How It All Goes Down
64 Pak Tin Street — Hong Kong
- Looking around the apartment, this "romper room" is not the "love nest" Astrid expected (3.14.1).
- Michael and Astrid bicker.
- Finally tired of hurting Astrid, Michael breaks down and reveals there is no affair. This is his cousin Jasmine's house. It's her son. He faked everything as his only way out.
- Wait, what?
- He'd rather "be labeled the cheating bastard with an illegitimate son" so her family could "save face" (3.14.24).
- Incredulous, Astrid can't figure out how she made him so miserable.
- He assures he it wasn't her; it was living up to being married to "everyone's idea" of Astrid (3.14.28).
- Continuing to stand in his truth, Michael reveals how awful it feels to be treated like "the bloody tech-support guy" in her family (3.14.36).
- While Astrid had thought he had no idea how much money she really had, he tells her that before they got married, Astrid's brothers had invited him to lunch and showed him her financial reports, promising that he'd never get his hands on her money.
- Horrified and desperate, she begs Michael not to leave her, says she'll give up her family for him.
- He cries and begs her to let him go.