Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (29 page)

It was a sign
of the change in Daniel that he just smiled ruefully. ‘I see.’

‘And in case
you're wondering, I spoke to him before I found out about your
affair.’

Daniel
nodded.

‘I saw Holly in
Leeds. She told me about your visit and your threats to the staff.
I couldn't stand by and let you do that Daniel. It wasn't
right.’

His face was
flushed with shame and he squeezed his eyes shut.

‘I think it was
probably the right decision Bec.’

Rebecca nodded.
She watched him slide back in the chair, looking up at the ceiling.
She remembered him sitting like that in the house in Leeds. He
would stare at the ceiling for inspiration then wink at her and
admit he hadn't got a clue.

‘Why did you do
it Daniel?’

He winced. ‘For
all the wrong reasons Bec darling.’

He used to call
her darling all the time. He would come home and wrap his arms
round her and kiss her and tell her about his day. It was always
long and tedious and grumbly but Rebecca had never minded. She
would carry on cooking, making all the right noises in all the
right places and when he finished he would kiss her again and tell
her that it was a good job he had his best friend to come home to
at the end of the day.

‘How could you
destroy everything that we had?’ she whispered. ‘How could you
Daniel?’

Daniel's face
was full of sadness. ‘I was worried about work, I just didn't seem
to be making the same connection with people. Business was down, my
sales were down.’

‘So you slept
with Christine Myland?’ Rebecca asked caustically.

‘Yes.’

Rebecca's
eyebrows shot up. ‘You had an affair because you were worried about
work?’

‘I know it
sounds too simple Bec, but that's exactly why I slept with her. I
just couldn't bring myself to tell you that things weren't going so
well. I didn't want to see the disappointment in your face….’

‘Don't you dare
blame me Daniel!’

‘No,’ he added
hastily, ‘it wasn't your fault Rebecca. It was never your fault.
She was there one evening at a party. I can't even remember whose
it was. And she was flirting with me and just for a few hours I
could forget about everything, forget about the mortgage and the
job and the problems.’

He saw
Rebecca's face darken. ‘I know Bec! I know. I was a married man
with responsibilities I wasn't supposed to forget about them. I'm
not trying to defend myself I'm just telling you what
happened.’

Rebecca nodded
stiffly. ‘Go on.’

‘Well she
suggested that we meet for a drink and even as I said yes I knew
where it would lead. I almost phoned her half a dozen times to
cancel but ... well I turned up.’

‘And that's
when you started the affair.’

It was a
statement not a question.

Daniel
nodded.

‘For a few
hours every week it was like I was someone else. And I started to
need it.’

Rebecca heard
her heart make a little cracking noise.

‘You needed her
more than you needed me?’

Daniel
paused.

‘More than you
needed me Daniel?’

He nodded. ‘I
had always needed you Bec. Always. But I suppose I had started to
feel that maybe you didn't need me. It was stupid and foolish and I
have regretted it every day since but I started to need those hours
of being someone different. Of being someone who had no problems,
who only had to turn up to make her smile, whose only
responsibility was to keep going to the bar and keep laughing and
smiling.’

Rebecca stood
up and walked to the brandy bottle, pouring herself a glass. ‘And
when you were found out?’

Daniel groaned.
‘It's the classic case of realising when you're about to lose
something or someone just how much they mean to you. I couldn't let
you find out Bec. I just couldn't take the risk that you would know
what I had done. I couldn't bear to see the hurt on your face, I
couldn't live with the thought that I could have risked our
marriage like that.’

‘So you
lied.’

Again not a
question but a statement.

Daniel hung his
head. ‘I thought it might work. I truly thought if I could get you
away fast enough it might work.’

‘You didn't
think anyone would tell me?’

He laughed, a
wry laugh. ‘It worked for 5 years Bec.’

Rebecca stood
in the dark kitchen and stared at the man she had loved.

‘But why did
you change so much Daniel. If you loved me and wanted to save our
marriage, why did you stop being the man I loved?’

Daniel stood
up, his shadow looming over Rebecca. ‘I hated myself Bec,’ he said
simply. ‘I think I became everything that I despised because I
truly hated myself. In my head I was a monster and I started
behaving like one.’

Rebecca shook
her head. It wasn't enough. He had loved her. He had made the move
to protect her. He had wanted to save their marriage. And yet he
had become the very opposite of everything she had loved.

‘I don't think
I understand Daniel. I really don't think I understand.’

And as she
turned and walked out of the door she heard him say softly behind
her, ‘I don't understand either my darling.’

Fifteen minutes
later Tom White rang on Rebecca's mobile phone.

‘Rebecca my
dear, I'm sure that by now you will know I have said no to Daniel's
offer.’

‘Yes, I do.
Thank you Tom. About the money I'll….’

‘Oh no, no, no.
I didn't do it for the money Rebecca. I admit I considered selling
the business. It would be a lot of money to put into the family
coffers. But I would never have gone through with it. Like you
Rebecca, I knew that White's needed protecting from Daniel. I don't
want your money. The matter is now closed.’

And saying
goodbye he hung up.

A few minutes
later Helen's soft tones came on the line.

‘Are you okay
sweetheart?’

Rebecca nodded
and then remembered to speak. ‘I'm okay Helen. I'm okay.’

‘Remember, if
you need me...’

Rebecca wasn't
quite sure what she needed at the moment. She was angry, sad, angry
again. She felt a huge bitterness at essentially losing five years
of her life and also for the effect it had had on her children. She
relived the years in Darlington over and over again in her head to
see if she had missed the signs. Should she have realised she
wondered? Was he trying to tell her all that time? She thought
about the Daniel she had known before and the Daniel he had become
and wondered if she had helped create the monster. And most of all
Rebecca couldn't help wondering what would have happened if she
hadn't won 15.7 million pounds on the lottery. She would still be
in Darlington living a lie, hating her life and having no idea what
to do about it.

She looked
around her beautiful home and smiled a sad little smile. It wasn't
just a house the money had bought her. Maybe, just maybe it was a
chance to get her life back.

Summer had most
definitely arrived. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and
the air was full of the smell of freshly cut grass and barbecues.
Rebecca smiled as she drove towards Parklands. It had been a long,
cold and miserable winter in more ways than one and she relished
the feel of the warm air on her face through the open window. She
swung the 4X4 into the driveway and parked outside the front door.
On the surface Parklands looked exactly the same as it always had.
The gardens had always been well maintained, in part due to the
residents who loved to spend the odd afternoon pruning and weeding.
But inside the improvements were many and continuing.

The decorators
had been called in and room by room they were working their magic.
Scaffolding had to be used due to the high ceilings and rooms had
been closed to residents for a while but gradually all the old
cornices had been repaired and restored, the ceiling roses had been
returned to their former glory, the chandeliers rescued and cleaned
and the walls were now free of peeling paint and damp spots. The
downstairs was almost complete and the rooms were returned to their
former glory, fresh, welcoming and gracious.

Grabbing a
couple of boxes from the back of her car, Rebecca peeped into what
had been the events room. Tired and shabby with old magazines
covering aged coffee tables and walls in desperate need of a good
coat of paint, it had still been a lovely large room with French
windows opening onto the rose garden outside and had been the
setting for the occasional game of bingo and a sing song. It was
hardly recognisable now. Cleaned, decorated and restored, it was
now full of comfy armchairs and fresh flowers. It also held a
couple of huge pine tables where various demonstrators would come
along and give lessons or talks. At the moment the room was full
and Rebecca could see Gwen amongst the crowd, engrossed as she
painted roses on a porcelain cup. Several of the residents were
taking the class but the majority of the group were day visitors
who now came in steady and welcoming numbers to partake in the
activities Parkland offered and helped greatly in the balancing of
the books at the end of each month.

Nodding in
satisfaction Rebecca headed to Mrs Wendover's office where the
manager of Parklands was sipping a coffee as she looked through a
magazine.

‘Rebecca!’
Brenda threw down the magazine and reached out to take one of the
boxes. ‘I wasn't expecting you today.’

Rebecca glanced
down at the magazine, interiors for larger homes and smiled. On the
desk was a small stack of similar titles and by the side of the
desk stood another stack of paper samples and scraps of fabric.

The top floor
was still undergoing renovation and the lift needed to be extended
to reach the new rooms but eventually they would have at least 6
large suites all with their own bathrooms. The bathrooms would be
new and shiny and the rooms themselves decorated in keeping with
the proportion and style of Parklands. They had decided that it was
only fair to carry out similar redecoration on the existing
bedrooms and as word had gotten out many of the residents had
approached Brenda to give her little pieces of fabric or pictures
of how they would like their room to look.

‘I have
something for you,’ said Rebecca putting one of the boxes on the
table and opening up the top, ‘and I thought there was no time like
the present!’

Brenda gave a
little gasp and what Rebecca decided almost counted as a squeal as
she looked at the mass of fabric swatches, paint charts and
wallpaper samples inside.

‘Rebecca, where
on earth...?’

Rebecca
laughed. ‘I mentioned our renovation project to Annie and she of
course has a contact for everything and everyone and the next thing
I knew I had this provided by a local interior firm. Anything that
we like in here they can provide and if they want us to do the
design as well - they will.’

Rebecca saw the
slight shadow cross Brenda's face and she continued gently.

‘But of course
I told them we were doing the design and planning ourselves.’

After the
initial shock of having Rebecca come to the rescue, Brenda had
thrown herself into the saving of Parklands with an energy and
enthusiasm that took even Rebecca by surprise. She was spilling
over with ideas and a determination to make them work and she was
thoroughly enjoying being able to finally spend a little money on
the ancient décor.

‘Oh look at
this!’ She pulled out a soft apple green check with a tiny pink
rose. ‘This would look absolutely beautiful on the chairs in the
reading room and this...’ out came a yellow and blue regency
stripe, ‘this is exactly what Dotty was saying she would love in
her room. Oh Rebecca, thank you!’

Dotty had been
told she could stay at Parklands indefinitely due to a fund now set
up to help some of the original residents. The old lady had cried
and cried much to the concern of everyone until they realised they
were tears of happiness and relief and since then she had been
unable to stop laughing. Gwen was so proud of her daughter that she
beamed from ear to ear and the already happy atmosphere at
Parklands had improved even more.

There hadn't
been a moment since she signed the paper that Rebecca had regretted
her decision and both she and Brenda were working long and hard to
make their dreams for the lovely old house a reality.

Rebecca left
Brenda exploring the contents of the boxes, said her goodbyes and
returned to the 4X4. Daniel had been right, it was a good car to
have. She still had the little Fiat and if she was heading into
town she would leave the Range Rover on the driveway. But with
Parklands now a part of her everyday life it was exactly the car
she needed.

She turned in
the direction of home, winding down the window again to take
advantage of the summer air. The weather had been glorious for the
last month and Rebecca had finally managed to live out her fantasy
of taking her morning coffee and croissant in the courtyard with
the smell of her herb garden filling the air.

It had been an
eventful and fulfilling few weeks. The children had both finally
visited. Sarah had come first. Rebecca had collected her in the
Fiat and taken her on a tour of the house. And although Rebecca had
described her beautiful new home to her daughter in detail Sarah's
mouth had hung open in wonder as Rebecca took her from one room to
another finishing in the kitchen where Daniel was opening a bottle
of champagne.

‘I can't
believe it,’ she had whispered, taking a glass from her father and
sinking onto the raspberry settee, ‘I just can't believe it!’

Rebecca had
laughed. ‘It's true my darling, quite true.’

They had
wandered around the garden, Sarah squealing in delight at the
tennis court hidden behind the trees and making plans for a tennis
party in the summer. Finally they came to rest in the courtyard
with the sun dappling through the trees. Daniel had fired up the
huge BBQ and they spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and
planning for a future that included millions in the bank.