Chapter 16 - Andre’s Payment
Andre answered the phone immediately.
Malik did not ease into the question.
“Did Darren pay you fourteen thousand five hundred dollars?”
Silence.
Tasha sat across from her son.
Andre finally said, “Yes.”
Malik’s face went cold.
“For what?”
“Malik—”
“For what?”
Andre exhaled.
“I did consulting work.”
“For Darren?”
“For Brooks Heritage.”
Tasha leaned toward the phone.
“No, you didn’t.”
Andre went quiet.
“Tasha.”
“I approve outside international consultants. You never worked for my company.”
“Darren hired me.”
“To do what?”
“He said Brooks Heritage was exploring supplier relationships in Europe. I reviewed vendors.”
“Do you have a contract?”
“Yes.”
“Deliverables?”
“Yes.”
“Emails?”
“Yes.”
Malik stared between them.
“So it was real?”
Andre said, “The work was.”
Tasha frowned.
“Then why was I never told?”
“I assumed you knew.”
“No.”
Another silence.
Then Andre added, “There was something else.”
Malik’s jaw tightened.
“Of course there was.”
“Darren asked me questions about you.”
“Me?”
“Your relationship with me.”
“What did you say?”
“That I wanted contact.”
“When was this?”
“2021.”
Malik looked at his mother.
That was two years after the hidden letter.
“What did Darren say?”
“He told me Tasha believed renewed contact would destabilize you.”
Tasha stood.
“I never said that to him.”
Andre continued.
“He said if I cared about you, I should wait.”
Malik’s eyes flashed.
“And you listened?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was ashamed.”
“That’s not a reason!”
“It’s the truth.”
“You already disappeared once, then my stepdad tells you to keep disappearing and you just do it?”
“Yes.”
Andre’s voice broke.
“I made another cowardly decision.”
Malik stood.
“I’m done.”
He ended the call.
Tasha did not chase him when he went upstairs.
She sat alone.
Darren had inserted himself between Malik and Andre.
Not entirely.
Andre remained responsible for his choices.
Tasha remained responsible for hiding the letter.
But Darren had recognized fractures and widened them.
That was his pattern.
Not creating every weakness.
Using every weakness.
Later, Tasha knocked on Malik’s door.
“Can I come in?”
He shrugged.
She sat on the floor.
“He lied to both of us.”
Malik stared at the ceiling.
“You hid the letter.”
“Yes.”
“Dad listened to him.”
“Yes.”
“And Darren gets to say he raised me.”
Tasha waited.
Malik whispered, “Did anybody ever think I should decide something?”
The question cut through everything.
Tasha moved closer but did not touch him.
“I’m trying to now.”
“Too late.”
“For some things.”
He looked at her.
“Not everything.”
Malik wiped his face.
“Do you think Dad took the money to stay away?”
“We don’t know that.”
“Did Darren pay him before or after telling him to wait?”
“I don’t know.”
Elena answered the next day.
The $14,500 payment occurred six weeks before Andre’s email correspondence with Darren about Malik.
Andre supplied the consulting deliverables.
The amount was high but not obviously fictitious.
There was no evidence it was a payoff.
That mattered.
Malik called Andre again.
“I’m still angry.”
“You should be.”
“Stop telling me what I should feel.”
“You’re right.”
A pause.
“Did Darren pay you to disappear?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you tell Mom about the work?”
“I thought she knew.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“Because Darren said not to, and because believing him gave me an excuse not to risk you rejecting me.”
Malik stayed silent.
That was the first answer that sounded completely true.
Not flattering.
Not heroic.
True.
“I still want you to visit,” Malik said.
Andre’s voice softened.
“Okay.”
“But I’m not calling you Dad yet.”
“You don’t have to call me anything you don’t mean.”
Afterward, Malik told Tasha.
She nodded.
No warnings.
No conditions beyond ordinary safety and scheduling.
The change did not go unnoticed.
“You really are getting weird,” he said.
“Apparently.”
Meanwhile Darren’s criminal case grew.
Investigators linked several false invoices directly to files created on devices from Unit 214.
One invoice included a duplicated project description copied from a legitimate vendor bill.
Another listed workers who did not exist.
Leon admitted receiving money and returning a percentage to Darren through personal transfers and investment purchases.
His lawyer began negotiating a plea.
Tasha felt no satisfaction.
Leon had been family.
Celeste felt differently.
“He chose money.”
“Yes.”
“He chose it repeatedly.”
“Yes.”
“I can be sad and still let consequences happen.”
Tasha looked at her mother.
“That sounds healthy.”
“I’m seventy-one. It took long enough.”
The divorce mediation began.
Tasha sat in one room with Simone.
Darren sat elsewhere with Gregory.
Numbers moved between them.
Retirement balances.
Vehicle values.
Household accounts.
Furniture.
Debts.
Business interests.
The mediator returned with Darren’s position.
He wanted $210,000 to resolve marital-property claims.
Tasha stared.
“From what?”
“His theory includes marital appreciation in the home, retirement growth, and compensation claims.”
Simone had calculated a lower but nonzero range.
Tasha hated the idea of paying Darren anything.
Then she remembered what fairness required.
“Would paying a reasonable settlement protect the company?”
“It could resolve divorce property issues. It cannot control the criminal case.”
“Good.”
Tasha countered at $82,000 plus division of certain retirement funds according to traceable marital portions.
Darren rejected it.
He countered at $175,000.
Hours passed.
At seven that evening, the mediator returned.
“There’s another condition.”
Tasha sighed.
“What?”
“Mr. Cole wants the hummingbird necklace.”
Tasha blinked.
“What?”
“The necklace Malik purchased.”
Simone frowned.
“Why?”
“He claims it became part of the incident and he wants it preserved as evidence.”
“That’s absurd. We have photographs and the video.”
The mediator nodded.
“I’m conveying the request.”
Tasha looked at Simone.
Something felt wrong.
Darren had called the necklace cheap.
Destroyed it.
Why would he care about it now?
Then she remembered the insurance documents, Raymond’s shareholder agreement, and Celeste’s old hummingbird necklace.
Darren collected symbols when they carried leverage.
“What does he think is inside it?” Tasha asked.
Simone looked sharply at her.
“You think the necklace matters beyond the incident?”
“I don’t know.”
Malik had bought it from a mall jewelry store.
There was nothing secret about it.
Unless Darren believed there was.
That night, Tasha asked Malik to show her the pendant.
He retrieved it from the jeweler repair pouch.
The hummingbird was scratched but intact.
She turned it over.
Tiny letters were engraved near the wing.
RB.
Malik frowned.
“I didn’t order initials.”
Tasha’s pulse accelerated.
“Where did you buy this?”
“Carter & Vale Jewelers.”
“Was it new?”
“It was in the estate section.”
“What does that mean?”
“Pre-owned.”
Tasha stared at the initials.
RB.
Raymond Brooks.
The necklace Malik had purchased by coincidence might not merely resemble Celeste’s old necklace.
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It might have belonged to Raymond’s family.
And somehow Darren had recognized it before either of them did.
