Chapter 19

1st October 2015: 18:00 pm.

“Dad, I’m on my way,” I spat out and then I shouted to the taxi driver, “Can’t you go any faster?”

Li had gone home to find out what was going on. She’d said something about our daughter being missing. Two daughters, one with my mistress and the other with my wife all on the same day; it had to be a fucking set-up. There’s no way that all of this could be a coincidence. Between mother, Li and Emma calling me every minute my head was going round in a constant turmoil. Did they have any news?

No, they just kept calling to find out where I was and if I was on my way. I told Li that I hadn’t even reached home yet.

She asked which one, which made no sense, because from the airport, I’d told her that I was going home. The house that I shared with Emma. The one that was still my registered address.

“I’m going as fast as I can. There’s some sort of accident or something. The police have blocked the M25. I can’t move. It’s gridlocked.”

“Typical! There’s always an accident on the M25.”

I sighed as I put my head back on the head rest and thought about the outcome of the day. As long as both girls were ok and came back home safely then my mind could rest. Until, then I was fucking worried. Scared about if this was some kind of revenge tactic.

“And it’s rush hour so that doesn’t help either.” He sighed as he put on the radio and made it clear that we were going to be here a long time and he didn’t want to deal with a complaining customer.

Maybe if they fixed the public transport and made it more reliable, then everyone would use it more and get off the fucking roads. I couldn’t take the pressure any more as my phone vibrated in my hand and I asked the driver to turn down the radio.

“Son, you need to go to the police station. They’ve just arrested Emma.”

Now, my head was really spinning. I was stuck in traffic on the M25 and I hadn’t even found out what had happened to my daughter. And now my wife had been arrested. Great, Li was calling at the same time to tell me about our daughter too.

“Dad one minute. Someone’s calling.”

I ignored him saying wait as I spoke to Li.

“Ted, Zhang says that he reported her missing. I need to go to the police station. Apparently they found her. So, I’ll let you know as soon as I get there.”

Okay so one plane trip later, one daughter had been found and the other was still missing. Or had she been found too? And the police had arrested Emma on suspicion of taking Barbara?

“Dad, me again. What’s going on?”

“They took Emma for kidnapping. We’re so confused. Your mother and I are going to the police station with Bentley. We’ll let you know as soon as we get there what’s going on. But you need to get here, and now!”

At least Dad was looking out for Emma by taking his lawyer. I bet mother wasn’t interested in helping her. She had always classed Emma as being weak and one thing about the Rogers women, none of them were weak.

“Dad, I’m stuck in traffic!” I protested, thinking that he couldn’t put pressure on me. Not now.

“I don’t fucking care. I’m sending the police station address now. Barbara is missing and Emma’s been arrested. Just do it, Ted. I’m fed up of cleaning your fucking mess.”

I hated him for using those words. The one time I’d asked for his help and he’d intervened he was going to throw that at me now. I never asked for his help. Never. But, I’d asked Li to flirt with a client. Take some naughty photos. I’d threatened the potential client with it and it had got back to my dad. I never knew that the guy was part of the Irish mob. I never knew that he was ready to take not only my life but the whole of my family’s. I should have done my homework. But as Dad politely put it, “Greed and your cock got in the way of you thinking.”

That was the first time and then the second time she’d crossed the line when she sent the photos to the wife of a mobster. I decided that Li should stop working for me, not only in the office, but out too. I started to do things on the straight and narrow. I wondered if that was the reason for the hack.

Shit that must be it!

Revenge from the two people that I’d managed to piss off. Or rather Li had managed to upset. I shook my head about the business. Fuck, it shouldn’t even be on my mind, getting Barbara back was number one on the list.

I shouldn’t have given a damn about Emma being arrested, but she was my wife. The one that I said I would love forever, and it only lasted a couple of years.

I did love her once.

I just didn’t think that I could do it ever again.

When Barbara was found and we were back to some kind of normality then I’d come clean. This must be a punishment for my sins. They were in the past though, and I needed to look forward and stop fucking around and just be straight with everyone including myself about what I really wanted in life.

“Change of plan. We need to go to this address,” I handed the driver my phone.

“Someone’s been a naughty boy?” He laughed as he handed back my phone with the police station’s address. If it was anything else, then I would probably laugh. But my wife was locked up and my daughter was at large. I wasn’t in the fucking mood.

“Most likely someone’s been a naughty girl,” I said as I sunk back in the seat.

The atmosphere in the car changed as he looked in his back mirror and saw the seriousness on my face. I didn’t feel like having a conversation. I just wanted to make sure that my little girl was safe.