by Hughes, E.
“What do you want, Danny?” I asked, cutting straight to the point.
“Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. A quarter-million will make things right,” he said, in a snaky voice.
“I don’t have two hundred and fifty thousand dollars just lying around.”
“That’s too bad,” Danny said. “Immigration will have their work cut out for them. Especially when they start digging into your father’s business practices to see if he violated any other ethics when he asked you to marry one of his investors. You’re nothing but a whore, just like the rest of these bitches.”
“You’re an asshole. I really dodged a bullet when I married Ethan instead of you.”
“What’s it going to be, honey? Cold hard cash or five years in jail for immigration fraud? Ethan will serve time in jail before he’s deported, and will never set foot in America again. Think it over.”
He was right. But this was blackmail. I didn’t know what to do… lives would be destroyed because I said too much to the wrong person.
“I’ll work on getting the money,” I muttered, dejectedly.
“Good. I’m glad we’re on the same page,” he answered, crisply. “I’ll call you with instructions so make sure you answer all of my calls. And don’t tell your husband about any of this, or else.”
And with that, he hung up.
I stood over the stove trembling as the pancakes burned setting the fire alarm off. I numbly moved the pan from the flames, fanning the smoke away. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I opened windows and the patio door.
“What’s going on?” Ethan asked, as he walked in.
“I burned the pancakes.”
“Oh,” was all he said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I answered tersely.
“Were you crying?”
“No… it’s just the smoke,” I lied. Yet again.
I moved through the rest of the day like a zombie. I needed someone to talk to. Danny threatened to take the recordings to immigration if I talked to Ethan. Worse, Ethan hated Danny and acted strangely if I so much as mentioned him. There was Claudia, but she had problems of her own. I promised to see her when I was stateside again but had been too involved in my own affairs to visit.
Not long after the call from Danny, Ethan had started to get his share of strange phone calls as well. Someone calling from an anonymous phone number would hang up whenever he answered, sometimes calling in the middle of the night. I had no doubt in my mind that it was Danny, harassing us.
I received the dreaded phone call from Danny a few days later. He wanted the money in a briefcase, delivered to him in “tax free” cash, he said.
I couldn’t figure out where to get two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I had the money in my account, but it would take a week or two for my bank to process a cash withdrawal that size and Danny wanted the money in approximately three days in unmarked cash. Ethan had grown suspicious of the phone calls that often carried me into another room, as Danny taunted me with one phone call after another. He’d also noticed how reticent I was when he asked me about it.
I eventually decided to withdraw the money from the joint account Ethan had set up for both of us. His bank allowed large sums of money to be withdrawn the same day. It was a matter of getting the cash out quickly and replacing it with my own via check. The scheme made my flesh crawl. But I wanted to protect not only Ethan, but my father from Danny’s plotting. I would tell Ethan when it was over and the data was safely in my hands. Though in today’s highly advanced technological world, a file like that could never be destroyed. It would always exist on Danny’s hard drive even if he were truly inclined to get rid of it. I wanted to go to the Feds, to tell them about the bribery and blackmail but I couldn’t do it without implicating ourselves in a crime.
I went to a private office at the bank two days later with a briefcase secured by a combination lock with the bank manager who had me sign documents giving them permission to release the money.
“We’ll just need your husband’s signature,” he said, taking the paperwork away when everything was signed.
“It’s bank policy and required on all joint accounts.”
I had to have the money in less than twenty-four hours. How could I get Ethan to sign the paperwork without telling him what it was for?
“Actually,” I said, to the bank manager, “I’m using the money to buy a gift for my husband. It’s a surprise. There’s no way I can ask him to sign this without him demanding to know why. And that will ruin everything. I have to pay for the gift with cash. I have my own account, but it will take the bank two weeks to give me the money. I wrote a check to replace the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in our joint account. Because of that, I don’t think it’s really necessary to have the paperwork signed by my husband.”
“I see,” the slick looking banker said. “Well, since you’re replacing the money right away with money from your own account, we may be able to make an exception. I will call your bank to verify the availability of the funds, and that there are no immediate holds and then we’ll get your cash withdrawal to you. It will be just a few minutes…”
A half hour later, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars was in my possession and the whole ordeal would soon be over. That night, about two in the morning, the phone rang as scheduled. Ethan slept soundly through the commotion as I tip toed out of the room to meet Danny at a nearby hotel. Real cloak and dagger dangerous stuff. No one knew where I was going, not even my husband. If something happened, who would suspect Danny of doing something to hurt me? But I had to finish this, for my family. The best I could do was to send an email to myself with a message:
If anything happens to me, Daniel Williams is responsible.
Then I put a code only my father would understand
“My father will know what this means…”
It was the date of my parent’s wedding anniversary.
When I arrived at the rundown hotel I’d been directed to, Danny opened the door, stepping aside as I walked in. The smile on his face was a mile-wide, but the look in his eyes was pure evil.
“You got my money?” he said, as I strolled in, dressed in a long sleeved black dress.
“I have your money. Do you have the data?”
“Not so fast, beautiful,” he interrupted.
I gave him the briefcase. Danny tried to pop it open, but the combination code prevented him from getting inside.
“Open it,” he demanded.
“Not until you give me the data.”
He tossed a thumb drive in my hands then grabbed the suitcase. I slipped Danny a sheet of paper with the codes, then watched him open it to verify that all the funds were there. Danny grinned.
“You do realize, I could have copies.”
“I know that. But…you already have what you want. I would hope you won’t bother us anymore.”
“You’re right. I don’t want money from you. I want something else.”
His eyes crawled up my body, stopping when they landed on my breasts. He licked his lips and smiled, rubbing his hands together deviously.
“I’m in love with my husband,” I whimpered.
“I know you are. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here. I know how much you love your family...that you would do anything for them. That’s why it’s so easy to manipulate you. That kind of love can only make a person weak. Now take your clothes off.”
“Go to hell!” I growled, moving toward the door.
But Danny grabbed my arm.
“Fine. Then I’ll go to immigration. Enjoy your freedom while you still have it,” he said, as I continued to walk out. “I’ll be sure to send your recording to the press. The gossips will get a kick out of it. Your father’s stock will drop when the feds starts looking into his business affairs and your wonderful husband will be deported. You’re going to let something like sex, ruin your family?”
I stopped short of opening the door.
Danny took his shirt off,
stepped out of his pants and underwear, then tossed them on the floor. He then walked across the room, took me by the hand and led me to the bed where he lifted my dress over my head and tossed it aside
“Take them off,” he ordered, gesturing toward my underclothes.
I got undressed as he moved across the room again, pulling a video camera in plain sight. I felt ill.
“On the bed, gorgeous…”
A tear streamed down my cheek as I weakly complied, sitting on my knees as Danny stood before me, his groin pointed at my face. Looking at him made me sick as he circled the bed, snapping naked pictures of the both of us. Compromising pictures that made it appear as though we’d been intimate.
“Smile for the camera!” he teased.
I covered my face with my hands, hiding from the glare of its lens.
“I can’t do this,” I cried, moving away, feeling like my skin was about to slide off of my bones.
I flinched as Danny inched toward me, laughing as he grabbed my hand and slipped the new diamond ring Ethan had given me from my finger. I was being robbed. The ring was worth more than the money in the briefcase I’d given him.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to rape you,” he sneered. “I just needed a bit of insurance. You and your husband better not think of coming after me. Got it?”
“What are you going to do with the pictures?” I wept, realizing how much trouble I’d gotten myself into.
“They’re for my personal collection. Something to remember us by...”
I limped out of bed and grabbed my clothes as he put the camera away. I ran out of the hotel suite as fast as I could, carrying my shoes as I rushed into the elevator, tears streaming down my face. I raced across the hotel lobby sobbing, grateful for the late hour, and that no one had seen me.
I felt dirty. So I took a shower as soon as I got home, and slept in the guestroom. Ethan climbed into bed with me, just before dawn, a question in his eyes. I wanted to tell him what happened, I really did, but I couldn’t. And when he kissed me, I turned him away, ending our early morning ritual.
I was depressed for days, as I moped around the house feeling ill, wondering if Daniel would reappear and try to destroy our lives again. I was tired of jumping out of my skin whenever the phone rang. But he never called. Then I remembered something. If I could put an ocean between us, I could make Danny go away. I broached the topic apprehensively, as Ethan sat on the sofa reading the paper.
“We have a week of vacation left. You mentioned going to China. I’m still interested if you are,” I said, unable to look him in the eyes.
“You still want to go?”
“Of course!” I answered, trying my best not to sound desperate.
“Book the flight. We’ll get out of here tomorrow. My mother will be happy to see us.”
“I’ll be happy to see her too…” I said.
I sat next to Ethan on the sofa and gave him a hug. The first time my fingers had touched him in a week.
The flight to China was over thirteen hours long and I was sick the entire plane ride. I gripped Ethan’s hand as I leaned back in my seat, too nauseated to read or sleep.
“You sure it’s the altitude making you sick?”
“I always get sick when I fly.”
“You didn’t get sick on our flight from Paris. Maybe it’s something else?”
“What makes you think that?” I asked, turning in my seat to eye him directly.
Ethan shrugged. “We made love every night for more than a month and you still haven’t had your period.”
We made love every night for six weeks, to be exact. But we used protection… except that last week in Vegas. Nevertheless, I was embarrassed and annoyed with Ethan for paying attention.
“We have nothing to worry about. I’m irregular,” I assured him.
I wasn’t irregular. I was nervous. I had three pregnancy tests in my luggage and all of them were positive, indicating that I was probably pregnant. A thought I couldn’t’ fathom, much less even deal with just yet.
“Oh,” he answered, looking a bit disappointed. “It would make my mother happy,” he said.
I closed my eyes, ignoring him, my stomach churning like there was an active volcano burbling inside of it.
“Are you working?” I asked, as Ethan sifted through mail and other letters that had come to the house.
“I’m trying to get a jump start on work before we go back next week.”
I sighed, trying not to projectile vomit in his face.
“Can you deal with it later?” I pleaded, certain my face was about to turn green.
Ethan nodded, stuffing the mail and the rest of his paperwork back into his briefcase before taking my hand.
The rest of the thirteen hour trip had given me time to think, especially with Ethan so being supportive as I sat beside him dry-heaving with a barf bag in my lap. I promised myself I would tell him about the blackmail, the pictures, and of course, the pregnancy tests. I grew up in a house of secrets…with parents who didn’t know how to communicate and women who were taught to mind their manners. But I was tired of bottling my emotions inside. I didn’t care how fate brought us together or the fact that we’d only been married seven weeks. I loved Ethan, and it was time to tell him. Especially now that a baby was involved. If the doctor confirmed what the pregnancy tests and my body had already told me, I was going to keep the baby. I had even spent the rest of the flight imagining what he or she would look like with our beautiful genes mixed together.
After we landed in China’s Shanghai Pudong International Airport, we were met by a driver holding a sign that read Yu XiaoMing, who swiftly directed us through the bustling city airport to a black Acura outside of the terminal. China was busy, crowded, claustrophobic, and surprisingly reminiscent of American cities like New York where people were unabashedly direct. I’d only been in the city ten minutes and two people had already shoved me out of their way, calling me a fatty as they bustled through the airport with their luggage. Tensions definitely ran high. The ones who didn’t point or call me a laowai woman to my face, stared as Ethan gripped my hand, carefully shuffling me into the waiting car before climbing in beside me.
Was I really fat, and pregnant? Or was I really just a fatty? I pouted. Everyone in China was mostly skinny. I felt like a whale. No, I was definitely pregnant, I thought. It was the hormones making me feel like a walrus. We were joined in the vehicle by a man who looked like a security guard. I gazed out the car window at the towering skyscrapers and apartment buildings. It wasn’t the exotic “oriental” paradise Americans saw in movies. Shanghai was truly a city that never sleeps.
Ethan hit the ground running the moment we arrived. He insisted on taking me to his apartment in a luxury development called the Shanghai Centre. I refused, instead following him to the factory he owned on the outskirts of the city.
“I won’t be long,” he promised, guiding me into the building.
When we walked in, we were greeted by an older guy with a toothless grin. He was friendly enough, as he threw fake punches at Ethan until one landed against his stomach.
“Hey boss, man,” he said in English. “How’d an ugly guy like you get such a pretty woman?” he smiled.
“Better be careful,” another guy said. “He might sic his guards on you.”
I looked around as a group of three very large, very intimidating looking men closed in on us. The first guy’s name was Chan. He looked oddly familiar.
“Guards?” I asked.
“Things get crazy from time to time,” Ethan explained, taking hold of a lever on one of the machines.
I choked on the fumes sputtering out of the machinery as Ethan jumped in to work with the rest of the guys. I’d noticed a permanent dark cloud over the city since we arrived. The pollution in Shanghai was as bad as the air in Los Angeles.
“These guys follow you everywhere?” I asked, lifting a brow.
“Everywhere I go. There’s one more, but he’s not here at the mo
ment.”
I swallowed nervously as the bodyguards stood around us, unsmiling. Apparently I was standing a bit too close to the boss. Chan and David were both Chinese, Michael was very tall, and very British with dark, extremely handsome complexion and the mysterious, Efrayim, was out of town.
After an hour of waiting for Ethan to finish checking his books, we high-tailed it out of there much to my relief, as I waved to all of Ethan’s workers, who looked neither unhappy or enthusiastic as they finished the day’s work.
At the apartment, I kicked my shoes off as soon as we arrived, to find my feet were drastically swollen in my high heels.
“I’m so tired I could pass out,” I said, collapsing atop Ethan’s square shaped sofa.
He collapsed beside me, laying his head back against the cushion.
“I would travel back and forth from the States to China more often if not for the plane ride,” he complained.
“I can see why,” I retorted.
Ethan unbuttoned his jacket and tossed it on a nearby chair.
“We need to talk,” he said.
The expression on his face was serious.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your ring for starters. I haven’t seen it in over a week.”
I looked down at my hands, breathing sharply.
“Is that why you’ve been acting so weird? Why you were distant? You lost the ring, didn’t you?” he continued.
I nodded, still yet unable to tell him the truth about Danny.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You know my family. We’re not the best communicators.”
I turned my head, unable to look him in the eye.
“You can talk to me about anything. I love you, Elizabeth…”
Ethan pushed my back against the sofa and slowly unzipped my pants. His hands crawled into the lining of my panties. I moaned softly as his fingers explored the folds of my moistened flesh until it began to pulsate and throb with need.