The Perfect Husband (16 page)

“I don’t think so,” the officer replied.
“Yesterday, the court approved an Apprehended Violence Order in
your wife’s favor. I assume, from the look on your face, that you
haven’t yet been served with a copy. No need to worry, I have one
right here.”

The constable pulled a folded piece of paper
out of his shirt pocket and handed it to Nigel. Her husband threw
her a hard stare and then opened it. With her heart thumping,
Isobel held her breath and waited for Nigel’s response. She didn’t
have to wait long.

His face turned red with anger. “You have to
be fucking kidding!” As if oblivious to the presence of the
policeman, Nigel took a threatening step toward her, his hands
clenched into fists.

“You fucking bitch! I don’t believe it! How
dare you order me to stay away from you and the kids? They’re my
kids as much as yours. There’s no way in the world you’re going to
take them away from me.”

“Mr Donnelly, I suggest you tone down your
language and calm down a little then go and get some legal advice.
Your lawyer will be able to tell you how best to proceed. In the
meantime, I suggest you comply with the terms of the AVO, including
staying away from your wife and children. If you breach the order,
I can arrest you and have you charged. I’m sure no one wants that
to happen.”

Isobel snatched a breath and did her best to
slow her racing heart. She could feel Nigel’s anger, but she
refused to look at him. Having collected the things she’d come for,
she was eager to get as far away from him as she could. The
presence of the police officer was her perfect means of escape.

“Thank you for your time, officer. I’ve
collected the things I came for and I’ll continue on my way. I’d
appreciate your assistance to my car, though.”

The constable turned his attention to her.
“Are you sure? Because I’m happy to stay as long as you need me if
there are other things you require.”

Isobel shuddered at the thought of going
through the house and removing more things with Nigel throwing
daggers at her back. No, she had what she’d come for. It was best
to leave it at that.

“Thank you; that’s very kind of you, but I’m
done.” With that, she opened the door to her car and tossed in the
handful of clothes. Leaning over the seat, she gave Sophie her
doll.

“Can we go now, Mom?”

She glanced at Ben where he sat in the back
seat of the car, his face troubled.

“Sure, baby. We’re leaving right now.”

Nigel stepped forward. The officer was quick
to react. With a restraining hand on Nigel’s arm, he nodded to
Isobel.

“You’re right to go, Mrs Donnelly. Take
care.”

She gave him a grateful smile and tugged on
her seatbelt. Wrenching his arm out of the officer’s grasp, Nigel
charged over to the car and banged on the window with his fist.

“Get back out here, bitch,” he yelled, his
fury palpable.

Unperturbed, the officer spoke to Nigel
calmly and pulled him away. All the time, he shouted abuse. Isobel
shook so hard, she didn’t know how she managed to turn the key in
the ignition, but she somehow reversed out of the drive.

She didn’t look back.

Dear Diary,

There are days when I would rather endure a
thousand beatings than deal with the emotional wounds that
crisscross my body and soul. Physical pain will eventually dull and
fade away; my emotional pain is like a cancer; it’s silent and
slowly gnaws away at anything that was ever good in my life. Being
with my husband has been like experiencing a living death.

How can I explain it to someone who has
never been through this other than to say, it’s like waking up each
morning with the hope that this will be the day things will get
better only to realize they won’t, and with that recognition comes
death all over again. Sooner or later, you start wishing for the
real thing…

* * *

Isobel barely made it two blocks away from
her house before she broke down. Pulling over to the side of the
road, she leaned her head on the steering wheel and sobbed out her
relief. With shaking hands, she searched through her handbag for
her phone and dialed Mason’s number, all the time praying that he’d
answer.

“Isobel, thank God you called. I was getting
worried.”

She went to speak, but all that came out was
another breathless sob.

“Isobel? Where are you? What the hell’s
happening?”

She could hear the increasing alarm in his
voice and struggled to reassure him. “I’m… I’m f-fine. N-Nigel
arrived as I was leaving.”

“Shit! If he—”

“It’s okay. The police arrived soon after he
did and I’m fine. He was served the papers right there. We’re all
fine.”

“Thank God! Where are you?”

“A couple of blocks away from my house. I-I
couldn’t go any further.”

“I understand. Now, Belle, I want you to
listen to me. Take big breaths and calm yourself down. He’s not
going to hurt you again. The worst of it is over. He’s seen you and
realized you’re never coming back. Now, hopefully he’ll accept your
decision and move on.”

Isobel shook her head sadly, but didn’t
interrupt. Mason was so naïve, judging people with the same moral
compass he had. He didn’t know Nigel the way she did. There was no
way on earth he would ever move on.

In his mind, he owned her. She was his
possession. She had his kids. On top of all that, he’d be concerned
she’d ruin his public image. He’d never rest until she’d paid for
the damage she’d done.

“As soon as you’re able, get back on the
road and drive straight to my place. Don’t stop anywhere along the
way. I’ll meet you there.”

“But it’s not even lunch time! You have work
to do.”

“Screw work. You’re more important than
that. You need me and I… I need to know you’re okay. I’ll be there
as soon as I can.”

Isobel nodded. “Okay.” The relief she felt,
knowing Mason was on his way, was overwhelming.

Thirty minutes later, she arrived at his
complex and unloaded the things from the car. No doubt there was a
storage area in the underground car park that she could access when
Mason got home. But for now, the balcony would have to do.

With Ben’s help, she stacked the bikes
there. Then forcing the morning’s events from her mind, she
prepared a light lunch for the children, reassured them that things
were fine, and put them both down for a nap.

On her way back from the bedroom, she heard
the sound of a key in the lock and her heart skipped a beat. Mason
closed the door behind him and she eased out her breath. He took
one look at her and headed straight toward her.

“Are you hurt, Belle? Your knee! It’s
bleeding!”

“My knee’s fine,” she assured him quietly,
not able to deny the hurt deep within her so easily. A grazed knee
was nothing compared to that.

A moment later, his arms came around her and
he held her close against his chest. She tensed and then forced
herself to relax against him. Despite all she’d been through that
morning, it was getting easier to lean on him and accept his
comfort. Once again, tears filled her eyes and overflowed. Giving
herself permission to let go, she cried like she’d never stop.

Like a broken heap of humanity, Isobel let
it all out, purging her heart and body and soul of all the darkness
that had taken root there. For a brief moment she felt free—free of
Nigel, free of hurt and free to find the woman she’d lost so long
ago. If she dared…

“I-I was on my way out,” she sobbed. “I’d
finished getting the things I’d come to collect. He just turned up.
I didn’t have any warning. If it hadn’t been for the police
officer, I might have done exactly what Nigel told me and marched
right back inside.” She hiccupped and another wave of tears poured
down her cheeks.

“He-he scares me so much I can’t think
straight around him, but I was ready to follow his orders. Just
like that, he turned me back into a snivelling, gutless wimp.”

“No, Belle, no. Please don’t talk about
yourself like that. You’re never gutless. Never weak. You’re the
strongest, bravest woman I know. I’ve told you that before and I’ll
keep telling you until you believe it.”

She pulled back and stared at him. “How can
you say that? You hardly know me. We were kids the last time we
met. Clueless, carefree kids. If only I’d known the devastation
ahead, I’d have wanted to stay a teenager forever.”

He held her gaze. When he spoke, his words
were so soft, she had to strain to hear.

“Will you tell me the rest of it? What I
heard that night at the police station was bad enough, but I can’t
help thinking there was more and that it was even worse than the
things you told them.”

She looked at him, torn. She wanted to tell
him, to at last get all of this off her chest. She’d told Senior
Constable Rogers some of it, but no one knew the whole of it. She’d
always been too ashamed and too worried that she’d be judged
harshly or worse, be the one urged to leave her family—including
her children.

For too many years, the thought of walking
out was beyond her. Her husband appeared to the world to be such an
upstanding community and family man.
Who would believe
different?

Even now, she was on edge at the thought she
might be coerced to return or that he’d take her to court and get
them to believe it was all her fault. And in the end, get custody
of their children.

“Belle, I know how hard it must be to trust
me enough to open up, but I think it might help for you to talk to
someone. If not me, then a professional. A therapist. Have you ever
had any counseling over the years?”

She shook her head sadly. “No, at least, not
the kind you’re talking about. Nigel made me go to a sex therapist
for a few months. He went through a time where he… He was having
difficulties getting an erection.” She grimaced at the memory.

“Of course, he claimed it was all my fault.
Apparently, I wasn’t trying hard enough to please him. I wasn’t
performing as well as I should. I was too thin, too ugly; too
frigid. The list went on.” She drew in a ragged sigh and then
quietly continued.

“It was up to me to face that humiliation
and see a sex therapist alone, so that I could fix the problem. The
therapist said he needed Nigel to come with me and attend the
sessions too, but he never would. Instead, he just got angrier and
angrier with me.”

Mason remained silent, but his expression
was as dark as a thundercloud. Her shoulders slumped.

“There’s a lot more ugliness where that came
from. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

His expression softened. With gentle
fingers, he tilted her head up so that she was forced to look at
him. “If you want to tell me, I want to hear it.”

She stared at him and her heart filled with
apprehension. At the same time, she was charged with such a strong
yearning to finally share her story, she couldn’t deny it a second
longer. “Okay,” she whispered.

He released her and she made her way over to
the couch. He sat down beside her, close but not so close they were
touching. She didn’t feel threatened, despite his impressive size.
In fact, she felt just the opposite. She felt safe having him by
her side.

“When I was seventeen, I fell in love for
the very first time,” she began quietly. “He was tall and broad
shouldered. He was the star of the football team. I was giddy from
love and had my head in the clouds. You couldn’t get the smile off
my face. Never once did he show any sign of the monster he was deep
inside. I’m a sister, a daughter and a mother. Back then, did I
think this would ever happen to me—that I deserved this? Not in my
wildest dreams. And yet it did.”

“How long were you married before it
started?” Mason asked, his voice pitched low.

“We married a couple of weeks after our high
school graduation. We were both eighteen. My parents were concerned
we were rushing things and thought we were way too young, but I
brushed off their concerns and Nigel charmed them with his smile.
He assured my mom and dad he’d love me with everything that he had
and would protect me until he died.”

She sighed. “It was a fairy-tale wedding in
front of our family and friends. Nigel’s mother didn’t attend but I
wasn’t surprised; he had told me she was dead. I found out later
that wasn’t true. Though she’d doted on him for years, when he was
fourteen she just walked out on him and his dad without a word or
note of explanation.”

Mason nodded. “I guess that explains some
things. Not that I’m defending him or making excuses. Regardless of
the reasons for his warped thinking, his actions and how you’ve
been treated are unforgivable.”

“Our marriage wasn’t perfect, but the first
four years were pretty good. We were both busy at college, studying
for our degrees. We had the occasional disagreement over things I
had or hadn’t done—picky little things no one else would notice—but
each time, we were able to reconcile and put them behind us. At
least, I thought we had. It wasn’t until things started falling
apart that Nigel would dredge up all the past wrongs. I was shocked
that he appeared to be just as angry as he had been when each one
happened.”

She drew in a breath and eased it out. “But
even with these minor bumps along the way, I thought we were happy.
And then Ben arrived…”

“What happened? Didn’t Nigel want to have
kids?”

“I guess you could say he wasn’t overly
keen, but after many months of pleading he agreed to my request to
try. I got pregnant right away. The night I brought my new baby
home from the hospital was the first time he split my lip.”

“Jesus!” Mason breathed and his hands
clenched into fists.

She grimaced. “Yes, it was a nice welcome
home, let me assure you.”