My husband, Hossain, grew very concerned as my due date approached. It was a big baby and I felt like a whale. I was very uncomfortable and had to pee every few minutes. I called in and began my maternity leave.
St. James called me a day later.
"I've shortlisted the candidates to take over as the new CEO of the Foncault Group," he said. "I'll send the resumes to you. Can you attend the interviews?"
"I may go into labor at any time, Mr. St. James."
"You could attend online."
"Not interested."
"You're going to be the executive assistant of the new CEO and working closely with him or her. Don't you want to be involved in deciding who it is?"
"I won't be returning to work for you after my maternity leave."
There was a pause on the line.
"I won't give you a reference," he said. "And I'll do everything I can to make sure you don't get another job."
"That's fine, Mr. St. James. I won't need your reference."
"You think you can work in the corporate world with me for an enemy?"
"I don't want to work in your corporate world." I paused and smiled at the video link. "I take pleasure in telling you this, Mr. St. James. Over the years, Jack directed me to move excess profits from our overseas operations to secure tax haven accounts all around the world. There are billions of dollars of Foncault Group money sitting tax-free in those accounts. You were too lazy to work with us running your Group -- so now you'll never find that money."
"How much?" His voice was strained, and I could see the shock on his face.
"I can tell you the exact amount, 34,681 million dollars. Over thirty-four billion."
"Jack stole all that money. It's mine."
"He never took a penny of it, Mr. St. James. He was too honest for his own good. All the money is in corporate accounts, the access codes are in the Foncault Group system. But I doubt you and your new CEO will be able to find them without me. Goodbye."
"Wait, wait ..." he began but I cut the line.
He called back immediately, but I did not pick up.
I went into labor soon after the call. I delivered the baby that grew from the seed that Jack had planted in my womb nine months earlier. My husband, Hossain, held my hand through the entire four hours.
* * * * *
It was my second child. Both were Jack's, though Hossain thought they were his. The first one, a girl we named Noor, had brown eyes like me and black hair that Jack and I shared. Even though she had Jack's brow and aquiline nose, Hossain had no suspicions.
However, this second child, a boy, was born with Jack's distinctive gray-blue eyes, and Hossain frowned when the nurse handed him the baby.
"Eye color is often blue at birth," said the nurse. "It may turn darker as the weeks go by."
Hossain smiled with relief at this.
We named him Darius and brought him home to his four-year-old sister. She delighted in playing with her new brother. It made my mother's heart glad to see them together. They were both quiet children, didn't fuss much, and were little reminders of Jack. I thought they both inherited Jack's personality -- serious, independent, and anxious not to burden anyone.
The weeks went by, and Darius's eyes grew to be a brighter blue rather than fading to brown.
"My mother was from the Azeri border area," I said to Hossain to allay his doubts. "She had light brown eyes -- amber we called them. And there are many in her family with blue eyes. The gene is recessive, as you know."
"True, true," he said, and his doubts seemed quelled.
My breasts were fuller now with mother's milk. As I fed young Darius, I recalled with a pang how much Jack had delighted in suckling on my nipples while I was lactating with Noor. The memories tormented me, and Hossein often found me crying with Darius suckling on my breasts.
"What is the matter?" he always asked.
"Post-partum," I always responded. "Crazy hormonal imbalances after pregnancy."
"You women are so weak," he would reply.
* * * * *
Darius was two months old when my phone buzzed in the middle of the day. Hossein was at work, and I was home with the children. I looked at my phone face and saw it was Reginald St. James. I disconnected the call, but it buzzed again immediately. He kept calling and I saw that he would not stop, so I picked it up.
"What do you want?" I asked, my tone belligerent.
"I think you know, Farah."
"Tell me anyway."
"My new CEO, Martin Kinsella, and I," said St. James. "We've been through every nook and cranny of the Foncault Group systems and accounts. We've been aided by our accounting department and by external accounting consultants. We've found Foncault Group accounts in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Luxembourg, as well as a few other tax havens. But we cannot find the codes anywhere. We have no way of accessing them -- we don't even know how much is in them."
"I sent you the codes by secure email, Mr. St. James. And saved them in the system. Jack made sure to save the codes very securely so only those with authorized credentials could find them. Keep looking."
"I have used the best accounting and IT talent on the planet, Ms. Hojjat. They assure me the information is not in the system. This is blackmail."
"Blackmail is your game, Mr. St. James, not mine. It's your company, your system. The information was sent to you and put into the corporate IT system as required by the law. It is in there. I no longer work for you and have no obligation to tell you anything further."
"I can get you arrested for embezzlement --"
"For what?" I laughed. "The money is in your corporate accounts."
"You put it in there behind access codes. You have a legal obligation to give those to me."
"Check your accounting statements, Mr. St. James. It states clearly that you, as chairman, must be sent all access codes. I have email records proving that we did that. If you can't find them, it's your problem, not mine. Haul me into court if you want, I can assure you the law is on my side."
"Farah, I'll pay you whatever you want -- five million, ten million. Name your price."
"I'm not for sale. Besides, I have all the money I need with the bonuses I got through Jack's deals."
"Be reasonable, Farah. At least meet me to discuss a way forward."
I thought about it, and an idea formed in my mind.
"Okay, let's meet. But not at the office."
"Then where?"
"Where you routinely meet your girls. Your suite at the Four Seasons."
"You know about that!?" His shock was unmistakable.
"I know all about Tiffany Hsu, Chinese-American father, Norwegian mother, NYU Law student. She was working evenings as a hostess at a casino for high rollers, doing some modeling on the side. Asian beauty with Nordic height, quite a babe."