Chapter 15

1st October 2015: 11:10 am.

“Calm down,” I said to Emma as she started rambling. I hated when she did that, she used to do that when she was on the drugs. I thought for a split second if after all this time, she had done that. If she had gone back down that slippery path.

“I was on the Tube.” She took a deep breath.

I wondered if she was high or something? What the hell was doing on the Tube? The woman had bought a bicycle over a year ago, claiming that she was saving the environment and had it safely tucked in the garage, unused.

“Why? What happened to your car?” The one I bought you. The one that you said you didn’t need.

“It broke down.”

I laughed. “How can a six month old car break down?”

“Ted, I’m not a mechanic. Apparently they’ve been calling me because it was recalled and they had a problem with that model engine. The left tube or wing? Who knows, it’s not important.”

It kind of made sense, but then the whole idea that I’d spent 40k on a car that could break down due some technicality annoyed me even more. Between her rambling, avoiding Li on what was supposed to be a romantic holiday to end an era and finding out that our systems had been hacked, I wasn’t in the mood for guessing games. Emma needed to just tell me why she had called my phone ten times in the last hour and just get to the point.

“Okay, who were you on the Tube with?”

“Ted are you listening to me?”

So, far she hadn’t said anything apart from shouted our daughter’s name three times. So, there wasn’t much to listen to.

“Barbara. She’s missing. Someone has taken her!”

The words rang in my ears. I just kept thinking that Emma wasn’t thinking straight. Like the time I’d found her in the park watching kids play on the swings. Just that there were no kids at midnight in Hyde Park and our daughter was safely tucked in bed. My heart pulled for just a second as she spoke. Thinking that I had caused this, I thought that a divorce was the best thing for both of us. Especially me. I had brought her into this marriage thinking that I could protect her, but all I had done was break her. Into the mess that she had become and the one that she seemed to becoming once again.

“Ted, you need to get here from wherever you are. I need to go. I need to do the appeal speech.”

“Appeal?”

“Yes, to the public to see if anyone saw her. They need to come forward to the police.”

“And my parents?”

“Yes, they’re here to do the speech with me.”

Shit, this thing was serious. She’d mentioned the police and that was when she hung up and I looked at my phone. Not only had Emma been calling, but mother too, something that she rarely did, especially since she’d chased Li out of my bedroom with her purse. After that day, she’d disowned me. Said that I’d brought shame to the house and only when she thought that I was worthy would she own me again. Mother made Dad call me, and words were translated through some secret code, even through Emma at times. She never called, never texted, and for some reason thought that her cold treatment would make me see the error of my ways.

I decided to call Mother, not Dad. I believed Emma, but I wanted to be sure. I didn’t know what state I’d left her in, because I’d been busy. I’d been trying to work out how to get out of this divorce without losing serious money and more importantly making sure that the family didn’t financially suffer.

“Where have you been?” She spat out coldly, and her statement told me that it was true.

“I spoke to Emma,” I explained, thinking that I didn’t need this conversation to go on any longer. I’d had the confirmation that I needed; my daughter was missing and I had to get home.

“Good. Are you on your way?”

She was talking as if I was in London somewhere and all I needed was to get in the car and I would be there in a few minutes.

“Oh. So, it’s true?”

She sighed, “Why would Emma make up a story? I’m worried. Whoever has taken her did it on purpose. I mean, to go to all that trouble...”

My fucking head started to pound, this was serious. They’d taken Barbara and it was a kidnapping, not that she was lost or they couldn’t find her. Someone had taken, I kept thinking about it over and over again. I looked out of the window at the clear blue sky and thought about being here when my daughter was missing, but then I froze as I felt Li’s hand touching my back.

Did she have something to do with this? Fuck. I thought that she was still in the bedroom. I hadn’t even heard her creeping into the bathroom.

The week I’d decided to leave with her, not only was my business losing thousands, but my daughter had gone missing too. This couldn't be a coincidence.

“Someone hacked into our systems at work.”

“You stupid boy! Did you hear me? Get here now! I want my granddaughter safe. Your father has been trying to get ahold of you. We had to go to the house. Your home,” she drew in a deep breath. My mother was never erratic, she spoke in a collected manner at all times. The woman that I was speaking to was talking quickly and trying to hold back her tears.

“To get more pictures. Look I need to go. Speak to your father.”

Then she passed the phone to him. I expected him to say exactly what he did: “Whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re with, just get here now!”

Then he hung up. Mother never lost it or got emotional about anything, which is why she’d hated Emma from the start. She deemed her as being far from a lady. “Always crying and looking as if she’s been in the Sahara for the last six months. Can’t she at least pretend that everything is going well behind closed doors?” She would frown as Emma went to family functions in a dress that hadn’t been ironed. Or the time that we went to dinner with my parents and she hadn’t brushed her hair. Mother had been brought up as a lady. Her mom had groomed her for the position and the whole idea that I had married someone who didn’t understand the meaning of the word, used to annoy mother.

Mr. Rogers the emotionless statue, they used to call Dad behind his back in the office.

“What’s wrong?” Li asked as if it was clear that something had happened. I should have rushed around, got my passport and left straight away. But I couldn’t move. She asked once again, “Ted, are you okay? Tell me, what’s happened?”

I turned and said, “Everything!”