by Reyner, Jade
Shrugging at the paranoia that seemed that have taken hold ever since she had been on virtual house arrest, she approached the picnic area and indicated to pull in. There was a car already waiting to pull out so she slowed down to allow them to exit first before she began to make her turn, the entrance being relatively narrow and only really suitable for one car at a time. As she waited for the car to pull out onto the main road, she automatically glanced in her rear view mirror to ensure that the car behind her had also slowed down, the last thing that she needed right now was a rear end shunt. The car exiting the picnic area had by now pulled out so they each held up their hand in the universal ‘thank you’ signal before she once again checked her rear view mirror before commencing her turn – and in that second she stopped breathing. Completely.
Her heart began to pound painfully against her battered ribs as she recognised the vehicle approaching behind her. She felt a cold sensation run from her head all the way through her body as she finally realised why Vaughn had been so protective of her and why Sean had been told not to let her out of his sight. And why she had felt like she was being followed.
That was because she was being followed.
The car now slowing almost to a stop behind her was one that she knew intimately well and belonged to the one person that she feared most in the world. The car behind her belonged to Dale and as she instinctively floored the accelerator in a futile attempt to get away, the last thing she remembered hearing was the sickening crash of metal against metal as she lost control of her car and ploughed straight into the vehicle coming down the road in the opposite direction.
-
This time when Elise woke up she knew that she was in hospital; there was no mistaking the sterile walls and scratchy bed linen, the bright lights and the beeping monitors. She was also suffering no memory loss this time and knew with absolute certainty where she was and why she was here.
Although she had been knocked unconscious, the accident hadn’t been too bad overall because she hadn’t been travelling at great speed and she had first woken up whilst being lifted into the ambulance. The paramedics had been able to reassure her that no one had been hurt in the other vehicle - she had just glanced off the side of the other car and they had been able to stop safely a short distance later. Her car however, hadn’t fared so well according to the paramedic and Elise feared that due to its age, it was more than likely that it would be a write-off.
She also clearly remembered Dale being at the scene, desperately trying to get to her and being held back by the police as they allowed the paramedics to do their job. He was doing a really good impression of the devoted and concerned husband, so much so that he had managed to talk the ambulance crew into letting him on board. The second he stepped into the back however she had screamed as loud as her battered ribs would allow and the paramedic had instantly removed him. Having Dale in such close proximity to her had triggered a panic attack and she vaguely remembered the ambulance crew giving her an injection of some kind which had calmed her down, and before she knew it, she had been fast asleep again.
She was wide-awake now though and relieved to realise that she didn’t actually hurt anywhere, other than her ribs which were still healing. Looking around the room, her eyes settled on the call button by the side of the bed and she pressed it in the hope that it would call a doctor or nurse who could tell her exactly what was wrong if anything.
Within a few seconds, a nurse came in followed by a very relieved looking Vaughn who rushed to the side of her bed and immediately grabbed her hand.
“Jesus Christ, Elise, you have to stop scaring the shit out of me. What the hell did you think you were playing at? You could have been killed – again.” He was angry and rightfully so.
The nurse began fussing with some of the monitors and wires and then checked her chart at the end of the bed.
“You’ve been very lucky, young lady.” She said, “Considering the nature of the impact, you’ve got away with just a handful of cuts and scrapes so we only need to keep you in for a few more hours to make sure you don’t have another bout of concussion.” Vaughn must have told them about her recent injuries.
“Thank you.” Elise said and then turned to Vaughn. “I’m sorry, baby, really I am. I didn’t realise. I just got so sick of all the secrets, all the text messages and whispered conversations and no one was telling me anything. I didn’t know what to think. Then when we went for a walk and Sean started acting all weird and I just lost it I guess. I just needed to get some head space – some time alone. I had no idea that he would follow me - it didn’t even occur to me to worry especially as I was going to talk to him tonight anyway.”
The nurse nodded as she replaced the chart and then quietly exited the room. “You have ten minutes, Mr Granger.” She said before she closed the door behind her.
“I know, baby,” Vaughn said as he looked into her eyes, “and I am so sorry that we didn’t tell you anything but we all felt that it would be best not to worry you. You needed to use all your strength to get better and we didn’t want anything to jeopardise you making a full recovery. I was trying to sort it all out.” He stopped and grinned wryly. “He was just smarter than I gave him credit for but I won’t be making that mistake again.”
Elise reached out with her other hand and traced the worry lines on his face, smoothing them away and rubbing her thumb along his lip to iron out the remains of the frown.
“I’m okay now though, I’m safe. I promise to listen to you in the future.” She murmured and he briefly captured her thumb in-between his lips. They both allowed the movement to continue for a second longer and then she pulled her thumb away.
“Where is he anyway?” she asked, referring to Dale.
“Downstairs. The police are still questioning him. He hasn’t admitted to following you – he claims it was a coincidence that he was behind you. According to him, you are still very happily married and he has no idea why there is all this fuss.” Vaughn spat the words out as though it pained him to talk about it.
“What have you told them, Vaughn?” she asked, her voice small in the quiet of the room.
“Nothing. None of us have said anything. You asked us not to involve the police and until we have your agreement, we won’t. But Elise, you are so fucking way off the mark on this one. You need to tell the police and tell them now. That way he can be locked up and we can all get on with our lives.” Vaughn was getting angry again and she knew that he didn’t understand why she didn’t want to get the police involved.
“But what then, Vaughn?” she asked. “He won’t go to prison for all that long - if he even gets a prison sentence at all. What happens when he comes out? He’ll still be after me – you know he will. This is his pride that we are talking about and, despite everything, I am sure that Dale is still the proud man that he used to be. If he goes to jail, that will ruin everything for him and I don’t know if I can be responsible for doing that to someone else’s life. Especially not to someone who I once loved. I know it doesn’t make any sense to you and it doesn’t make a whole lot to me either, but I just can’t bring myself to press any charges. I won’t. I need to talk to him first and hope that I can get him to see sense. You have to trust me with this, Vaughn. Even despite everything that’s happened, I need to do this my own way.”
Vaughn looked at her in disbelief as if he couldn’t understand the words that had just come out of her mouth.
“I don’t understand why the hell you continue to defend that piece of shit, Elise.” He said. “Sure I buy the whole ‘I loved him once’ crap, but Christ, he has nearly killed you twice in less than one week – why the hell do you owe him anything? Do you want to know what was going on, Elise? Do you want to know why we were trying to protect you?” He paused and looked at her his fury continued to build. “Do you?” he spat out.
Wordlessly she nodded. She had a feeling that she wasn’t going to like this but she needed to know everything. She had to know what she was dealing w
ith when she came face to face with him.
“He was threatening you Elise. Threatening to kill you. Every single text that we all had, every phone call, even letters sent to Cole’s house – they were all the same. Threatening your life, telling us that he would be there, watching you, all of the time. That you would never get away from him again. Cole wanted to go to the police – hell, I wanted to go to the police - but we had promised you that we wouldn’t. When you pleaded to see him, I hoped that maybe you were right and that perhaps you could talk to him and get him to see sense but you wouldn’t bloody listen to us. You had to go and put yourself in danger and now you have played right into his hands. Don’t you see, Elise? I was having him followed but we had to be careful because if he found out then he could report us. Unfortunately he realised and he somehow managed to lose the guy that I had got on him – that’s what Sean was calling about after your walk. He had spotted Dale’s car and realised that he had got away from our guy. We were arranging to call the police in because it had just gone too far but you did your disappearing act before we had time. That means the police have nothing unless you are willing to talk Elise. You have to talk, you have to. That bastard can’t be allowed to get away with all of this. You have to forget your feelings of sentimentality and think about yourself, about us, about Cole, about everyone who loves you. We can’t see you like this and we can’t survive knowing that you are constantly in danger. You have to put a stop to this, Elise – for all of us.” Vaughn’s speech was so raw and so impassioned that Elise felt tears beginning to form and in the back of her mind she registered that that was pretty much all that she did these days – cry.
She looked up at him and saw the concern in his eyes, the emotion that he was trying to hold in check and when she spoke again, she did so both gently and calmly.
“I understand, baby, really I do. But please, please just let me try, just one last time. Let me talk to him just once. Get Sean or one of the officers to stand right outside the room so I can get help if I need to. Please Vaughn.” She pulled his head down towards hers and sealed her lips over his in a tender kiss. It was now or never.
“I love you, Vaughn Granger.” She whispered and she watched as he registered what she had just said and what she had just admitted. She needed to tell him, was glad that she had told him – it was another one of her ducks that she was desperately trying to get in a row.
When he went to speak, she placed her finger over his lips. “Sshhh...” she said. “I don’t need you to say anything, just believe that it’s true. I truly love you, Vaughn Granger – with all my heart.”
He shook his head in disbelief as he slowly left the room and she swiped away an ever-present tear as she watched him go.
From now on it was all about honesty and she needed Vaughn to understand how she felt. She could see how much it was costing him to watch her suffer and she already knew that it was killing Cole too. She understood that she had to sort this out for all of their sakes and ‘put a stop to it’ just as Vaughn had said but she still felt that she wanted just one last opportunity to try with Dale - to reason with him and see if she could understand what his motivation was. Maybe she was being completely foolish but she wanted to try one last time to make peace with him before she talked to the police and thereafter sealed her husband’s fate.
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 could
n’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.”
