Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (17 page)

The week began
its usual pattern, Rebecca filled the fridge, spoke to Sarah,
started her herb garden and visited Gwen. She arranged to have
lunch with Helen and Emma on Wednesday and asked the bank manager
to make arrangements to draw up a trust for the children. They
would each receive £250,000 on their 25th birthdays and a further 1
million each on their 30th birthday. As soon as she had told Daniel
about the money she would also make arrangements to transfer some
to her close friends. She wanted Carol and Susie to have something,
they had made her life bearable in Darlington with their friendship
and support. And she wanted Helen and Emma to have something. Emma
maybe didn’t really need it but Rebecca knew that Helen and her
husband were in a constant battle with their finances.

So she made
plans, wrote down figures and smiled happily as she went about her
day to day business. On Wednesday morning she went to visit Gwen
first thing only to find her in tears. She was no longer confined
to bed and had joined her friends downstairs in the communal
room.

‘Dotty has to
leave,’ she told Rebecca, tears rolling down her cheeks. ‘She’s run
out of money and Mr Hammond said she pays or goes. Her family can’t
afford to keep her here, she’s moving to some new build place on
the other side of Leeds.’

Rebecca
consoled Gwen and went over to kneel down by Dotty who sat silently
in her favourite chair by the window.

‘Oh Dotty,
don’t worry. I’m sure the new place will be lovely.’

But Dotty just
shook her head mutely and as her eyes met Rebecca’s own, Rebecca
was shocked to see that there was no sign of any life or happiness
left in them.

Rebecca left
and drove home her head whirling with the possibility of buying
Parklands. The bank manger’s words echoed in her head. A couple of
million here, a couple of million there and it’s soon gone. But
even if she bought Parklands, still gave the planned donations and
set up the trust for the children she would have millions left.
That would be enough, surely. How many millions did you need to
live comfortably for the rest of your life?

She parked the
cream Fiat outside the front door and went inside to turn on the
coffee machine. She had been planning on driving straight to
Helen’s house but in the end had cut short her visit to Parklands
and decided to call home first instead. All she could see was the
dead despair in Dotty’s eyes.

The doorbell
rang and with a sigh Rebecca made her way into the hallway, still
racked with indecision.

She opened the
door and at first she couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing.
It was wrong, out of place and for a moment she just stared until
Daniel put his hand through the doorway and pushed her to one side
so he could enter the house. Stumbling against the doorframe
Rebecca put out a hand to steady herself and then gasped in pain as
Daniel grabbed at it, twisting her towards him so he could meet her
eyes.

‘Well, well,’
he said in a quiet but vicious voice. ‘Look what we’ve got here,’
and with a grunt he threw her away from him so that she fell
backwards, cracking her elbow against the still open door.

‘Daniel,’ she
gasped. ‘Daniel I …’

‘Where is he
then?’ asked Daniel, unnaturally calm as he thrust his hands in his
pockets and walked slowly across the hall. He stopped to look at
the photos gathered on the hall table, photographs of his own
children and his face darkened with fury.

‘Where is the
man you’ve been shacking up with all these weeks?’

Rebecca stared
at him shaking her head as the tears started rolling down her
face.

‘M-man. There
is no man Daniel. This house is…’

‘Don’t lie to
me!’ he thundered, his voice echoing around the hall. ‘No more lies
you bitch. Where is he?’

Rebecca pushed
the door shut and tried to stand tall, pulling back her shoulders
as she met her husband’s gaze.

‘Daniel you
must listen to me, please let me explain there is no man, there’s
no affair, this is my house and….’

He laughed. An
unpleasant laugh that reached out and slapped her across the
face.

His voice was
quiet but dripping with venom, his body was rigid and his hands
clenched into fists. His eyes were wild with rage and, was that
fear?

‘You’re lying,’
he thundered, suddenly lunging in her direction and terrified
Rebecca couldn’t help herself as she whimpered and tried to step
backwards.

He grabbed at
her and pulled her to within inches of his face, his mouth
contorting as he spoke, spitting in her face as his words launched
at her.

‘You fucking
slut! All this time. All this time you’ve been shagging someone
else. Pretending to be such a good little wife, such a supportive
little wife. Well I’m not stupid Rebecca. I could tell there was
something going on now you need to tell me, WHERE IS HE?’

Rebecca sobbed
as he shouted the last words so loudly it hurt her ears.

‘Please Daniel,
please just listen to me. I’m not… there is no-one. I need to tell
you…’

‘Stop lying you
stupid, stupid woman. Did you really think I would fall for your
pathetic stories? Did you think I wouldn’t know what you were
doing? How long did you think you would get away with it Rebecca.
Just how long did you think you’d be able to pull the wool over my
eyes?’

‘No - no,’
sobbed Rebecca, ‘I haven’t…’

‘SHUT UP! The
only thing I want to know is - who he is? No one with any taste
that’s for sure!’ He laughed unpleasantly. ‘I mean come on Rebecca.
Who in their right mind would give you a second look.’

Rebecca stayed
silent as Daniel circled her like a shark, looking her up and down
with a contemptuous expression on his face, his lips twisted in
disgust.

‘Let’s face it
Becs old girl, you’re hardly the sort a man would lose his head
over. A bit past it, a bit wrinkly, not really got it any more have
you?’

He turned to
whistle appreciatively at the beautiful wooden staircase curving
toward the upper floor. ‘Now this guy, whoever he is, he’s got it.
He’s got money hasn’t he Becs? Is that why you’re with him, because
he’s got money? I understand that, you know, I really do. I can see
why you would want to be with him. What I can’t work out is why the
hell he’s with you. Is that how he gets his kicks, taking in
desperate old housewives who will do anything he tells them for a
handful of notes?’

‘Please stop,’
whispered Rebecca as Daniel came full circle to stand in front of
her again. ‘Please, please stop Daniel and let me tell you what
this is all about. You really have got the wrong end of the
stick.’

Daniel snorted.
‘Well go ahead Rebecca, I can’t wait to hear whatever little story
you’ve concocted. Just how are you going to explain this set up
Rebecca?’ He poked her hard on the shoulder each time he ground out
her name.

‘So come on
Rebecca.’ Another hard poke to her shoulder, ‘start talking.’

Rebecca took a
step back, out of range.

‘Let’s go in
the kitchen,’ she suggested and turned away to walk down the
hallway.

‘Oh well let’s
be civilised about this by all means,’ and almost knocking her out
of the way Daniel strode down the hall pushing the kitchen door
open so violently it almost flew off its hinges.

‘There’s no-one
else here Daniel,’ offered Rebecca, ‘I’ve told you there is no
man.’

She watched as
Daniel looked round the room. It couldn’t fail to impress anyone
who saw it for the first time.

Rebecca walked
over to the huge wooden table and sat down waiting to see if Daniel
followed her lead.

He didn’t. He
strolled round the kitchen, letting his hand trail along the edge
of the black granite work surface, deliberately banging each of
stainless steel pans that hung in perfect order over the range
cooker before turning to glare in Rebecca’s direction again.

Well go on
then,’ he snapped. ‘I can’t wait to hear this one.’

Rebecca took a
deep breath. This was going to be every bit as difficult as she had
imagined.

‘There’s
something I haven’t told you Daniel,’ she ignored his snort of
derision and carried on. ‘I should have let you know weeks ago but
I didn’t. I just didn’t know how to tell you. At first I just
wanted to be sure, absolutely sure before I told you anything and
then it got difficult… the longer I left it the harder it
became.’

She sighed,
rubbing her forehead with one hand. ‘No, no excuses. I should have
told you Daniel and I didn’t. You thought that you were going to
get the job you see…’ she trailed off.

Daniel’s face
had gone almost purple with anger. ‘Anyway,’ she carried on
hastily, ‘that made me decide to wait, I decided to let you have
your moment and I just didn’t think you would want to…

Rebecca jumped
as Daniel’s fist slammed violently onto the table.

‘Who is he?’ he
shouted. Spit landing on her cheek.

‘There is
no-one Daniel. I haven’t been having an affair, I haven’t been
coming down to Leeds because there’s another man in my life. I’m
here because a few weeks ago I won over 15 million pounds on the
lottery. I’m here because this is my house. This is the house I
bought with my lottery winnings Daniel. There is no man, this is
mine.’

Rebecca had
expected a huge feeling of relief to descend upon her once she told
Daniel. It wasn’t there. She knew she could stop lying now and that
felt good. But the relief, it simply wasn’t there. And suddenly
Rebecca knew why she hadn’t told Daniel. She hadn’t told him
because quite simply she hadn’t wanted him to know. This was
something that had happened to Rebecca. It was her moment. It had
brought joy into her life and she just hadn’t want to share that
with Daniel. Not right away. But she would have told him
eventually, of course she would she thought fervently to
herself.

She looked up
to see him staring at her with disbelief emblazoned across his
face.

‘You expect me
to believe that. You expect me to ...’

‘It’s the truth
Daniel,’ said Rebecca firmly. ‘I can prove it, you have to believe
me. It’s the truth.’

Daniel pulled
out a chair slumping onto it as he stared at Rebecca.

‘But why
wouldn’t you tell me if you had won the lottery?’

Oh why indeed
thought Rebecca.

‘I told you the
timing was never right, I was going to, when it seemed the right
time.’

‘I don’t
believe you.’

He said it
flatly, decisively. ‘You’re lying. It’s a smoke screen to stop me
finding out about the affair…’

Rebecca cut him
short, reaching out for the laptop that sat on the table and
flipping it open so that Daniel could see the page. It showed her
bank account. A bank account with a balance of over 13 million
pounds.

Daniel stared.
He stared at the laptop and then he stared at Rebecca before
turning his gaze back to the laptop.

‘But you didn’t
tell me.’

Rebecca bit her
lip. ‘You were so excited about the job I thought it would spoil
things for you. You tell me you’re about to get the promotion
you’ve always wanted and I say it doesn’t matter. I couldn’t do
that to you, so I waited.’

Daniel nodded.
Rebecca could see his mind playing over the events of the last few
weeks.

‘When did you
win?’

The question
Rebecca had been dreading.

‘I’m not
actually sure,’ she said with a nervous laugh. ‘I didn’t check my
ticket for a week or so and then all of a sudden I found out I’d
won.’

Daniel was in
shock. He took both hands out of his pocket and laid them on the
table.

‘And this
house…?’

Again Rebecca
felt her heart fluttering.

‘One of those
things. You know how it is. I was in Leeds to meet the lottery
people to check the ticket, get the money and everything and I saw
the house and I... well I bought it.’

He was staring
at her as though she had gone mad. Of course he didn’t know how it
was, he hadn’t just won 15.7 million pounds.

‘Right. So the
money that’s here,’ he waved his hand towards the computer screen,
‘that’s what’s left?’

Rebecca nodded
mutely. She thought about telling him of the trust funds she was
organising for the children, about her plans to give money away to
her friends, the possibility that she might spend nearly 4 million
on a nursing home that was unlikely to make any money. But instead
she nodded and left it at that.

Daniel’s
shoulders had started to relax a little and he pulled the laptop
towards him to look at the balance again.

‘Why did you
put it in this account?’ he asked, suddenly realising that the
account was in the name of Rebecca Miles and wasn’t their joint
account.

‘Only account
details I could remember off the top of my head,’ lied Rebecca.

Daniel nodded
again. There was a long silence as he stared at the screen.

Rebecca’s
mobile rang and she stood up quickly and retrieved it from the
counter top.

‘Hello? Oh
hello Helen. What? Oh I’m so sorry, I completely lost track of
time, I’ll be there in half an hour. Sorry’

Rebecca put
down the phone and turned to see Daniel staring at her.

‘Helen? You’re
meeting Helen?’ he asked darkly.

‘Mm,’ said
Rebecca, ‘And I’m late!’

‘I thought I
told you I didn’t want you to see her any more. And Emma. Trouble
causers the pair of them.’

Rebecca
shrugged impatiently. She really didn’t understand why Daniel had
suddenly developed such a violent objection to Helen and Emma. When
they had all been neighbours Daniel had gotten on like a house on
fire with both women.

‘And I’ve told
you Daniel they are my friends and I will carry on seeing
them.’

‘Well at least
call and cancel now. You can’t tell me something like this and then
walk out.’