Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,172

would be.

“But I don’t love you, Dale.” She decided to try a different tack. “How can we continue a marriage when you know how I feel? It would just be a sham. Surely you want the opportunity to try again? To find someone who can truly give you what you need? That way we can both be happy and live our own lives with nothing but fond memories.” Not all fond memories but she was grasping at straws. Panic was beginning to take hold and she realised that unless Dale complied with her wishes, she would never be free.

“I don’t want anyone else Elise, I want you. And I believe that in time, we can be happy again. I am going to do the courses and the therapy and try to stop the drinking. I am going to do all of that for you. And, in time, maybe we can talk about children again and consider starting the family that we have always wanted to have.”

Elise almost laughed at that. The thought of bringing a child into this relationship was just ridiculous; how could he possibly think that anyone would let them have a child? He was seriously deluded.

“I’m sorry Dale but I can’t be with you. If we have to do this separation thing, then so be it. I am leaving you. I need to be away from this relationship that is destroying us both. It’s not healthy for either of us and the sooner you realise that the better.”

Dale looked at her for a long moment as if considering something and then he delivered a speech which made her go cold from head to toe.

“I didn’t want it to be this way Elise, but if it has to be then so be it. You will come back to me, you will support me through everything and we will go back to being the way that we were. And do you know why you will do that? I’ll tell you why.” He took a deep breath as if pausing for dramatic effect.

“Little Olivia has been most helpful over the last few days and she has got me some...information...which would be very damaging in the wrong hands. Your lover-boy Vaughn; - his money, Elise. Do you know where it came from?” he watched her closely as if waiting for a reaction. She gave none.

“I’m sure you don’t, it’s not something that he would be proud to tell anyone, I don’t suppose. It’s not clean money, Elise, it’s bad money, every single last penny of it and if you don’t agree to my terms, then I will personally see to it that your ‘boyfriend’ is ruined. By the time I’ve finished with him, he’ll wish he’d never been born.” Dale looked almost proud as he delivered that statement, clearly the knowledge that he believed he could ruin Vaughn in some way, was a defining moment for him.

“Don’t underestimate me on this, Elise.” He continued. “If he means anything to you at all then you will come back with me, we will continue our life together and I will leave him and your precious pretty-boy friend alone. He has a few skeletons hanging around too you know. Things that I’m fairly certain neither he nor you would wish to be in the public domain.”

Dale continued to watch her and then as she remained silent he began to laugh; an ugly, calculating sound. A sound that echoed throughout the room, and a sound that was ultimately the most sickening thing that she had ever heard.

This was it. This is what it came down to. It was blackmail, pure and simple, and the sacrifice, the payment and the monetary compensation was her – her life. If she agreed to Dale’s terms, then Vaughn could carry on with his life and no one would know anything. She had no idea what the information was that Dale held or how Olivia had come to find it, but knowing the girl as she was now starting to, Elise had no doubt that Olivia had dug up something unsavoury. She didn’t want to know the particulars; in fact, it didn’t matter to her as she loved Vaughn regardless of how he had come by his money, but the last thing that she wanted was for his life to be ruined because he was associated with her. It was bad enough that Dale was ruining her life, without dragging the two other people that mattered most to her in