The trouble is

Tony had a captive audience, captive victims, and he was the captor. He would have discipline! His first strategy was to go with the twins’ tantrums and bad behaviour, trying to be ever so nice to them and ignoring their insults while he fed Angela with self-doubt about her ability to keep the boys under control.

“You’re such a lovely mother to them”, he said, “but sometimes you let them take advantage of you rather too much. I know twins are usually quite a handful, but the trouble is…” He stopped mid-sentence.

“The trouble is what?” demanded Angela.