yan's tray. "Do we need to call Bohai?"

Though it didn't happen frequently, they had called him for help with particularly difficult guests before and he was always happy to oblige.

"I think you might want to speak to them," Yu Yan said hesitantly. "They are saying the food made them nauseous."

Alex froze. It felt like a rock had dropped into the pit of her stomach. She was distracted today, had she made a mistake? Grabbing the veil hanging beside the door, she hooked it from behind both ears and checked herself in the little mirror on the wall. Between the white bandana that covered her chin length black hair and the thin white veil, only her eyes could be seen.

"I can try to handle them, if you'd rather not go through?" Yu Yan said, being careful not to come too close as she carried the tray of desserts to the door.

Although she didn't like going out on the floor, she couldn't allow rumours to spread. There was no way her food would induce nausea, but she had to check, just to be sure. She took a steading breath, focusing on the calming scent rising from her rosewood bracelet.

"Get moving Yu Yan, table two will be ready for the second course by now," Alex opened the door for the waitress, giving the girl a reassuring smile. "Stop looking so worried. I'll just check that there was no problem with the meal and return to the kitchen. It will only take a moment."

Yu Yan nodded, but the apprehension wouldn't leave her brow. It was as if the girl sensed trouble ahead. Damned if Alex didn't get the same feeling.