The Passenger by Daniel Hurst (great book club books TXT) 📕

even bother me for a minute. But then I eventually let her go, and only then do I notice the look in her eyes.

She isn’t scared. She isn’t afraid.

She is angry.

‘I’m so sorry, Lou. What did he do to you?’ I ask, reaching out to take my daughter’s hand, but this time she pulls away from me, and when she speaks, it’s not to say what I expected her to.

‘What did you do?’ she asks me, turning the question back around.

‘What?’

‘Why was there so much money in the safe? And jewellery too? Where did all that stuff come from?’

I realise that my daughter must have witnessed James emptying it out and is now well aware that there was a lot more than just £20,000 in there. But before I answer her, I turn and look towards the safe because I need to see it for myself. Even though I know it is empty, I have to confirm it.

Sure enough, the door is open, and there is nothing inside. But I don’t get to look at it for long because Louise grabs my arm and spins me around to face her. She wants answers, and she is entitled to them. I just have to figure out which ones I can give her and which ones I must still try to keep a secret.

‘Answer me,’ Louise begs, her voice cracking with the strain of what she has been through today.

‘I haven’t been honest with you,’ I confess, and despite everything that has happened today, this might be the moment when I feel the worst. The moment when I admit I have been lying to the only person in the world whom I love.

‘No shit!’ Louise replies. ‘Where did all that money come from? Did you rob those guys? Is that why they came after us?’

‘No, of course not.’

‘Then what did you do, because you sure as hell didn’t make that money working in an office.’

‘I’ve been working as an escort!’

There, I’ve said it. Maybe I should have said it sooner, but it’s out there now.

‘A what?’

‘An escort. Men paid me to go on dates with them.’

Louise looks like she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

‘An escort? Like a prostitute?’ she asks with an expression of disbelief on her face.

‘No, of course not!’

‘Then what?’

‘We just went for dinner and drinks. Sometimes to the theatre. But that’s it. There was never anything sexual, I swear.’

‘Yeah, right. I saw all that money!’ she cries loudly, letting me know that she is going to need more convincing than that.

‘That’s all from the dates. I swear.’

‘It doesn’t make sense. Why would guys pay you so much just to go on a date?’

‘Because they’re lonely. Desperate. I don’t know. But I promise nothing physical happened with any of them. I never went back to any of their homes.’

Oh, how I wish that were true.

‘I don’t believe you,’ Louise replies, and it hurts me to see that she means it.

‘I’m telling you the truth,’ I insist. ‘They were just dates. I needed the extra money.’

‘And you told me you couldn’t give me any money to go travelling.’ Louise shakes her head in disgust. ‘Yet you had all that cash in there the whole time.’

‘Lou, please. I don’t want to argue. I’m just glad you’re okay.’

‘Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve just found out my mum is a liar and my boyfriend was only with me because he was planning to steal from us!’

Louise turns to storm out of the room, but I reach after her, unable to leave it like this.

‘Did he hurt you? Tell me what happened,’ I beg her, grabbing her arm and pulling her back.

‘Get off me!’ she cries, trying to fight against my grip, but I don’t let go. This is quickly turning into the worst argument we have ever had until suddenly Louise’s anger morphs into something else.

She begins to cry, and now I can see that it was all a front. She is scared and she is traumatised after what she went through. She was just trying to hide it with another argument. But now the walls have come down, and she is sobbing uncontrollably, which makes me feel dreadful because I know I’m the one who has brought this on my daughter.

‘Come here,’ I say as I pull her into me, and she buries her face in my shoulder as I hold onto her.

‘You’re safe now,’ I tell her as she weeps, and it breaks my heart to see my daughter like this. I haven’t seen her cry since she was a little girl.

It’s several seconds until Louise lifts her head from my shoulder and wipes her tear-stained eyes, and I guide her to the edge of the bed, where we take a seat beside each other. But I decide to let her be the one who speaks first for fear of pushing her away again.

‘We need to call the police,’ she says when she finally gets herself back under control. ‘They might be able to catch them.’

‘They’ll be long gone,’ I tell her, even though I know she is right.

‘You can’t just let them get away with it! They took everything! I thought he was going to kill me!’

I take Louise’s hand again before she can get too worked up. ‘I’m so sorry. But we can’t call the police.’

‘Why not?’

I take a moment to pick my answer carefully. ‘Because I don’t want them knowing about all that money,’ I say. ‘I hadn’t declared it. I can’t tell them how much was in there because they will know what I was doing.’

‘Who cares? So you weren’t paying taxes. I think robbery and attempted murder are slightly worse crimes to commit!

‘It wasn’t attempted murder,’ I say before instantly regretting it, and Louise pulls her hand away from mine and gets up from the bed.

‘You weren’t the one tied to the bed while a guy threatened you with a knife!’ she cries.

‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that,’ I try, but it’s too late.