Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,6
when she had started her job with Andrews & Andrews, hoping for a fresh start. For a while, things had calmed down as they both enjoyed talking about the new challenges she was facing as Dale was in a similar field. Thinking that the bad times had passed, Elise decided to introduce Dale to Cole, inviting him to a BBQ lunch one day. She felt sure that the two men would have plenty in common and hoped that they could go on to be friends.
That had been the day that she had unknowingly lit the blue touch-paper and now Dale’s possessiveness, jealousy and violence knew no bounds. Cole had told her to call the police on more than one occasion. He had seen her at her worst, her face bloated from the beating and the crying and she knew that it broke his heart to see her like this. Elise understood that he was right but she was trapped. She could see no way to leave Dale. He monitored her every move and a small part of her heart still loved him - still loved the man she had married and had just gotten lost along the way somewhere.
Dale was continuing to rage, his fist now connecting with the wall and Elise watched and sighed, mentally making a note to call the plasterer in the morning.....again.
Tentatively she took a step past him, heading towards the stairs and the relative sanctuary of sleep. She fully expected him to grab her arm and push her roughly against the wall as she passed - it wouldn’t be the first time. Unusually he didn’t and that surprised her. She turned back to face him to see him watching her, nursing his hand. His eyes were cold with no hint of emotion and she could see little of the handsome man who had swept her away all those years ago. He was turned on - the bulge in his jeans a dead giveaway - and that always worried Elise. No matter how drunk and how angry Dale got, he was always turned on and that scared her.
Watching her line of sight, Dale sniggered and blatantly grabbed his crotch with his good hand. “See something you like, beautiful?” His demeanour had changed; he had gone from angry to calm and menacing and from past experience Elise knew that that only meant one thing.
Drawing on all the strength she could muster, she continued to head towards the stairs praying that he wouldn’t follow her. She had still not spoken one word in all the time that he had been raging.
Fortunately the gods were on her side tonight and Dale headed off into the lounge as she climbed the stairs. She knew sleep would be hard to come by but she had become an expert at coping on little or no sleep over the years; always needing to be on alert to cope with whatever mood Dale happened to be in.
After what felt like an eternity she fell into a troubled sleep, waking up to the chirpy alarm at 7am and relieved to see that Dale wasn’t in the bed. After having a shower and getting dressed, she headed downstairs to find him passed out on the sofa. With a resigned sigh she picked up the phone and called his work, telling them that he was unwell. It worried her how easily she had learned to lie. With the exception of Cole, everyone considered her to be happily married and when out in public, Dale turned on the charm with the best of them, adeptly hiding any evidence of what went on behind closed doors. She had no idea why she continued to keep up the pretence and protect him - particularly from her family - but protect him she did and at the moment, she could see no time when that would change.
Arriving at work Elise turned on her computer, surprised to find two e-mails waiting for her. One from Stephen and one from Vaughn Granger – the new drunk guy from last night. Frowning at how he had gotten hold of her e-mail address and, wondering what on earth he could possibly want, she opened the one from Stephen first.
Fri Dec.14th 8.40 am
Hey babe, had a fab night. Bet you’re sorry you missed out!
Why Stephen e-mailed her was beyond her. He sat next to her for Christ’s sake and, considering his e-mails only ever consisted of smut, she really wished he wouldn’t bother. Turning her head