Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,154
continued to help Elise wobble on slightly unsteady legs towards the lounge and onto the sofa.
‘Sean’ immediately moved from his position outside of the bedroom and took up a post on a chair that was adjacent to the front door thereby allowing him to still see into the lounge.
“OK, Celeste – who the hell is that?” Elise hissed, keeping her voice low in case ‘Sean’ heard her.
“Oh – that’s Sean.” replied Celeste. “There’s Stan as well but he usually does the night shift. If you’re still out of bed later on then you’ll meet him as well.” Celeste imparted the information as if it was perfectly normal for her to have two security-type people in her house. Perhaps it was.
“That’s not exactly helpful, Celeste. I kind of got that he was ‘Sean’; what I meant was what is he doing here dressed up like some kind of security guy?”
“You mean Vaughn didn’t tell you?” Celeste asked and then added almost to herself, “I can probably imagine why though.”
Celeste sighed. “Sean and Stan are security men, private security men, paid for and employed by Vaughn to watch over you at all times and keep you safe. After the beating that your so-called husband gave you, he didn’t want to take any chances with yours or any of our safety so he got them here that first night. One or the other of them has been here ever since.”
“And you don’t mind?” asked Elise, amazed that her friend seemed so calm about having her flat invaded by all of these people.
Celeste gave her a withering look. “Seriously? You are seriously asking if I mind having two beefy men in my house twenty-four hours a day? Christ, Elise, that knock to your head did more damage than any of us thought!”
Elise laughed and then immediately regretted it as the pain started to shoot through her chest again. All of her injuries were healing well but according to Dr Edwards, it was still going to be a good few days before she was up and about properly. The only area of concern was her wrist which was still a little numb but Rachel had been back a couple of times since and they had managed to get some of the feeling back. She had all of the feeling in her hand and fingers; it was just a small section of her wrist that was damaged. Rachel and Dr Edwards were confident that it would heal itself eventually.
“Doesn’t Roger mind though?” Elise asked, referring again to the presence of Sean and the as yet-unmet Stan.
“Mind?” screeched Celeste, “He’s as mad as hell! It’s made for the best sex of my life over the past few days – maybe you could get beaten up more often!”
Despite herself, Elise laughed - only Celeste could put such a positive spin on a situation that was otherwise fairly grim.
“Not funny, ‘Leste.” replied Elise still laughing as much as her injured body would allow. She was really pleased that her friend and Roger were still going strong - even if it was being rather bizarrely fired up by a large man with a bald head wearing a security uniform.
Celeste left her to go and sort out the drinks and, for the first time, Elise thought about what had happened and began to consider how she felt about it all. The fact that Vaughn had employed security guards seemed a little over the top as she felt sure that Dale had no idea where she was and even if he did, he’d have trouble getting to her as she was never on her own. She appreciated that maybe Dale didn’t want her to talk and perhaps he was worried that she might press charges against him but as far as she knew, no one had heard from him at all so maybe he was just lying low until they could sort this out amicably.
Elise recognised that she would need to contact him at some point though, and that thought filled her with absolute dread. She would need to tell him that they were officially over and that she wanted to divorce him because until she did that, there would be no way forward for either of them. Hopefully his behaviour on Christmas day would have frightened him and Elise really wanted to think that maybe he too had recognised that their relationship was now toxic. On that fateful day, she had finally come