Chapter 1
Driving home that night with him tied up in the back as silent as a mouse gave me a therapeutic feeling. it was as if what i had just done cured me of all my mental issues. the adrenaline still pumped through my body as i looked in my mirror and saw his almost lifeless body laying on the back seat, hands behind his back, feet bound together and mouth gaffa taped shut. it was dark and only a few flickering street lamps lit up the car enough for me to see his face.
i’ll tell you how it started…
me and charles lived a lovely life, married at eighteen, our own home at nineteen. it was perfect. every morning at exactly ten minutes past five Charles would leave for work, at least i thought that’s what he was doing. he worked at an old factory in the city making things for the businesses that were set up in the city. i was left at home six days a week and on a sunday he would have off and we would go on walks or picnics. we had a few friends in the street we lived in who were our age, they were all married and were starting families. we tried multiple times to have a child of our own but it just never happened.
i remember it was a saturday night and Charles came home later than usual which was very unlike him as he would always try to get in early so he could have dinner with me, but this one saturday night. He came in at around twelve minutes past eleven at night and i had just got into bed. it had been a long day for me and i was tired so couldn’t wait up much longer. i heard him come in and get his dinner from the table that i had put a cloth over and left for when he arrived. i could hear him pull out the chair and sit down and then the sound of knives and forks cutting his food. i lay in bed staring at the ceiling for a while hoping he wasn’t going to be too much longer so i could see him just before i fell asleep.
eventually he came upstairs and into the bedroom. he sat on the end of the bed and looked at me. “How was work?” i asked sleepily. he didn’t look as though he wanted to talk, he sat slumped with his head down staring at the floor. “well?” i remember asking but still he didn’t say a word. he finally got up, slowly, then looked at me with no expression on his face.
“i didn’t go, i haven’t been going for a while now. infact i got fired from the factory five months ago” he finally replied in a deep croaky voice. i was confused, as anyone would be after their husband telling them they have been fired from a job five months ago and has been lying.
it took me a while to realise but his face gave it away. “i’ve been seeing-…” he started. “i know” i cut him off mid sentence as i didn’t think my ears could bear to hear any more. he looked stunned and embarrassed. as if he had just seen a ghost. “i’m sorry” he begged. i turned over, i could feel the anger and the tears trying to pierce through my skin and then i felt numb. i wanted to scream but no words would come out. i was completely emotionless. he walked out of the bedroom and back down the stairs. i assumed he was going to sleep on the sofa until i heard the front door slam shut and his foot prints across the gravel pathway.
a year later he married Josephine who was the lady he had an affair with. Josephine was a young short girl, only turned eighteen a month before Charles turned twenty one. She had long blonde hair which was always curled and in a half up half down hair style, she never forgot to wear her butterfly clip in her hair either which held the hair up and out of her petite face. She was skinny, very elegant in the way she dressed and walked. she was from a posh family who lived in a country town and had moved to the city.
I knew they had married, news used to travel quickly where i lived. i was heartbroken but there wasn’t much i could do about it. when they married they moved to a little cottage a few miles away from where i lived. it was all by itself in the country surrounded by forests, the perfect little get away. The cottage was posh, it had three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a big garden. i used to drive past it all the time, although, it was far away so you wouldn’t notice there was a cottage there, the only way you’d know is if they had a fire going and you could see the smoke hovering above the trees.
I was severely heartbroken, my husband had walked out on me never to be seen again and a year later he’s married to another woman doing the things we did. I knew a few people who were friends with Josephine and Charles so i would feed off information from them. It was a winters night and i was feeling quite lonely so i went to one of them friends houses, her name was Winnie. Winnie told me that Josephine and Charles were trying for a baby but were so far unsuccessful, my heart shattered. i felt as though i couldn’t move. i had frozen still on the sofa. i finished my tea and told winnie i was to be up early in the morning so had to make my way home.
i walked back to my house as quick as i could in my heels and when i finally reached home i ran inside and closed all of my curtains and locked all my windows. i ran around the house picking up things such as a bag, knives, ropes and some money i had hidden under my mattress. i ran outside making sure i locked my door and jumped into my car.
i don’t really remember much of the driving. it was more of a blur than anything really. the twenty mile drive from my town to where Josephine and Charles lived was quiet and dark. when i finally pulled up to their house i sat in my car wondering what to do next. i pulled into the drive way and parked my car to the side behind some trees so it couldn’t be seen and then jumped out to walk the rest of the way.
i could see there were no lights on so knew they were in bed. i creeped round the front of the cottage and peeked through the windows but couldn’t seem to see anything. i slipped round the back of the cottage to the back door and tried the handle which opened and i got in. i had a look round the living room which was filled with photographs of Charles and Josephine. the anger filled my body once more.
