Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,170

him forwards. She needed to talk to him and that couldn’t be done whilst he was standing at the other end of the room.

“I have instructions to stay in the room, Miss Grayson – will that be okay with you?” Sean asked. Elise nodded; she felt much safer knowing that he was here and she knew that he would be discreet with anything that he overheard. That was part of his job description.

“Sean,” she said as he went to retreat to the door, “I am sorry. I hope that it didn’t cause you too much trouble.”

“Nothing I’m not used to, Miss.” he said and mock-saluted her as he took up position just beside the door. She smiled. She really did like Sean and she felt bad for what she had put him through this afternoon.

Dale was stood by the bed watching her and she took a moment to assess his appearance. He wasn’t looking great; she didn’t know where he had been whilst she had been recovering at Celeste’s flat but it didn’t look like he had spent much time in the shower or with a razor. His eyes that had once been so kind and sparkling were dull, no doubt contributed to by the quantity of alcohol that was regularly in his system, and his face was looking more worn than mature. Elise felt saddened to see her husband like this and she couldn’t help but be sorry for the man that he had become. If only he had agreed to the counselling that they had been offered back when all of this had started, then maybe things would have been okay now but she also wondered if he would have taken this path anyway. Some people were just wired with a self-destruct button which was ready to detonate at any given moment, and maybe Dale was just one of those people. If their inability to have a child hadn’t triggered it, then there probably would have been some other event.

She looked up and their eyes met briefly and she had to close hers almost instantly to prevent the sick feeling that was in her stomach from turning into full-on nausea. As soon as she had looked at him she had been transported back to Christmas Day and she knew that whatever happened from here on in, she would never be able to forgive him for such a brutal attack.

Neither of them spoke for long minutes and the silence stretched almost uncomfortably. Eventually Elise could bear it no longer and opened her eyes to address her husband; the man who had once been the love of her life and the man who had caused untold pain to her and all of the people that she cared about.

“Why, Dale?” she asked simply. That was all she needed to say. Wasting time on lengthy pleasantries wasn’t going to change anything.

He shrugged and he looked around the room, his eyes darting everywhere, refusing to meet hers. “Because you’re mine, Elise. If you’re not with me then you are not with anyone and if that means that I have to make threats.....” his voice tailed off as if he suddenly realised

exactly what he was saying.

He tried again. “It’s simple Elise. I love you. There is no one else. When I found out that you had been cheating on me, I didn’t know what to do. Part of me hoped that it wasn’t true but part of me relished the idea of having a genuine reason to punish you. I’ve had a lot of time to think over the last few days and I’m not proud for having those thoughts.” He stopped and reached over to take her hand, recoiling instantly when she flinched.

“I want to get better, Elise. I want to get over this...problem...that I have with alcohol and I know that the type of person that I have become is not who you want to be with. I can see that now and I can understand why but you are my wife - in sickness and in health and till death do us part - I cannot let you be with anyone else. You are the one who has cheated, Elise, and maybe makes us both as bad as each other.”

Elise went to say something, to fight her corner and defend her actions but he held up his hand to stop her.

“No,” he said, “I need to say this. I have looked into some courses over the last few days, counselling courses,