Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,145

concealed, his language foul.

“You fucking bitch! After everything I have done for you – who the hell do you think you are to mess around behind my back? You deserve everything that you have got coming to you and don’t think that I won’t enjoy every last fucking second.”

He pushed her towards the bed and she landed on the soft downy covers, snuggling subconsciously into their warmth. She heard his words but she paid them no heed. There was nothing to say and even if she did, he was beyond the point of listening.

Dale covered her body with his as he joined her on the bed and she felt his anger radiate as he continued to teach her his lesson, using the only tools that he had. She retreated to the lake again, this time watching the ducks flapping and playing, eating scraps that the little boy was feeding them. There was a sailboat on the lake – a remote controlled one – and she scanned the surroundings, trying to see who was operating it. It was a beautiful sight, the little boat, bobbing peacefully on the water, rolling to one side and then the other as the wind caught its sails. One of the ducks briefly gave chase, clearly thinking that it was an imposter and then hastily returning to his friends when he realised his mistake, his metaphorical tail between his legs.

Jolted back to the present, she was vaguely aware of Dale removing his clothing and then roughly dispensing with hers. He was speaking again, breaking into her reverie. He was removing her jeans. He had found her stockings.

“Bitch!” he ground out. “You’re even dressing for him! You must think I’m a total idiot, stupid even, thinking I wouldn’t see these and realise. I know you are not wearing them for me!”

Almost gently he fingered the delicate lace at the top and then yanked on them, ripping and tearing them in the process. His fingernails grazed back up her legs once the stockings had been removed and this time she pictured the leaves on the trees, watched them blowing in the gentle breeze, momentarily blocking out the sun as they swayed this way and that. There was a beautiful bird sitting on one of the top branches and she squinted as she tried to focus, tried to identify the tiny being who had the freedom of the world at its wing-tips.

The birdsong was loud, louder than she thought it would be considering how far away the bird was. She tried to focus on it, drawing on her limited knowledge to see if she could work out what the bird was by the nature of its call.

A sudden movement caused her to return to the present and Elise realised that it wasn’t the bird that was singing, it was her phone ringing, buried in the depths of her handbag. Dale had heard it also and he jumped off the bed, grabbing her bag and upending it, searching through her belongings until he found her phone.

“Some bitch called Celeste calling. How the fuck does she have your number?” Dale asked as he pushed the remaining contents of her bag off the bed and onto the floor, tossing the unanswered phone down beside them. The conference – Elise had eventually given Celeste her number at that bloody conference.

Pushing her bag to one side, Dale began to climb back onto the bed but just as he was about to settle himself down he stopped, hesitated and then retraced his steps, picking up her bag again, turning it over and examining it. Elise knew a moment of sheer terror as she realised that he must have seen her new phone, nestled as it was in the secret compartment. She mustn’t have zipped it up properly this morning when she checked on it.

Slowly he reached inside and Elise watched, her heart in her mouth, as he began to draw back the zipper on the secret compartment and then ever so carefully remove the lime green diamante case.

“You stupid bitch.” His voice was low and menacing, each word carefully drawn out.

“Did lover-boy give you this? Eh? Is it so that you can have secret calls, secret messages? You really are unbelievable. Did you seriously think you could hide all of this from me you stupid bitch? I can’t believe that I am married to such a slut!”

Before Elise could respond Dale launched the phone against the wall with a force so great that the phone