Read Everything to Nothing Online

Authors: Mark Henthorne

Tags: #romance, #relationships, #drugs, #sex, #mark, #to, #billionaire, #nothing, #bestseller, #f1, #monaco, #everything, #formula one, #henthorne

Everything to Nothing (64 page)

BOOK: Everything to Nothing
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When was the
last time he had shown any love towards her? One, two, three years
ago? And this fact stung him because he knew the fact existed that
she had stood by him for so long and he had treated her and the
children like something he had found on the sole of his shoe.

With anguish
etched on his face, through the tears that had welled up in his
eyes he stumbled and slumped down a wall of the warehouse, crying,
mumbling and muttering to himself. When was the last time he had
made love to her? When was the last time he had held her in his
arms and told her he loved her? Why would she want to be held in
his fat, drunken arms? All these thoughts crashed through his head.
The last one being is it any wonder that she has looked elsewhere
for the love that he should have been giving her?

And then
something happened to David that had taken too long to happen, and
all the pent up frustration, grief and sadness that he had lived
with for all these years collapsed his mind and he had a full
mental breakdown. He had managed to avoid this happening to him by
hiding away, drowning his sorrows with alcohol, but seeing the
long, lingering, passionate kiss that Sally had given to that man
was the final trigger.

For hours he
lay slumped against the wall, his knees tucked under his chin,
mumbling and muttering, tears, endless tears cascading down his
face dripping on his curled up body. Slowly he rocked, rocking back
and to with all these thoughts, all the misery that he had blocked
out for so long overwhelming him.

To say he was
not in his right mind when he stood up hours later and started to
pour the acetone over the building would be a monumental
understatement. He splashed and threw it everywhere he could,
laughing occasionally as he watched it drip of the ceiling onto the
barrels of chemicals. As he walked past the benches, almost
unknowingly he grasped one of the containers of acid in his hand
and then as he looked around the building he found a lighter on a
ledge near the door. Shaking more acetone out onto the floor right
up to the door, with another giggle that sounded like the laugh of
an insane man, he stuffed an old rag he found into the top of the
container and then lit it.

After making
sure the flames had taken hold he threw the container deep into the
depths of the warehouse, watching as it arced prettily over the
benches, breaking as it hit the ground causing the acetone to catch
light as it seeped out of the broken container. Sparks of the lit
chemical sprayed out of the smashed vessel causing the acetone that
David had thrown down to catch and the fire quickly took hold. Just
as Peter had done, David watched the flames for a few moments as
they quickly spread through the building, only fleeing to the
safety of the stolen car when he felt the heat of the flames on his
face. As he sat down in the driver’s seat he carefully laid the
container of acid on the seat next to him and he patted it gently
thinking about what fun he was going to have with it.

 

*

 

The next
morning Peter surveyed the melted, molten mess of his warehouse
from a safe distance not approaching too close because there were
still police and fire officers present. The warehouse was
registered to some phantom company that would never be able to be
traced back to him so he was safe from any further investigation.
What he was not safe from was the loss of income this fire was
going to cause him and he swore his vengeance on whoever had done
this.

 

Chapter 47

 

Sally did not
show any concern that David had not returned home the previous
night. She was quite relieved actually because for once she could
get the children ready without having to keep them quiet and
tip-toe around David. Sophia and Jacob felt there was something
different about their mummy too. She seemed happier, especially
this morning when their daddy was not there. This rubbed off on
them and they ran around the apartment, for once being children as
their mummy chased after them, laughing at their antics as she
tried to get them ready for school. Eventually they were all ready
and she left the apartment with her beautiful children holding a
hand each, and as she walked along listening to the birds sing and
her children natter away to each other, she breathed in the fresh
air and sighed a sigh of contentment.

She was due to
see Peter tonight and after making love to him, when they were
curled up in his apartment, she was going to tentatively broach the
subject of her moving in. She knew what his reaction would be at
first, one of complete and utter fear, but she would give him time
to get used to the idea and she was sure because she now knew him
so well that he would say yes in due course.

As she walked
to the school she had no idea that David had returned home and was
now searching through the wardrobe for the shoebox that contained
his passport and a large bundle of cash he had kept stashed there
for a long time without Sally knowing about. Stuffing both into his
pocket he exited the apartment and ran through the streets quickly
finding Sally and he followed her just to make sure she was not
doing anything else that day and was indeed taking the children to
school. Satisfied as he watched his children run into the school,
for the rest of the day he followed her around. A dry smile crossed
his face as he watched her buy some sexy lingerie and another one
crossed his face as he watched her spend some more of their
precious money taken from their joint bank account on a new skirt
and top.

When she was
done with shopping and blowing more of their money on an expensive
coffee and sandwich, he followed her as she walked back to their
apartment, but instead of following her in he waited down the
street knowing she would pass this way when she went to collect the
children. He did not have to wait long and as he watched her walk
past the end of the alley were he stood hidden in the shadows, he
noted that there was a glow about her, a spring in her step as she
walked along in her new skirt and top, the strap of which had
slipped a little revealing the strap to the bra of the lingerie he
had watched her buy.

Watching her
from a discreet distance while she walked along, his thoughts took
an ironic twist as he could not help wonder at how she had ruined
their lives by cheating on him. Never once that day did the thought
enter his head that he had not contributed at all to the success of
their relationship with his appalling attitude towards her and the
children. This thought never entered his head because his mind was
solely set on exacting his revenge for her cheating on him.

 

*

 

From where he
was stood in the shadows he heard the school bell ring for the
final time that day and following that the squeals and shouts of
the children as they ran out of numerous doors from the school. He
could still see Sally as she held her hand up against the glow of
the sunlight looking for Sophia and Jacob and with a wave he saw
her beckon them over to her.

When he saw his
children approaching their mother he stepped out of the shadows at
a quick walk, one of his hands he slipped into one of the pockets
of his jacket seemingly fiddling with something in there. As he
continued to walk he pulled a container out of his pocket and
cursed as some of the liquid spilled out onto his hand burning it.
Discreetly he poured some of the liquid on the floor, hearing it
sizzle as it burned through a piece of paper that was lying there.
Quickly he approached her and when he was nearly at her side she
heard footsteps quickly approaching so she turned.

‘David? What
are you doing…’

But she never
finished the sentence. With a movement of his arm David flung the
acid into Sally’s face, watching with glee as the liquid instantly
started to burn the skin off her face.

With a scream
that would haunt her children forever, Sally clutched at her face
as she slumped to the ground, screaming and screaming as she felt
the acid eating away her facial flesh, then screaming even louder
as she tried to wipe the acid off her face and in doing so it
burned her hands, ripping her skin away.

The other
parents heard her screams and they ran over, covering their
children’s eyes as they saw the woman rolling on the floor in
burning agony. One of them acted quicker than the rest and pulled
Sally’s children away from the sight of their screaming mother and
another reached for her mobile phone and called for an ambulance.
By the time the emergency call was connected Sally had stopped
screaming. She had passed out from the pain, her face badly
burned.

 

*

 

As he ran away
from the school down the alleys to where he had left the stolen
car, David approached a figure slumped on the floor of the alley,
sitting in the dirt. Totally out of breath now he had to stop
running so he approached the person with care, walking quickly on
the other side of the alley.

He noticed the
needle hanging out of her arm, and when he passed the woman she
slowly lifted her head and for a moment their eyes met. A flash of
disgust passed across David’s face and then their eye contact was
broken as he exited the alley and found the car where he had left
it, quickly driving to the airport, using the cash to buy a one way
ticket on the first available long haul flight, his thoughts never
once returning to the figure he had encountered in the alley.

By the time the
police at the school had taken the witnesses’ accounts of what had
happened, David was sat at the back of a plane staring out of the
window at the passing clouds, relaxed and contentedly sipping on a
beer.

 

*

 

The woman in
the alley near Sophia and Jacob’s school tried to stand but she was
too weak. With one almighty effort she tried again only to collapse
in a heap into the filth of the alley, the needle still hanging out
of her arm.

Unable to move,
her head slumped onto her chest and her weakened heart finally
broke after all the years of misery and anguish it had witnessed.
She suffered a massive heart attack, her whole body going rigid for
a few moments before relaxing.

After so many
years of heartbreak and desolation, Sarah was finally at peace.

 

An
Acknowledgement

 

The ending of
this book was decided a long time before the author had ever heard
of Katie Piper, however, an acknowledgement should be made to the
real life horrific burns injuries she, and others, have
suffered.

 

If you wish to
make it easier for people to live with burns and scars please
donate to The Katie Piper Foundation at
www.katiepiperfoundation.org.uk.

 

As noted at the
beginning of this book, all characters in this publication are
fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is
purely coincidental.

BOOK: Everything to Nothing
9.41Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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