Page 42 of The Soulmate

The men wore black jeans, T-shirts, stockings over their faces. One was tall and muscular. The other was shorter but wider, like a body builder, with veins bulging from his biceps. They had hands like baseball mitts, with fingers covered in gold rings.

‘Don’t be scared,’ the shorter one said. But his unsmiling face and dull gaze did nothing to reassure me.

‘I have money. Or jewellery. Whatever you want – you can have it.’

The taller man said, ‘We don’t want money.’ He sounded amused.

‘We have some business with your husband that we need to sort out,’ the shorter one said just as the phone in my hand started to ring. I glanced at the screen. Max.

‘Speak of the devil,’ the shorter man said. His tone told me that this was expected. ‘Answer it.’

I lifted the phone to my ear.

‘Amanda?’ Max said, before I could speak. His voice was strained. ‘Are you all right?’

‘Yes. But there are two men here.’

‘Insidethe house?’

‘Yes.’

I heard him exhale slowly. ‘Are you hurt?’

‘No. They just said . . . they have some business with you that needs sorting out?’ My voice rose in desperation.Sort out the business, it said.For God’s sake, sort out the business.

‘Okay.’ Max took a long breath. ‘Put me on the phone to them.’

When I held out the phone, neither man looked surprised. The shorter man took it.

‘Max? . . . Glad to hear it . . . She’s fine, not a scratch on her. Just a minute.’

He handed the phone back to me. I lifted it to my ear.

‘The men are going to leave now,’ Max said. ‘When they’re gone, lock the door and don’t answer it for anyone. Don’t call the police. I’m on my way home, but I want you to wait on the phone with me until they are gone, all right?’

The men were already gone.

‘All right.’

When Max arrived home ten minutes later with two security guards in tow, I was still sitting on the floor in the foyer with my back against the wall. It was as though my limbs had frozen into position. Max had to put both arms around me and pull me to my feet to get me to move to the living room. There, he helped me onto the couch, even though I was entirely uninjured apart from the bump to my head.

‘I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am, Amanda.’

Max looked worse than I did. His skin was grey. I worried he might be having a stroke or a heart attack. He pressed his fingers into his eye sockets. ‘When they said they had you . . . I went out of my mind . . . The idea that they might hurt you . . .’

We sat there for a long time, just holding each other, while Max apologised. In the end,Iwas the one comfortinghim.

I’ll never forget those moments, sitting together on the couch like that. I remember thinking:I didn’t realise how much you cared. That’s another funny thing about marriage. Sometimes, when you look back on it, the worst moments are in fact the best.

39

PIPPA

NOW

The streets are busy as we make our way home after dinner. As usual, the girls are on their scooters and Gabe and I on foot. It’s a mild night and it takes forever to get home because people are out and about, riding bikes, scooting and walking. Freya and Asha see half their preschool class. Gabe and I wave at the parents, but we keep our heads down and don’t engage further. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to make small talk with strangers again.

‘Interesting that Asha brought up her mother,’ I say to Gabe.