Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (18 page)

Rebecca
struggled with her conscience. If she were truthful she would like
a little distance between herself and Daniel right now. She needed
some time to think, to clear her head.

‘I can’t cancel
Daniel. Helen has made lunch for us both and it would be rude not
to go.’

‘Rude?’ Daniel
spat out in disbelief. ‘Not half as rude as not telling your
husband you’d won 15 million pounds. Now that’s rude!’

That made
Rebecca’s decision for her. ‘I must go. It will do you good to have
a bit of time to think about it all. I know it’s a bit of a shock.
I remember when I found out…’ she trailed off.

‘Anyway, you
have a chance to clear your head while I’m out and we can talk when
I get back. You can stay here, obviously. There’s food in the
fridge and…’

Daniel was
looking at her if she were some two headed monster and Rebecca had
to admit she was being a coward, telling him then fleeing the
scene.

‘I suppose
you’ve told them all?’ His voice was bitter.

‘No. Actually I
haven’t told anyone. Not a single soul, apart from the bank
manager. I didn’t want anyone to know until I’d told you
Daniel.’

He didn’t look
impressed but a little of the anger left his face.

‘I’ll be off
then. I won’t stay long,’ and Rebecca was out of the house, almost
running in her haste and holding her breath until the Fiat had
started and she was pulling out of the drive.

Her legs were
shaking so much she had to pull into a lay-by only a few minutes
later, dropping her head onto the steering wheel until the
trembling had stopped.

What had she
expected she asked herself angrily. What did she think he would
say? ‘That’s okay Rebecca, never mind.’

True to her
word she didn’t stay too long at Helen’s. It was obvious to her
friends that there was something wrong as she sat in a daydream,
not hearing their questions and blindly staring out of the
window.

‘Is it Daniel?’
Helen had asked, sympathetically.

‘Daniel?’
Rebecca looked up. What made them ask she wondered, had they heard
something?

‘Er no, not
really. Why do you ask?’

Helen and Emma
exchanged a glance and Emma shrugged her shoulders. ‘Well you know,
we just wondered if he had changed his mind about moving back to
Leeds.’

Perhaps her
friends knew her husband better than she did. Despite every lie
that Rebecca had told them, they didn’t believe that Daniel would
agree to a return to their old life. What had made Rebecca think
that he would?

The awkward
conversation stopped and Rebecca left not long after. She was
tempted to visit Parklands before she went home. She wanted to
check if Gwen was okay after her distress of the morning. And if
she were honest she really just wanted to delay her return to the
house.

But there had
been enough prevaricating Rebecca decided so she squared her
shoulders and drove back, albeit very slowly. She pulled up outside
the front door, next to Daniel’s car and with a sigh climbed out of
her car and into the house.

He was in the
living room sitting in one of the large cream chairs. His fingers
formed a steeple underneath his chin and he had obviously been
thinking.

Rebecca crossed
the floor and sat opposite him.

‘How did you
know where I was?’ she asked curiously.

Daniel didn’t
answer for a moment and then he put down his hands and turned to
face her. ‘I phoned the nursing home. I said I was checking on Gwen
and asked if you were there. I’ve phoned up a few times this week
but I’ve never got the timing right. Today Mrs Wendover told me
you’d just arrived so I drove straight down. I watched you leave
and followed you here.’

Rebecca nodded.
If only Daniel was as imaginative in the rest of his life.

‘I’ve been
looking round the house. Very nice.’ commented Daniel.

Rebecca didn’t
answer.

‘How come
you’ve managed to get it looking like this so quickly?’

Rebecca
shrugged. ‘I bought the furniture as well. Seemed the easiest thing
to do.’

Daniel
nodded.

‘Have you told
the children?’

Rebecca shook
her head, ‘I told you, I haven’t told anyone. Not until I told you
Daniel.’

‘Have you told
Gwen?’

‘No-one Daniel.
I have told no-one.’

He stood up.
‘There’s no beer in the house,’ he said and walked into the kitchen
pouring himself a glass of wine instead.

Rebecca
followed, standing in the doorway and watching him open all the
cupboard doors until he found a glass.

‘I’m sorry
Daniel, I’m so sorry. But I would have told you, I was just waiting
for the right time. Once the whole job thing was… sorted, I was
going to tell you. Of course I was.’

Daniel poured
the wine. Watching the pale liquid fill up his glass, he took a
long drink then topped it up again. Rebecca could see his
reflection in the glass of the patio doors, could tell from the
stiffness of his back how tightly he was hanging onto his
emotions.

A moment passed
and then slowly he reached into the cupboard and pulled out another
glass, filling it to the brim before turning and pushing it in
Rebecca’s direction as she stood hovering in the doorway.

‘Of course you
were Rebecca, of course you were.’

The evening was
long and tortuous. Rebecca cooked them some pasta and chicken.
Daniel emptied the bottle of wine. She felt riddled with guilt and
Daniel was still taking in the news, asking questions, spending
long periods in silence. Somewhere around midnight he decided to
forgive her. Rebecca could see the emotions in his face, had
watched him go through feelings of betrayal and anger through to
eventual reconciliation and forgiveness. Because as Rebecca had
already worked out, if he didn’t believe that she intended to tell
him about the win, where on earth did that leave Daniel and Rebecca
Miles?

Rebecca showed
him to one of the spare rooms. She didn’t care how he took it but
she couldn’t sleep with him next to her. She wouldn’t be able to
rest feeling his anger bubbling throughout the night.

‘Very nice,’
was his only comment as he looked around the room decorated in duck
egg blue. And closing the door slowly behind her Rebecca escaped to
her own room trembling with fear and self-loathing.

She found it
difficult to sleep. She tossed and turned and even her wonderful
nest of goose down and the best of linen didn’t soothe her. In
fact, was it her imagination or had the whole house suddenly become
slightly tainted by Daniel’s presence?

She over slept
and made her way downstairs the following morning with a thick head
and a heavy heart. Pulling her dressing gown around her she
recognised the smell of bacon half way down the stairs and made her
way warily into the kitchen.

Daniel was
cooking. He had a glass of orange on the table and the coffee
machine was glugging away beside him He had obviously worked it out
a lot quicker than Rebecca had. He was whistling softly as he added
an egg to the pan and just at that moment some bread threw itself
out of the toaster.

Hearing Rebecca
he turned and smiled at her as she stood in the doorway.

‘I’ve made
enough for two,’ he said. ‘It will be ready in a few minutes.’

Rebecca sat
down heavily at the kitchen table staring as Daniel buttered toast,
poured coffee and then distributed the food across the two plates
he had standing ready.

‘I have to say
Bec, this is a wonderful house. The kitchen is superb,’ and he slid
a plate in her direction as he sat down to tuck in.

Rebecca had no
appetite but neither did she want an argument so she forced down
the toast and a little egg but passed on the bacon.

Eventually
Daniel finished and pushed his plate away with a sigh of
satisfaction.

‘Right,’ he
said in a matter of fact tone. ‘I suppose we need to have a
discussion.’

‘About?’ asked
Rebecca carefully.

‘Well about the
money, what we’re going to do with it, how we’re going to spend it,
what a difference it will make to our lives - all that sort of
thing,’ smiled Daniel.

Rebecca stared
down at her plate.

‘I’ve been
thinking,’ he went on and Rebecca tensed as she waited to hear
where those thoughts had taken him. ‘This has obviously all been a
huge misunderstanding, bad timing and all that. But we need to get
over it and move on.’

She was
watching him speaking although she couldn’t quite believe it was
Daniel saying the words. He actually sounded excited. He looked
like the cat that had swallowed the cream. He looked exultant.

‘I appreciate
what you were trying to do regarding the promotion Bec and it
was…considerate of you. But I suppose it has all worked out for the
best hasn’t it?’

Rebecca wanted
to run. She wanted to leave the kitchen and find another house, one
that no-one else knew about and one where she could pick up that
contented life she had enjoyed so much over the last few weeks.

‘Let’s face it,
I don’t need the job at White's now do I?’

Daniel could
hardly contain himself. His eyes glittered and his hand shook with
excitement as he lifted up his coffee cup.

‘I don’t need
the job Rebecca because I can go one better than that. I’m going to
buy White's, I’m going to buy it lock stock and barrel.’

Rebecca
showered and dressed, made her bed and still the shaking hadn’t
stopped. Daniel was outside looking at her new car and she walked
back into the kitchen and automatically started to clean up the
mess left from breakfast.

Daniel wanted
to buy White's. He wanted to buy it because that way he truly would
be in charge. He could eradicate the thought of Peter Thompson and
the humiliation of being passed over for the job by actually buying
the place and putting himself in charge.

He had
described his plans to Rebecca, how the first person he would sack
would be Joshua who had taken his coveted sales manager role. Then
old Mr White himself who clearly didn’t recognise good staff when
he saw them. He described how he would take White’s back to the
glorious company it had been when Daniel was the top sales man,
forget all this eco rubbish and new wave thinking that had seeped
into the soul of White’s over the last few years and run it how it
was meant to be run.

Rebecca had
listened and nodded. She wasn’t required to participate. Daniel
didn’t ask for her opinion, he didn’t even ask if she agreed, he
simply told her that he was going to buy White’s Packaging
Corporation. With her money.

‘What on earth
where you thinking buying that little car?’ demanded Daniel as he
came back in. ‘You don’t want a silly little thing like that, I’ve
already chosen a good car for you. Don’t worry, we’ll use the Fiat
as part exchange.’

‘I don’t want a
4X4 Daniel, I’ve already told you that. I like my little car.’

‘Rubbish,’ said
Daniel. ‘You need something bigger, stronger. I’ll take you to see
the car I’m thinking of later in the week.’

Rebecca gritted
her teeth. She was keeping her little car. He wandered to the
window looking out into the garden.

‘I’m going to
have to go back to Darlington today. Start putting things in motion
for White’s. You need to come with me.’

Rebecca
stiffened.

‘It looks bad
us living in two separate places. Looks like the money has come
between us.’

Did Rebecca
sense a warning tone in Daniel’s voice.

‘No!’ The last
thing Rebecca wanted was to go back but she had no more excuses.
Not now the truth was out.

‘No,’ she said
again a little calmer. ‘I can’t go back right now.’

‘Why not?’
Daniel was blunt and to the point and Rebecca desperately searched
for reasons.

‘Well now that
you know I need to tell Mum, Sarah and Toby. I need to organise
things.’

‘What kind of
things?’

He was
unrelenting, staring her down as her mind raced.

‘Well there’s
lots I haven’t done because I was waiting until you knew and now I
can do them,’ Rebecca finished weakly.

Daniel turned
and walked to the door. ‘You can have today then I want you back in
Darlington.’

And he left,
getting in his car and driving away.

Rebecca
clutched at her stomach, the toast and eggs churning. She had the
distinct feeling that her joy at winning the money was about to
disappear altogether now that Daniel finally knew.

She phoned Toby
and broke the news to him that she had won several million pounds
on the lottery. He was half asleep and more than a little hung over
and it took a while to sink in but eventually his brain connected
and Rebecca could hear his whoops of joy echoing around his
room.

He promised to
come and visit as soon as he could and when Rebecca told him that
she had already bought a house in Leeds he promised to come up even
sooner. Toby had hated Darlington even more than Rebecca had. Next
she spoke to Sarah who wept with joy at the thought of having her
student loan disappear.

‘Is that what
the big secret has been Mum? Why on earth didn’t you tell me
sooner?’

But she was too
excited to really take Rebecca to task and she was easily fobbed
off with stories about how it took time etc.

Next she drove
to Parklands and broke the news to Gwen who was at first very
confused and had to be reminded what the national lottery was but
when she realised that Rebecca had become very rich overnight
clutched her daughter’s hand.

‘You can do
whatever you want now my darling,’ she said meaningfully, looking
deep into Rebecca’s eyes, ‘whatever you want.’

Everyone around
her was so happy for her good fortune and the tea tray came round
loaded with biscuits as they all drank to her health.