‘Very serious.’
Sally picked up Jacob and cuddled him against her bosom and then she said, ‘You’ve never held him before. Do you want to?’
‘Yeah, I suppose, if our little princess will let me!’
‘Well, we’ll try.’
Carefully they exchanged children and David held his son for the first time. ‘He has got my eyes.’
‘Told you.’
‘He’s got your nose though, and Sophia has got your everything!’
Sally laughed and they both sat down on the battered old sofa and cuddled the children, swapping them occasionally. They stayed like this for hours with David, after all his trauma and mental anguish, at last getting to know his children. At last, they were a family.
Chapter 44
‘Why?! Why did you do this?! Why can’t you just leave us alone and let us get on with our lives in peace?!’
For the first time in five years Sally was in her father’s office at the mansion. The years had aged him greatly Sally noticed, and from the brief word she had managed with James before she entered his office, he mourned greatly for the daughter he had lost. James informed her that he would do anything to have her back in his life, but he was also stubborn, a stubborn bitter man who refused to back down on the promise he had made to Sally.
For three years since obtaining the labouring job David had worked solidly, never taking a sick day off and only taking a day off when the sites he worked on closed for bank holidays. His managers noticed his work ethic and realised that he also had a good head on his shoulders. It was not long before he was promoted to foreman and excelling in this position he was moved up the ladder to become Site Manager.
Even though Mr. Gallagher did not want his daughter back in his life with David, his network of informants made sure he was aware of every move either of them made. After discovering that David was now Site Manager, Mr. Gallagher made some phone calls despite the pleas of James to stop him ruining his daughter’s life again.
Once the phone calls had been made, he opened his safe in the office and took out a file which had the name Simon scrawled across it. He opened the file and removed two photographs from the stack of photographs within it. One was a picture of the full crash site, and another was a close-up of Simon’s severed arm lying in the grass.
On an envelope he wrote David’s name and address and then placed the two photographs in the envelope. His secretary was informed to post the letter first class and David received the envelope containing the pictures on the morning he returned home from work after finding out he had lost his job.
‘I did this because I want my daughter back.’
‘You could have me back if you just accepted David’s mistake, forgave him and welcomed us both back into your life!’
‘As I told you those years ago, I do not want that man in my family and until you see sense I will continue to make your lives a misery!’
‘You know something daddy, I nearly called you a couple of months ago. Our lives were going well. Our twins are now four and about to start school…’
‘I know.’
‘Yeah, you would. David had a good job. Thanks to you continually watching over me with your spies I still couldn’t get a job but we were getting by. And now I’m glad I didn’t call because you have just become a bitter, evil, twisted old man!’
‘And it is your fault that I have become this.’
‘No, it’s your fault daddy. If you’d just forgiven him.’
‘Never.’
‘And why did you wait so long before getting David sacked? Why not get him sacked after his first day like you usually did? Did you want to give him hope that you’d forgotten about us so you could bring our lives crashing down again at your convenience?’
‘My grandchildren.’
‘Your what?!’ Sally’s voice screeched. ‘Your WHAT?! Believe me when I say that they will never, ever be your grandchildren!’
‘I did not want my grandchildren to suffer during their critical early years. It is still my hope that one day you will see sense and come back to me and when you do I want my heirs to be fit and healthy.’
‘Now they are your heirs?! Not only have you become a bitter, evil, twisted old man you’ve also become delusional!’
‘Have you seen Michelle recently?’
For a moment Sally was surprised but she managed to compose a reply. ‘Not for years. How does she fit into this?’
‘She’s dying.’
‘Pardon me?’
‘She’s dying. She never recovered from losing Simon, never recovered from losing him in that way. Seeing your fiancé’s severed arm lying in the grass can really destroy someone’s life. She became severely anorexic and now the doctors have said there is nothing they can do. I’ve heard from my sources she has only days to live, if that.’
Sally slumped into a chair in front of his desk. ‘I had no idea.’
‘Yes, I know you don’t. If you’d only supported her as much as you did David perhaps she would have pulled through.’
‘Don’t you dare try to blame me for this. Don’t you dare! I tried my hardest to support her but she cut me off…’
‘Do you blame her? After all, you still insisted on being with the man who had killed her fiancé. Not exactly the greatest foundation for a friendship is it?’
‘Are you done? Anything else you’d like to blame David or me for?’
‘I think I’m done, but depending on how long you’re planning on staying for I’m sure I could think of something else.’
‘For the last and final time it wasn’t his fault!’
‘Oh yes, it was this mystical Sarah’s fault. For the last few years I’ve had private investigators combing the country trying to find her. Ex-police detectives and a couple of ex-members of MI5 and nothing. I’ve had people camped outside any address that I could find a record of her living at and she has never once returned to those addresses. It’s like she never existed. Funny that.’
‘So now you’re saying that Sarah doesn’t exist? I think you need to speak to Michelle again about that.’
‘Yes, Michelle’s testimony certainly helped save David. How much did you pay her to go along with that story?’
‘My God. How can you say that? What’s happened to you?’
‘No Sally. The question you should be asking is what happened to you? You abandoned your best and closest friend in her darkest hour, and you abandoned me, the loving father who gave you everything you ever needed or wanted, who raised you as a father and a mother.’ His voice broke as he finished the sentence. Sally looked up at him and noticed the tears rolling down his face. ‘You broke my heart the day you left, you broke my heart and I’ll never, ever be able to forgive you for that, and I’ll never, ever be able to forgive David for the pain he has caused. Please, leave now.’
‘And I’ll never, ever be able to forgive you for the pain you’ve caused me. With one phone call and one letter you’ve ruined our lives again, your only daughter. David is slumped in his armchair drinking again; I can’t work because every time I apply for something you stop it. There is no point even attempting to change my identity because you’d find me. Our lives were back together. We were a family. We were happy.’
‘I think you need to speak to your dying friend about ruined lives and happiness. She’s in a room off ward six at St. Katherine’s. Go and see her. I have. Then you’ll know about ruined lives! Now get out, get out, get out and never, ever return to this house! Get OUT!’
Sally burst into tears and ran out of the room, past James who tried to speak to her, and down to her old car that she had managed to save up and buy. Quickly she drove down the long driveway, past the lake and the island where her mother was buried and out through the gates.
*
Sally walked along the corridor off ward six at St. Katherine’s until she found the room with Michelle’s name scrawled on a whiteboard attached to the door. Hesitantly she stepped away from the door
and then with a deep breath she approached it and looked through the window.
Through the gloomy light Sally saw a human form with a single sheet thrown over. The form was skeletal and could hardly be recognised as a woman. From this distance the person in the bed looked like they were asleep so careful to not make a noise she opened the door and entered the room.
The first thing that struck her as she entered was the amount of machines in the room, all of them whirring and clicking, doing whatever they needed to do. Sally did not need to be a doctor to know that these machines were keeping Michelle alive. As she approached the bed she stopped and studied her friend.
Her eyes were drawn first to Michelle’s hair. Her hair was not just thin; she was practically bald with a few wispy strands of hair covering her scalp. The skin of her face looked dry and pallid; her eyes looked like they had collapsed into her head. It was clear that her lips were also dry, they were cracked and broken. One arm was out from under the sheet and Sally noticed bruises, a lot of bruises, dotted up and down her lower and upper arm. Then Sally’s eyes looked at Michelle’s body.
There was no trace of breasts bulging the sheet, instead what bulged the sheet were Michelle’s ribs, Sally could see each individual one, and her sharp hips were also protruding into the sheet. Her once voluptuous body did not have flesh on it, she was purely skin and bones and nothing else.
Not wanting to wake her, Sally was about to leave when suddenly, but slowly, Michelle turned her head. For the rest of her life Sally did not forget the sounds of Michelle’s joints creaking and cracking as she moved so very slowly and gently. Sally would also never forget the look in her once sparkling eyes as she opened them and looked into Sally’s sparkling green eyes.
Michelle seemed to try to take a breath which she struggled to do, and when she did the sound made Sally want to run screaming out of the room. The single breath rasped and rattled around the room as Michelle made a desperate attempt to suck oxygen into her frail body. When she spoke her voice was faint and crackly so Sally had to take a step closer to hear her. She wished she had not. As Michelle said the first words to her in years Sally smelled her breath and it smelled of death.
‘Why… are… you… here?’ Michelle spoke the sentence hesitantly, pausing over every word.
‘I came to see you.’
If she had physically been able to Michelle would have laughed but instead she stared at Sally with venom of pure hate in her eyes. ‘I… don’t… want to see… you.’
‘I came, I came…’ And for a moment Sally could not think of why she had come to see her dying friend. ‘I came to see if there was anything I could do for you…’ The words she spoke trailed off as she realised the emptiness of them even as she spoke them.
Now Michelle did laugh; a bitter, hollow, rasping, coughing, spluttering laugh that had Sally reaching for the emergency button to call a nurse. But Michelle managed to bring herself back under control and took a few more deep breaths that caused Sally to think of graves when Michelle’s expelled air was sucked into Sally’s nose.
‘You came here to see… And what the… hell can you do for… me? A bit late don’t you think?’ Michelle started to cough as she finished speaking, and with a great effort she reached for a tissue by her side and spat a blood stained glob into it.
‘I’m so sorry Michelle. I had no idea you were so sick.’
‘And why is that?’
‘Why is what?’
‘Don’t be… thick Sally. You had no idea I was sick because you… have not spoken to me… or my family… for years. You abandoned me for that murdering bastard!’ Michelle coughed again, her body now curling up being racked with pain. Eventually she stopped and her eyes bore into Sally’s again.
‘He, David, didn’t murder anyone. It was a tragic accident.’
‘It was no accident!’ She shook her head from side to side causing Sally’s stomach to flop over again as she listened to her joints groaning and creaking. ‘He was driving like a… lunatic! If he’d been driving at thirty instead of eighty… Simon would still be alive!’
Now at a whisper Michelle said the words that would haunt Sally for the rest of her life, her breath rasping the words out, and the stench of the words would also stay with her forever. In a haunting, crackling, rasping whisper Michelle said, ‘Why… why did you not drive with David that day? Why was it Simon’s arm lying in the grass when it should have been yours?’ Michelle saw the look of intense pain in Sally’s eyes and she enjoyed the pain she was causing her.
‘You can’t, you can’t mean that?’ Tears now brimming in her emerald eyes.
‘My life was ruined that day… and now… and now I hope that yours is ruined too. The girl who had everything…, now I hope you forever have nothing. I curse you Sally with all the soul that is still left in my body! I curse you to a life of misery…, a life full of pain, suffering and misery so then you’ll have a small idea of what my life has been like since you chose him over me, since you abandoned me. I curse you Sally, and your children, with all my broken heart and broken soul I curse you for eternity!’ The last word was a rattle of death as Michelle forced it out of body. For the second time that day Sally burst into tears and ran from a room.
Michelle though simply closed her eyes; at last at peace now that she had said to Sally what she had wanted to say to her for years. As she closed her eyes a warning buzzer went off on the blood pressure machine as her pressure sank to a dangerously low level. This buzzer caused a warning light to go off on the nurse’s station in ward six but by the time the nurses got there it was too late.
As Michelle closed her eyes she saw Simon stood in front of her, a heavenly glow radiating around him. He was dressed how she remembered him best, the night he proposed to her. Smiling at her, with a single finger he beckoned her towards him. With a smile of her own she took a couple of steps towards him as he started to walk away. So she followed him, catching him up, taking his hand as they entered what was waiting for them through a bright circle of light.
*
Nobody ever knew about Sally’s visit to Michelle that day. Sally never told anybody and she did not believe that anybody could truly curse another person. But through the dark days that were rapidly approaching the words would haunt Sally, and they would haunt her for the rest of her life.
Chapter 45
He noticed her for the first time as she was walking along the high street in town. Her long black hair cascaded down her back and he nearly crashed his Ferrari as he watch her tight bum in the tight jeans wiggle along in front of him. Slowing right down he passed her and looked in his rear view mirror. Her face was unbelievably beautiful and considering she was holding hands with two children her figure was still amazing.
Quickly he floored the Ferrari, racing down the high street until he came to a roundabout which he quickly negotiated and then raced back up the high street frantically looking for a car park space. Giving up he left the car in a disabled space and dashed back along the street to find the woman. Cursing he realised he had lost her so he frantically backtracked and started to look through the windows of shops near where he had seen her. Cursing even more he looked into a bank and found her stood in the queue.
In a flash he had entered the bank and barged an elderly lady out of the way so he could be next to her in the queue. As he stood behind her he admired her bum, her long slim legs and the shine of her black hair. He listened as she chatted to the two young children, both of them about seven years old, and he realised that they were twins. With a shout of glee in his head he did not see a wedding or engagement ring but that would not have stopped him anyway. They reached the end of the queue and she went to a cashier and he went to the one next to her.
He did not bank there so he asked for an interest rate leaflet and chatted to the cashier about the accounts. But he was not really listening to his replies. All his attention was on listening to the mother next to him as she discussed the accounts with the young children.
> Apparently the young boy was not impressed that his sister had more money but the mother delicately reminded him that he had taken some money out to buy a toy the previous month. The boy shrugged his shoulders as he accepted this explanation and then the girl commented that in a few more months she would have a hundred pounds. She announced proudly to the cashier, hesitating as she worked out that she now had ninety-five pounds in her account. This was too much of an opportunity for him to miss.
‘So, that means you’re how much short of one hundred?’
The mother jumped as the man started to speak to her daughter and she laid a protective hand on her shoulder. But the man looked harmless enough, in fact he look more than harmless, he was in fact good looking with a deep tan and he was dressed immaculately.
The man was very impressed when almost straight away the young girl replied, ‘Five pounds.’
‘Yes, well done! And I’ll tell you what I’ll do. Considering you’re so good at maths and you obviously work hard at school I’ll give you five pounds.’
Excited the girl nodded eagerly and the man offered her a five pound note.
‘No, honestly, it’s okay, you don’t need to do that.’
For the first time he made eye contact with the mother and his heart skipped a beat as he looked into her green eyes that were shining like emeralds. ‘Really, I insist. I don’t know much about kids, but she seems very intelligent?’
‘Thank you, but it’s okay.’
‘I want the five pounds mummy!’
‘She’s going to be a right one in a few years!’
‘She a right one now. Okay then, but keep in mind you need to be careful approaching children and offering them money. Doing stuff like that can get a man a reputation.’
‘I didn’t really think of it like that. Right then my little darling,’ he said, turning his attention back to the girl, ‘here you go. Pass it to the cashier.’
Everything to Nothing Page 45