Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (21 page)

‘It’s just
that, it’s a lot of money and it needs ... planning and
controlling. I don’t want to move millions into another bank
account without really thinking about whether we want to go ahead
with this White's thing.’

‘Planning and
controlling!’ yelled Daniel with such ferocity that Rebecca
winced.

‘What the hell
would you know about planning and controlling you stupid
woman.’

‘Daniel...’

‘Shut up! Just
shut up.’ He threw his glass in the sink and Rebecca watched as it
shattered, the glass flying across the sink and surface. What a
shame to destroy such a lovely crystal glass. She would buy another
so she still had a full set.

‘And tell me
please,’ he started sarcastically, ‘just what plans and control did
you have in mind?’

Rebecca shook
her head wearily.

‘Daniel it’s
just that we need to take it slowly. Work out all the things that
we need to do, the things we want to buy, how we want to live-
before we just spend millions buying a company.’

‘Like you
thought carefully before buying this place?’ demanded Daniel
nastily. ‘Did you plan and control the millions you wasted here.
Spent without even telling me. Moving in WITHOUT EVEN TELLING
ME!’

Rebecca closed
her eyes. The guilt was back, as painful as ever but she had to be
strong.

‘I’m not saying
we won’t buy White's,’ she said choosing her words carefully, ‘I’m
just saying that we need to do things a little more slowly. When
I... when the moment is right of course I’ll transfer the money and
then we’ll…’

But Daniel had
gone, the kitchen door slamming behind him and his footsteps
thundering down the hallway.

Rebecca started
to clear up the broken glass. She could just give in, transfer the
money, let him buy White's, change her own plans if necessary to
make it affordable and just get on with life. Why didn’t she?

She didn’t see
much of Daniel for the next few hours. The house was big enough to
lose the two of them. She heard him in the study. She heard him in
the small snug room listening to the TV. She heard him upstairs, in
the guest room she’d shown him to the previous week. But she
managed not to bump into him at all until early evening when he
appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.

‘The solicitor
has put the offer to White's. They’ll give us an answer within 72
hours,’ he spoke coldly, stiffly. ‘I hope that your - planning has
been completed by then. When they accept I’ll expect the money to
be in the account to complete the sale Bec,’ and he walked out, his
back stiff and radiating disapproval and a few minutes later she
heard his car wheels screeching down the drive.

Rebecca spent
the rest of the evening with great waves of guilt and confusion
flooding her every moment. She decided to transfer the money. She
would phone Daniel and apologise, let him buy whatever he wanted so
they could move on with the rest of their lives in some semblance
of peace. Then she shook her head. No, she would stand firm and
hang on a little longer. Make a decision about Parklands, think
objectively about the benefits of buying White’s. She would
transfer the money when she felt they had made a sensible decision
about any investment.

She wondered if
Daniel would come back to the house and finally she gave up waiting
and went to bed at 12.30. She heard Daniel come in shortly after
and could tell from the staggering steps in the hallway that he was
drunk. She waited until his bedroom door had slammed and then she
slipped downstairs to lock the front door. She had also worried
that he might come into her room but that seemed far from his mind
at the moment and as Rebecca paused outside his bedroom door she
could hear the sounds of his snoring already filling the room
before she went back to bed and tossed and turned the night
away.

The next
morning Rebecca dreaded getting out of bed but eventually she did
to find the downstairs empty of Daniel’s angry presence. It was
almost like the weeks before Daniel arrival, when she’d had the
house to herself and relaxing a little she made herself a coffee
and a croissant and curled up on the raspberry settee as she looked
out onto the garden and the fields beyond. She made the most of the
peace and quiet but all too soon she heard footsteps in the hall
and a hung over Daniel put his head round the kitchen door just as
the phone rang.

‘Helen,’ said
Rebecca as she watched Daniel’s progress to the coffee machine.
‘Lunch? Sorry, just hang on a minute Helen.’

‘What?’ she
said to Daniel who was waving his arms around to catch her
attention.

‘Don’t go with
Helen,’ he said as Rebecca stood with the phone in her hand her
eyebrows raised questioningly.

‘It’s just that
I thought, well it would be good, nice if we spent some time
together. You know, try and get over all this… business.’

Rebecca stared
at him for a moment and then raised the phone to her ear.

‘Sorry about
that Helen, no I can’t make it today, I’m having lunch with Daniel.
But I’ll call you later shall I?’ and she rang off.

She looked at
Daniel slumped over the kitchen table, clutching his head.

‘Are you sure
you’re up to going out?’ she asked.

‘Yes, yes,’ he
waved his hand in the direction of the coffee machine, ‘I just need
to get going that’s all.’

An hour later
he was in the same position and Rebecca who had showered, dressed
and cleaned the kitchen sat down opposite him.

‘Daniel you’re
clearly not up to it. We’ll go out another day shall we, I’ll phone
Helen and…’

‘No!’

Rebecca raised
her eyebrows and Daniel continued in a quieter tone. ‘No, don’t do
that I’m sorry - I’ll get ready now and we’ll go have a meal
somewhere nice, talk about all this ...mess in a calm adult
fashion.’

‘Okay,’ she
smiled. ‘That sounds good.’

It sounded
anything but to Rebecca and she sincerely wished she had arranged
to meet Helen for lunch but the ever present guilt insisted that
she at least give Daniel a chance. She was upstairs with her
wardrobe doors open trying to decide whether she needed a jacket or
something warmer when the door opened and Daniel walked in.

‘We’re going to
have to go back to Darlington Bec, I only came down for a day
remember, I can’t keep wearing the same clothes much longer.’

He stopped
short and stared over Rebecca’s shoulder at the wardrobe full of
clothes.

Rebecca closed
her eyes briefly, waiting for the onslaught.

‘Well, well,’
he said softly, ‘You have been busy haven’t you.’

Rebecca hung
her head. After all what could she say. That she had been in Leeds
shopping without a care in the world while he had been in
Darlington none the wiser.

‘I have been
shopping,’ she admitted meeting his gaze. ‘I needed some clothes.’
She saw his face darken and sighing she reached out and put a hand
on his arm. ‘I’m sorry Daniel, I’m so sorry. I know that I went
ahead and started all this without you but I truly intended to tell
you, it was just never.. I didn’t….’ her voice trailed away.

Daniel was
silent, still staring in the wardrobe.

‘Why don’t we
go into Leeds?’ offered Rebecca tentatively. ‘Let’s start all over
again Daniel. I…we’ve won a lot of money and you haven’t really
felt the benefit of any of it yet. Let’s go shopping!’

Several hours
later Daniel had finally stopped sulking and Rebecca’s guilt was
slightly easier as they arrived home. Daniel was still angry but
not enough to stop him spending money. He had bought clothes,
toiletries, shoes and a new watch the price of which made Rebecca
wince. He had quietly seethed as Rebecca paid for all the purchases
and had lectured her throughout the day as to how selfish and
unfair she was being by keeping the money in her account. It was
humiliating, he said, having to ask her to pay for every little
thing he wanted. It was unrealistic that he couldn’t go to the shop
without her coming along with her credit card. He sulked in the
coffee shop because he found he didn’t have enough change in his
pocket and had to ask Rebecca for more. By mid-afternoon Rebecca
was beaten. She couldn’t argue with him because deep down she knew
he was right and she was being unfair. She was just so determined
to control the money in a way she hadn’t been able to control
anything for years.

‘Okay,’ she
said quietly half way through one of Daniel’s diatribes.

He stopped
short. ‘What?’

‘I said Okay
Daniel. You’re quite right you need access to money.’

She turned away
from the smug look on his face. ‘So you’re going to move it into
our joint account?’

‘No, I’ll…’

‘But you just
said that I should have access.’

Rebecca took a
deep breath. ‘I’m not moving it all Daniel, I’ve told you. Not just
yet. But,’ she held up her hand to halt his interruption, ‘I will
move some over now. So you have access.’

She could see
him fighting with his natural need to disagree with her. He wanted
control of all the money and she had offered him a tiny taste. But
it was better than nothing and he nodded his head stiffly.

‘It’s a start,’
he grunted and then frog marched Rebecca to her bank. He wanted to
go in with her but Rebecca refused point blank and made him wait
downstairs in the lobby as she went into the inner sanctum.

‘So how much do
you want to transfer?’ asked Richard Dickinson.

‘I don’t really
know, just something so that Dan…so that we can use the main bank
account.’

She twiddled
her fingers together. ‘Daniel is not working at White's at the
moment so there will be no salary going in and that means the
mortgage payment, the direct debits - things like that need to be
met. Plus Daniel does need to have access to some money,’ she said
almost challengingly.

Richard smiled
reassuringly. ‘It’s probably a good idea Rebecca. Why don’t you put
in say - £250,000? It will cover your costs in the meantime, gives
Daniel access to ready money and doesn’t compromise any of your
plans.’

So a transfer
was made from Rebecca’s account to the joint account and she went
downstairs to tell Daniel that he now had access to a quarter of a
million pounds.

The initial
blaze of triumph on his face lasted approximately 30 seconds.

‘Is that all?’
he demanded.

Rebecca lifted
up her chin. ‘For now,’ she said quietly.

Daniel
glowered, ‘Well I suppose it’s better than nothing,’ he grumbled
and they went home.

Despite his
displeasure at the amount Rebecca could see the change in Daniel.
He couldn’t help the smile on his lips and she knew how he felt.
The knowledge that the credit card in your hand can buy whatever
you want was a heady feeling and she had denied that to him.

‘Do you still
want to go for something to eat?’ she asked, smiling at him as they
dumped the bags of shopping on the table.

‘Actually,’
said Daniel ‘I’m starving!’

So they left
the unpacking and went to a little pub not very far away. They had
been before, many years ago but the prices had been beyond their
reach so it had never become a regular haunt.

Daniel drank a
whole bottle of very expensive wine to himself plus the glass of
champagne he ordered when they arrived. Rebecca stuck to fresh
orange after her champagne and watched as Daniel ate everything
that was put in front of him and then ordered a brandy and a
cigar.

‘I’m afraid
this is a no smoking establishment sir, I can bring a cigar but you
will have to smoke it outside.’

Daniel scowled
at the waiter. ‘Well that’s no bloody good is it. Oh bring it
anyway and be quick with the brandy,’ he ordered, waving the young
man away with a dismissive flick of the hand.

Rebecca smiled
apologetically at the waiter as he left. It wasn’t the money that
had turned Daniel’s head, he was always rude to waiting staff and
Rebecca usually left anywhere they went with her cheeks flushed
with embaressment.

So Daniel
smoked the cigar on the way home, oblivious to Rebecca’s indignant
glares as she opened the window wide and waved her hand
theatrically at the smoke wafting across the car.

But at least
the atmosphere had subtly altered. With access to some of the money
Daniel was significantly less unpleasant and the evening passed
calmly with Daniel soon ensconced on the settee in the snug snoring
loudly. And although Rebecca felt guilty because she hadn’t seen
Gwen for the last few days she was exhausted from a day spent with
Daniel and tiptoeing through the house so as not to wake him up she
decided that Parklands would have to wait until another day and she
curled up and spent the evening with a book and a glass of
wine.

‘You did what?’
Rebecca asked her hands still immersed in the bowl of soapy
water.

‘I bought a new
car,’ said Daniel defensively. ‘After all you bought a car and a
house without consulting me. I just bought a car.’

Rebecca took
out her hands and wiped them slowly. She supposed he was right. In
fact he was right.

She tried to
smile. ‘Of course it’s alright,’ she shrugged, ‘why shouldn’t you?
What is it?’

Daniel grinned
and threw a pile of glossy brochures onto the kitchen table. ‘A
Mercedes!’ he gloated. ‘Top of the range.’

Rebecca really
wasn’t a car person but she wasn’t at all surprised that Daniel had
chosen a well-known and expensive car.

‘And what’s
more,’ he added, looking even more pleased with himself. ‘I told
them how you’d bought that silly little car because you didn’t know
what you were doing and I’ve arranged to part exchange it. They’ve
got a 4x4 sitting in the courtyard, ex display, immaculate
condition. They’ll bring it round later in the week and take the
Fiat away.’