“Tie him up,” she barked at her husband.
Trevor fell into a new barrage of sobs.
“Dhapinder, this is madness,” I told her.
“He’s right, babe.” Trevor ran a piece of rope through his hands. “We’re going to prison for so long. This is all crazy.”
“DO IT!” she yelled. Sonia looked at me desperately. Her eyes wide with terror.
Trevor shuffled over, still sobbing and weeping. “Sorry, Arden,” he whispered as he manhandled me over to another chair and plonked me down.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “How are you going to explain it? There’s no way all of this is worth it for whatever amount of money you’ve stolen.”
Trevor looked dazed. “How did you know about …”
“Stop talking, Trevor, and tie him up,” Dhapinder yelled. “Let me think.”
He did as he was told. “This has all gotten out of hand, hasn’t it, Dhapinder?” I asked. Kennedy was still making a racket. Maybe someone in one of the shops next door would hear him and come to investigate? “Let me get this straight. You kidnapped Sonia and held her at knifepoint, and now a second person, also at knifepoint, which, by the way, is like an automatic custodial sentence in this country, without a plan?”
I looked at Trevor. “Custodial means prison, if you didn’t know.” He gulped, but I kept going. Dhapinder was pacing. People and their fucking pacing.
“You know, prison, like where Tarquin ended up after he killed Arabella. You know about that, cos you were fucking her, so the police suspected you, like all the other guys who had a go.” I turned to Dhapinder. “Is that what started this off? When you found out that Trevor had been dipping his candle in other wicks? Humiliating you, and all the while, you weren’t even given your share of the business when Daddy Bliss retired?”
“Shut up!” she snarled.
“Listen, Dhapinder, I know how it feels. When someone you love betrays you like that. It hurts so much, but this is stupid.”
“Love?” she spat out. She turned to Trevor, the sobbing, slumped wreck of a man beside her, who had been awalking wet dream but now looked too pathetic to elicit as much as a passing tingle.
“I don’t love him!” she said, pointing at Trevor. “He used me and only wanted me because that blond whore turned him down!” She paced some more. “Getting the money was the least he could do after treating me as second best.”
Trevor wept some more. She shook her head at him. “Pathetic,” she whispered.
“So, you don’t love him? Do you hear that, Trevor – she hates you,” I said. Sonia’s eyes were going so wide. Kennedy was still howling.
There was a banging at the front door. Oh, thank God. A voice came through the room. It was muffled but sounded like it was filled with urgency. Trevor’s head shot up. “Mum?” he called.
Dhapinder whipped around. “Gag him or something,” she ordered Trevor, meaning me. “I’ll go deal with them and that bloody dog.”
Deal with my dog? Deal? Did-did she … Oh, hell no.
“Are you gonna let her talk to you like that, Trevor? You’re the man here. This harpy wants your family’s money. She doesn’t even like you. She thinks you’re stupid. She’d have divorced you after she found out about Arabella, but she wanted that money more. Are you going to let her destroy your family like this?”
Dhapinder whirled at me. “Shut up!” she screamed. At that moment, another voice came from the door at the back end of the room. It sounded male and authoritative. “Is anyone in there?” he asked. “Sonia? Trev?”
Sonia had managed to get the gag out of her mouth.
“Dad?” Sonia called out. “Dad, is that you – help, Dhapinder and Trevor have gone nuts?”
Dhapinder pushed Sonia’s chair back. She toppled onto the floor and let out a scream.
“Sonia!” I yelled. “Trevor, you worthless dumb shit, do something!” My strategy was changing by the second. Dhapinder’s eyes flew to her man-child husband. His tear-stained face was now white with anger.
“She hates you, Trevor! She thinks you’re weak and stupid.”
Trevor’s fists clenched. The pounding on the door continued. “What’s happening? I’ve called the police!” Mr Bliss yelled.
“Have you met him?” Dhapinder said – to me – defending herself in the middle of all this. “He is weak and stupid! He’s a fucking moron.”
