Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (27 page)

Rebecca stood
motionless, watching the car until it disappeared from view and
long after, just in case the young man decided to sneak back and
put the sign up anyway. Eventually she turned in the direction of
the house, her house, and walked up the drive to the front door.
She put her hand on the shiny brass handle and then her legs gave
way and a huge sob ripped through her body as she sank onto the
stone step and sobbed and sobbed. She just couldn't stop, almost
howling as she gave vent to all the frustrations of the last few
days. The sobs kept coming, shaking her body as she sat on the cold
stone. In the distance she could hear a phone ringing and wondered
if she should go inside and answer it but it stopped. It rang
again, much nearer and for a moment Rebecca looked around in
confusion until she realised that it was the mobile ringing in her
bag. Reaching in blindly she pulled it out and pressed the answer
button, still unable to stop the sobs that were now erupting
involuntarily.

‘Rebecca - is
that you? Bec? What's the matter? Oh my God, Rebecca what's
happened?’

Rebecca tried
to answer Helen but she was beyond speech and shaking her head
frantically all she could manage were a few garbled words mixed
with yet more huge body wrenching sobs.

‘I'm on my way
over Bec. I'm only a few minutes away. I'll be there soon...’

And the phone
went dead.

Numbly Rebecca
stayed on the step. Her bottom was cold, her back ached, her head
throbbed and her face was soaked with tears. She took a couple of
deep breaths and managed to control her crying. A couple more and
the sobs subsided. A couple more and she felt some control coming
back. Just a few more she thought, just a few more breaths. She
wiped her face with an old tissue she pulled out of her pocket.

A car screeched
into the driveway and raced in Rebecca's direction to skid to a
halt. Helen flung open the door and almost fell out in her
haste.

‘Rebecca! Oh
Rebecca what's happened. Are you all right?’

She was
crouched by her friend scanning her body, looking for signs of
injury, trauma.

‘What
happened?’

Rebecca took
another deep breath. ‘There was a man here,’ she started.

‘What!’ Helen
jumped upright, ‘did he hurt you? Oh my God shall we call the
police, has he gone?’

Rebecca put out
a calming hand, although it was shaking badly.

‘No! I don't
mean that. He had come from Home something.’

A sigh
shuddered through her body and Helen sank back down onto the step
to put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

‘He had come to
sell the house, well he wasn't selling it, Home something was. He
had the sign.’ Rebecca shook her head. ‘Daniel had gone to an
estate agent and told them to sell the house, my house. Someone was
here to put up a sign when I got back.’

Helen grimaced.
‘Well let's face it Rebecca, it's not the first time he's sold a
house from under you and made you move.’

Rebecca gave a
snort. She hadn't thought of it like that. ‘I suppose you're right.
It's just this time he did tell me he thought we should sell and I
said no. He just ignored me and decided to go ahead anyway.’

‘Again, typical
Daniel behaviour Bec!’

Rebecca stopped
talking. Her head was thumping and her chaotic thoughts were
whirling through her brain.

‘I know,’ she
eventually whispered. ‘I just thought this time....’

Helen hugged
her friend. ‘Come on, let's get you inside,’ and she pulled Rebecca
to her feet, helped her find her keys and steered her in the
direction of the kitchen.

As Rebecca sank
onto the raspberry settee Helen looked doubtfully at the coffee
machine then put the kettle on and dug out a jar of instant coffee
from the cupboard, leaving Rebecca with her thoughts as she busied
herself making them both a drink.

Rebecca stared
down the garden. The courtyard was full of herbs now, little pots
set by the kitchen door where she could reach out and pick what she
needed. She had wandered around the garden and found the perfect
spot for a little vegetable patch, she even had packets of seeds in
one of the kitchen drawers. She loved this house and she was
staying put.

‘Bec?’

She turned to
find her friend holding out a steaming cup and she took it
gratefully, warming her hands on it. She was shivering even though
the kitchen was warm.

‘You know,’
began Helen carefully as she sank next to Rebecca on the settee and
put her own cup down on the floor. ‘You do know that it's time to
call it a day Rebecca?’

Rebecca looked
at her questioningly.

‘With Daniel.
It's time to stop this farce and just admit that it's over.’

For once
Rebecca didn't jump to his defence. The guilt that usually washed
over her had finally disappeared.

‘This can't go
on sweetheart. He's taken advantage of you, treated you dreadfully
and you've gone along with it all. I have to admit I've spent the
last five years waiting for the phone to ring and you to tell me
you'd finally seen the light and left.’

Still Rebecca
didn't join in. She knew that Helen was right. Oh not about moving
to Darlington, she could actually appreciate that Daniel had been
trying to do the right thing. He had handled it badly but he had
been trying and she hadn't supported him at all. They were both to
blame for the dull, unhappy lives they had led in Darlington. But
the Daniel he had become was not the Daniel she had married and his
actions over the last few weeks had left her despising him.

‘I should have
told him about the money,’ she said wearily.

‘Oh come on
Rebecca. This isn't about the money! This is about everything that
happened before the money.’

Helen sighed in
exasperation. ‘Look, I know we're not supposed to talk about this
Bec but it's been five years, let's face some home truths. Most men
I know, every man I know who has had an affair, he…. well he's
expected to pay! He's expected to be sorry, show some remorse,
offer his soul if only he can be forgiven. If his wife wants him to
change his job, he does. If his wife wants him to move to Outer
Mongolia, then he does. If he wants to save the marriage he pulls
out all the stops and does whatever she says.’

Rebecca stared
at her.

‘Daniel is the
only man I know who's had an affair and then dictated the terms for
the reconciliation. He behaved appallingly selling the house and
dragging you up to Darlington. To take you away from all your
friends at the time you needed them most! And quite why you agreed
to it all I'll never know,’ she grumbled taking a sip of her
coffee. ‘But then to let him walk all over you for the last five
years! Bec, come on, where's your fight, where's your anger?’

She took her
friends hand, not noticing the glazed expression on her face.

‘We are aware
that he tries to stop you keeping in contact with us you know. You
wouldn't believe the number of phone calls we make to be told
you're out with your friends, you don't have time to see us. He did
actually come out with it shortly after you'd left – he suggested
it would be better for you if we didn't contact you at all, ever
again. Let you forget it all and move on.’

She snorted,
shaking her head in anger. ‘As if we'd fall for that one! No, we
just kept phoning until we spoke to you. We were convinced one day
you'd wake up and walk out. We've gone along with this charade for
five years now Bec but enough is enough. Leave him!’

Rebecca
carefully pulled her hand away from Helen's grip and stared at her
friend’s flushed face.

‘What on earth
are you talking about?’

Helen stared
back.

‘What?’

‘What are you
talking about?’ Rebecca's voice was louder, a frown digging into
her forehead. ‘What are you trying to say! What affair, who had an
affair?’

Helen looked
completely confused.

‘I don't
understand Bec....’

‘What affair
are you talking about,’ Rebecca's voice was still rising,
tremulous. ‘Daniel didn't have an affair!’

They stared at
each other for a second, Rebecca bewildered, confused as she
watched the panic that chased across Helen's face, the doubt, the
horror.

‘Bec - you
knew. Daniel said you knew...’

She broke off
her hand flying to her mouth.

‘Knew what?
What on earth are you saying! We moved to Darlington because Daniel
was worried about his job. We moved because, God help him, however
badly he handled it all he was trying to keep us all safe. There
was no affair.’

Rebecca stood
up, putting her cup shakily down on the table.

‘There was no
affair! Who on earth told you that there was?’

Helen shook her
head. Tears were sliding down her cheek. ‘Oh God Bec, I'm so sorry,
I'm so, so sorry.’ She bit her lip, her face crumpling as she
reached out to take her friend's hand again. ‘Bec please believe me
we thought you knew, he said you knew. He told us we mustn’t
mention it, that you didn't want to talk about it.’

Images were
flashing before Rebecca's eyes. Daniel standing before her telling
her gruffly that he had broken the news of the move to Helen and
Emma and told them that Rebecca was upset, that she didn't want to
talk about it. Images of her two friends wrapping their arms around
her whispering to her that when she was ready to talk they would be
there, ready to listen. She remembered the last day, Helen
whispering in her ear 'I'm here for you Bec, if you want to come
back I'm here for you.'

Rebecca looked
down at her fingers held in Helen's grip. Bewildered she looked up
at her friend.

‘He had an
affair?’

Helen was
crying now. In a daze Rebecca grabbed a tissue and passed it to
Helen before sinking back down onto the settee.

‘Daniel had an
affair?’

Helen nodded.
‘Bec, I'm sorry, I really thought you knew, I thought you didn’t
want to talk about it, I thought ...’

Rebecca waved
her apologies away with a shaking hand.

‘But I didn't
know, I never did so perhaps it's time we did talk about it.’

And she turned
to her friend to find out the real reason why the Miles family had
left Leeds five years earlier.

Half an hour
later Rebecca stood up and retrieved a bottle of wine from the
fridge. She looked at it and then put it back and took out a bottle
of brandy from the cupboard pouring two large tumblers.

Daniel had been
having an affair and he was caught red handed. He should have been
playing golf. Rebecca actually remembered the weekend quite well.
Daniel had returned from his short break in a foul mood. He had
stormed around the house complaining about everything from the
children's shoes in the hallway to the basket of laundry on the
kitchen table.

Rebecca had
teased him a little about giving up golf if it made him this
unhappy but for once he wouldn't be coaxed out of his temper and in
the end she had shrugged and ignored him. He had gone to work in
the same mood and for the rest of the week it was like walking on
eggshells whenever he came home. Even the children had pulled faces
behind his back and asked Mum what was wrong with their grump of a
Dad. Rebecca tried to talk to him but he didn't want to discuss
anything, he seemed unbelievably angry and almost frightened. By
the end of the week Rebecca had started to feel quite worried.
There was a desperation in his face that she had never seen before
and although he hardly spoke a civil word to her all week she was
starting to feel quite anxious that there was something seriously
wrong with him. The following weekend Daniel had dropped his
bombshell. He needed to move to keep his job. He had put the house
on the market, no board that time. They had already had an offer
and they were moving to Darlington. A huge part of Rebecca's
acquiescence following the move had been because of the struggle
she had seen in Daniel during that week. She knew how frightened he
had been, how desperate, and deep down she accepted that what he
had done, he had done for his family however much it had hurt him.
So she had moved to Darlington despite her urge to say no. She had
co-existed with Daniel over the last five years despite hating
every minute of it and allowed her life to deteriorate because she
had believed that Daniel too had made a sacrifice and that his
changed personality was his way of coping with the disappointment
of the whole move.

It was funny
mused Rebecca, how an unspoken belief could dictate a person's
life. She believed she had known how Daniel was feeling. She
believed that she understood his emotions, his despair, his
reasons. They had never discussed anything, Daniel wouldn't discuss
anything. But Rebecca had justified his actions and lived her life
for the last five years holding onto that belief. And now it turned
out that she had been wrong, very, very wrong.

Daniel hadn't
played golf that weekend. He had actually been conducting an affair
with Christine Myland who lived in the same village but several
streets away. Friends of a sort, Rebecca and Christine regularly
encountered each other as they carried on with village life. They
would smile and chat if they bumped into one another. They would
often meet at parties. If an event was organised they were more
than likely both there albeit sitting at opposite sides of the
room.

But Daniel, it
would seem, had developed a much closer relationship with Christine
over the previous few months and many of his golf weekends had
actually been cancelled in favour of a night away with Christine,
who had supposedly started a pottery course which involved weekend
seminars and courses attended all over the country. But their
little romance had been unexpectedly outed one Saturday. The
country house hotel they had chosen for their weekend away had also
been chosen by Sheila and David Goodfellow who also lived in the
village and who were celebrating 40 years of married bliss. They
had come across Daniel and Christine in a pose that left nothing to
the imagination and Daniel had known that it was only a matter of
time before the affair was posted on the village notice board.