Chapter 10

21st April 2011 : 9:00 am.

“What the fuck have you done?” Dad blurted as I picked up the phone.

“Excuse me?” I hated when my dad called me in the morning with one of his freakish calls. He’d done it last month and the time before, and now it was getting on my nerves.

“Don’t fucking play games. Please tell me that you’re not still seeing that whore. The Asian one. The one that I told you to get rid off!”

Yes, Li had crossed the line with one of my potential clients and Dad had been explicit about her being a liability. She was the type that took risks and, to make matters worse, she’d nearly cost me not only my company but my life too.

He didn’t wait for me to respond as he started to rant, “I just got off the phone with Bentley.”

Bentley was Dad’s best friend and his lawyer. They were inseparable and I knew that Bentley knew all of Dad’s secrets. My mother knew it too.

“He told me something last month, but I didn’t want to believe it. Now I find the pictures and it’s fucking true.”

Li’s purring in my ear. I never should have let her stay here last night. I never asked mother where they were spending their female bonding, but if it was at their house, then I was really fucked. Their house wasn’t far. I knew the real reason that mother had taken Emma. She’d said it many a times, when she’d asked Emma what she was wearing to one of mother’s charity events, when she’d been to the house and seen that Emma had been in bed for two days… Mother didn’t believe in rehab, appearances were her means of survival and she frequently said, “No woman’s bringing down the Rogers family name. Not on my watch!” I knew then that she’d taken too much of an interest in Emma, which more than likely made Emma feel even worse.

“We’re on our fucking way. And you better not go to the office. You’ve got some explaining to do!”

“What do you mean that you’re on your way?” I was half awake and no longer sleeping on my bed with Li’s legs wrapped around me.

“Your mom and Emma should be there now. I’m driving separately. Do you know who that whore slept with?”

My mind kept flashing between this conversation and Dad telling me that my wife, child and mother were coming to the house.

“No. Who?” I asked, wondering what was going on.

“The son of the fucking Russian mob. That’s fucking who!”

“Abram?”

That was the man that we’d been discussing last week and all of a sudden, one minute he was giving me access to his accounts and then he’d withdrawn them. I didn’t even look at the driveway, because I wanted to hear what Dad had to say that Li had done. Something far worse than last time and she’d blown it. Not only for me, but for us. I couldn’t focus as I nearly passed out as I was heading towards the window. The fucking Russian mob were powerful. Too fucking powerful in London. I knew that Dad could pull strings, but something like this would be too much for him. Or maybe it wouldn’t? I didn’t want to be six feet under to find out.

“Dad just spit it out.”

“They want your head on a fucking platter, son. She fucking slept with him and then sent the pictures to his wife. What were you thinking sending her out to do that? Did you know who you were messing with? I told you so many times, just pick your clients carefully. You’re not able to look after the likes of any mobster. Especially the fucking Russians. Shit, now they know who sent the photo and not only is her worthless life at risk, but all of ours too. Ted, you there? Do I need to spell it out to you?”

I nearly dropped the phone. Li still hugging on to the pillow as if she was in her own home. I’d never noticed that before, it was as if she was trying to make a claim on this house, by sleeping in our bed. The one that I’d been sharing with my wife.

I’d acted like a fool. I never noticed that Emma was heading up the stairs. There was no sound on the outside, just Dad ranting on the phone as I stood butt naked and listened to what he had to say about Abram. I knew that my life was over, because I thought that having one mobster would get us out of a hole. The financial regulations were getting stricter by the minute. It was getting fucking harder by the second to make a penny, let alone a pound.

I never noticed that Emma had opened the door. She’d seen me naked and Li hugging the pillow on her side of the bed and she’d rushed down the stairs as if her life depended on it.

I would have heard my mother screaming, “What the fuck?”

She’d always frowned on bad language, but she used it once as she stood at the bottom of the stairs with her hand gripping Barbara’s. Another time as she headed up the stairs and realized why Emma had reacted the way that she did.

As for Dad, I kept listening to him. Talking. Ranting. Screaming down the phone. My mind drifted to another world, one which entailed not being a father, lover, husband or even a son. I wanted to get as far away from here as possible, as I hated the idea that I’d brought a fate so severe to my family.

“What the fuck!” Mother repeated and I turned to face her, butt naked like the day that I was born. That was when I dropped my phone and heard Dad scream the word, “Fuck!” on the other end.

I swiftly picked up my boxers and told Li to get out of here without anyone else knowing that she was here. I couldn’t deal with the drama. This was messy enough as it was and I had a headache building, like a fucking tidal wave ready to take me down. I wasn’t going to let it. Li had to get out of here!

Mother managed to get there before me. Li was awoken by the sharp end of my mother’s purse. She hit her repeatedly with it, as Li was naked and trying to leave. But mother was making it difficult. I should have tried to rescue her. Told her to stop beating Li, but I knew that Emma and Barbara were in the house. I started to panic as I thought about them both coming up the stairs and seeing me naked. It didn’t deter me if they found Li naked. But me; somehow it became relevant in the commotion of things.

Mother’s hatred for foul language was forgotten as she repeatedly cursed Li.

That was when there was a scream so loud, that we all stopped. Barbara’s cry was so hard that it pierced our ears and brought us all to reality. I rushed down to the hallway to the downstairs bathroom to see Emma slumped on the floor, a needle in her hand and Barbara screaming at the top of her lungs.

The door slammed shut and mother had managed to beat Li out of the house with her handbag and clothes in her hand. I didn’t care about that as mother ran to the screams. I stood by the door bell as my dad entered the house and then the bathroom. I wondered for a split second, if he was on his way when he was calling me earlier. I stood like a statue as mother shouted, “You stupid boy! What have you done?”

She was the one that ran to Emma and tried to get her to breathe. She spoke to her, while Dad calmly took Barbara out of the bathroom with his phone in one hand and Bentley rushed to mother’s side.

I witnessed first hand the damage that I’d caused to my family and, with a lifeless wife in my mother’s arms, the only person that I wished I could call was Will.

He hadn’t spoken to me for years. But for some reason I wished that he was here, beside me. I knew what he would say, that I’d fucked up for good. Just like he knew I would.