Five #2
Roger pulled out his phone, his face wearing the rare stony expression Nico had seen strike fear into the hearts of arrogant executives.
On the screen was a photo of a photo taken in what appeared to be a hospital.
A young woman, barely more than a girl, sat staring down at the tiny bundle cradled cautiously in her arms.
“Go to the next image,” said Roger.
It was a copy of a DNA test and Valerie zoomed in. “Your name’s on it,” she said.
“I didn’t give a sample. Dad must have taken it without me knowing. There was also a receipt for R. T. for the payment of a hundred grand. That’s about a quarter million today. Her dad’s name was Ray. R. T., Ray Tsui.”
Nico looked at the test. “It looks like Malcolm didn’t want to pay until he had proof of the baby’s paternity.”
“That would be like him,” said Roger. “He didn’t trust anyone. I assume Yvette told her parents about the baby and her father talked to mine about what to do. The decision must have been to pay the Tsuis to leave and keep us apart. I don’t know what they told Yvette.”
“They did all of this without talking to you?” Valerie sounded outraged.
“My father saw a problem and he made it go away. Money makes a difference and he knew it.”
Nico thought it was a fair assessment of the old man, and Valerie looked like she’d smelled an open can of sardines left in a hot car. “I see. Mr. Badgerton—”
“Roger.”
“Roger. This is a very sad story, but Yvette never contacted you once over the years to tell you about your kid? I’m sorry, but this makes me wonder if maybe you were the problem.”
Nico hadn’t considered this perspective but it was obviously untrue to anyone who knew Roger. “Roger’s not that kind of man. He’s a good person.” Nico’s voice came out louder than he anticipated and the other two looked startled until Valerie nodded.
“That’s a vote of confidence, but doesn’t answer the question.”
“In my defense, I believe she tried nineteen years ago when my daughter was eleven, but my family intercepted her and told her some lie that caused her to stay away.”
“How do you know?”
“Because after I found that photo, I tore apart Dad’s files and found this.” Roger showed them an overexposed photo of a diary page. There was a note in Malcolm Badgerton’s heavy hand: “Repaid P. $500,000 for YT child (girl 11).”
“Is that in code?” asked Valerie, squinting at the screen.
“Not code. YT, that’s Yvette Tsui.” He pointed to the date in the corner. “Yvette left twelve years prior, so if we count her pregnancy, I might have a little girl who was eleven at the time the note was written.”
“What about the P?” asked Valerie.
Roger took the phone back to frown at it. “That’s tricky and why I think someone else in my family besides Dad knew. I have three siblings. My sister is Penny. Dad called my brother David ‘PeeWee’ because he looked like PeeWee Herman when he was young. My other brother, Peter, died five years ago.”
“Your mother?” asked Valerie.
“Harriet. She died twenty years ago. I don’t know who approached whom or why. I do know this P gave Yvette money, and Dad repaid P, resulting in the note I showed you. I was doing a research trip at the time for the Bread Company, so I wasn’t around.”
“Then your dad conveniently left that photo and this note for you to find after he died? Did he want you to know?”
“Probably not. Dad didn’t put anything in order before the end. He’d been sick for a couple years, but still refused to believe death would have the nerve to come for him.”
“P might not be a family member,” Valerie pointed out.
“Dad wouldn’t have shared this with anyone else,” Roger said with confidence. “Too shameful.”
“Oh.” Valerie looked pained.
“I wish I could say he was a product of his time, but he was just an asshole,” said Roger. “God, that feels good. Penny would kill me if she heard that. She idolized Dad.”
“How do you feel about this whole thing?” Valerie said abruptly. “It must be a shock.”
Roger blew out his breath. “I haven’t thought about feelings. I’m focused on a solution first. Feelings can come later.”
Good, at least Roger was concentrating on results, because the rest of this was a mess.
Forbidden love, an illegitimate child, family drama.
Roger had kept all those secrets from Nico.
He shouldn’t be upset. This was a job, as Kimmy pointed out.
It wasn’t healthy to have such an emotional attachment to one’s employer, although he’d always thought they were more than boss and assistant.
He glanced over at Valerie. Why was she the one Roger chose to confide in?
He couldn’t help but resent that Roger had been more willing to talk to Valerie than to him.
At least this whole thing would die on the vine. There was no way Valerie would agree to this. No normal person would. His mind churned with ways to figure this out for Roger after she declined.
Valerie pressed her lips together. “To be clear, you think me pretending to be your daughter this summer will help flush out the P who knew all this.”
“Yes.” Roger nodded his head almost ruefully. “When I saw you yesterday, it was like finding her all over again. You look so much like Yvette, I can’t believe it, and if it was a shock to me, I think it will be the same for whoever knew about my kid.”
Valerie gave Roger a narrow look. “Did you, I don’t know, ask them before coming up with this scheme?”
“Of course I did. I showed them the payments and the DNA test. They both denied it, but that doesn’t make sense because one of them has to be the P mentioned by my father.
My gut says it wasn’t Peter, but I don’t know.
My daughter and Yvette are out there and I have to find them.
If they don’t want me in their lives, I’ll respect that, but I need them to understand I wasn’t involved in what my father did. I never even knew.”
“You didn’t show your siblings the photo?” she asked.
He shook his head fiercely. “That’s mine.”