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through. It was a photograph of Astrid and Charlie lounging together on pillows on the<br />
deck of a vintage Chinese junk that had been cruising the South China Sea. Astrid’s head<br />
was resting intimately against Charlie’s chest. Astrid recognized the photo from five years<br />
ago, when Charlie had attempted to cheer her up after Michael had dropped a bombshell<br />
on her in Hong Kong, begging to end their marriage. Michael’s follow-up text read:<br />
MT: No judge is going to give u custody now.<br />
AL: This photo proves nothing. Charlie was only consoling me after you left.<br />
MT: “Consoling.” Did this include blow jobs?<br />
AL: Why do you need to be so crass? You know I never cheated on you. You were the one who fake cheated, wanting out<br />
of our marriage at that time, and I was so destroyed. Charlie was just being a good friend.<br />
MT: Friends with benefits. I got tons more pics. U have no idea.<br />
AL: I don’t know what else you could possibly have. I’ve done nothing wrong.<br />
MT: Yes, jury will really believe you. Wait till they see what I’ve got.<br />
Astrid stared at his words, her face going hot with fury. She immediately speed-dialed<br />
him, but it went straight to voice mail. Hi, you’ve reached Michael Teo. This is my private<br />
line, so you must be damn important. Leave a message and I will get back to you if it’s<br />
important enough. Heh Heh Heh.<br />
At the sound of the beep, Astrid spoke: “Michael, this isn’t funny anymore. I don’t know<br />
what sort of advice that lawyer of yours has been giving you, but these tactics are only<br />
going to end up harming you. Please just stop, and let’s try to come to a reasonable<br />
agreement. For the good of Cassian.”<br />
Astrid hung up the phone, placed it on the side table, and turned off her bedside lamp.<br />
She lay in bed in the darkness, furious at Michael, but even more furious with herself<br />
because she knew she’d played right into his trap. She should never have texted him in<br />
the first place. Michael just wanted to agitate her. That’s all he wanted to do in every<br />
interaction they had these days. Her phone beeped again, and she knew it would be<br />
another incendiary text from Michael. She was determined not to look at any more of his<br />
texts. She needed to get some sleep, because tomorrow was going to be another big day—<br />
the reading of her grandmother’s will was taking place at 10:00 a.m. sharp.<br />
Her phone buzzed again with another text message notice. And then another. Astrid<br />
turned to face away from her phone, clenching her eyes closed. Suddenly it occurred to<br />
her…What if it wasn’t Michael? What if it was Charlie, who had just returned to Hong<br />
Kong? Sighing, she reached for her phone and turned it on.<br />
There were three text messages, and surprise, surprise, they were from Michael. The<br />
first one simply read:<br />
For the good of Cassian.<br />
The second text was a file that was still in the process of downloading, but the third text<br />
read:<br />
$5 billion or you lose him forever.
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