When Past & Present Collide: WP&PC Read online

  “It’s entirely your own fault, mum. When she needed us the most where were we, mum? Oh yes, slandering her name to anyone who would listen.” Mum went to speak but I interrupted her. “No, mum, I’m speaking. When she was in the hospital and tried to tell you the truth, did you listen?”

  “Did you?” she said back in haste.

  I looked down as this hit a nerve, “No, mum. But trust me; I’m paying the consequences for it, still to this day. Don’t you think if I could take that week back, I would swap it in a hurry? She needed us and we walked away. And no, mum, don’t look at me like that, she has given me a chance to be in Samuel’s life and I’m sorry you only get to see him every other week. But between him spending the days with Ella and the weekends rebuilding our family, well, I’m sorry it’s the best we can do. The least you could have done was to say sorry to Ella, but for some reason you have become as stubborn as dad.” I said as I pointed towards him.

  My father moved back to be behind my mum. “That’s enough, Jacob! Your mother is hurting just as much as you.”

  I laughed; I truly laughed my heart out. “Are you two even listening to yourselves? Why are we sitting here arguing over something that could have been sorted years ago? If only you had apologised to Ella about not believing her. She has given you plenty of chances and every fucking time you have both thrown her generosity back in her face. You’re lucky you get him every other weekend because if I had my choice you would never see him again.”

  This time my mum stepped forward. “Right, that’s enough, Jacob. We have given you the world. If it wasn’t for us you wouldn’t even own your own company, you should show us some respect in our home.”

  I flopped onto the sofa laughing in hysterics, “Mum, dad, if it means so much to you, you can take it back. Hell, yeah I’ve worked my arse off for that company since I started high school. But what’s money if you have no family to share it with? I would give it all away to have Ella and Samuel in my life full time.” I looked up as tears started to fall down my cheeks. “They are my world, mum,” I said as I glanced to them both. “I would be happily penniless as long as I had them, and now what do I have? Nothing. Ella is broken to pieces and all you two care about is access. Sod access, we might not even survive this.”

  I broke down crying as my mum took me in her arms, “we are here, son. I’m so sorry. It’s hard on us too, we feel like we can’t help as everything is happening at Ella’s house.” I nodded, “I know and I’m sorry, mum, but you know what you both need to do.” She glanced towards my dad as he knelt down in front of me. “We do, son and we will promise. No more arguing, we’re all family and family stick together. What happened at Matthew’s interview yesterday?”

  My eyes closed as I remember Ella screaming at anyone and everyone when she arrived home yesterday. She wouldn’t allow me to come with her, she had said one of us needed to stay at home with Sammy, how could I argue with her on this? I had to hold myself together and just accept it.

  “Let’s just say he slept in his own comfy bed last night.” They shook their heads.

  “But why? He has the perfect motive,” my mum stated.

  I stood up and paced back and forth in front of their fire place. I stopped in front of the family portrait we had recently given them of me, Ella and Samuel, picking it up and stroking my fingers over the two people in this world who held my heart, I answered their question. “I know mum but there is no evidence pointing his way. Hell yeah he has a motive and no alibi, but with no evidence he can only be classed as a suspect. The police are keeping a close eye on him, but apart from seeking his original revenge on me and loving Ella, what else has he done wrong?”

  “That’s more than enough wrong, don’t you think?” my mum piped up.

  “Well, obviously not to the police!” I snapped. “They have his phone and computer from his home and office, plus they are going through all his security cameras at work and home, today. But mum, dad, it’s been four days. I don’t know how much longer Ella can hold out.” This time I finally saw compassion in my dad’s eyes.

  “How is she, son? Please don’t sugar coat it for us, we really do care about her. Heck, I know we have our differences of opinion but to be honest, we are getting on and just want to spend time with Samuel. We honestly do love Ella like one of our own.” My mum smiled and nodded in agreement.

  I glanced up into his eyes. “She’s bad, dad. She’s holding on by a thread. The doctors have given her some anti-depressants and sleeping pills but she refuses to take them. I’ve seen her vomit many times before but nothing like this. Her face is pale; the black bags under her eyes are so prominent, I doubt she will lose them for months.”

  My mum placed her hand back on my lap. “Is she eating?”

  This was such a simple question. I really wished I could answer a yes, but I knew I couldn’t lie to them; they really did need to know. “No mum. I don’t think she has eaten since Monday morning. She looks so frail and gaunt. I just want to hold her and comfort her but she can’t stay still. Can you fucking believe it? She has scrubbed that house top to bottom. She sleeps; well sleep isn’t even what I would call it. She sits in Sammy’s room, in his rocking chair; I think she gets some comfort in his room. She’s withdrawn from everyone.”

  My dad looks heartbroken. I think he thought she would somehow carry on. “Does she say much to you, son?”

  I shake my head. Does she talk to me? I think we have said about 5 sentences to each other since everything happened. “She only speaks to Tim, the family liaison officer and trust me, not in a pleasant manner.”

  Dad smiled, “oh yes, I can imagine, the poor bloke.”

  I stood up, time was getting on, “I best head back as Taylor and Beth are with her for me, and trust me she is making their life unbearable.”

  They stood up and hugged me in turn. “We will keep in touch, keep us updated. We are trying not to watch the news; they say all sorts of lies.” I nodded and headed to my car.

  I sit back in my car, closed my eyes and inhaled sharply before I noticed my phone flashing, ‘shit’ I say aloud. I’ve missed four calls from Taylor.

  I quickly rang him back. “Taylor,” I said as he answered. “Um, yeah Mr Green,” I stopped him before he carried on. “Taylor, it’s okay, please call me Jacob.” I heard him stutter, “Okay, The police are here, they are waiting to speak to you and Ella.”

  I quickly turned the ignition and started the car, “I’m heading back now, tell them I will be 10 minutes please, Taylor.” I threw my phone down on the passenger seat and headed over to Ella’s.

  I smacked the steering wheel as I have come to a stop ‘fucking rush hour traffic, for fucks sake’ I beeped as the driver of the car in front of me put his fingers up to me. I just carried on beeping and flashing my lights, ‘come on’ I shouted as we started to move again. My road rage was full to the roof; I finally put my foot down as all sorts of thoughts were going through my head.

  Have they found evidence on Matt? Do they suspect someone else? Then my stomach churned and sweat was pouring down my face. Oh shit. No.

  I squealed into her drive, threw open my car door and ran as fast as I could into the house. Everyone was sitting waiting for me.

  I walked in and sat by Ella, I took her shaking hands into mine. I looked at her and moved a piece of her hair from her eyes. Leaning forward, I whispered so she knew it was me. “It’s okay I’m here.” She took a deep breath and looked at Chief Constable Jones.

  I nodded so he knew he could proceed. “What do you two think of the idea of doing a press conference? We can have it all set up for tomorrow.”

  Ella squeezed my hands. “We have to try,” she said in a quiet voice. I barely heard her as her voice was so raspy. It pained me to see her like this.

  I looked back to the constable. “Yes okay. No questions and if I think it’s too much for Ella I’m pulling her straight out. Do you understand me?” He looked sad, “We do, Jacob and trust me we don’t want to put her t
hrough any more than she needs. But I think we need to do this. If the person is out there and they see what they are doing to her, well let’s just say we are hoping they will get in touch. At this moment we have no clue, we are pulling everything out of the bag but our options are slowly running out. So I think it’s time we did this. We will proceed and set it up for tomorrow, late afternoon. It will be live; we have all we need to show from what we have collected so far. So we are just hoping we can refresh someone’s memory of that day.”

  He gave me a sad smile as he looked at Ella, anyone could see she was broken just by a glance, but I could see the sympathy in his eyes. I also know he felt awful for all the questions they had put her through yesterday. “Try and get some sleep. I will be back tomorrow to go over what you should expect. In the meantime, if you have any questions Tim can answer them for you.” He stood up and left us all in a state of shock all over again.

  What would tomorrow bring? My main focus was Ella. Could she survive this? I needed a meeting with Frank and Tim, as soon as I settled her down. This might just destroy her past the brink of return.

  Beth leant down in front of Ella, “Hey sweetie, let’s hope we can refresh someone’s memory. How about I take you for a nice bath and wash your hair, so you can look pretty for the cameras.”

  I quenched back as I could see Ella’s eyes darken. I knew Beth never meant anything bad by what she had said, but to Ella she didn’t care how she looked until he was safe. She glared at Beth, “please leave.” Beth stood back in shock.

  I knelt down to her level, “come on sweetheart Beth never meant anything by it, she is just trying to help.”

  This time I gained the glare. “I’m nobody’s sweetheart.” She squealed.

  I have to honestly say this destroyed a piece of me, but I knew she never meant it. She was hurting, like we all were.

  She wobbled as she stood up, glanced around the room. “Get out all of you,” she screeched with her raspy voice, “get out of my house and leave me the fuck alone.”

  I caught her as she fell forward; she collapsed as she had no strength left in her frail body.

  I carried Ella to bed as there was no possible way she would be able to make it up the stairs alone. My heart was shredding to pieces as I watched the woman I loved flop into my arms.

  How could someone do this to us?

  It was the only question that was constantly repeating in my head.

  Why us?

  Did I do something wrong?

  Did Ella?

  I sniggered as the thought crossed my mind. Did Ella? More than bloody likely. But damn, nothing to earn this much redemption. Heck she was a feisty, stubborn madam but she was my feisty stubborn madam. The fucker who had done this to us was going to fucking pay, you can mark my words.

  I’m not a nasty man.

  But bitter I am.

  Ella glanced up “what are you sniggering for?” she whispered.

  Shit, I couldn’t have her this way, her voice was slowly fading. I shook my head, “nothing sweetheart, just relax and let me take you to bed.”

  I had finally got her to snuggle into the crook of my neck as she tried to whisper the one word I had dreaded, and the one word no fucker would dare say to me. “What if…” I cut her off before she could carry on. I couldn’t even consider the what-ifs. They weren’t even on the table. “Shh, sweetheart. Rest okay.” Ella just nodded but I knew she wanted to ask.

  Instead she came out with something I never even imagined. “Tell me why you kept coming back,” she whispered.

  I smiled; I couldn’t believe she wanted to talk about this, but anything that would help take her mind off the last question.

  “I don’t know sweetheart, maybe I was a looking for punishment,” I laughed as she tried to hit out, but to no avail.

  “Tell me,” she whispered more hoarsely. Her body was cuddled into mine; I could feel all of her ribs prodding into me. I felt sick to my stomach. Heck, I need to sort out my family. I need to be the man Ella so much deserves.

  I hope to God they find him.

  “I just couldn’t get you out of my head. The first time I met you inside my office, I knew I wanted you. Boy, did you give me a run for my money though. You just wouldn’t date me. No matter what.” I noticed her lips budge up slightly as her mouth wanted to smile, but even that was too much for her.

  “I wanted to,” she whispered.

  It was times like this that I wish we could turn back the clock, but I know that’s never a possibility. Heck, I would have done things differently. If my eyes hadn’t been so clouded over by her, I would have seen what was before my very eyes and the outcome could have been so much better.

  “I know sweetheart. I didn’t at the time but I do now, trust me I know,” I said as I kissed her forehead. “Do you remember that day you were supposed to come to the meeting and Joan turned up instead of you?” she nodded.

  “Boy was I mad. I had specifically told you that you were to bring the work up to me. Well you could imagine my surprise when Joan was sitting there; ravelling off a load of bullshit that I definitely knew wasn’t her work. After that I put two and two together. I never realised I was nowhere near the conclusion I needed to be at though. I really thought Joan was the culprit.”

  “Anyway, after work I put on my running gear and headed to the park but I couldn’t see you anywhere. So I went back to the office, did some work and headed on home. Low and behold, when I finally left, there were you and my assistant, pissed, I might add, and looking all adorable and sweet. Within seconds you had fallen into my arms and you just blew me away. I couldn’t believe my luck and I’ve been hooked ever since.”

  *****

  Ella.

  I smiled to myself as I knew that day very well. I’d just returned from my holiday to Italy, where I had to sign the final papers to get my full inheritance. My parents had died when I was 21 and as they were Italian, I had to go and sign the documents over there.

  My first day back to work was a blast. Not really. Actually some parts had been, especially winding Taylor up with my new mug was funny. I can still picture his face now.

  I was in the kitchenette making a hot drink as I had arrived early that day due to bad nightmares to be confronted by Taylor, mine and Beth’s great gay friend. I was just picking up my mug when the fully clothed man on the front of it turned completely naked; well you could picture Taylor’s eyes when this happened. They lit up like a child in a sweet shop; he nagged me for days for my new cup. Anyhow, while Taylor and I were there he explained that some things had been going on. My boss, Joan, and I had been called into a staff meeting as someone within the company had been over-charging our clients and we had lost a lot of them to a competitive company. Everyone was a suspect and Mr Green was meeting all the staff.

  After that day, I had gone for a jog and bumped into him. Jacob decided it wasn’t safe for me to jog alone, how could I argue with him on that? Lucky for me I got to jog with his yumminess. However, things never turn out how we want them to.

  He had given me work to do, but my boss; Joan was a total bitch and decided to steal my work. What could I do? Yes I know, I could have gone to Jacob but I didn’t want him to talk to her. I never needed the job as I had just received my inheritance, but I loved it. I was fucking good at it. But no matter what, I needed this job. I needed to do what I had to do to survive.

  Once my boss came back with that stupid big grin on her fucking face, boasting about how well Mr Green had praised her work, well bugger me, I was beyond pissed. I gave up my jog and went out on the piss with Taylor, his assistant and one of my best friends.

  The only problem was I never intended to bump into Jacob and boy will I never forget that meeting.

  Me and Taylor had just left the Teignbridge bar and crossed over to head into Hyde Park. Once we stepped off the pavement we collided straight into Mr Green. I was stunned to see him so late. He had his work suit on so I presumed he had given up on our run as well.

/>   “Good evening, Taylor, Ella.”

  He gave me an infuriated nod which made me snigger and snort. As I tried to stand up straight, I ended up catching my heel in the grid and toppling forward straight into his path.

  Jacob dropped his briefcase and quickly caught me with his big, strong arms. I touched his chest and slowly inhaled his delicious scent as he lifted me flat against his torso. I noticed his disposition seemed to change and his appearance softened. He looked down and realised I must have hurt my leg, so he scooped me up with ease and carried me over to the bench.

  I watched Taylor trying to free my wedged heel, while Mr Green concentrated on checking me over for any injuries.

  “Hey sweetheart.” He had said in the most delicate voice I had ever heard.

  “Are you hurt anywhere?”

  He seemed very anxious in case I injured myself, me on the other hand, I felt ridiculous.

  “No, Jacob I’m okay, thank you for helping me. I’m just feeling a little foolish, we best let you go back to wherever you were heading. Taylor and I will sort my shoe out and if not I will just get another pair.”

  His shoulders slumped and he looked devastated.

  “Don’t be stupid, Ella; I’m not leaving you in this condition.” His voice came across as if I had insulted him. Heck, I remember him being extremely annoyed.

  Taylor came swaying and giggling over with half of my shoe in one hand and the heel in the other, trying to put them together, and completely missing with no luck. “I’m sorry angel; it’s the best I could do.”

  Jacob took my shoes from him then turned and gently lifted my chin so our eyes locked onto each other’s.

  “What size are these, sweetheart?”

  It took me a few seconds to take in the entire scenario I was in.

  “Size 5,” I mumbled.

  Jacob observed the both of us with an anxious stare.

  “How many have you two had?” he roared which made us both giggle.

  I went to answer but Taylor had gotten there first. “Only a few bottles of wine to share and angel here wanted two double brandies. Apparently, she had a shit day in work.”