The Family Next Door(45)
“Essie,” he said slowly and carefully: a teacher to a child who just wasn’t getting it, “our children are missing and so is the person who is supposed to be taking care of them. We don’t know anything about her and we have no idea how long they’ve been gone.”
Essie felt the first quiver of uneasiness. “Is Isabelle’s car in the driveway?”
“I’ll check.”
Ben headed for the front door, but before he got there, the back door flew open. Mia bounced inside first, followed by Isabelle who was holding Polly. Both girls had pink, flushed faces.
“Daddy!” Mia ran headlong into Ben’s legs. He fell to his knees, taking her little face in his hands.
“Oh … Oh, wow. There you are.”
“Is everything all right?” Isabelle frowned, casting her gaze from Essie to Ben and back again.
“No, everything is not all right.” Ben sat back on his haunches. “We were about to call the cops!”
“Why were you about to call the cops?” Isabelle asked, perplexed.
“Because I got home to find Essie asleep and the girls missing!”
“We were playing outside,” Isabelle said. “Mia needed to run around and I thought the fresh air might help Polly sleep.”
Right on cue, Polly let out a giant yawn and then rested her head on Isabelle’s shoulder. Ben stood and snatched Polly from her. His eyes closed as she snuggled into him. Essie wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Ben so rattled. “I thought they’d been…”
Isabelle’s face paled. “Kidnapped? Oh God, no … I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t apologize,” Essie said quickly. “It’s our fault. We should have checked outside.” Essie shot an irritated look at Ben. “Isabelle was helping me out because I was exhausted and needed a break. She was a lifesaver.”
“Well, Ben’s home now, so I’ll leave you guys to it. I’ll talk to you soon, Essie. And again … sorry.”
Stay, Essie thought, as Isabelle gathered up her bag. Stay!
It was a strange thought, given what had just happened. She should have wanted alone time with her husband so they could talk through what had happened. She should have wanted to hold her children close and thank the gods that they were, in fact, safe. There were a million things she should have wanted to do.
But all Essie wanted was Isabelle.
*
“What’s going on?” Ben asked Essie that night after the girls were in bed. Essie had just poured herself a glass of white wine and had put her feet up on the coffee table.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean … talk to me. You promised you’d tell me if you ever felt yourself getting out of your depth again.”
“I’m not feeling out of my depth. I had a bad day and a friend helped me out. Why are you making such a big deal of this?”
Ben sat beside her. “It’s not just me. Your mum is worried too. She rang me at work the other day.”
Essie felt a shot of betrayal. “Well … Mum worries.”
“Yes, and I’m starting to think she has reason to. She said you’re giving Polly to her at every possible opportunity. And there were four hysterical messages on my machine today when I returned from my meeting.”
“They weren’t hyst—”
“And this new friendship with Isabelle! You’ve never even left them with a babysitter besides your mother, and now you let Isabelle watch them straight off, before you even know her properly. Why?”
“I may not have known Isabelle for long but I feel like I’ve known her forever.” Essie knew she sounded a little petulant, but she couldn’t help it. “Anyway, why are you so upset about it? She didn’t kidnap our children, in case you hadn’t noticed. Or are you still worried she might?”
“Why not? You hear about it all the time. Single women approaching forty who take a shine to a neighbor’s children and suddenly they disappear.”
Essie rolled her eyes and took a sip of her wine.
“That’s another thing—you’ve been drinking a lot lately,” Ben said.
“Just because you don’t drink doesn’t mean no one else can.”
“Essie, how can I trust you with the girls if—”
“How can you trust the girls with me?”
Ben’s cheeks flushed red. “Listen, I’m sorry to bring this up, but you did, in fact, desert one of our children in a park once. How can I be sure that you won’t do something like that again? Or something worse?”
They stared at each other for several beats. Then Ben sighed, and the tension went out of him like the air from a balloon. “Listen I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just…”
Essie’s phone buzzed on the table beside her and she glanced at the screen. Ben paused, perhaps waiting for her to silence it.
Essie picked it up.
“You’re not going to answer it?” Ben looked at her incredulously. “Essie, we need to talk.”
She accepted the call. “Hi, Isabelle.”
“Sorry, is this a bad time to talk?” she said.
Ben stood before her, so shocked and dismayed. So worried.
“Not a bad time at all,” Essie said, curling up. “What’s up?”