Twelve Days The Beginning

Chapter Sixteen

Elise woke to find Vaughn lying on his side; head propped on his arm, watching her.

“Morning, sleepyhead” he said and reached over to gently brush a tendril of hair out of her eyes.

“Err... morning” she replied disorientated. “What time is it?”

“A little after six – you’ve not slept for long, we ....uh... had a busy night.”

“Oh God!” Reality crashed over her like a tidal wave and she suddenly realised for the first time that she was in Vaughn’s bedroom and in Vaughn’s bed. “Jesus Christ! Wh... what?? We....?? Oh god, I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid.” She covered her face with her hands briefly and then pulled them away in time to see anger flash across Vaughn’s face before he carefully schooled his features.

“If you are asking if we had sex, the answer is no, we did not. You passed out on me after I gave you probably the best orgasm of your life if the volume of your screaming was anything to go by.”

She looked at him in shock, surprised at the crudeness of his answer. She realised too late what she had just said and how it must have sounded. She had hurt his feelings, she was in no doubt of that, but it was too late to call it back now. He continued to speak and she could hear the anger beginning to return.

“I’m sorry if you feel that you have been stupid,” he emphasised the word that she had used only moments before, “however I do not regret any of what happened last night and I give you fair warning that I will be doing everything in my power to make sure that it happens again – and a hell of a lot more besides.”

“And...” he carried on, his voice almost cold. “Please, spare your concerns for your husband. You and I both know that a man who is capable of raping his wife, deserves everything he f*cking gets.” He spat this last sentence out and then abruptly rose and left the room; his perfect body striding out, leaving her alone and completely confused.

Shit! Elise flopped back onto the bed and covered her eyes with her arms. He was mad. Really mad and she could only assume that her poor choice of words had damaged his ego. Christ, the last thing that she wanted to do was upset him but she was remembering last night now, and everything that they had done. Although they had not had sex, they had pretty much done almost everything else and in her world, that branded her a cheat. She had vowed to love and honour Dale and even though Vaughn was right about Dale not deserving her love, that didn’t make it any more bearable that she was now engaging in what amounted to an affair. God, what a mess! And now she had to collect her car and go home and get changed to go and pick Dale up from the hospital; precisely as if nothing had happened.



The problem was that something had happened though. For all the wrongs of this situation, Vaughn had been completely right about one thing - he had given her the best orgasm of her life and she knew without a second thought, that she would do anything in her power to experience that again.




Vaughn dropped her back at her car just after 6.30am and left without saying another word. He had been silent ever since he had left the bedroom and she had not bothered to try to engage him in conversation other than to apologise. He had just brushed her off and so she had left him to his brooding silence. She had far too much to filter through in her own head without trying to psychoanalyse his.

The day looked like it was going to be dawning fairly bright and for that, Elise was glad. Whenever the sun shone, it always made things feel better and it was particularly hard this time of year when there was hardly any sun and the days were so much shorter. She was not really a winter person - far too chilly - but she did love the turn of season to spring when all the leaves and blossoms started appearing and the birds began to sing. Once Christmas was over, the shops would start stocking Easter gifts and that’s when Elise felt like the seasons were turning. Christmas for her was never a joyful time so if there happened to be a sunny day in December then she considered that a real bonus.

How ironic though that the sky should decide to be cheerful and celebrate on the day that Elise had well and truly broken her marriage vows. What kind of twisted logic was that?

Her car was freezing so she sat and shivered for a while, waiting for the engine to warm up and the heating to kick in. Once her numb hands had thawed enough to respond, she began the short drive home and briefly hoped that Celeste and the others had had a good night and had got home OK. Maybe they had linked up with Stephen and his friends? No doubt she would find out tomorrow at work. She would have liked to text Celeste today to find out but once Dale was home, she wouldn’t be able to use her phone without him getting suspicious so there wasn’t much point. She would wait until tomorrow.


-

After a shower and some food, Elise felt much more human and began to organise things for bringing Dale home. She tidied the house to make sure that it was up to his standards and then went to the local shop to get some essentials and food for dinner. It was crazy but she was actually nervous about bringing her husband home and in many ways she was also sad. Despite the madness of the last few days it had been absolute bliss having her life to herself for a change and she knew that the moment Dale walked back through the door, everything would return to its usual way.



Going back upstairs to do one more final last minute check, she realised that her dress from the night before was still laid out on the bed where she had left it ahead of her shower. As Dale was unaware that she had bought it and she couldn’t think of a feasible reason for owning it at present, she decided to hide it in the back of her wardrobe – Dale never went anywhere near her wardrobe anyway. She did consider handing it to the local charity shop to re-sell but it was a beautiful dress and it held certain memories that she wasn’t ready to relinquish just yet.

The traffic was fairly light as it was a Sunday and she made good time to the hospital, arriving on the dot of 11.00am. As was usual with hospitals, there weren’t many doctors around for routine discharges on the weekend so the nurses had made sure that all the paperwork was in order so that Dale would be released on time. Elise had thought that this was considerate of them but she suspected it also had something to do with them wanting to see the back of a difficult patient.

Dale was sat on the bed fully dressed when she arrived – she had brought him in a change of clothes so he had managed to have a bath and freshen up and apart from the cuts and bruises still showing on his face he looked much more presentable and a lot better.

He looked up and smiled at her when she walked in and for a moment she had to look away, afraid of what her eyes might reveal. Although she had become proficient at lying through necessity, she wasn’t very good at keeping her eyes neutral – she had always had expressive eyes, one of her best features according to her parents.

She approached the bed slowly and Dale reached out a hand to grasp one of hers in his.

“Hey, baby – am I glad you’re here! The nurses are friendly and all but the food.... ugh!”

Elise smiled – that old joke again. She happened to know that he had been fed very well whilst enjoying his short stay courtesy of the NHS but she was grateful at his attempt to lighten the mood. Maybe he was nervous about coming home too, given what he had done to land himself here in the first place.

Elise squeezed his hand in return and then went off to find the nurse to make sure that he was all signed out and ready to go. She wondered how Cole was feeling today – she hadn’t seen him since Saturday morning’s ‘revelation’ and she had not had opportunity to speak to him either. She hoped that he was feeling slightly better now and that he had come to some conclusions about the direction in which his life was heading. Perhaps she would suggest lunch at work tomorrow; then they could have a proper catch up.

Completing all the necessary paperwork with the nurse, she returned to Dale’s bed and proceeded to help him out of the ward and down the stairs to the car park. When they reached her car door, she opened it with the key – her car had the luxury of central locking, just not a remote control, so she still had to use her key to get in and out. It was not an issue for her at all as she was rather attached to her car but Dale always insisted it was a death trap and it was about time she upgraded to something more modern. Ever the image-conscious man. But Dale no longer did the finances so he didn’t have a clue about their money. He spent it mainly on booze and that was about it. On one occasion when he had been nagging her about her car, she had tried to explain their situation to him and suggested that if he cut back on his drinking, they would be able to afford other things – maybe even a holiday. He had just looked at her as if she had asked him to have his right leg amputated and that had been the end of that particular conversation.

Apart from all the violence that his drinking seemed to bring on, Elise was also worried about the general effect it was having on his health. She didn’t consider him to be an alcoholic as there were days when he didn’t drink at all – the problem was that he was a binge drinker, particularly at weekends and she knew from research that, in many respects, that was the worst type of drinker. Overloading his system continually was definitely not doing him any good but as far as he was concerned he didn’t have a problem and no amount of nagging from her would change his mind. She had rather hoped that this stay in the hospital would show up some damage that might force him to re-evaluate but unfortunately for her, the tests had only shown up minor damage to his liver; perhaps because this kind of drinking hadn’t been going on for all that long, relatively speaking. Dale had just dismissed what the doctors had found, saying that he could give up whenever he wanted to and when he did, his liver would get better. In his world, it was as simple as that.

Exiting the hospital car park Elise was surprised to notice that Dale was in a pensive mood – he was usually so loud and in control that pensive just wasn’t in his repertoire – perhaps the hospital stay had had some effect?

“You OK?” she asked.

“Yeah babe, I’m fine – now. Some of the cuts still hurt like a bitch but physically I’m fine.” he paused as if wondering whether to continue.

“Elise?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been thinking. The fact that I lost control so completely scared me – I still can’t remember exactly what happened, but I’ve had a lot of time to think and I reckon you’re right. I need to cut down on my drinking; maybe even stop altogether for a while and see how I get on. I know that the doctor said that there was some damage to my liver and I laughed it off, but now that I’m totally sober I know that’s not good. What do you reckon?”

Elise was stunned, thoroughly stunned. Part of her wanted to shout from the rooftops – hallelujah! – this was the moment, the revelation that she had been waiting for, her husband finally seeing some sense and agreeing that maybe there was a problem. She almost wanted to dance for joy, run around the streets and tell the world; this had taken five years, five long years and she couldn’t believe that there might be an end in sight.

The other part of her however was a little doubtful at this turn of events and she wasn’t sure whether or not Dale could give up the alcohol and even if he did would that necessarily mend their relationship? As far as she was concerned he had hurt her – a great deal – and it would take him a very long time to make it up to her. She wasn’t sure she had enough energy in her to support him through this.



Plus, there was now Vaughn in her life. Whilst she knew that he wasn’t a relevant consideration and that if she and Dale did decide to work on things then he would take a back seat, she couldn’t forget what he had said last night and the way that he had made her feel. He had looked after her; listened to her, made her feel safe and secure and it had been a very long time since anyone had done that. She deliberately kept her thoughts away from the absolutely amazing orgasm; that needed to be put into a box and never opened again, especially if she was going to give Dale the benefit of the doubt.

Realising that she had been silent for an inordinate amount of time and had not responded, she tried to compose something suitable to say. She felt completely torn; she wanted to support him and believed that it was her duty to do so but she also wanted her freedom back – the kind of freedom that she had experienced over the last couple of days. That wouldn’t happen in the picture that Dale had painted.

“I think that it’s brilliant you’ve been thinking things through,” she said carefully, “and you know that I’ve been nagging you for ages to cut down on your drinking, I’m just not sure if you’re fully committed to this yet. I know you said you’ve taken what the doctors said seriously but I just need to see it to believe it, I guess. This has all been going on for too long for me to just forget everything that has happened and whilst you know that I will support you, I hope, rather than believe, you to be sincere.” She paused. Although Dale seemed to be in an upbeat mood, her negativity might be something that she paid for later and that was not something that she wanted to encourage.

“I hope that you understand I don’t mean to be negative,” she continued, “there’s just so much that’s happened as a result of your drinking that it’s hard for me to completely believe you’ve changed after just a couple of days.” She tried to word it as sensitively as she could and waited quietly for his response.

Putting her feelings out on the line like that was a bit of a gamble but she needed to be honest with both of them if they were ever going to have a chance. Nervously she glanced across at Dale, fully expecting his face to be contorted in anger but was surprised to see him nodding.

“I understand that, Elise, believe it or not” he said. “Things have been rough and I know I’ve not admitted to it before but I am prepared to do that now. I really want our marriage to work and I just feel completely blessed that you’ve not left me long before now. I wouldn’t blame you if you’d at least cheated on me.” he laughed ironically as if the thought of her being attractive to anyone else was completely ridiculous. “I know you’d never do that to me, Elise, would you?”

Elise kept her eyes firmly fixed to the road as she considered what to say or not to say. Dale seemed oblivious to her predicament and was continuing on with his train of thought.

“I mean, the thought of anyone else wanting you in any case – they all know you’re married and you’re getting on a bit now. You and me – we’re all that we need and together we can get through anything. Especially if I keep sober. What do you think?” He seemed to be completely unaware of the hurtful nature of the words coming out of his mouth and Elise was almost tempted to tell him about last night. Make him realise that she was a person, not just an object and that there were other people out there who valued her in some way. But she didn’t. She couldn’t.

Warming to his theme now Dale carried on, “Pretty-boy makes me laugh – admittedly I can tell that he fancies you but does he really think you’d be interested in him when you have me? I reckon he’s desperate that one. Can’t think of any other reason why he’d be so defensive of you.”

Of course! It was unthinkable that she could be attractive to anyone else! Temper rising to almost boiling point, she gripped the wheel as hard as she could and maintained her concentration on the road. She could feel tears starting to prick at the back of her eyes and for the first time she realised that Dale wasn’t just physically abusing her, he was mentally abusing her as well - almost as if he realised that he would lose control by giving up drinking so he needed to compensate in other ways.

Still he hadn’t finished and seemed completely unaware that she had not uttered one single word.

“So, we going to do this then babe? You and me against the world? ‘Cos that’s the way it should be. We took those vows and now I’m going to get sober and we are going to show everyone how good we are together. And I know you’re never going to cheat on me are you?”

Numbly Elise shook her head but didn’t turn to face him. She couldn’t. Without her realising it Dale had managed to get the upper hand again. He may not be physically touching her but he was still controlling her, reminding her of her duty and subtly warning her from going against his wishes. He was clever – very clever - and as she continued to drive them home, one chilling thought went round and round in her head.

This Dale – this manipulative Dale – was way worse than angry Dale. Way, way worse.