An Ideal Wife: A Novel

by Gemma Townley

  “Ivana,” I said seriously, “I think you’d better hide. Those men will be back soon.”

  “Which men?” she asked.

  “The men in the Hummer,” I said. “The Russian men. The … you know, the Mafia.”

  “Mafia?” Ivana’s face creased in confusion. “I no know why you talk Mafia. Why Mafia here? You liv message, message about men in Hummer. I no know what you are minning.”

  I sighed. “Ivana, what’s in the trunk?”

  “You don’t know?” Sean asked, stepping forward.

  “No, I don’t know,” I said tentatively.

  “But I think it’s time we all found out,” Mum added.

  “They’re right,” Sean said firmly. “So, Ivana, are you going to show us?”

  Ivana looked away angrily. “I no see trunk, anyway.”

  “It’s in the kitchen,” Giles said, with an awkward smile. “I can get it, if you want.”

  Sean nodded and went to help; Ivana was looking in the opposite direction with her nose in the air, as though trying to pretend that the rest of us didn’t exist.

  We all waited in silence as Giles and Sean heaved the trunk down the corridor and deposited it in front of Ivana. Sean looked down at it angrily. “You just had to keep it, didn’t you,” he said, shaking his head. “You couldn’t give it up.”

  “Why should I?” spat Ivana. “You no give up your work because you are father.”

  “I don’t work as an escort,” Sean said levelly, as Ivana leaned down to open the trunk. We all watched in silence as she took out a key, opened the padlock, and lifted the lid.

  I shrank back, not sure what to expect. And then I frowned. It wasn’t drugs. Or dead bodies. Or even cash. It was …

  “Fluffy handcuffs?” Helen said incredulously. She squatted down next to Ivana and started to pull things out. “Metal chains? Leather corsets? Are you kidding us?”

  “Is my work,” Ivana said with a shrug, then stared at Sean icily. “He say I nid get rid of it. I no want to. So I give to Jessica to hide for me.”

  “You lied to me,” Sean said angrily. “You said you’d thrown it away.”

  “I said,” Ivana corrected him, “that it no here anymore. I no lie.”

  “Let me get this straight,” I cut in. “This trunk is just your work stuff? I was only hiding it from Sean? And that’s why you hung up on me and refused to talk to Helen or me about it on the phone?”

  Ivana nodded. “I tell you no spik on phone, no call me. But you liv message. Sean hear message. And now he know trunk not thrown away.”

  Helen and I looked at each other. “So … who are the men in the Hummer?” she asked nervously.

  “Men in a Hummer? What men in a Hummer?” Dad said suddenly.

  “Oh, keep up,” Helen groaned. “Two men have been following Jessica around in a Hummer. Men with a funny accent, wearing shades and black suits.”

  “A Russian accent,” I added.

  “Maybe Russian.” Helen shrugged.

  “You said it was definitely Russian.”

  “I know,” Helen said defensively, “and it probably is. Or it could have been South American. One or the other.”

  “What?” My face creased in confusion. “But they’re not alike at all. Which one was it?”

  “I don’t know.” Helen pouted. “Does it really matter?”

  “Of course it matters,” I said incredulously. “If they’re not Russian, then they’re not going to be the Russian Mafia, are they?”

  “Well, then, they’re the South American Mafia,” Helen argued.

  “Is there even such a thing?” I sighed.

  “I don’t know and I don’t care,” Sean said firmly. “All I know is that this trunk is going in the skip.”

  “Or the river,” Mum suggested. “That’s where we were going to put it.” She caught my expression and corrected, “If the Mafia came. Only if they threatened our lives.”

  “Trunk is not going in river or in skip,” Ivana said flatly. “Is my trunk. Is my things.”

  “Things that belong to a previous life,” Sean corrected her. “You’re a mother now. You can’t go out working all hours with dodgy men.”

  Ivana turned on him. “Escort is what I do. Strip is what I do. I do well. I mek lots money. You know this about me. I want work. I no like asking for money. I no like.”

  “So get a job,” Sean said with a sigh. “Just not … this.” He picked up a leather thong and let it fall sadly back into the trunk.

  Ivana bit her lip. “What else I do?” she asked, her voice rather smaller. “What else I can do?”

  “You can work for me,” Chester said, stepping forward.

  Ivana looked at him dubiously. “You merry Jess mother. I no tek client if friends or femily.”

  “Not as a client,” said Chester patiently. “I run a bank. I could use someone like you as my personal assistant.”

  “Personal assistant?” Sean asked suspiciously. “Just how personal are we talking?”

  “Not that personal,” Chester assured him. “I need an assistant who’s a bit of a rottweiler. Guard my door. Stop my diary from getting filled with unnecessary meetings.”

  “Rrrilly?” Ivana looked at him uncertainly. “Me? Personal assistant?”

  Chester nodded. “If you’re interested.”

  Ivana considered for a moment, then shrugged. “I think yes,” she said. “I think I em very good personal assistant.” She folded her arms. “I nid flexible hours for look after bebe, and I no wear suit—I no like.”

  “Okay,” Chester said. “No suits and flexible hours. Anything else?”

  “No,” Ivana said, her mouth breaking into a huge smile that revealed her two gold teeth. “No, I think this is good. I think mebe is good thing Jess call about trunk.”

  “Well, that’s great.” Chester smiled back, then turned to Mum. “There’s just one more thing.”

  “Yes?” she asked happily. “What is it, darling?”

  “That man,” Chester said, looking around. “The one who was here a minute ago.”

  Mum looked around, as did I, and then we looked at each other uncertainly. Dad had vanished.

  “Which man, Chester?” Mum said quickly. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

  “The man,” Chester said deliberately, “who was in the pantry with Hugh. The one who developed the strategy for breaking the door down.”

  “He didn’t develop any strategy,” said Hugh, still clutching his bloody nose. “He just stood there shouting orders.”

  “Ah, so I have someone who agrees that he exists. Or existed,” Chester said, raising his eyebrows. “Now, Esther, perhaps you’d care to tell me who he is and what he was doing locked in there in the first place? And don’t tell me he was another guest at my surprise party. Frankly, I’m not convinced that this party isn’t just an elaborate cover-up for something else.”

  “A cover-up?” Mum looked at him with a hurt expression on her face. “Darling, how can you even suggest such a thing?”

  Chester sighed. “Okay, fine, the party’s genuine. But you still haven’t answered my question.”

  “No,” Mum said with a sigh. “No, Chester, I haven’t. And I must. I really must. The fact of the matter is, that man, Lawrence, well, he’s—”

  “In a great deal of trouble,” a voice said from behind her. We all turned to look and my nails dug into my palms. It was them. It was the Russians. Or South Americans. And they were holding Dad by the arms.

  “I’m sorry,” Dad said.

  “You’re sorry?” Mum said uncertainly. “About what? Where have you been? Who are these men? Why are they holding you like that?”

  “And let’s not forget,” Chester added, “what were you doing in this house in the first place?”

  Chapter 21

  “YOUR HUSBAND IS A VERY naughty boy,” one of the men said.

  “Husband?” Chester turned to Mum. “Husband?”

  “He’s not my husband,” Mum said i
mpatiently.

  “Husband-to-be,” Lawrence said with a hopeful smile.

  “Absolutely not,” Mum said firmly, leaving Dad with a slightly wounded expression.

  I eyed one of the men with the sunglasses and then the other. Something wasn’t adding up. And then suddenly I realized what it was.

  I looked at Helen. “Funny, these guys don’t seem to have Russian accents. Or South American accents,” I said.

  “Russian accents? What are you going on about?” one of the men said.

  “They’re Londoners.” I folded my arms and looked at Helen expectantly.

  She smiled weakly. “So they are,” she said, clamping her teeth together. “I … must have been mistaken.”

  “You mistook a London accent for a Russian one? Or South American?” I deadpanned.

  Helen cleared her throat. “Fine, so maybe I didn’t talk to them.”

  I stared at her, and she went red. “They didn’t actually help with my stuff at all. But someone else did, and when I looked up they’d gone. I’m sorry—but you asked and I kind of got carried away.”

  “I can’t believe you,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I thought the Russian Mafia were on my tail. You said they sounded really dangerous.”

  “I know,” Helen faltered. “But I think we’re missing the big picture here, aren’t we? They’re holding your father. Not you.”

  She had a point.

  “Your father?” Chester asked. “I’m sorry, did you just call this man Jessica’s father?”

  “Keep up, Chester,” Helen said, with a little smile that he didn’t return.

  “So this is the big secret? This is the big surprise?” he asked Mum.

  She hesitated, then answered. “Yes, Chester, but before you jump to any conclusions, before you get angry—”

  “Yes?” Chester demanded. “Before that what?”

  “Well, I want you to know that I didn’t invite him here. He just turned up. Out of the blue. And I couldn’t turn him away. He’d come all the way from America.”

  “America?” one of the not-Russian-Mafia men asked, grinning broadly. “Is that what he told you?”

  “Yes,” Mum said, frowning. “New England, wasn’t it, Lawrence?”

  Dad looked at her uncomfortably. “Actually, Esther, I might have exaggerated a little.”

  “How can you exaggerate where you live?” Chester said evenly. “You either live somewhere or you don’t. It’s not a matter of degree.”

  Dad cleared his throat and shot Chester a look that wasn’t exactly friendly. “Fine,” he said tightly. “So I didn’t come from America.”

  “Then where did you come from?” Mum asked, her eyes wide.

  “Epping Forest,” the other not-Russian-Mafia man interjected. “He disappeared, didn’t you, Lawrence? Thought maybe we wouldn’t find you. But we don’t like our debtors vanishing into thin air.”

  “But you’ve been following me,” I said, frowning. “I saw you.”

  He shrugged. “We thought you might lead us to him, and we were right. Didn’t know he had a daughter, to be honest, but we found your name written down when we searched his house. Wasn’t too hard tracking you down.”

  “Damn,” Dad said irritably.

  The man smiled. “Yes, but good for us. So, Lawrence, got our money, have you?”

  Dad looked down. “No. I …” He looked at me hopefully. “Unless you … I don’t suppose—”

  “That’s why you came,” I said, the truth suddenly so blindingly obvious it hurt. “You didn’t come to make us a happy family. You came to get money out of me.”

  “No,” Dad said. “I didn’t know about your money. Not until Esther told me.”

  “You bastard!” Mum launched herself at him, battering him with her fists. “You utter bastard. You told me you were madly in love with me.”

  “I thought I was,” Dad said sheepishly. “Thought I could be, anyway. You know. I just needed a new start. Needed to get away. And then I saw you on Facebook, and it felt kind of serendipitous. Like it was meant to be.”

  “And to think I felt sorry for you,” Mum said, outraged. “All this time I’ve been trying to get rid of you without hurting your feelings, when you just saw me as an escape route. Me and Jess.”

  “You’ve been trying to get rid of him?” Chester asked hopefully.

  “Of course,” Mum said angrily, rounding on Lawrence. “Oh, I could kill you.”

  “Don’t worry, we’re going to do that for you if he doesn’t have the money,” one of the men said, smiling blankly. “So, come on, Lawrence, are you going to cough it up? Or is anyone here?”

  My dad looked at me beseechingly. “Jess, I’m sorry. I’m a terrible father, always have been. But help me out? It’s only twenty thousand. I’ll never ask you again. But you heard them—they’ll kill me if I don’t pay them. You’ve got the money. Help out your old man? Please?”

  I bit my lip. “I can’t,” I said quietly.

  “Yes, you can,” he said desperately. “I’m not a good person, Jess. Never have been. I went to the States, got thrown off course, came back here, and never even tried to find you. I know I’m no good. You’re better off without me. But don’t let me die. Not like this. I’ll pay you back. Somehow. Please? Please?” He was trembling, and it made my stomach lurch.

  “No, you don’t understand,” I said unhappily. “I want to. I mean, you are a terrible person, but you’re still my father. And you punched Hugh. I’d give you twenty grand for that alone.”

  “I only did what he’s doing!” Hugh exclaimed. “I hope the irony isn’t lost on you.”

  “He’s just asking for money, not blackmailing me,” I said tightly, then turned back to Dad. “The thing is, Dad, I really can’t. I don’t have the money anymore.”

  “What do you mean you don’t have the money anymore?”

  “I gave it all away.”

  There was a shocked silence. “You gave it away?” Helen asked slowly. “To whom, may I ask?”

  I cleared my throat. “To a soup kitchen. Resource center, actually. They’re going to buy new premises.”

  “You gave it all away to a soup kitchen?” Mum asked.

  “Like, all of it?” Helen gasped. “To a fricking soup kitchen?”

  “All of it.” I nodded. “And it’s a resource center.”

  Helen shook her head. “You’re obviously deranged. Look, don’t worry. When we’re back in London, we’ll go and explain that you’re having a meltdown and you didn’t know what you were doing. They’ll have to give it back. Trust me.”

  “But I don’t want it back,” I said quietly. “I never really wanted it in the first place.”

  “Didn’t want it?” Helen snorted. “You went through that whole thing with Anthony Milton because you didn’t want to inherit four million pounds?”

  “I wanted to save the house from developers,” I said. “The money’s been a burden ever since I got it. It’s the reason Hugh blackmailed me; it’s the reason Max feels he can’t talk to me about the business. And it’s just been sitting there making me feel guilty because I’m not doing anything with it. So now I am. I’ve given it to people who actually need it. And now I’m free.”

  Helen looked at me indignantly. “I don’t believe this,” she said. “You ask my advice on everything but then go and give away four million pounds. When did you get that crazy idea in your head? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you at least give a bit of it to me?”

  “I only decided when I was in my interview with Eric today,” I said wearily. It had only been that morning but it felt ages ago. “I stopped off there before coming down here. It felt like the right thing to do. It still does.”

  “It felt like the right thing to do,” Helen said lightly. “Oh, well, that’s okay, then.”

  “It … really?” Mum asked, looking dumbfounded. “It really felt like the right thing to do, to give away all that money?”

  I found myself smiling. “It did. It felt like a h
uge weight was lifted from my shoulders. I’m me again now—I’m not me with four million pounds in the bank, I’m just me. I can do what I want, be who I want.”

  “No,” Mum said, frowning. “With four million pounds you can do what you want; now you can’t do anything. You had all that opportunity and you’ve … wasted it. I can’t believe it, darling. I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe it.”

  “I haven’t wasted it,” I said stiffly. “Having it sitting in the bank was wasting it. And I still have opportunities. But I have to make them for myself instead of buying them. You know, ever since I got the money I’ve been a bit lost. Now I know who I am again. I’ve got my drive back.”

  Helen let out a long breath. “Well, if it’s really what you want to do…. You’re sure you didn’t keep a bit back? A few hundred thousand?”

  “Maybe twenty grand?” Dad asked hopefully.

  “Nothing.” I shook my head. “Not a penny.”

  “Well, that’s not great news for you, is it, Lawrence?” one of the not-Russian-Mafia men said. “Seems as if you’re coming with us.”

  Dad looked at them with terror in his eyes. “Give me a bit longer,” he begged. “A few weeks. A month, tops. I’ll come up with the money.”

  “No, Lawrence,” the man said, shaking his head slowly. “You’ll only run away again. You’ve demonstrated that you are an unreliable debtor. And you know what happens to them. We’ve got to send a message that this kind of behavior can’t be tolerated.”

  “Wait,” Chester said. “Twenty grand, you say?”

  “To be precise, £20,201.”

  Chester sighed. “I’ll give you your money.”

  Dad’s eyes lit up. “You will? Really?”

  “If you promise to leave my future wife alone.”

  Dad nodded immediately. “No problem. None at all. She’s not really my type, anyway. Never was. Too high-strung, to be honest.” He caught Chester’s eye and blanched. “Not that she’s not cracking,” he said quickly. “A real catch. Lovely woman. Mother of my child, you know—”

  “Get out of here,” Chester said in a low voice. “I’ll settle up with these gentlemen. And Esther will send your things on to you.”