by Sam Fintz
Steve told him it would be in the morning print and that it would be on the MEN app by the evening.
Rose was so excited. Finally, she was getting back at those people. Maybe her life was turning around. She laid her head on Ben’s chest and they just lay there for a while. Jim’s chest had been quite hairy, and Ben’s chest was smoother. But it was still nice.
“I had better go,” he said. “See you later. Call me if you need me.” He got dressed, kissed her and left.
Rose called Fat Pat.
“Let’s have lunch. My treat. We can take a cab and we will have some wine. I have news,” Rose said excitedly. She would tell Fat Pat about Ben too. The time was right. Or was it? She started to doubt herself again now.
Rose called the hospital next. Stefan was still unchanged. She said she would stop by later, knowing that she wouldn’t. Today she needed to enjoy this small victory.
Chapter 77
That evening Mike Chalmers had decided he was ‘working late’. Charlotte was there too and just as he was going to call her into his office his phone buzzed. It was a message from a friend of his at the newspaper. It simply said, ‘Check the MEN’.
He opened the MEN app and there it was. Rose’s article was live. He read the article and when he was done, he was steaming. How dare that bitch. He had also been named as a crooked lawyer who bribed his way out of everything. That bit he laughed at. Nobody could prove that, ever. Aiden was described as a poncey gay brat that had no regard for anyone but himself. The article also mentioned Aiden being fully responsible for the death of Jim Winters, even though it had been thrown out of court. Malcolm was reported to be a high-powered tyrant used to buying everything he wanted. That bit was true and to be fair the bits about Aiden were pretty close to the truth. Still, it annoyed him. This was just another damned inconvenience he would need to fix. He had thought it was all over. Malcolm would have paid her if Aiden had been found guilty, but his acquittal meant that deal was off the table.
He called Malcolm Harrington who had himself just seen the article. One of his golf buddies had shown it to him. He told Mike that he would need to go for the jugular, and that this bitch needed to be taught a lesson once and for all. He also told Mike that he was to ensure that he destroyed her life for good. Nobody was going to do that to the Harringtons without paying the price. When it came to Aiden, Malcolm took no prisoners. His precious son’s name would not be smeared. Nor would his or his friends’ names be.
Malcolm told Mike that he must dispute their lawsuit and put in a counter claim as well as sue her for defamation of character. He would look for two million as well. There was no way she would have that kind of money. That would ruin her for sure.
“Losing her husband and having her son in hospital will be nothing in comparison to what you must do now. Take no prisoners, Mike. Nothing is off the table!” Malcolm told Mike.
He called Charlotte in and told her to forget about going home and get ready for a busy and long night preparing this case. He told her to get dinner brought to the office and they would work through. She left to do that. He called Eva and told her that he wouldn’t be home. She didn’t sound bothered as she was out with some girlfriends.
“Mike, everyone has left already. Do you want me to call anyone back?” she asked when she came back into his office. She could tell from the look on his face this was a big one.
“No, it’s just you and me. I need to be focussed and I really don’t need those jackasses slowing me down,” he told her.
“Ok good. Dinner is ordered, let’s get on with it. Where do we start?” she asked.
“Where do we start indeed?” Mike asked.
Chapter 78
The following couple of weeks were a blur for Rose. She was feeling a lot of different emotions. She felt grief for her husband, sadness for Stefan who was still in hospital and she was also starting to fall in love again with Ben. Well it felt that way, her emotions were all over the place. She also had Fat Pat advising her on what to do, which was fine if she was inclined to listen. Fat Pat had been a big help and she meant well, but Rose really just wanted to spend time alone with her son and her nights with Ben. Fat Pat had taken to the news of Rose’s affair with Ben quite well. She was cautious at first. Eventually when she realised that Ben made Rose happy again, she let it be, although with reservations.
Rose was at home and getting ready to go to the hospital to spend the day with Stefan. He was getting thinner by the day and this was worrying her more than she had thought. They had done some operations to put some metal rods in, but he was still comatose. They also couldn’t detect any stimuli in his lower limbs. The doctors had told Rose that it was a waiting game. He was still on the ventilator and would have to stay on that for the foreseeable future. Barring a miracle of course. Miracles do happen, she kept telling herself.
Rose’s mobile phone rang. She could see the caller ID was Richard Caine. She answered quickly, feeling a knot develop in her stomach.
“Rose, Richard Caine here,” he said.
“Richard, hello, what’s happening? Have you got a date for the case yet?” she asked.
“Rose, I am afraid I have some bad news. I have heard from Mike Chalmers, Harrington’s lawyer. It turns out they are basically countersuing you for defamation of character for your comments in the papers. They are alleging you smeared the Harrington name and as good as accused Aiden Harrington of manslaughter. I have spoken to this Chalmers guy and I am sorry, but he won’t budge. He is suing you for two million, the same sum as you were suing them for. I have to be honest, having looked at the papers and what they are alleging, they have a chance of winning. I am happy to represent you, but I will understand if you want to employ a barrister. In fact, I would recommend you do,” Richard Caine advised her. He didn’t tell her, but he felt she had gone too far, and the reporter had used that to his advantage. She had been naïve.
Rose went cold. How was this possible? After everything that she went through.
“How can they do that?” she asked.
“Aiden Harrington’s charges were dropped. Your newspaper interview mostly refuted that. The reporter has also been named in the lawsuit. He has a history with them so that may have fuelled the fire a little. They are also saying that it makes Aiden Harrington look bad and that the details of his sex life are slanderous and untrue. There have been rumours, but they were all squashed. They are also claiming that Malcolm Harrington is an honourable businessman and your interview painted him as the opposite,” he explained.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said, her voice sounding really shaky.
“I will get a barrister to contact you. I will brief him fully and we will see how we can get out of it. I did ask about an out of court settlement and Chalmers said that was fine if you could come up with two million. If they get awarded you have assets of around £750,000, which is a life policy of £500,000 and around £250,000 for the house, so you will be short quite a bit. Leave it with me. We have 14 days to respond. We will speak soon,” he said and hung up.
Rose sat at her table and couldn’t move. She was ruined for sure. She knew that it had all been too good to be true. Her happiness was short-lived.
Rose called Ben to tell him and the moment he answered she broke down.
“Rose, what happened? Is it Stefan?” he asked.
Sobbing, she told him about the lawsuit. She begged him to come home to her. She didn’t want to be alone. She didn’t know if she could go on anymore.
“I am on my way. Stay where you are. I won’t be long,” he told her and hung up. He grabbed his coat and rushed to his car without telling his assistant where he was going. Rose needed him, that was all he worried about.
Chapter 79
Rose couldn’t believe her ears when the judge said: “I find for the plaintiff in this case and award the sum of one and a half million pounds.”
Mike Chalmers punched the air. The judge had also handed down a restraining order preventing R
ose from ever doing that again. Mike had really got his facts together and he painted a picture of a desperate woman trying to fleece the Harringtons. He was convincing. The judge bought it. Finally, she would be gone. He didn’t quite get the two million he was after, but it wasn’t about the money, it was about shutting this woman up for good.
Rose had dropped her own lawsuit against the Harringtons soon after she was notified of this lawsuit against her. She had been advised that she probably wouldn’t get anything, and it would be a total waste of time and money that she now didn’t have.
Rose sat there shaking. Ben was there with her and he tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. She had lost everything now. How was she going to come back from that? Everything that Jim had provided for her was gone. The Harringtons would take the lot. First they took Jim, now they would take every little thing that she had.
Ben told Rose he would look after her, but by the look on her face he could see that his words were hollow. Fat Pat hadn’t come to the court today. She had been unwell from nerves ever since this had all come about. She was also still coming to terms with Rose and Ben’s affair.
Mike Chalmers walked over to where Rose was sitting with Ben. He looked at Rose and said: “You should have left it where it was, Mrs Winters. I will be in touch about payment.”
Ben lunged forward and tried to take a swing at Mike, who ducked out of the way.
“Easy, hotshot, unless you want to lose everything as well,” Mike said to him as he straightened his jacket. He turned around and left the two of them sitting there in stunned silence.
“Is there anything we can do?” Ben asked Richard Caine who had come running over when he saw the commotion.
“No. If we do, they will keep us tied up in litigation until there is less than nothing left. The best thing is to accept the inevitable and walk away. I know you have lost everything Rose but be strong. You have faced worse.”
Rose just nodded. She had no strength to speak. Ben put his arm around her and gently helped her up. She pushed his arm away. She didn’t want others to know about her and Ben at the moment as she still felt guilty and didn’t want to be judged. He took her home to his house as he didn’t think she should go to her house right now. It was going to be a trying time and he would need to support her.
When they got to his house, he showed Rose to his bedroom, took off her shoes and lay her down on the bed. She turned on her side, facing away from him. He sat with her a while and then told her he was going to leave her for a bit, but he was right there if she needed him.
Ben went downstairs and called Fat Pat who wailed when he told her the story. This was too much, she told him. He said he would call her later and hung up leaving a sobbing Fat Pat on the other side of the line.
Ben sat for a while on his sofa. What was he going to do? This was horrific. The poor woman. He knew their lives would never be the same again. What he didn’t know was to what extent.
Chapter 80
It was a year later. Aiden and Jason had just returned from yet another headline-grabbing trip to Torremolinos. They were going there every couple of weeks. Europe was having the most amazing weather, unlike Manchester. They were constantly in search of sunshine. Anna accompanied them on many of their trips. Her and Aiden were kind of an official couple and Jason had also met someone hot and rich. Aiden and Jason still got up to their usual tricks and were mostly inseparable. Some things never changed!
Rose on the other hand had hit rock bottom. She had lost her home and everything she owned. Mike Chalmers had taken everything from her. It didn’t make the £1.5 million. After a long and drawn out negotiation and after selling everything including her house, she managed to raise £800,000. They had agreed to settle on what they got provided she left them alone for good. She was left with the clothes on her back and a few bits of jewellery that she had hidden with Fat Pat. The strain of her ordeal had meant that her and Ben were having to take a break.
To rub salt into Rose’s wounds, the Harringtons donated the £800,000 to the hospital in Jim’s name and they made sure that the world knew about it. Rose tried to stop it, but there really was nothing she could do. Once again that awful family came out smelling sweet.
Stefan’s condition had worsened. His heart finally gave in and he died shortly after Rose lost the house and all her money. Luckily Rose still had his money and because she inherited it after her case was settled, they couldn’t touch it. She got to keep it all. It was half a million pounds plus interest. She spent a few thousand on Stefan’s funeral and put up a beautiful headstone. She managed to get herself a small flat in Hulme and a car. With the rest she was going to hatch her plan. Despite her having this money she was still a broken woman. For Rose, money clearly couldn’t buy happiness.
Rose was sitting in her small flat on the ground floor in the small block of flats on Stretford Road. She had picked it up for a song when the woman who owned it got divorced and had to get rid of it quickly.
Rose heard a noise at her door. She was always startled by that. Nobody visited her much these days and Ben always called ahead if he was coming by. She heard the thump on the laminated floor and realised it was her nosy neighbour in Flat B who was dropping off a Metro newspaper that she got from the bus. Rose went to get the paper and on the front page was a very suntanned Aiden Harrington, another good-looking young lad called Jason Packham and two smiling girls that looked like tarts with their skimpy designer dresses. They had just arrived back from yet another Spanish vacation in Torremolinos and were making headlines again as the latest power couples of Manchester. Disgusted, Rose threw the paper on the table. It seemed that murder could buy you fame these days. She knew the time was right.
She opened her laptop and logged on to Google. In the search bar she entered “acid” and hit enter. There were a number of options and she started working through them. Some of the sites were about drugs. Others gave her the necessary information. From there she searched for suitable containers to carry the acid and found the perfect one. It was cylindrical and plastic and would just fit and she made a note of it. She then had a look for wheelchairs and found a place that delivered at a reasonable rate. She had money but didn’t want to waste any. She laughed to herself, thinking that Ben must be rubbing off on her. Rose ordered a wheelchair that she could see was easy for her to use. She needed to be convincing. She found a supplier for a wig she would need as part of her disguise. She ordered a blonde wig as she had always fancied being blonde. She knew she would need to travel out of Manchester. She would drive to Birmingham and get the acid and the container there. This would be harder to trace immediately if someone was suspicious. By the time anyone would find out, her plan would be fulfilled, so it wouldn’t matter. She would leave early the next morning and she would get the acid from one of the hardware shops. The container she needed was available at any supermarket, so she would just go into the first one she saw. The wheelchair would be delivered in 48 hours and she knew she would need to be home for that so that the nosey neighbour wouldn’t ask questions.
When she was done, Rose went and poured herself a stiff drink. Her work was done for the day. She felt like for the first time in ages things were going her way. She called Ben who was happy to hear from her. She invited him for dinner, possibly for the last time. If her plan went well, she would never be back to this miserable life. For tonight she would relax and enjoy herself. Tomorrow the real work would start.
Ben arrived at 7 carrying a bunch of flowers and a bottle of wine. Rose welcomed him in and he went into the little lounge and sat down. He looked a little drawn. It had been a trying year, so it was understandable. They sat and drank wine and chatted until the timer in the tiny kitchen went off and Rose got up.
“Come and eat, Ben,” she said taking his hand. He got up and followed her to the table. He sat while she dished up, marvelling how the walls of the kitchen had turned a light shade of blue. He was sure they were white before.
“Did you p
aint the kitchen?” he asked.
“No. Whenever I boil anything the walls change colour. Been like that since I moved in. I think the last owner used cheap paint. I keep meaning to have it redone. Never get around to it,” she said, thinking that now she really would never get around to it.
“Let’s eat,” she said pouring more wine. The paint thing was forgotten for now.
After dinner they cleared up and went to sit on the sofa. Rose wasted no time kissing Ben and soon they were in the bedroom making love. Tonight, the lovemaking was more intense. This could be the last time she was with Ben, so this time she made sure he would always remember it.
Lying in the afterglow of some of the best sex Ben had ever had, they just held each other. Ben wasn’t sure what it was, but something was different. For Rose this was ironically the first time she didn’t imagine that Ben was Jim, and she didn’t know how that made her feel. Eventually they drifted off into a deep sleep. Ben slept well, Rose had lots of dreams of violence and pain. She woke up a few times in the night but fell asleep again when she felt Ben next to her. She knew she wasn’t going to feel this content in a long time. If ever.
Chapter 81
In the morning Rose woke early. She went and made coffee and brought it back to bed. She had quit smoking again but today she really felt like a cigarette. She would wait for Ben to leave before lighting up. He didn’t like the smell of smoke.
When she climbed back into bed Ben stirred.
“Good morning,” he said, smiling sleepily.
“Good morning,” she answered and kissed him on the lips. He pulled her into him and he kissed her neck. He made love to her passionately and again Rose didn’t imagine it was Jim. She felt a little sad that this had happened now.