The Other Mrs Hayes

by Ross Richdale

  "Bloody shock?" Jessica added.

  "It was a bit," Stacey said. "But we start again without Brendon, shall we? I'll help as much as I can."

  "I'd like that," Jessica replied.

  AFTER JESSICA AND THE baby were discharged from hospital the following morning Stacey took her, Chelsea and Carla across to the airport where they flew out to Auckland. Later messages told of their safe arrival but that nothing more had been heard from Brendon.

  Stacey later had another unwelcomed surprise when she accessed her bank account on her computer. Both her cheque account and savings had had half her money withdrawn with over twenty thousand dollars gone. These were in her own name but Brendon had online access to them. She immediately froze her accounts but was told that the withdrawals were legitimate and not the bank's problem, so much for being a loyal customer for several decades.

  She did, however, have the satisfaction of being able to access Brendon's own cheque and savings accounts. The money he had taken from her had not been deposited into these accounts but he had neglected to stop her access to his accounts. He had less than her in both accounts but she had the satisfaction of returning about half the amount he had taken into a new account she opened with a different bank and closed his two accounts.

  *.

  CHAPTER 5

  With Chelsea, Jessica, Carla and the baby gone, the emptiness of the house hit Stacey. She knew that everything that had happened was real, including the fact that Brendon had abandoned not only herself but also Jessica, her little girl and newly born baby. Saturday seemed worse than the weekdays for it was usually a day she switched off from her principalship duties and just relaxed. It was also a day when Brendon and herself would do things together. In summer they would walk the many trails through the Wellington hills, in summer go swimming in one of the bays or, if wet, visit a museum or just go shopping together in the centre of town.

  She frowned when she realised that this was several years back when all this happened. On hindsight she now realised that after he married Jessica and he would be away on many weekends. His pretence was that the weekend as a good time to meet clients at their Auckland branch. Her job at Lexington Avenue meant that she never accompanied him and also in hindsight she realised that she had been naive in believing his continued absence had nothing to do with the firm.

  It was a wet day but at least the wind that often hit the capital during a southern storm had stopped. She needed to get out of the house and also away from school items that could, if she allowed it, completely fill her weekend.

  "Damn you, Brendon!" she muttered as she put on her waterproof jacket, solid walking boots, hitched up a small backpack and headed out.

  A couple of blocks from home there was the beginning of a walking track that wound up through bush with wooden steps built into the steepest parts. After a couple of kilometres it came out at one of the higher hillside suburbs. From there she could come back through the narrow suburban streets or if she was too wet or tired, take a bus home.

  The track was narrow and reasonably sheltered from the rain. Wet grass swished against her legs and wooden steps were slippery but peacefulness enveloped her when she reached a halfway point where there was a small platform and seat with a view of the harbour in a gap between the hills. Here, she could be way out in the country and not in the city of hundreds of thousands people. The rain had turned to a drizzle that was almost fog-like that covered the harbour below while the taller buildings in the downtown area appeared to be floating on the mist.

  She pulled an orange from her raincoat pocket and her mind drifted back over the time that she had known Brendon. Again with the knowledge about Jessica she could compare the first and last five years of her marriage. She had originally blamed the supple changes in their marriage to the last and saddest miscarriage she had had. The first two were early in her pregnancy but the last had been at the beginning of her third trimester.

  Her thoughts drifted back...

  "BRENDON." STACEY SHOOK her sleeping husband in the middle of the night. "Something's wrong."

  He awoke and switched on a bedside lamp. "What?"

  "I'm bleeding... Heavily too."

  In the bright light, she threw the blankets aside and glanced at a blood-covered sheet. She pushed herself up into a sitting position but the room became a blur. She felt terrible as pain wrought her body.

  "Oh shit!" Brendon gasped. He flung the blankets aside and reached for his mobile phone.

  Stacey's next memory was hearing a stranger comfort her as she was carried on a stretcher that slid into an ambulance. One medic sat with her while it drove off.

  She had visions of people around her, the hospital smell and pain. Kind words were spoken and she felt a slight prick in the arm. The pain subsided but she was woozy and felt strangely detached from what was happening around her.

  She shook her head and realised that a young woman was washing her face with a warm cloth. "Hello Stacey. Just relax. I am Emily, your nurse."

  "Carla," Stacey sobbed. "How's Carla."

  "Who's Carla?"

  "My baby. We've named her Carla and have called her that since we found out her sex."

  "Your baby?"

  "Yes." Stacey felt annoyed. "My baby. Where's my baby? I know I gave birth to my baby."

  The nurse held her hand. "She never made it, Stacey. The foetus died in your womb and was stillborn. I'm so so sorry."

  "'I guessed," Stacey sobbed. "Where's Brendon?"

  "Your husband?"

  "Of course." Silly girl. Who else would she be asking for?

  "I'll check."

  Stacey felt comfortable in a clean hospital gown and quite warm under a soft blanket but both emotionally and physically numb.

  Emily returned. "It's four in the morning Stacey and Brendon has gone home. He said he would return in the morning."

  "He's not here?"

  "I'm sorry."

  Brendon never arrived until just before noon. He was full of apologies and carried a huge bunch of yellow flowers. She stared at him. "I waited all morning for you Brendon. We lost Carla and you were not here. Don't you care?"

  "Of course I care," he replied. "It affected me too, you know."

  He bent over and hugged her. "We'll manage, Dear. Everything will be okay."

  STACEY BRUSHED RAIN from her eyes as she sat on the bench. The rain had become heavier and a wind had sprung up around that lookout bench. She stood up and decided to take a sidetrack that led down steps to an urban road. From there it would be only a short distanced to a main road and small bus shelter. She had come this way quite regularly.

  Damn the rain! It now hit her face and had become cold. She pulled her cape closer and grabbed the handrail by the steps as she walked down.

  But everything hadn't been okay. Brendon had never really been the same after that final miscarriage. It was as if he had blamed her for it happening. He begun to spend more time away from home and announced that he was about to open a branch of their firm in Auckland. This must have been when he started an affair with Jessica and she was the real reason for his increasing number of days spent there.

  Later as a shareholder, she had a say in the company purchasing a small business off a retiring accountant in Auckland. Brendon said it had a good list of clients and was worth the purchase price. She hadn't really queried it at the time and cast her vote to buy the firm. It had turned out to be quite a good move particularly for the office that was in a busier part of town than the original one Brendon had rented in Auckland. The loss of several quite large clients within a few months was explained away by Brendon as being something natural and was no way a reflection on the business that had easily replaced them with smaller but more profitable clients.

  She reached the urban street and later the bus shelter where she read the timetable sign. Damn, she had missed the bus by five minutes and the next wouldn't be along for forty minutes. At least the shelter was dry and cut off from the wind. She watched as car
s swished by with tyres sending spray everywhere.

  The next big item in her life when Brendon's reaction was different than expected was when she was appointed as principal at Lexington Avenue School. She was excited for it was two grades higher than her previous position as Deputy Principal at the intermediate school where she had taught for the three previous years under a principal who was close to retirement. Old Tim was more interested in his social standing in the community and left more and more of dealing with staff and pupils to herself. Mind you, she was certain that this fact came to the notice of the Lexington Avenue Appointments Committee and eventually helped in her winning the post.

  "WHY DO YOU WANT TO leave your present position?" Brendon muttered when she showed him a copy of the email message offering her the position. "It's a cruddy school way across the other side of town. I heard it has all sorts of problems."

  Stacey stared at him. "Aren't you pleased for me?" she asked. "Do you know how many city school principal jobs have come up in the last year?"

  "You applied for a couple, I think it was."

  "Three, Brendon. I applied for three and got short-listed for one."

  "So you're getting desperate and applying for less desirable schools?"

  Stacey felt hurt. "And how many clients have you lost at Hayes and Hayes?" she retorted.

  "That's different."

  "Is it?"

  Brendon shrugged. "So you're going to accept it?"

  "I have ten days to make up my mind but probably will. It's worth several thousand dollars more in salary."

  'That's something I suppose."

  Stacey glowered. "And I thought you'd be as excited as I am. Didn't I support you when you wanted buy out that other company in Auckland?" She waved an opened hand at him when she saw he was about to reply. "And don't say that was different... It's you who are different, Brendon. A few years back you would have swung me in your arms and congratulated me."

  "Yeah, well..."

  "It doesn't matter," she interrupted. She stood up and stalked from the room.

  THERE WAS SOMETHING else that on hindsight, Stacey realised that she had been naive about. Over the last six years Brendon had attended an international accountancy conference every other year. It was always in mid-winter, summer in the northern hemisphere countries, from Hawaii and San Francisco to Vancouver in Canada. They were held during the school winter term when she was busy at school and could not accompany him. He always sent her messages from his mobile or through Facebook and often there were photographs, mainly of scenes but occasionally there were group photos or short videos.

  Oh hell. She gasped. Often as not the people included an attractive brunette woman.

  "Bastard," she muttered. She'd have to check when she got home but they were of Jessica, that she was sure.

  The bus arrived right on time so twenty minutes later she was on her home computer where all the old photos had been transferred and found the file on Brendon's trips. She stared grimly as, yes, at every so-called conference there was at least one photograph that included Jessica. The more recent photos had become more brazen for one had a smiling Jessica standing in front of a totem pole. The caption read, One of the ladies enjoying an outing at Stanley Park, Vancouver. God, could she talk!

  She used her iPhone to photograph the scene as well as the caption beneath and sent it to Jessica with her own comment, Your trip to Vancouver last year. The bastard was gloating at us wasn't he?

  Less than five minutes later her iPhone rang and a serious looking Jessica stared at her through a video link.

  "Oh Stacey," Jessica was almost in tears. "I'm didn't know he was sending you photos. Yes we had a holiday overseas every couple of years."

  "So there was no accountants' conference?"

  "What accountants' conference?"

  Stacey explained.

  "Hell no. After Carla was born Mum always looked after her when we went away. Usually we were just on our own but I remember that our later trips were in groups, you know those the travel agents arrange with discount fares. Everyone we met were strangers, usually New Zealanders or Australians who had booked on the trip. We even kept contact with some and one couple came on a second trip with us. Oh hell..." Jessica paled.

  "Go on," Stacey whispered.

  "Brendon was getting pretty friendly with a Leona Smithers on our last night and her husband and him just about came to blows. At the time I thought that Pete, that was her husband's name, was just the clinging jealous type."

  "Brendon was probably screwing her," Stacey said.

  "Oh hell!" Jessica gasped.

  Stacey smiled. "What's the 'Oh Hell' about this time, Jessica?"

  "You said Brendon told you he was going on an overseas conference when in reality we were having a holiday together. What about the annual conferences?"

  "I've no idea what you're talking about."

  "Every January, Brendon went to an accountants' conference in early January. It was always held at a resort in the South Island. He said Carla and I would just get bored and I couldn't even drive to visit as he was always on the other island."

  Stacey gasped. "Where was the one last January?"

  "Queenstown. He sent me photos and messages every day," Jessica said.

  "There was no conference. Brendon and I had our holiday in Queenstown in January. I like to get completely away somewhere before having to think about the new term back at school."

  "Wait a minute, I have the photos on a USB flash drive."

  Jessica disappeared for a moment and returned with her mobile showing her seated with a laptop on a table. She brought up some photos and she was the one who gasped when one came up showing Stacey standing with Lake Wakatipu behind her. The note beneath read. One of the ladies at the conference, an old maid of a school principal, I believe.

  "Sadistic bugger," Jessica retorted.

  Stacey paled for she had the identical photograph amongst her own holiday collection. "Gloating again. He had some warped sense of power by purposely sending us photos of his other wife."

  "But too cowardly to make more than a sarcastic remark about each of us."

  "How about telling Doug McCann about this?"

  "But will that help?"

  Stacey shrugged. "Well, there's that couple you mentioned. Could Brendon have remained in contact with this Leona Smithers? Shall I call Doug?"

  "Why not?" Jessica replied.

  "Oh one last thing, when Brendon returns and I'm sure he will, you can have him. As far as I'm concerned we're separated." Stacey sighed. "Guess I don't even need to go through any divorce procedures if our marriage was a fake."

  "You'd do that?"

  "You're the one with the young family, Jessica. I am only an old maid of a school principal, aren't I?"

  "Anything but!" Jessica's piercing eyes looked serious.

  JESSICA WAS FUMING when she switched off the connection. How dare he do this to them both! Didn't he have one morsel of decency in his bones? She continued looking at photographs of the so-called conferences over the previous years and found Stacey in several group photographs that included neutral comments beneath such as Our group having an outing. However, there was a photograph of just Stacey in the holiday several years back. The comment read, A school principal has joined our conference. I guess she needs to check the books in her school.

  In no cases was Stacey's or others in the photographs named. At the time she never took any notice of this fact for they were all strangers to her. Now she realised it was a cunning deception.

  And that photograph from Vancouver last winter! Her mind went back to that last day when Pete Smithers almost came to blows with Brendon...

  PETE SMITHERS WASN't drunk but in Jessica's opinion still had had too much to drink in the bar where everyone had gathered that last evening before heading home the following day. At least the Smithers were not on their Air New Zealand flight home, having extended their holiday with a couple of weeks down in California.


  "I know what you were doing," Smithers said in a raised voice and thumped Brendon on a shoulder. "You're shagging Leona. Probably did it last time, too."

  Brendon swung his stool around and spoke in a soft calm voice. "And when would I have done that, Pete? Every night we all retreat to our own rooms and don't come out until just before breakfast."

  "'And during the day the group is always together or visiting different places. I doubt if we were with Brendon and Jessica more than a couple of trips," his wife added.

  "Today," Pete almost screamed. "Why were you both back an hour after everyone else on that Burnaby Mountain Trail?"

  "We explained that to you, Pete," Leona said. "At that second fork we mistakenly went left and took a longer trail around the mountain."

  "There were several routes, Pete," someone else added. "Joan and Peter came in half an hour after Brendon and Leona. The same happened to them. After reaching the top they decided to take a side fork down, too."

  Jessica jumped to Brendon's defence. "Simmer down, Pete. Why spoil our vacation together after such a grand time we've had? Look at the map. That other trail goes right around the other side before coming back. It would be almost a kilometre longer, I'd say."

  "Hardly time to screw your wife," another guy who was slightly drunk added. He laughed. "They'd be covered in scratches if they were at it in the undergrowth."

  Everyone laughed, Pete glowered and Jessica noticed an unreadable expression on Leona's face. Up until now they had all chatted away together and admittedly Brendon had a habit of teasing the women with slight innuendoes, as did several of the other men. She even had to ignore approaches by a couple of the older guys in their group. Until now, it seemed innocent enough and went no further.

  "Just stay away from Leona," Pete said in a calmer voice. "Sorry if I jumped to conclusions, Brendon."

  "No problem, Pete. Here, let me buy you another wine."