Page 43 of Out of the Shadows
“Missy went into the affair with her eyes open,” Roger said, his voice low as he glanced toward his closed door.
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure,” Margo said. It all became so clear to her. “She was nineteen, totally legal, but by my math—and I’m pretty good at math—she was still three years younger than your own daughter.”
He was sweating. Margo was enjoying this way too much.
“I read the NDA and—”
“You can’t! That’s a legal document and—”
Margo held up her phone. She had the rest of the story because Tess had run a background on Melissa and, with a little math, found the truth.
“Melissa never had the abortion.”
“That’s not true!”
“She had a baby six months after she signed the NDA.”
“She told me—” Then he stopped talking. Because he also was putting two and two together.
“You had an affair with nineteen-year-old Melissa Fleischman. It must have been at the end of her sophomore year that she told you she was pregnant. You couldn’t have your partner find out, so you gave her a million dollars if she aborted the baby. She took it. She dropped out of college, cut ties with her family, and had the baby alone.”
“How do you know?” he demanded.
“Like I said, my sister is resourceful. While I was waiting for you to agree to talk to me, she went through all of Thornton’s notes and ran a background on Melissa. She’s now married to a great guy, and her daughter—your daughter—is seven. She also had a little boy last year. I’m happy for her, and don’t want to uproot her life, but you know what? I suspect that her dad would love to know you’re the reason his only daughter disappeared and won’t even talk to her family anymore.”
“Do. Not. I-I-I... Please.”
“Oh, shut up. You’re an asshole, Roger. You’re fifty-two years old and still fucking around with young women. You know how many NDAs I read with your name on them? Six. And that’s just in the last ten years. You like them between eighteen and twenty-two. And you’re going to tell me everything I want to know or I’m taking this file—” she held it up “—to your partner and dropping it right on his desk.”
“I will sue you.”
“I don’t care.”
She wasn’t bluffing. She could do whatever she wanted because the NDA was binding only for Melissa, not Margo.
Ruining this man’s life would be a complete joy.
“I can sue Missy—she was supposed to have an abortion! She lied to me!”
“Sue her. It’s a civil case. It’ll be public record.” Margo could see Rapperson weighing the pros and cons so she said, “If you sue her, I will give this NDA to your partner. You might get your million dollars back from Melissa, but I don’t think you’d have a business anymore.”
“What do you want?” he said, voice quivering.
“Did you send one of your people to bid on the storage unit?”
“Yes! So what? He didn’t get it.”
“Did you hire someone to get the files back from Mr. Barrett?”
“Of course! It’s going to ruin me. Andrew will never forgive me.”
“For screwing his daughter? Yeah, I’m sure he won’t.”
“I didn’t rape her.”
“We’ll engrave that on your headstone.I didn’t rape her.That will make Andrew feelsomuch better.” She really hated this man. “Who did you hire?”
“My lawyer. The company lawyer. He’s discreet, which is more than I can say for you.”
