Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,171

rehabilitation, and I have spoken to the bosses at work. They have agreed to let me have time off to sort through all this and get better, which is what I am going to do. I recognise that I am on a path of self-destruction and I don’t want to be that way anymore, Elise. Maybe we can’t get the old life back but I want us to try again. Tomorrow is the New Year and I want us to make a new start; me and you, back together, exactly as things should be. There doesn’t need to be anyone else in either of our lives. We have always been everything that we each needed.”

Elise couldn’t believe what she was hearing. After everything that had happened she couldn’t believe that Dale was just standing there, as calm as anything, explaining how things were going to work out and just expecting her to go along with it.

“We can’t be together, Dale, it’s impossible. Can’t you see that?” Elise said, trying to appeal to his rational side, even though she was no longer convinced he had one. “We don’t work together anymore and I can’t be what you want any more than you can be what I want. We’ve been together a long time, we’ve grown up together but we’ve also grown apart. We both have to recognise that.” She paused, contemplating how best to continue.

“I could press charges against you, Dale, you know that. I was in a really bad way after Christmas Day and it could have been much worse. You got lucky today with that stunt you pulled but there is still more than enough evidence for me to make a pretty damning case. Everyone wants me to do that – they all think you deserve to rot in jail for what you have done - but for the sake of the memory of our marriage I won’t do that. As far as I am concerned, I just want us to go our separate ways and work through a divorce as calmly and as amicably as possible. Please, Dale. Just accept the inevitable and let me go.” She stopped and took a breath waiting for his reaction, hoping against hope that he would see sense and accept that things between them were over. She was proud of him for looking into the counselling and she knew that that was what he needed but she wasn’t the woman to support him through that – he just needed to realise it.

Dale moved a little closer to the bed and then glanced at the door before lowering his voice.

“The thing is Elise, it’s not that simple. I hear what you’re saying and I don’t know, maybe you’re right. But I’m not ready to give up on you yet and those vows that we made ten years ago - they were for life. The only way I can grant you a way out of them is if you are no longer alive. As you are the party who has cheated, you don’t have a leg to stand on as far as a divorce is concerned. You will need me to agree to it or we will have to stay married for a period of legal separation which means that wherever you go and whatever you do, you will still be my wife.”

He had obviously been doing his homework and Elise shuddered at how clinical he made it all sound. She didn’t know much about divorce law but she couldn’t believe that she had no grounds at all. What about ‘unreasonable behaviour’? She had heard that bandied around the office on numerous occasions – someone was always getting divorced these days.

“What about unreasonable behaviour?” she voiced the thought out loud.

Dale laughed and it was almost chilling. “Yes, maybe you could claim unreasonable behaviour but don’t forget that by your own admission, you have not reported anything to the police. To report something now to gain a divorce may not be seen in the best light. And if you went down that route, all of our dirty laundry – your dirty laundry – would be well and truly aired in public. Do you really want that, Elise?”

She considered for a moment and shook her head, a feeling of dread beginning to creep through her body as she began to realise that maybe he wasn’t going to let her go and maybe things weren’t going to be as simple as she had naively assumed that they