Free The Trophy Taker by Lee Weeks Page B

girl I’ve been ’ act if that’s what it took.
    ‘I do have some money to return to you, Mr Chan.’ She smiled sweetly. ‘But I do not have it all … at the moment.’
    Chan raised an eyebrow.
    ‘How much do you have for me … at the moment ?’
    ‘I have thirty thousand dollars. My savings, everything.’ She pleaded silently, trying every trick in her extensive book to find that deeply buried corner of Chan that cared.
    Chan switched from nodding his head to swinging it from side to side. ‘Not really enough, is it, Lucy?’
    Lucy felt the fluttering of panic begin in her gut. Chan slipped into his soliloquy:
    ‘You know you borrowed a lot of money from me, and not just from me, from the Wo Shing Shing. And you say to me, “Sorry, Mr Chan, I can only afford to repay you a measly thirty thousand dollars at the moment ”, when you owe ten times that amount. Do you think that is fair?’
    Lucy shook her head, feeling the blood drain from her face. The actual sum she had borrowed was being inflated as she sat there. Suddenly it seemed insurmountable. She hadn’t reckoned on such calculated cruelty. He couldn’t really expect her to pay all that, could he?
    ‘So, Lucy, what do you think I should do?’
    There was a pause and Lucy returned to staring at her lap and shaking her head miserably.
    ‘Have you no one to help you?’
    Lucy was puzzled. What could he be driving at? He was waiting to spring a trap on her, all her instincts told her so.
    ‘I know that your sister – Ka Lei, isn’t it? I know that she works at the hospital. She relies on you, doesn’t she, Lucy?’
    Lucy’s eyes flitted back and forth across his face, searching desperately.
    ‘You live with your sister, don’t you? She’s young, isn’t she? She is training to be a nurse. Is that right? There’s just the two of you?’
    Lucy nodded her head almost imperceptibly while twisting her hands as they lay in her lap.
    ‘Not just the two of you at the moment, is there, Lucy? Your English cousin is staying with you. She’s a very attractive girl, I hear. Maybe she can help you? She can’t live off you forever, can she? Plus, she’s family – and this debt is a family debt. You didn’t just borrow from me personally, you borrowed from the Wo Shing Shing. You understand the implications of that, don’t you, Lucy?’
    Lucy nodded her head miserably.
    ‘Maybe she can help you?’
    He knew everything. Every small detail of her life. She was doomed. They were all doomed.
    ‘Georgina’s parents are dead. My sister and I are her only family. I don’t see how she can help, Mr Chan.’ Lucy looked up, suddenly sensing an awful point to Chan’s questions.
    ‘She can come and work here. We are always in need of good foreign hostesses. Chinese girls are as plentiful as grains of rice; a good foreigner can bring a lot of new customers. Bring her in tomorrow and I will wipe a quarter of the debt away immediately. Then I will see what else I can do to help you. Because …’ Chan placed his hand over hers, ‘I like you, Lucy … really, I do.’ He moved his hand to her thigh and squeezed it hard. Lucy winced. ‘But Daddy has to be strict sometimes.’

24

    ‘Anyway, juz be for a little while. You like to work with me, huh? Family, huh?’ Lucy put the suggestion to Georgina over breakfast the next morning.
    ‘I’ve never done any waitressing or anything like this before. Are you sure I can do it?’
    ‘You got to believe me, it’s perfec job for you,’ Lucy assured her.
    ‘Is no .’ Ka Lei stood with her arms folded across her flat chest. Her English wasn’t as good as Lucy’s. When she was trying her hardest to find the word she wanted, her hands flitted in front of her face in expressive gestures and her head tilted to one side, then she lifted her eyes skyward and twittered like a starling. Now, she stamped her foot and dug her hands deeper into her sides, and looked much younger than her seventeen years as she blocked