Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,111

looked like a broken man. His appearance, and the desolation in his eyes terrified her, and she automatically opened her arms to him. He walked into them without hesitation, resting his chin on her shoulder and closing his eyes. He buried his face into her neck breathing in deeply; his shoulders were deeply hunched, exhausted, as if he had nothing left to give.

And then right there, right in the middle of the hotel foyer and cradled in Elise’s arms, he let out a strangled sob and began to cry.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Elise had a feeling of déjà-vu as she watched the police and paramedics carry out their duties. Fortunately, the man had only suffered light bruising and scratches and, despite the officers questioning him for a long time, he had refused to press charges against Vaughn. He had admitted that he had been out of line with his advances towards her and he just wanted to put it behind him.

It transpired that his name was Edwin Dunn and he was the founder of a company that had fallen victim to the recession. He had been trying to re-build it ever since and attending this conference had been his last-ditch attempt to get things back on track. He had been looking to gain some contacts as well as additional skills but unfortunately he had realised early on that he was substantially older than most of the other delegates and hopelessly out of touch with the modern way of doing business. He had grabbed a bottle and gone for a walk, realising that it was time to accept that it was over. His life’s work had come to an end and ultimately amounted to nothing - Elise had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He was now totally sober and had apologised to her again, explaining that he had a wife and children and emphasising that this behaviour was completely out of character for him. Surprisingly, Elise found it easy enough to accept his apology and refused to press any charges herself. He was going to be dealing with the guilt of what he had done every day and he was going to be pretty sore from his injuries for a while. He also had the shame of admitting it to his family and Elise felt that that was more than enough penance. She too just wanted to forget the whole ugly incident.

Vaughn had been given a police warning, and as he had no previous record, that had been the end of the matter. Elise couldn’t believe that in less than a week, all of the men in her life had managed to pick up a police caution. She smiled at the irony, as the old saying about buses arriving all at once, sprang to mind but the fact that she was the root cause of all of their troubles with the law didn’t rest easily with her. If she could go back and relive the last week then she would, in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately Mr Andrews Snr had been contacted by the hotel as a matter of course and Vaughn had been told to return to the office as soon as possible to explain his actions. As the largest shareholder in the company, Elise found it strange that Vaughn was accountable to anyone but she didn’t know the intricacies of the agreement and Mr Andrews Snr did command respect amongst all of the staff.

By lunchtime, the furore had largely died down and the conference had resumed as normal. Vaughn had not spoken to Elise since he had broken down in her arms; instead he had concentrated on dealing with the police and apologising to Sam and the others. It had been agreed that they would stay on and finish the conference but Elise and Vaughn were going to leave and return to the office. There were bridges that needed building, and after Vaughn had straightened as much out as he could with the hotel management, Elise found herself back in his car, bag packed and heading towards Eastwood, ready to face the inevitable music.

The journey was silent for a while with both lost in their thoughts. Elise couldn’t begin to comprehend why Vaughn had reacted so strongly to what had happened and she had no idea how to broach the subject. There were so many levels to this man that she was beginning to uncover, and it just reinforced her concerns of the night before that she really knew hardly anything