by Rona Halsall
He straightened up and ran a hand through his hair, his mouth a thin line. ‘But you didn’t need to go running off. After everything I’ve said to you about being in danger, didn’t you think about how worried I’d be?’ He scowled at her. ‘Did that even cross your mind?’
She cringed. ‘To tell you the truth, Dan, you were scaring me.’
‘Scaring you?’ He looked incredulous, his voice getting louder, his fingers digging into her shoulders. ‘Me, your husband who loves you more than life itself – I was scaring you?’
She winced. And you’re starting to scare me now, she thought as she watched the colour of his face grow darker, the vein popping out on his forehead. It felt claustrophobic in the hallway, his body seeming to fill the entire space, leaving no room for air. ‘You’re hurting me.’
He looked puzzled then realised how tightly he was holding her, and his grip loosened enough for her to wriggle free. She ducked past him and walked into the living area, wanting to put some distance between them until she’d properly had her say and found out exactly what was going on. She could hear him following her and she went and sat at the dining table, somewhere she felt more in control, where he couldn’t be too close.
‘Dan, will you sit down? I really need to talk to you.’
‘Talk to me? Now you want to talk to me!’ He was pacing up and down, hands gesticulating as he spoke. ‘Shouldn’t we have done the talking before you decided to run off? Honestly, Chloe.’ He took a deep breath and sank down onto the chair opposite, like a deflating balloon. She could see the redness in his eyes, the tears glistening on the surface, and her heart clenched.
‘What happened to loving each other for better or worse, and all of that?’ His voice cracked with emotion, the anger gone for now. ‘What about those promises we made only a week ago? I promised to cherish you and that’s what I’ve been trying to do. Trying to keep you away from anything that might cause us trouble.’
‘Oh, Dan.’ She reached for his hand across the table, wanting to soothe his pain. ‘You went a bit over the top, don’t you think? I felt like a prisoner being locked in every night, not being able to have any fresh air in the house, you taking control of everything we did.’
‘There was a reason, and if you trusted me, then you would have known’
‘Known what?’
He gazed at her, his thumb caressing the back of her hand. ‘I only want to look after you.’ He shook his head slowly. ‘I can’t imagine how you would find me scary. I can’t tell you how much that hurts. That you think I might harm you in some way.’
She squeezed his hand and looked away, shuffled in her chair. ‘Well, no I didn’t’ She ground to a halt, unsure now exactly what she did think. He looked like a broken man, trying his best not to cry, and she felt like her heart was breaking. She slipped her hand from his grasp, went round the table and held him in her arms, a tear working its way down her cheek. Had she broken them? Had she ruined everything before they’d even got started?
‘There’s so much I have to tell you.’ She kissed his cheek, then his mouth, and he responded so gently that she wondered what on earth she had been thinking.
‘I’m just so relieved that you came back,’ he murmured. ‘I can’t tell you what was running through my mind.’ He swung her onto his lap, her head resting on his shoulder, his arm pulling her close. She found his hand and linked her fingers with his, their two wedding bands side by side. For better or for worse. Let’s hope we’ve got the worse out of the way, she thought as she relaxed into his arms, finding it hard to believe that he was the one behind all her troubles, the one who had taken away her life.
Thirty-One
They stayed wrapped up in each other for a while. Chloe didn’t want to think about anything except the moment, the fact that they loved each other, that he wasn’t angry with her anymore and she hadn’t ruined everything. He was the first to speak.
‘Sorry, babe, but my leg’s gone to sleep, I’m going to have to move.’
She shuffled over to sit on the chair beside him. ‘Dan…’ She swallowed, readying her little speech, about everything that had gone wrong while she was away, but that wasn’t what came out. What she said instead was, ‘I’m pregnant.’
His mouth fell open, but his expression of disbelief soon changed to a massive smile. ‘For real? You’re actually pregnant?’ His eyes shone, and he grabbed her hand in both of his. ‘Definitely?’
She nodded, glad that he was pleased about it happening so soon. She hadn’t even acknowledged to herself that he might not be ready for a baby. That fear had been pushed right to the bottom of the pile, given everything else that had been going on. They had been so bad at planning their future, and this was the worst possible time to be talking about a baby, but clearly her subconscious had decided it was her priority. She let out a slow breath. At least he knows now.
‘Well, that explains things, doesn’t it? Why you’ve been so grumpy and paranoid.’
She frowned, his words scratching at her. ‘Sorry? Me paranoid? I’m not the one who’s been making the place into a prison every night, am I? I’m not the one who says we can’t go home, who’s worried about a mystery danger. I’m not the one who changed the honeymoon plans without any discussion whatsoever. I’m not—’
‘Chloe.’ He held up a hand in an attempt to stop her flow. ‘Let’s not go there.’
‘Where?’ she snapped. ‘Where don’t you want to go?’
‘Come on, babe. Don’t spoil the moment. I’m just trying to say that we’ve been a bit tetchy with each other this last week and it wasn’t like that before we got married, and maybe the pregnancy has something to do with it.’ He smiled at her, his hand reaching for her, but she slapped it away and got to her feet.
‘Are you for real? Is it going to be hormones to blame for everything now?’
He grabbed her arm, the tightness of his grip reminding her of his superior strength as he pulled her towards him, his eyes not moving from hers.
‘I love you so much, babe. You mean the world to me. The absolute world.’
‘I love you too, Dan. But’ She sighed. Don’t start again, she told herself. Save it for another day. There are more important things to talk about. ‘A lot’s happened since I last saw you. And it’s been freaking me out and I need to know who’s behind it.’
He frowned, looking concerned now. ‘What do you mean? What sort of things?’
She sat down, took a deep breath and went through all the events of the previous couple of days: the gradual discovery that her life in the UK had been wound up by somebody. She turned to him. ‘Dan, I know you want us to move over here… Was it you? Did you do all that?’
He jerked back in his seat, hurt written all over his face. ‘How could you think that? How could you?’
She gazed at him, saw his chest heaving as he ran a hand over his hair while he fought to find the right words.
She reached out and grabbed his hand, panic tearing through her. Was she ripping their love apart with her accusations? Creating scars that would never heal? Pain flared in her chest and she knew then how deeply she loved this man, how even the thought of losing him was destroying her.
‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,’ she stammered. ‘But I can’t see who else would even want to do those things to me. It makes no sense. Unless…’ She bit her lip, her mind presenting her with the only other alternative.
‘Unless what?’
‘Unless it’s Lucy and Mark.’
‘But why would they do it?’ His voice was harsh, incredulous. ‘That doesn’t make sense either.’
‘Well, it sort of does. I haven’t told you what happened after Mum died, have I?’
He sighed. ‘I’m beginning to think there’s a lot of things you haven’t told me.’
She scowled and grabbed her hand away from his. Anger swirled in her belly, and the willingness to share a painful part of her past evaporated as quickly as it had materialised. ‘You know just as much about me a
s I know about you,’ she snapped. ‘Don’t go making out that I’ve been secretive, because that’s not it.’
‘So, what is it, if they’re not secrets? You told me about your mum dying the other day. How you blamed yourself for not getting her prescription, not making sure she was all right. That was a secret, wasn’t it?’
‘Christ!’ She flung her hands in the air. ‘Why are you being so argumentative?’
He closed his mouth and took a deep breath as if he was sucking his words back in, deciding not to say whatever had been on the tip of his tongue. He looked down at his hands, not willing to meet her eye, and she knew she’d hit on something.
‘Come on, Dan. What is it you’re not telling me? You’re the one who thinks I’m in danger. And you know what? After all the stuff that’s been going on, I’m beginning to wonder if you’re right.’
She had to stand her ground here. Had to find out exactly what was behind all her troubles. Then she remembered something else. Something that had really been puzzling her.
‘I tried to ring you, you know?’ Her eyes narrowed as she remembered her panic when she couldn’t talk to him. ‘But it said your number was unavailable. Why was that, do you think?’
His lips twitched but he still wouldn’t look at her.
She frowned. ‘I could have let you know I was safe if I’d been able to ring you. And I wanted to tell you about the baby, but I couldn’t. And ask you about all these other weird problems that just started piling up.’ She nodded. ‘You weren’t there when I needed you, Dan.’ A headache thudded at the base of her skull, the tension pulling her muscles tighter and tighter. ‘Then I thought I’d message you instead, but neither of us appears to have any social media accounts anymore.’ She rubbed her neck, waiting for his answer. ‘You had Gran’s number, and I know you rang her once. You could have rung back to speak to me, couldn’t you?’ She glared at him. ‘I’m interested to know why you didn’t.’
He ran his tongue round his bottom lip, his hands fiddling with the zip on his fleece. She waited for his response, watched him pull the zip up and down, up and down.
‘Okay, I’ll admit I did delete our email accounts and social media when I knew you’d gone back.’
His admission was like a slap and she reeled back against the chair, speech impossible for a moment.
‘But why? It’s not for you to do that!’ Anger flushed her cheeks, sharpened her voice. ‘Delete your own if you want, but my accounts are nothing to do with you.’
He wavered for a moment before speaking and she wondered if she was going to get the truth or a lie.
‘If we’re going to have a fresh start, it’s for the best. Anyway, you’re not Chloe Black anymore, are you? You’re Mrs Chloe Marsden now, so you’d have to change your accounts anyway.’ He emphasised the ‘Mrs’, stamping his ownership on her. She was his now, that’s what he was telling her, she belonged to him.
The muscles in Chloe’s jaw ached and she made a conscious effort to unclench her teeth. He was being so difficult, and she was struggling to understand his thinking. ‘That’s not the point. The point is you have taken something away from me that was mine and mine alone.’ She huffed out a breath, trying not to get distracted from her line of thinking. ‘But what I asked you originally was why I couldn’t get you on the phone. Why was your number unavailable?’
‘I got a new SIM card.’
‘I know that. Remember, I rang Gran on your phone? Because my phone mysteriously went missing?’ She glared at him, the accusation clear in her voice. ‘So, I rang you on that number. And it told me it was no longer available. So why was that?’
He was still fiddling with the zip, running it up and down, a noise that was seriously annoying her now. ‘I had to go and get a new one – it wasn’t working properly. Must have been faulty. Apparently, it happens sometimes.’ He wasn’t looking at her.
He’s lying.
But why? And why would he want a new SIM card when he knew it meant she couldn’t contact him? Unless he wasn’t worried about her at all, in which case She clasped her head in her hands, trying to work out a logical explanation and there just wasn’t one.
He’s lying.
She heard him move, felt his hand on hers, his thumb rubbing in little circles.
‘Chloe, let’s just stop this squabbling about things that don’t matter. What matters is who has your possessions and your money and who sent in your resignation. Because that wasn’t me. I didn’t do any of that.’
She glanced at him from between her fingers and caught a look that made the hairs stand up on the back of her neck.
He’s lying.
Thirty-Two
Chloe stood, wanting to put a bit of distance between them. She stalked into the kitchen area and poured herself a glass of water, gulping it down. The sound of his footsteps behind her made her turn, her skin prickling.
What else is he lying about?
‘You’ve got to believe me.’ He stood in front of her, his body reacting to her every move, as if he might pounce if she tried to get past him. She could feel the tension buzzing off him as adrenaline filled her veins.
Stay calm, she told herself while her mind alerted her to all the potential lies he’d told her.
What do I really know about him?
The answer was not enough.
She leant against the sink and gazed at him over the rim of her glass, deciding that the best thing to do was keep him talking and see if she could get to the truth. ‘Well, I don’t believe you. Who else could it be?’ She saw his hands clench into fists and she steadied herself, ready to kick out if he came any nearer.
His jaw clenched. ‘I don’t know why you’re being like this. I haven’t changed. Nothing has changed between us, but look at you! You’re behaving like I’m going to beat you up or something. What’s going on?’ His frown deepened. ‘Has somebody said something to you? Have they?’
She slid away from the sink and walked back towards the lounge area, where there was more space and she wouldn’t feel quite so threatened. ‘Nobody has said anything. But somebody has done quite a few things that have turned my life into a mess. I have no home, no job, no money and no contacts. And where’s my phone? I know you took it. You could at least give that back to me.’
He walked into the lounge and she moved, making sure the sofa was between them. He was starting to look angry now, his face reddening, arms folded across his chest as he leant against the wall, watching her. Cat and mouse. That’s what it felt like. She could see his teeth nibbling at his bottom lip, a habit that she used to find endearing, but now she realised it was evidence of a lie, something he wasn’t telling her.
He looked at the floor, the toe of his shoe rubbing at a mark on the tiles. ‘I haven’t got your phone.’
‘But you took it?’
He nodded.
There, see, I was right. And he lied about that, didn’t he?
‘But why? What was the point? It just made everything difficult. Impossible. If I’d had that, you could’ve rung me. And my contacts, everyone I know, they’re all on there.’ She tilted her head to the ceiling and let out a strangled scream before glaring at him. ‘For someone who wants to keep me safe, you made me very vulnerable.’
He kicked a little harder at the floor, still not looking at her. ‘I can’t explain at the moment. But you have to believe me when I say that it’s important you can’t be traced to here. That’s why I had to get rid of your phone.’
A shiver ran down her spine. She hadn’t thought about that, the fact that nobody actually knew where she was. Yes, her Gran and Janelle knew she was in Menorca, in a rented house, but that was all. If they thought she was in trouble, they wouldn’t be able to find her. Not without help from the police, and even then She paced up and down, keeping an eye on Dan because she was feeling more insecure with every revelation.
He walked towards her and she backed away, raised a hand. ‘No. Don’t you come any closer.’
He held o
ut his arms to her. ‘There’s nothing to be scared of, babe. Honestly.’
‘Well, you’re going to have to tell me the truth if you want to convince me of that.’ Her voice was shaking. ‘I shouldn’t have come back.’
‘Of course you should. You’re my wife. We belong together.’ His hands dropped to his sides and his expression softened. ‘I wish we could rewind to before the wedding. We were so happy, weren’t we? So full of hope for the future.’
She glared at him, unable to keep up with his changing persona. Is it all an act? Whatever was going on, she was feeling very uncomfortable and lashed out with her words, the only weapon she had. ‘Well, whose fault is it that it’s ended in this mess?’
‘I’ve only tried to do what’s best for you, for us.’ His eyes pleaded with her. ‘Giving us a fresh start in a place where I know I can get work. Where we’ll be safe.’
‘That’s all great for you, but what about me? You just went ahead and did exactly what you wanted. But this is a step too far.’ She slapped her hands on the back of the sofa, needing to get rid of some of her pent-up anger. ‘This house and this place and the idyllic dream that you have – it’s not real. What I had in Brighton was real, but you’ve taken that away from me. I don’t exist anymore.’
‘Oh, Chloe.’ He looked genuinely sad, but she didn’t trust his expression, didn’t trust anything about him, and when he stepped towards her, she backed away again. ‘I wish you could see things differently. I wish you could see that I’ve given you a future where we can thrive, rather than taken something from you. Come on, you’ve got to admit your gran had you on a short leash, keeping you feeling guilty, running around after her. You didn’t have a great life in Brighton. You spent all your time looking after everyone else. Here, there’s none of that. You can just be yourself!’
He’s mad, she decided, her body so tense now she thought she might snap into little pieces. Some of his points had hit home and her head was fuddled by his arguments. The baby, she thought, this isn’t good for the baby. Her hands gravitated towards her stomach as she backed towards the kitchen and the hallway beyond.
