Patty Cheng

Patty is the matriarch of the Cheng family—Liang's wife and the mother of Annabel and Jack. She works at a technology company called Texas Semiconductor on a project related to a digital signal processor designed to make cellphones operate faster. She is intensely committed to her work, usually going in early in the morning and staying late into the evening, to the detriment of her family. It is evident in Chapter 2 that Patty is not happy in her marriage to Liang, as she drives to their old apartment building and falls asleep in her car, despite having received an email from Liang earlier in the day in which he wrote about his desire for greater intimacy in their relationship.

Flashbacks provide insight into Patty's backstory. She is originally from Tianjin, China, and she graduated from Nankai University at the top of her class in the physics...