by Karen King
‘You! It was you who tampered with the brakes of my car! Why you little…’ Phil took a step forward and the lad flexed his shoulders.
‘What are you going to do? Beat me up too? I’d like to see you try, old man.’
Freya had heard enough. She stood between them, holding up her phone, ready to start taking a video if Phil did hit Danny. ‘Stop it. If you touch him, Phil, I’ll film you and call the police.’ She turned to Danny. ‘Did you tamper with the brakes of his car?’
‘Of course not. I don’t know how to do anything like that. But I saw the accident. I’ve been watching him for ages, trying to think of a way to get him back for what he did to my mum.’ He turned to Phil. ‘I wish you’d died in that accident. That’s what you deserve. I wish you weren’t my dad. I hate you.’
56
Phil
They were ganging up on him, all of them, trying to make out he was violent. He wasn’t. He was sticking up for himself. They all pushed him, prodded him, provoked until he erupted. They lit the gunpowder then complained about the explosion. It wasn’t fucking fair. He clenched his fists.
‘I can explain everything,’ he said, turning to face Freya. ‘I’m sorry about your neck. I didn’t mean to hurt you. You made me angry, snooping through my things.’ He picked up the piece of paper Freya had dropped on the floor; thank goodness she hadn’t had a chance to read it – he’d mentioned his affair and that he wasn’t sure he could trust Freya. He was about to shove it in his pocket when he noticed that it wasn’t his list, it was a credit card statement – but it wasn’t his usual credit card. He stared at it, dumbfounded.
‘It’s your secret credit card. The one you use to treat someone for lunch and take them out to the cinema while I’m working,’ Freya was glaring at him, accusingly. ‘You used it to pay for the holiday too. Maybe you caused the row so you could take your girlfriend on holiday instead of me.’
Damn! He had to talk fast to get out of this one. ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Freya. I haven’t got a girlfriend. I must have gone with someone from work, as research, for part of the course.’
‘Liar! You do have a girlfriend. She’s got long, dark hair. I’ve seen her come here when she’s at work.’ The teenager nodded at Freya. ‘I’ve seen you both out together. I told you, I’ve been following you.’
Long, dark hair. This bloody kid had seen him and Daisy together. He needed to close this down before Freya put two and two together.
It was too late. He saw shock and realisation dawn on Freya’s face then she took out her phone, slid her finger across the screen and held it up. There was a picture of Daisy and Mark on the screen. Freya pointed to Daisy. ‘Is this the lady?’
Danny nodded. ‘That’s her.’
‘My God! You’ve really had me fooled, haven’t you?’ Freya asked furiously. ‘You’ve not only got a son you lied to me about, you’ve been having an affair with my bloody sister!’
‘Of course I haven’t! You can’t believe a word he says, he’s just trying to cover his back. I bet he was the one who tampered with my brakes. He tried to kill me!’ He stepped towards Danny, eyes blazing. This kid was really getting on his nerves. ‘I’ve had enough of this. I’m going to call the cops, get you charged with breaking and entering and leaving threatening notes. We can let them decide if you’re guilty of attempted murder.’ He jabbed his finger in the lad’s chest. ‘You don’t get to break into my house, threaten me and tell lies about me.’
‘Is there a problem, sir?’
Phil spun around to find two police officers standing by the open back door. ‘The neighbours reported a disturbance and in view of recent events we thought we had better check it out, especially when we heard shouting out the back here,’ one of them said.
‘I was about to call you. This kid—’ Phil said but Danny had bolted. Freya went out into the hall just in time to see the teenager dash out of the front door. She had to admit she was glad he’d got away, although there were a lot of questions she’d liked to have asked him. She turned back into the kitchen as Phil was saying. ‘He’s run off but I know who he is. He’s the one responsible for messing with my brakes and who’s been breaking in and leaving me threatening notes.’
‘Are you okay, madam?’ the policeman asked, looking in concern at Freya, who was rubbing her sore neck.
She shook her head. ‘My husband has just attacked me. And it’s not the first time.’ She showed them the red marks on her neck. ‘I’d like him charged with assault and to take out a restraining order against him. If it wasn’t for Danny, I think he might have killed me.’
57
Freya
Freya let herself into the house and sank down wearily on the sofa. The police had insisted that she go to hospital for a check-up because her neck was so badly bruised, then she had to give a statement about Phil’s assault, and how Danny had pulled him off her. The police had soon found the teenager and questioned him. Graham had come to the station to represent him legally. The police told Freya that Danny had confessed to seeing Phil’s car accident; he’d been outside, hoping to catch a glimpse of his dad when Phil had stormed out of the house and driven off. Danny had also admitted to sneaking into the house, through an open window at first then getting a key cut, and leaving the notes. He explained that he’d come to finally confront Phil when he heard screaming and had rushed in to rescue Freya.
Graham spoke up for him, giving an assurance that he was certain Danny wasn’t responsible for tampering with the brakes, so the police asked if Freya wanted him charged. Freya didn’t condone what Danny had done, breaking into their house and leaving threatening notes, but she could understand his anger when he found out that Phil had attacked his mother. And he had almost certainly saved Freya’s life, so she asked the police not to press charges and they gave Danny a caution instead.
She rested her head back wearily. She’d been astonished to hear of Graham’s part in all this, and that he had known where Phil was but hadn’t told their mother. Graham had actually stopped to talk to her at the police station, and she’d found him to be very pleasant, although it was obvious that there was no love lost between the two brothers. He’d promised to let his mother know of the recent events, which was a relief as Freya didn’t want to be the one to break the news to Aileen.
Phil was due in court on Monday morning and was being kept in custody until then. He had begged Freya to withdraw the charges, protesting that she knew it was an accident and he hadn’t meant to hurt her, that Danny was lying, that he had never slept with Daisy. Freya had refused to listen to him. She’d listened to his lies and excuses enough, given him chance after chance. He had almost killed her. She wasn’t going to let him get away with that.
All this time Phil had been telling Freya that she was the cause of their problems, she was the only one who ever made him mad, and she had believed him, not knowing that this was a long-standing pattern of behaviour. That he had attacked his brother, father, ex-wife and goodness knew who else. It was hearing Danny, the teenage son she had no idea Phil had, furiously relating how Phil had beaten up Danny’s mother so badly she had fled for her life, taking Danny with her, that had made Freya bring the charges against Phil.
She had finally come to her senses and realised that Phil was a dangerous abuser. There was so much of Phil’s life she didn’t know about, Freya realised, and maybe would never have found out if it hadn’t been for the accident. She couldn’t believe that he had been having an affair with her sister, right under her nose. How could she have not spotted that? He denied it, of course, and maybe he couldn’t actually remember his affair with Daisy, but he had looked so guilty it was obvious he had found out about it. She remembered how he had been so shocked when she had told him about Daisy being pregnant that he’d dropped his glass of wine. He must have known then that he’d had an affair with her and wondered if the baby was his. That was probably why Daisy had come to see him while Freya was at work, to see if he remembered. Well, not remembering didn
’t make him less guilty.
She sighed wearily. What a fool she had been; she should have walked out the first time Phil had lost his temper with her, and never come back. Still, what was done was done, and she had to figure out what to do from here. Right now, though, she needed to sleep.
She was about to go upstairs to lie down when the doorbell rang. Freya stopped and turned to the door. Was it the police again? She hoped not; she couldn’t face any more questions today.
She tentatively opened the door and was surprised to see Danny standing on the doorstep beside a woman with short, dark hair. A car was parked at the bottom of the drive.
‘Hello, Freya. I’m Marianne, Danny’s mother,’ the woman said with a soft smile. ‘I hope you don’t mind us coming. Danny wanted to apologise to you and try to explain himself, and I thought I should come with him.’
‘I’m sorry for breaking into your house. I didn’t want to hurt you – it was him I was after,’ Danny blurted out.
He looked so young, vulnerable and hurt that her heart went out to him. ‘I’m fine, thanks to you. It was very brave of you to stick up for me like that.’
He pushed his floppy fringe back. ‘I wasn’t going to stand by and let him beat up another woman. I wish I could have stuck up for my mum.’
‘You were only a toddler, Danny. There is nothing you could have done,’ Marianne assured him, putting her arm around his shoulder.
Freya surveyed them both thoughtfully and decided that she wanted to hear their story before they left.
‘I had no idea Phil had a son,’ she said softly. ‘He told me about Danny, but said that you’d cheated, that it’d broken his heart because you’d told him Danny wasn’t his. He’d made out he was the victim. I’m really sorry for what you have both gone through. Why don’t you come in and have a coffee? We should talk.’
Danny looked over at his mum and she nodded. ‘Thank you, I’d like that.’
Freya led them into the kitchen, where she made coffee for her and Marianne and poured a glass of Coke for Danny. Then they sat down at the table and talked for a long time. Marianne explained that Phil was eight years older than her, and she’d been taken in by his charm, swept off her feet, just like Freya had been. She had blamed herself for the arguments like Freya had done, until the one day Phil had attacked her so badly she feared for her life. She had fled with Danny, got far away, and started a new life.
‘Danny started asking questions about his father, wanting to find him, and I wasn’t sure what to do so I talked to my sister, Stacey, about it. That’s the conversation Danny overheard. I also told Stacey about meeting Phil’s brother, Graham. He was the barrister on a shoplifting case I was a witness in. The surname obviously rang a bell but I thought it was just a coincidence, then when I was checking my phone, Graham was behind me and saw the photo of Danny on the screen and said how much he looked like his brother, and it clicked. When I told Graham what had happened, how I had run from Phil, he gave me his card in case I ever wanted to chase Phil for maintenance. I told him that I didn’t and that Phil had denied Danny was his. But Danny overheard me tell my sister this and took the card from my purse and contacted Graham, wanting to know how to find his father.’
‘I was so mad about how he bullied my mum, what he did to her, that I was determined to find him and make him pay.’ Danny took up the tale, pausing to push his fringe out of his eyes again. ‘Uncle Graham wouldn’t help me – he said we should go through the proper channels – but it didn’t take me long to track him down. Mum said he was a journalist so I googled his name. A couple of articles came up that he’d written, then I found out that he wrote for the local paper and his bio said he taught part-time at Birmingham University, so I hung about outside and followed him home on my bike one day.’
‘You should have talked to me and told me what was going on,’ Marianne told him. ‘What you did was wrong and dangerous.’
‘You would have told me not to do it, and I wanted to prove that you weren’t lying about him being my father and show what a bully he was.’ He turned to Freya. ‘I’m sorry for breaking into your house. I didn’t want to hurt or frighten you. It was him I was after,’ he apologised.
‘I understand, and as you possibly saved my life, all is forgiven.’ Freya picked up her phone and showed Danny the photo of Daisy and Mark again. ‘And this is definitely the woman you saw Phil with?’ She didn’t say ‘your dad’. She wasn’t sure Danny would want that.
He nodded then pointed to Mark. ‘And I saw that man standing by Phil’s car the night of the accident.’
‘What? Are you sure? You saw this man by Phil’s car?’ Freya was astonished at this revelation.
‘Positive.’
‘Did you see him do anything to the car?’ she asked, wondering why Danny hadn’t mentioned this to the police.
Danny shook his head. ‘No, I was cycling past and just saw him standing there.’
‘Are you telling the truth, Danny? This is serious.’ Marianne’s eyes were glued to her son’s face as she questioned him.
He nodded. ‘I swear.’
Was he telling the truth? Freya sighed. She didn’t really care who had tampered with the brakes. Phil hadn’t been killed; maybe it would teach him a lesson.
When Danny and Marianne finally went, Freya sat thinking for a long time. The events of that morning had shaken her. She had been living with a stranger, someone who had lied to her throughout all their marriage; her sister, who she thought she’d been getting closer to, had betrayed her; she couldn’t even trust her brother-in-law. Her world had come crashing down. She had nothing and no one. From the moment those brakes had been tampered with, her life had changed forever, and she had no idea what to do now.
Then she remembered the piece of paper that had kicked off the events of that morning. She must have dropped it in the garage when Phil had chased her. He had been desperate for her to not read it. She went into Phil’s study to retrieve it, finding it lying scrunched up on the floor by the desk. She picked up the piece of paper and went back into the lounge, not wanting to spend any more time in this room than she had to.
She sat down on the sofa, braced herself for whatever she might find, and smoothed out the paper. Phil’s neat handwriting, in black biro, filled the page.
Things I remember – everything up to the past two years:
My childhood.
Marrying Marianne.
Meeting Freya.
Going out together.
Getting married.
Our honeymoon.
Teaching at the university.
Writing articles.
She turned the paper over.
Things I don’t know:
What our marriage was like.
Why we don’t have children.
Who caused the big argument the night I left.
Who tampered with the brakes of my car.
Who is sneaking into the house during the night.
Who flooded the kitchen.
Who is leaving me threatening notes.
So Phil really had lost his memory then. It hadn’t been a trick to persuade her to give their marriage another go. He had evidently been writing things down so he could try and make sense of them. She continued reading.
If I did book a holiday to Dubai, and if so, what I did with the booking details.
If I was having an affair with Daisy.
If Daisy’s baby is mine.
If Freya is abusive to me.
Whether I can trust Freya.
Whether Freya tampered with the brakes, is pretending someone is breaking in and is writing the notes.
Whether Freya is trying to mess with my head.
If I am in danger.
Her hands shook as she finished reading. No wonder Phil hadn’t wanted her to see this. It proved that he had known about Daisy for some time and, more scarily, that he didn’t trust Freya and had been wondering if she was behind everything that had happened. She had been in danger ever sinc
e Phil had come out of hospital.
She jumped, startled, as her phone rang. She didn’t recognise the number on the screen but thinking it might be the police she answered it, her heart thumping in her chest when she heard Phil’s voice. ‘The police let me use the landline to call,’ he told her, his words spilling out. ‘I’ve started remembering things, Freya, my memory is coming back. I’m so sorry for everything. You’re the only one who can help me get through this. Please give me another chance. I’ll change. I swear I will.’
This time she wasn’t falling for it. She knew he would never change. ‘We’re over, Phil. I never want to see you again,’ she said, ending the call. Then she blocked his mobile number in case he tried to call her on that when he was free. She never wanted to hear from Phil again.
Making that decision gave her a new strength. She wasn’t going to let Phil destroy her life. This wasn’t the end; this was the beginning of her being in charge of her own life, of living it her way. She was going to get a solicitor, file for divorce, put the house up for sale and move on. She was going to build a bright new future for herself, and would never let anyone manipulate, control or abuse her again.
58
Saturday
‘Freya.’ Daisy stared at her in surprise. Freya was obviously the last person she expected to see early on a Saturday morning. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Not really. Can I come in?’
‘Of course.’ Daisy stepped aside to let Freya enter, an anxious expression on her face.
And so you should be worried, Freya thought, anger burning brightly inside her.
‘Come into the kitchen and we can talk uninterrupted,’ she said but Freya carried on into the lounge, pushing the door open and walking straight in. ‘Actually, I’d rather Mark heard what I have to say too.’
