Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,176

few minutes of charge into it before she left home for the day and had completely forgotten to unplug it. Bother. She didn’t have Stephen’s number anywhere else and she knew that Personnel wouldn’t give it to her and that Celeste was off for the day. In the end she decided that the she had two options; either sit it out here and wait, hoping that he would eventually turn up, or quickly drive home and collect her mobile so that she could contact him. It was completely out of character for Stephen to be this late into the office, even taking into account a heavy night, and whilst she registered that she could go upstairs and ask one of the Management team if they knew where he was, she would much rather try to reach him herself which meant only one thing - dashing home. If she left the office now, she would be back within half an hour as she would miss any of the lunchtime rush so decision made, she collected her belongings and car keys. After arranging with Annabel for any messages to be taken, she rapidly ran out to her car and jumped in.

It took her just over ten minutes to get home and pulling into the driveway she was surprised to see that Dale’s car was still there. That was strange - she was certain that he had been about to leave at the same time as her and that had been a good couple of hours ago. Concerned that he might be unwell, she put her key in the lock and pushed open the door and as she did so, she heard a scuffle coming from upstairs, which was accompanied by a muted thud. What was that? Maybe Dale really was ill and was running to the bathroom?

After collecting her phone from the kitchen, she trotted up the stairs two at a time to make sure that he was alright and check that he didn’t want her to pick him up anything. If he had some kind of virus then he’d probably just want to lie low but as she was here, she may as well make sure.

The bedroom door was closed which was unusual, and she could swear that she heard muffled voices as she reached the top of the stairs. As she turned the doorknob, a sudden feeling of dread hit her and she paused, apprehension taking hold and running through her entire body. She had gone cold from head to toe and began to feel like she was having an out of body experience as she slowly opened the door. When the gap opened wide enough to permit a view inside the room, she initially reeled back in shock as she encountered the last thing that she had ever expected to see.

Dale was indeed in bed but he didn’t appear to be unwell; in fact he was very much alive.

Alive – and not alone.

Elise took a moment to consider the scene in front of her, waiting for an appropriate emotion to kick in and as she did so, she realised that actually, she felt absolutely nothing. Zilch. Not one single feeling. Not anger, not betrayal, not sadness – absolutely nothing.

Instead, she reacted in probably the most inappropriate manner and she burst out laughing. Proper hysterical, full-belly laughs. Right there and then in the doorway of her bedroom, as she was blatantly confronted by her naked husband and his infidelity.

Dale had been watching Elise ever since she had opened the door and to begin with, he had had a smug expression on his face. Now though as she continued to laugh almost uncontrollably, the smugness had disappeared and was replaced with something approaching confusion and maybe even fear. It was if he realised that he wasn’t getting the reaction that he expected and was now concerned as to how this scene was going to play out.

“Oh Dale…” Elise said when she could finally talk. “You do realise that you have just made my day, don’t you?”

At his confused expression Elise continued, spelling it out for the man so that he could be in no doubt as to what this meant for them and their sham of a marriage.

“The boot is on the other foot now, Dale, and I think you will find that any lawyer will agree to grant me a divorce considering the – evidence – that is before me. This is it. I am finally and thankfully free and