Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,128

– simple as that.” Stephen turned to carry on with his work and Elise surprised herself by reaching over to touch his arm and stop him.

“Thank you, Stephen,” she said, “Thank you for caring.” Abruptly she felt tears well in her eyes and hastily went to dash them away.

“Babe – don’t you dare blub on me,” he said, “I am a modern man and I cope with most things but blubbing women are so not my scene.” He laughed. “You carry on like this and I’ll feed you to the office rumour mill myself!”

Elise laughed back, “And for a minute there I almost liked you. I always knew I had poor judgement!”

Stephen punched her lightly on the arm. “You don’t have poor judgement, Elise – you’ve made my man Vaughn very happy. That, as far as I am concerned is excellent judgement.”

“Ha. I don’t know about that,” Elise replied, “He wasn’t exactly singing from the rooftops when we got back here on Friday after all the rumours had started. We had words and he left without so much as a backward glance. According to Olivia,” she spat the other girl’s name out with barely concealed venom, “he had asked her to stay behind and wait for him so if anyone’s making him happy, I can assure you it’s not me.”

Stephen looked at her with an odd expression on his face. “When did you last speak to Vaughn, Elise?”

“Friday, when we got back here after the conference. I left to go home before him but Olivia was still here waiting for him. Why?” Subconsciously she touched her cheek where Olivia had slapped her, the memories momentarily flooding back.

“I think you should open your e-mails Elise.” Stephen said, a serious expression crossing his handsome features.

“I don’t understand – why do I need to open my e-mails?”

“Just do it, Elise,” replied Stephen, an almost commanding edge to his tone, “and then we’ll talk.”

Elise hadn’t checked her inbox for several days so wasn’t surprised to find it overflowing with all the usual company memos. Quickly she skimmed through those, mentally noting any that seemed to be important enough to warrant further reading. There was one reporting on the conference that they had attended at the end of last week and Elise left that one for later too – Christ knows what that would contain and Elise couldn’t bear to see Vaughn’s name shamed in print. There was also her usual morning welcome from Cole and one from Stephen on Friday which simply said “Missing you babe.” When she read that one she glanced across at Stephen and he merely smiled innocently. “Well I was.” She rolled her eyes and returned to the rest of her inbox.

Finally she reached the last two and was alarmed to see that one was from Olivia and the final one was from Vaughn. She opted to open the one from Olivia first.

Friday 21st Dec. 18:30

Elise,

I am sorry that I slapped you today. That was beneath me.

You are a bitch and always will be. I do not regret anything I said.

You have stolen from me one too many times and you will get your comeuppance. Your time will come.

For now though, Happy Christmas, Olivia.

Elise shivered; the hatred poured from the page and whilst she didn’t wish to give it any mileage, she couldn’t help but be a little fearful of what the girl meant. She read and re-read the e-mail countless times trying to make sense of the few simple lines. What did the girl mean that she had stolen from her one too many times? And why the hell was Olivia threatening her in any case? None of it made any sense and she looked across at Stephen to see him watching her.

“What does any of this mean, Stephen? I don’t understand.”

Stephen leaned across Elise’s desk to read the e-mail and when he had finished, he just shrugged. “I have no idea. She’s always had a screw loose if you ask me – beautiful but seriously damaged.”

“How can you find someone who writes an e-mail like that ‘beautiful’?” Elise asked incredulously.

“Hey babe – I can’t help it if I’m a slave to my baser instincts.” And he gestured rudely at his crotch before leaning back across to his own desk.

Elise just shook her head at him in exasperation. “How on earth you have a fiancée is beyond me.” She said, looking away and reading the e-mail again.

Did she reply? If she did, what did she reply? Did it deserve