Second Time Around (26 page)

That evening after the children had gone to bed Alec unzipped his backpack, pulled out Krystal’s laptop and set it on the coffee table. It had been hard for him to wait but Halley needed to read the email he’d found and the children would’ve been a distraction.

“Halley I have something you should see.”

Her voice floated out from the kitchen.

“In a few minutes. I have to finish the dishes first.”

Alec would have shoved everything into the dishwasher but Halley was particular about the sharp knives and a few other items which she claimed the dishwasher would ruin.

“I’ll take care of them,” he called over his shoulder. “Just come and take a look would you?”

“Will you do them properly?”

“Of course I will,” Alec replied pretending to sound affronted.

He heard Halley mutter something then a slap on the counter behind him indicated that she had peeled off the kitchen gloves.

“All right. What is it?”

Halley strolled up beside the couch Alec was sitting on. He patted the cushion next to him.

“I want you to read this.”

Halley dropped onto the couch and angled the screen so she could see it better. At the same time Buddy came up on Alec’s other side and dropped a tennis ball at his feet.

Feeling he should give Halley a little privacy while she read Krystal’s unsent letter, Alec picked up the ball, took it to the ranch slider and threw it out on the back lawn. The moment that Buddy was certain that Alec wasn’t still holding onto the ball he took off through the door to find it. Fighting a smile, Alec locked the door and turned around. Seeing the pile of dishes waiting for him in the kitchen his smile dropped.

When Halley saw her sister’s email address at the top of the screen she wanted to close the laptop’s lid and walk away. After everything Krystal had done she wasn’t interested in anything her sister had to say from beyond the grave.

She thought that Alec was going to say something but instead he got up and threw the ball outside for Buddy. Halley reached for the lid. Alec might have thought he had a good reason for showing the email to her but she didn’t want to know about it. Krystal’s betrayal still felt raw.

Her fingers settled on the lid and just as she was about to push down three words jumped out at her from the screen.

I’m so sorry.

Halley told herself that the words didn’t mean anything; after all Krystal had written them in an unsent email, not said them to her face. But now her curiosity was piqued and she drew her hand away and scrolled up the email to the beginning.

Hi Halley,

There are things I need to tell you but you never seem to have time for me anymore. I thought that if I write down everything I need to say to you, before long you’ll read it out of curiosity if nothing else.

Have you ever thought you were doing your best to fix a mess you had made but later found out that you had only made things worse? That’s what I’ve managed to do.

Firstly, I want to confess that I’ve been borrowing some of your savings to pay the bills. I know if I’d asked you would have let me
have
the money but I didn’t want to be like Chantelle and take from you. My intention was to repay everything and hope that you’d never know.

It started when we had to move house and we didn’t have enough for the bond. I borrowed only what we needed and I paid it back as soon as I could.

Of course Paul wanted to know where I got the money from and I eventually told him. He later convinced me to borrow whenever we got low on funds just to tide us over and when money became tight I did.

Then we had the opportunity to build a house. As you know it has always been our dream to have our own home and Paul was able to get a good deal on the land a while back before all the prices started going crazy. Just days before our initial deposit on the construction was due Paul loaned the entire amount we had saved to a friend. We had a huge fight about it and he said to use your savings; promising me the sum he loaned out would be repaid before the year ended.

I know I should have swallowed my pride and asked you for a loan before I touched your money for the house but since we had always repaid what I’d withdrawn without trouble I didn’t think this time would be any different. Paul told me that the money he loaned would soon be repaid so I thought everything would be okay. You never touched the account or wanted to see the balance so I convinced myself we would repay it and you would never know.

Somehow though there was always a reason why the money couldn’t be repaid whenever I asked but Paul always told me that he would get it soon. He convinced me to keep using your savings to make the progress payments on the house. I confess it didn’t take much to get me to do it. I was worried about having a half-finished house with a mortgage as well as paying rent.

As you may remember, shortly after we moved in I became pregnant which we hadn’t planned on. I later went to the doctor because I was bleeding and was worried I was having a miscarriage. An ultrasound showed that the bleeding was because the placenta is in the wrong place; a condition called placenta previa.

I won’t go into the details but it is serious enough that I have to stop working because all the effort of moving bags, pots and trees at the garden centre could make me wind me up in hospital.

I never told you about it because that was the same day you came to me all distressed because you were pregnant too. It immediately sent me into a panic because I knew you’d keep the baby and would want your money to pay for things - only there was next to nothing left in your account because Paul was waiting to be repaid and we’d taken out far more than we had intended because the house went over budget and we had nothing left to pay you anything.

When you told me that Rob was the father I saw the solution. If you married him he would look after you and the baby and you wouldn’t need the money.

I felt incredibly guilty for telling you that your money wouldn’t be available until you turned thirty but I didn’t know what else to do. I needed to buy time. I hoped that Paul’s friend would finally repay the money and that I could convince you to only take small amounts out; giving me time to put everything back.

Talking you into marrying Rob was the biggest mistake I have ever made and I’m so sorry. You’ve never complained but I have seen the way he treats you and you deserve so much better. I swear I never knew he was such a heartless, unfaithful, womanising arsehole.

What is worse is that it is my fault that he sought you out to begin with. I recently found out that there was no loan to a friend. Paul gave Rob our money to cover his gambling debts because the people he owed money to were threatening his life if he didn’t pay them back as well as the exorbitant interest.

Afterwards Rob wanted to know how we could still afford the house. Paul stretched the truth and told him that you were rich and gave us an interest free loan. Paul had been giving him a hard time about paying us back and Rob saw marrying you as a way to avoid doing so. To my shame we both know how he accomplished that.

I was angry on your wedding day when Rob said he didn’t have a ring to give you and made up that lie about the heirloom ring in a safety deposit box. I knew there was no such thing which is why I gave you one of my dress rings. It was the least I could do but after the ceremony you gave it back.

I said something to Paul and he had words with Rob about it at the picnic we had afterwards. Do you remember them arguing? Rob told him he’d buy you a ring with
your
money and wouldn’t believe it when Paul said you’d put it all into the house for us.

The next day you acted so cold towards me and I knew that Rob must have told you what Paul had said. I don’t blame you for hating me.

I know you don’t want to join us on this trip we leave on tomorrow because you think we’re spending money on what Grandma would call a ‘non-priority expense’ instead of repaying you. In my defence the flights were paid for before I found out Rob was the one that Paul gave the money to and that Rob never had any intention of repaying us. Until this evening I had naively thought that it would only be a matter of weeks if not days that we would be able to return most of what we had borrowed from you.

It sounds really stupid but despite everything I am hoping that this trip will bring us together. I’m going to apologise over and over in person until you believe that I never meant to hurt you. I really shouldn’t be going anywhere with my condition but you don’t visit and you don’t return my calls and I will do anything to have you back in my life as we were before.

I miss you terribly and I have to tell you I am scared. With my condition I have been told that it is likely I will haemorrhage when I go into labour so I am booked in for a Caesarean but there are still risks. If things go wrong and something happens to me I want to at least know I did my best to make up with you first.

When you fly over with the boys to join us I hope you want the hug I have been waiting to give you.

Love,

Krystal.

PS. If you want to get rid of Rob I’ll buy the spade.

When Halley came to the postscript she laughed through her tears.

“Are you okay?”

Halley looked up to see Alec standing beside the couch wearing pink kitchen gloves. She considered his question then gave a slow nod as she wiped her eyes with the back of her fingers.

“Yeah.”

Alec sat down beside her.

“I feel a little better about it all now,” Halley added after a long silence. “What Krystal did was wrong but she had the best of intentions.”

“What Rob did was inexcusable and Paul made things worse by not being honest with his wife,” Alec said grimly. “It’s lucky they’re not around now because I have an atavistic urge to beat them up.”

The pink gloved hand that Alec had slipped around Halley’s shoulder tightened into a fist. Halley saw it out of the corner of her eye and smiled. Alec noticed.

“What are you grinning for? I’m making a manly threat on your behalf.”

“It’s the gloves. Nothing says I’m going to deal to you like pink dish gloves.”

“The frying pan was terrified.” Alec straightened his fingers.

Halley slipped out from under his arm and stood up.

“Come on. I’ll help you finish what’s left.”

“I’ve finished them all.”

Halley eyes travelled to the stack of dishes arranged in the dish rack.

“Then why are you still wearing the gloves?”

Alec looked a little sheepish.

“They were difficult to get on and now I can’t get them off.”

The next morning was Saturday and it was the first time in weeks that Halley didn’t have to be anywhere. As much as she would have loved to have been able to sleep in it wasn’t going to be possible. Alec had done his best by bringing in a freshly changed Lily to feed then taking her out afterwards so she didn’t need to get up but instead of going back to sleep Halley found herself wide awake despite still feeling tired.

Outside the bedroom she could hear everyone going about their day. Casey and Em were in the lounge arguing over which game to play on the Wii, Cassie was smacking something into the coffee table and she could hear muffled thuds coming from the bottom of the stairs. The latter, she knew would be Corey leaping off the steps and aiming for pillows at the bottom.

Just as she threw off the blankets to get up and suggest to Corey that he do something else, the phone rang. Halley rolled across the bed to grab the receiver from Alec’s bedside table but before she could lift the handset the ringing stopped.

Seeing as she was already out from under the covers she decided to get dressed. She was slipping her favourite pink shirt off the hanger when the bedroom door opened. Halley rehung the empty hanger and looked over her shoulder to see Alec walking toward her with Lily cradled in one arm. A streak of white decorated his shoulder and dripped from the phone he had in his hand. Halley knew that he must have tucked the phone against his shoulder at some point to have a free hand while he talked.

“It’s Leonora wanting to know if we are still able to help this afternoon.”

After hearing of Riker Sell’s interest in Leonora from Halley, Rufus had been quick to stake his claim.  Within days of their lunch date he had proposed to Leonora and she had accepted. This weekend she was moving in with him and Alec had promised to help them shift.

“Don’t you think we’ll be more of a hindrance than a help with all the kids underfoot?” Halley asked, dropping the shirt onto the bed to join the other clothes she had selected to wear.

“But that’s what Leonora wants.” At Halley’s puzzled look Alec continued. “Don’t you remember Rufus’ large collection of animal shaped salt and pepper shakers that he inherited from a great aunt?”

After the first night Leonora had stayed over at Rufus’ she had told Halley in horror about the salt and pepper shakers Rufus had on display throughout the house; sausage dogs with missing legs, giraffes with broken necks, and, her personal favourite, the copulating pigs you had to pull apart to use.