Twelve Days - The Beginning (39 page)

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The door to Elise’s hospital room opened a short while later and Dale entered accompanied by Sean. She was pleased to see the burly security guard and glad that he hadn’t lost his job because of her stupid behaviour. As Dale went to approach her bed, Sean put a hand on his arm to stop him but Elise beckoned him forwards. She needed to talk to him and that couldn’t be done whilst he was standing at the other end of the room.

“I have instructions to stay in the room, Miss Grayson – will that be okay with you?” Sean asked. Elise nodded; she felt much safer knowing that he was here and she knew that he would be discreet with anything that he overheard. That was part of his job description.

“Sean,” she said as he went to retreat to the door, “I am sorry. I hope that it didn’t cause you too much trouble.”

“Nothing I’m not used to, Miss.” he said and mock-saluted her as he took up position just beside the door. She smiled. She really did like Sean and she felt bad for what she had put him through this afternoon.

Dale was stood by the bed watching her and she took a moment to assess his appearance. He wasn’t looking great; she didn’t know where he had been whilst she had been recovering at Celeste’s flat but it didn’t look like he had spent much time in the shower or with a razor. His eyes that had once been so kind and sparkling were dull, no doubt contributed to by the quantity of alcohol that was regularly in his system, and his face was looking more worn than mature. Elise felt saddened to see her husband like this and she couldn’t help but be sorry for the man that he had become. If only he had agreed to the counselling that they had been offered back when all of this had started, then maybe things would have been okay now but she also wondered if he would have taken this path anyway. Some people were just wired with a self-destruct button which was ready to detonate at any given moment, and maybe Dale was just one of those people. If their inability to have a child hadn’t triggered it, then there probably would have been some other event.

She looked up and their eyes met briefly and she had to close hers almost instantly to prevent the sick feeling that was in her stomach from turning into full-on nausea. As soon as she had looked at him she had been transported back to Christmas Day and she knew that whatever happened from here on in, she would never be able to forgive him for such a brutal attack.

Neither of them spoke for long minutes and the silence stretched almost uncomfortably. Eventually Elise could bear it no longer and opened her eyes to address her husband; the man who had once been the love of her life and the man who had caused untold pain to her and all of the people that she cared about.

“Why, Dale?” she asked simply. That was all she needed to say. Wasting time on lengthy pleasantries wasn’t going to change anything.

He shrugged and he looked around the room, his eyes darting everywhere, refusing to meet hers. “Because you’re mine, Elise. If you’re not with me then you are not with anyone and if that means that I have to make threats.....” his voice tailed off as if he suddenly realised

exactly what he was saying.

He tried again. “It’s simple Elise. I love you. There is no one else. When I found out that you had been cheating on me, I didn’t know what to do. Part of me hoped that it wasn’t true but part of me relished the idea of having a genuine reason to punish you. I’ve had a lot of time to think over the last few days and I’m not proud for having those thoughts.” He stopped and reached over to take her hand, recoiling instantly when she flinched.

“I want to get better, Elise. I want to get over this...problem...that I have with alcohol and I know that the type of person that I have become is not who you want to be with. I can see that now and I can understand why but you are my wife - in sickness and in health and till death do us part - I cannot let you be with anyone else. You are the one who has cheated, Elise, and maybe makes us both as bad as each other.”

Elise went to say something, to fight her corner and defend her actions but he held up his hand to stop her.

“No,” he said, “I need to say this. I have looked into some courses over the last few days, counselling courses, rehabilitation, and I have spoken to the bosses at work. They have agreed to let me have time off to sort through all this and get better, which is what I am going to do. I recognise that I am on a path of self-destruction and I don’t want to be that way anymore, Elise. Maybe we can’t get the old life back but I want us to try again. Tomorrow is the New Year and I want us to make a new start; me and you, back together, exactly as things should be. There doesn’t need to be anyone else in either of our lives. We have always been everything that we each needed.”

Elise couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After everything that had happened she couldn’t believe that Dale was just standing there, as calm as anything, explaining how things were going to work out and just expecting her to go along with it.

“We can’t be together, Dale, it’s impossible. Can’t you see that?” Elise said, trying to appeal to his rational side, even though she was no longer convinced he had one. “We don’t work together anymore and I can’t be what you want any more than you can be what I want. We’ve been together a long time, we’ve grown up together but we’ve also grown apart. We both have to recognise that.” She paused, contemplating how best to continue.

“I could press charges against you, Dale, you know that. I was in a really bad way after Christmas Day and it could have been much worse. You got lucky today with that stunt you pulled but there is still more than enough evidence for me to make a pretty damning case. Everyone wants me to do that – they all think you deserve to rot in jail for what you have done - but for the sake of the memory of our marriage I won’t do that. As far as I am concerned, I just want us to go our separate ways and work through a divorce as calmly and as amicably as possible. Please, Dale. Just accept the inevitable and let me go.” She stopped and took a breath waiting for his reaction, hoping against hope that he would see sense and accept that things between them were over. She was proud of him for looking into the counselling and she knew that that was what he needed but she wasn’t the woman to support him through that – he just needed to realise it.

Dale moved a little closer to the bed and then glanced at the door before lowering his voice.

“The thing is Elise, it’s not that simple. I hear what you’re saying and I don’t know, maybe you’re right. But I’m not ready to give up on you yet and those vows that we made ten years ago - they were for life. The only way I can grant you a way out of them is if you are no longer alive. As you are the party who has cheated, you don’t have a leg to stand on as far as
a divorce is concerned. You will need me to agree to it or we will have to stay married for a period of legal separation which means that wherever you go and whatever you do, you will still be my wife.”

He had obviously been doing his homework and Elise shuddered at how clinical he made it all sound. She didn’t know much about divorce law but she couldn’t believe that she had no grounds at all. What about ‘unreasonable behaviour’? She had heard that bandied around the office on numerous occasions – someone was always getting divorced these days.

“What about unreasonable behaviour?” she voiced the thought out loud.

Dale laughed and it was almost chilling. “Yes, maybe you could claim unreasonable behaviour but don’t forget that by your own admission, you have not reported anything to the police. To report something now to gain a divorce may not be seen in the best light. And if you went down that route, all of our dirty laundry – your dirty laundry – would be well and truly aired in public. Do you really want that, Elise?”

She considered for a moment and shook her head, a feeling of dread beginning to creep through her body as she began to realise that maybe he wasn’t going to let her go and maybe things weren’t going to be as simple as she had naively assumed that they would be.

“But I don’t love you, Dale.” She decided to try a different tack. “How can we continue a marriage when you know how I feel? It would just be a sham. Surely you want the opportunity to try again? To find someone who can truly give you what you need? That way we can both be happy and live our own lives with nothing but fond memories.” Not all fond memories but she was grasping at straws. Panic was beginning to take hold and she realised that unless Dale complied with her wishes, she would never be free.

“I don’t want anyone else Elise, I want you. And I believe that in time, we can be happy again. I am going to do the courses and the therapy and try to stop the drinking. I am going to do all of that for you. And, in time, maybe we can talk about children again and consider starting the family that we have always wanted to have.”

Elise almost laughed at that. The thought of bringing a child into this relationship was just ridiculous; how could he possibly think that anyone would let them have a child? He was seriously deluded.

“I’m sorry Dale but I can’t be with you. If we have to do this separation thing, then so be it. I am leaving you. I need to be away from this relationship that is destroying us both. It’s not healthy for either of us and the sooner you realise that the better.”

Dale looked at her for a long moment as if considering something and then he delivered a speech which made her go cold from head to toe.

“I didn’t want it to be this way Elise, but if it has to be then so be it. You will come back to me, you will support me through everything and we will go back to being the way that we were. And do you know why you will do that? I’ll tell you why.” He took a deep breath as if pausing for dramatic effect.

“Little Olivia has been most helpful over the last few days and she has got me some...information...which would be very damaging in the wrong hands. Your lover-boy
Vaughn; - his money, Elise. Do you know where it came from?” he watched her closely as if waiting for a reaction. She gave none.

“I’m sure you don’t, it’s not something that he would be proud to tell anyone, I don’t suppose. It’s not clean money, Elise, it’s bad money, every single last penny of it and if you don’t agree to my terms, then I will personally see to it that your ‘boyfriend’ is ruined. By the time I’ve finished with him, he’ll wish he’d never been born.” Dale looked almost proud as he delivered that statement, clearly the knowledge that he believed he could ruin Vaughn in some way, was a defining moment for him.

“Don’t underestimate me on this, Elise.” He continued. “If he means anything to you at all then you will come back with me, we will continue our life together and I will leave him and your precious pretty-boy friend alone. He has a few skeletons hanging around too you know. Things that I’m fairly certain neither he nor you would wish to be in the public domain.”

Dale continued to watch her and then as she remained silent he began to laugh; an ugly, calculating sound. A sound that echoed throughout the room, and a sound that was ultimately the most sickening thing that she had ever heard.

This was it. This is what it came down to. It was blackmail, pure and simple, and the sacrifice, the payment and the monetary compensation was her – her life. If she agreed to Dale’s terms, then Vaughn could carry on with his life and no one would know anything. She had no idea what the information was that Dale held or how Olivia had come to find it, but knowing the girl as she was now starting to, Elise had no doubt that Olivia had dug up something unsavoury. She didn’t want to know the particulars; in fact, it didn’t matter to her as she loved Vaughn regardless of how he had come by his money, but the last thing that she wanted was for his life to be ruined because he was associated with her. It was bad enough that Dale was ruining her life, without dragging the two other people that mattered most to her in the world into it.

When Vaughn had been talking to her, he had told her that she had to put a stop to this, for everyone’s sakes and now she could see that she had no option if she wanted to do that. Dale had backed her into a corner and played his trump card and he knew that she would lay her life on the line for both Vaughn and Cole in a heartbeat – which was ultimately what he had asked her to do. Her life for theirs. Put like that, there was no choice. She had to go back to Dale and deal with her life and her marriage and she had to do that in order to set the two men that she loved beyond all reason, free.

Slowly, Elise nodded and she could see the triumph in Dale’s face as he realised that he had won. He had known exactly what buttons to push and he had played her to perfection. He was a master manipulator and once again she had been helpless against his ambush.

“I will collect you in a couple of hours when they release you.” he said, “There will be no other visitors until then – I will tell the nurse that you are too tired.”

“Thank you, Elise.” He leaned down to brush a kiss across her cheek and she turned her head away. She was not doing this for him or for any sense of duty – she was doing it because she loved Cole and most importantly Vaughn - with every atom of her heart.