Underneath (29 page)

I head towards the car, my legs feel so wobbly they threaten to give way on me, but I manage to get in and start it straight up. Once again I find myself blasting off in the car out of the communal driveway. I really must get a job at a racetrack for my next career, I’d be damn good at it. I drive until I am well away from her apartment and park myself in a local supermarket car park, and then I sit and shake.

My phone rings and I nearly die with fright. It’s Bettina.

‘Hello.’

‘Have you been running? You sound out of breath.’

‘I’ve just legged it from Monique’s.’

‘Crikey, how did that go then?’

‘I got everything, but I think she sprang me. I left the spare room door open.’

‘What do you think she’ll do now?’

‘Goodness knows. We need our evidence together for tonight so we can go to the police before she does anything stupid. Anyway, I panicked. She might have genuinely been going in the spare room to get it ready for me staying, and now I’ve run off and given her a reason to be suspicious.’

‘You’d better ring her with some kind of excuse, just in case.’

‘Good idea.’

‘Well I was calling to let you know that I’m just about to go in and see Danny, so wish me luck.’

‘Good luck.’

‘I’ll give you another call when I get out.’

‘Actually…do you want to come over to ours when you’ve done? Niall will be there and then we can all decide where we go from here.’

‘Okay, I’ll see you this afternoon sometime. I’ll ring when I’m on my way.’

I dial Monique’s number. ‘Hello,’ she sounds agitated.

‘Monique, it’s me.’

‘Where the hell are you? One minute you’re puking in my loo, the next you’ve disappeared.’

‘I wanted my own bed.’

‘Well, you could have said. I had no idea where you were. I looked around the apartment and the grounds thinking you might have collapsed somewhere.’

‘I’m sorry, Mon, I didn’t want to worry you. I just panicked and wanted to get back home.’

‘Is that where you are now?’

‘Yes,’ I lie. ‘In bed. Not that Niall is taking any notice of me being ill. He’s a pig.’

‘Well, I’ve told you that from the beginning. You should’ve stayed with me.’

‘I know.’

‘So are you staying at home all day now?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well, look after yourself, and Lauren -’

‘Yes?’

‘About the spare room.’

I think my heart actually pauses. ‘Hmm?’

‘It was me. I left the window open. Sorry for seeming paranoid.’

‘I never gave it another thought.’

‘Well ring me when you’re feeling better. I’m sure we’ll see each other soon.’

‘We will. Thanks for everything, Mon.’

I put the phone down. I’m deeply worried now, because the window in Monique’s spare room was definitely closed.

I drive back home carefully, on alert to anything untoward and jumping if another car moves anywhere near me. I feel parched. The first thing I do when I get home is to run upstairs, swill water around my mouth and then brush my teeth. So I’m more than a little shocked when I eventually walk into the living room and find Niall on the settee with a pack of frozen vegetables on his fist. Seb clutches another bag against what I guess is the beginnings of a black eye.

‘Do you want to sit down, Lauren?’ Niall asks.

Chapter 21

I’m not sure my poor heart can take much more of this stress today. I swear it’ll be grey rinses from now on, not blonde highlights.

‘How come you’re not at work?’ I ask Seb.

‘Yes, Lauren, I’m fine, thank you,’ he states with snarled sarcasm.’

‘I can see you’re not fine. I can also make out that you’ve connected with my husband’s fists, being that I am not entirely stupid.’

‘The head teacher gave me the afternoon off.’

‘Your mother let you finish early?’

‘Mother?’ Niall sniggers. ‘Mrs Sullivan’s your mother?’ He bursts into laughter. ‘Oh my, where’s Jeremy Beadle, seriously, cos all of this has to be someone’s idea of a sick joke.’

I take note of the fact there are two cans of beer on the coffee table.

‘So did you start drinking before or after the fight?’

‘He punched me the minute he opened the door,’ says Seb, looking at me like a wounded puppy. ‘Didn’t even give me a chance to speak.’

‘Yeah, well mate. Last time I saw you, was on a photo kissing my wife, what’d you expect?’

‘I’ve explained that now. I have no interest in your wife whatsoever.’

I feel a bit insulted but realise it’s best to keep my mouth closed on this one. ‘So you finally believe me?’ I state.

‘Yes, well, with all this Monique business, I was already thinking you’d probably been set up, but I was still wondering what he was doing at the house. He’s explained it all now, and it’s sorted.’ He turns to Seb. ‘Do you fancy another beer, mate?’

‘No thanks, I need to be able to drive home.’

‘Good point. I’ll just shift these tins or she’ll be moaning.’

Whilst he pops into the kitchen I look at Seb and he winks at me with his good eye.

Niall comes back with a cloth and wipes the table down. However, not to make me completely think he’s been abducted by aliens, he leaves the cloth on the table and sits back down. ‘So, er, you got a lady then, Seb?’

‘There was someone, but they didn’t feel the same way about me, so I’m planning on going Down Under for a while.’

I have to cough to cover a snort and then I replay back what he’s said and I feel sad. I’ve used this guy and deserted him, so beach life should suit him well.

‘We’ve talked about going to Australia in the past,’ says Niall. ‘I can go with work over there through being a nurse. I guess that’s the same with you, are they crying out for teachers?’

‘Yes. Are you considering it then, in light of what’s happened?’ Seb asks Niall.

They both look towards me and I feel uncomfortable under their gazes, and unsure as to whom I should look at.

I turn towards Seb. ‘No, though I am asking Niall to consider a move. I’d like to go to Staffordshire to be nearer his parents. I think it would be nice for Joe.’

‘Sounds sensible to me,’ says Seb, looking at Niall. ‘I do think a fresh start away from this madness is what you need.’

‘Well we still need to talk about it, but it’s definitely a possibility.’ Niall looks at me and gives me a look and a half smile that for the first time in a long time, gives me hope again for us.

‘Right, well I’d better be off then,’ says Seb. ‘I’ll leave you to it. Good luck with the police later. I’ll be around until a week on Saturday if they need me for statements or anything.’

‘Thanks, I’ll show you out,’ I say.

He stands up and shakes Niall’s unbruised hand. ‘See you mate, take care of this lady, she’s a good one.’

‘I know, that’s why I married her.’ I hear the Neanderthal coming out of Niall, so head Seb towards the door quickly.

As he stands in the doorway he turns towards me and I get the full melting chocolate brown eyes. ‘Here,’ he says, and hands me a piece of paper, taking time to stroke my hand as he leaves it in my grasp. My hand tingles.

‘What is it?’ I whisper.

‘My address in Australia. I’ll be there for a couple of months. If it doesn’t work out with Niall, you know where to find me. I’m not saying goodbye Lauren.’ With that he walks away and I know that although there’s a chance I’ll bump into him at school, it’s possible that this will be the last time I’ll ever see him. I close the door on him and on that part of my life. I tear the paper into tiny pieces which I place into my pocket, knowing that even if I put it all together again, a piece would always be missing.

I walk back into the lounge and into Niall’s embrace. He covers me with his arms like my warm duvet. I hope this episode in our lives has passed and we can go on to the next. Anyone who thinks a marriage is always love and flowers is fooling themselves. Marriage is hard work. Sometimes you travel on different paths as you grow, but if you’re lucky enough, those paths reunite and the journey is good again. I hope that Niall and I will get through this, as in all these years it’s not been our first bump in the road, although it’s proving to be the largest to date. I sink into his hug and feel relief overwhelm me.

‘So what do we do now?’ asks Niall.

‘We wait.’

Bettina arrives just after two. The day has turned pleasant, so we sit in the garden on my bench. Niall brings out a fold up chair so he can sit with us. We sit expectantly, there are no pleasantries exchanged, we just want to try and get to the bottom of the situation.

‘Well it took me to say Tyler may be in danger, but once he got that, it all came out. I think I’m going to need some more therapy after this.’

‘Won’t we all,’ says Niall.

‘Danny says he met Monique when I was pregnant with Tyler.’ She sits stony faced. ‘So he was probably never faithful to me at all.’

‘I’m sorry, Bettina.’

She shrugs. ‘I got over Danny Southwell a long time ago. Anyway, they had, by all accounts, a torrid affair, for about a year. She wanted to get serious and asked him to leave me, and of course he said no. He told her she wasn’t his only lover and he didn’t need another wife because he already had one.

‘What a charming man. Why on earth did you stay with him so long?’ asks Niall.

‘You do what you can for your kids. I thought Tyler needed his dad.’

Niall nods.

‘She threatened to tell me everything apparently. Danny told her to go ahead because I knew anyway, and that there was no way he’d leave, he had his son to think about. She gave him a load of hassle, saying that kids always got in the way of things and she was sick of it.’

‘Hang on a minute,’ I say. ‘This is like, nine or ten years ago?’

‘So?’

‘That’s around the time her husband left her because he wanted kids. Looks like it became a pattern for her; rejected for children again.’

Apparently she sent him poison pen letters, turned up at bars he was in. He had to threaten her with the police. She said he’d come around eventually and she could wait.’ He just put it down to her being another possessive bimbo. He’s met quite a few over the years.’

‘So has he any idea why she came to Sheffield? That was five years before you arrived. She couldn’t possibly have known you’d move here.’

‘No. That he has no idea about. He fails to see the connection with you, other than he believes he probably discussed my ‘obsession’ with you.’

‘I don’t get you,’ says Niall.

‘It was one of his "my wife doesn’t understand me" lines. I had issues with Lauren over school. He’d tell his girlfriends I was obsessed with a former school friend, made out I made his life hell. Sound familiar?’

‘That’s what he told me,’ I say.

‘Yes, well that’s the only connection to you that was made, so we have to assume that she befriended you to get at me.’

‘That makes no sense. We weren’t in touch.’

‘Well, I don’t have any other ideas.’

‘At least we know what set her off now.’ I’m still in total shock that my mate has turned into a crazy lady. ‘I think it’s time to ring the police.’

The police take the phone, the photos and brief statements from us. They say they’ll need to talk to us again later, but for now they just intend to pick her up. They call to say she’s not at the apartment, but they’ll keep checking in until she appears. We go to collect the kids from school, aware that for now it’s just a waiting game.

The kids are full of it as they come out. ‘I’ve had a great day mum,’ Joe squeals. ‘We had a class treat and watched a video.’

‘Remind me to retrain as a teacher,’ I tell Joe. ‘Cos that sounds like fun.’

We walk down the drive together and say goodbye at the bottom. Bettina and Tyler walk off in the opposite direction. As the weather’s nice we walked to school to pick up the kids, so I look forward to a nice stroll home with my son. What I’m not expecting is for my path to cross with that of Dr Love.

‘What the hell?’

‘I need to speak to you.’

I turn to Joe. ‘Mum won’t be a minute, Hun. Just wait here whilst I talk to Matt.’

‘Who are you?’ Joe asks him bluntly.

‘Its Auntie Mon’s boyfriend, Joe, don’t be rude.’

Joe stands at my side looking up the street and fidgeting. It’s impossible for him to keep still. I smile and then turn back to Matt.

I speak in hushed tones. ‘We’ve called the police, so they’ll be looking for you in connection with the crash into our car.’

His face turns grim. ‘It’s my word against your husband’s. I’ve got a witness, and anyway, I’m a doctor.’