Betrayal Read online

  There was a knock at the door, so Mum got up and walked over to answer it. I heard some voices talking then Aunty Daisy and Uncle James walked into the kitchen with Ollie. With a smile on my face, I walked over to Aunty Daisy for a welcome.

  “Beth, sweetheart!” She came to me with her arms stretched out. I wrapped my arms ‘round her and she gave me a little squeeze.

  “Hi, Aunt Daisy. How are you?”

  “I’m very good thanks.” She said with a smile, “How are you?”

  “I’m OK. Uncle James,” I said looking over from Daisy, “how are you?” Uncle James looked over from talking to Sam.

  “Hello, darling. Keeping well, keeping well. How’s your little business going?” he inquired with his arm still firmly ’round Sam’s shoulders.

  “It’s good, thanks. I’m getting busier every day now.”

  Seeing that Dad was in the middle of talking to Ollie, I just gave him a big smile. I would talk to him later when he wasn’t so busy.

  With all the introductions and welcomes out of the way, we all went into the living room.

  After I had sat down and made small talk for a little while, my mobile rang from my bag. I went over to answer it. Looking at the screen, I saw that it was Megan.

  Megan had been my best friend since I started my first day of secondary school. She was great fun to be around and always there when I needed her most. On the other hand, she had a big mouth, but I still loved her. I left the room to talk to her.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Hi, it’s only me. What’re you up to?”

  “Sam has just got home; with her tasty American boyfriend!” I laughed, waiting for Megan’s reply.

  “What? Oh, my God! No way; you’re joking!”

  “Nope, his name is Russell and he’s pretty damn hot.”

  “I bet you’re dead jealous.”

  Meg could read me like a book, even over the phone. That’s another thing that I wish she didn’t have the ability to do.

  “Yeah, whatever. Look, what do you want? I’m quite busy at the minute.”

  “Hm. I bet you are!”

  “Meg!”

  “OK, OK. Look, I was ringing to say that Joe and Rach are having a party tonight. Are you up for it?”

  “Um, yeah. Sure. What time?”

  “Say, 7:30?”

  “OK, I’ll see you at mine. I gotta go. Sorry.”

  “No probs. See ya.”

  The phone went dead on the other end. Putting it back in my bag, I walked back into the living room. Mum and Dad sat on their brown sofa, talking to Sam and Russell.

  “Who was that?” Mum inquired, as I sat back down.

  “Oh, it was just Megan. She’s on about us going to a party tonight.”

  Sam looked up. She said, “Do you think it would be OK if we went with you?”

  “Yeah, I suppose, if you want. I’ll be leaving mine at 7:30.”

  “OK.”

  I kissed Mum and Dad and said my goodbyes to everybody else. I had a few things to do before I got ready.

  When the doorbell rang, I looked at the clock in my bedroom. Was it half past seven already? Yes, it certainly was. The time had flown by. I rushed to the door. There stood Sam and Russell, both smartly dressed. I closed the door and showed them into the front room.

  “Would either of you like anything to drink?”

  I went in the kitchen, poured Sam a red wine and got Russell a beer. Then I finished getting ready. Within 10 minutes, Meg had arrived and we were ready to go.

  It was Saturday night and the party was heaving! There were fairy lights everywhere. I really didn’t think that Joe was into all this. I considered it, and realised that Rachel would be. When I walked into the house, the scenery changed around me. There were bright, flashing lights in red, green and yellow everywhere.

  This was pretty cool. Joe and Rach had gone to a lot of trouble. Everybody was there, so I started to mingle. It might have been just me, but I thought I kept catching Russell looking in my direction. I just forgot about it, though, and had fun. About half an hour later, I was in the kitchen, and his sweet as sugar voice came from near my ear.

  “Hi, again.”

  As I looked ‘round, there stood Russell. Gorgeous as ever.

  “Um, hi. Are you OK?”

  “Yeah. I just saw that you were on your own. So I thought I would come over and say hi.”

  “Cool. Where’s Sam?”

  “She’s just over there talking to someone called Ben.”

  I looked over to where he was pointing, and saw Sam start to walk over to us. I looked back to Russell.

  “I also wanted to say, you look really nice tonight, Bethenny.” He smiled sweetly and walked off to meet Sam. I was slightly gobsmacked; I wasn’t expecting that. The rest of the evening went well, but Russell and that conversation stayed in the back of my mind.

  Monday morning, I got up and started getting ready for the workday ahead. The phone started ringing, so I answered it

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, is that Beth?”

  “Yes; can I help you?”

  “Hi, Beth! It’s Aunty Daisy. You OK, love?”

  “Oh, hi, Aunt Daisy. Yes, I’m fine, thanks. What can I do for you?”

  “I just had the best thought: as we didn’t see much of you the other day, why don’t you come ’round tonight for dinner? If you’re not busy, that is?”

  I couldn’t think of anything else I had to do and I hadn’t seen them for a while.

  “Yes, that would be lovely. Are Mum and Dad or Sam coming?” There was some talking in the background, then it went quiet. “Hello, Aunt Daisy. Are you there?”

  “Yes. Sorry, love; it’s your Uncle James. He was trying to talk to me. He didn’t realise I was on the phone. No, it will be just you, I’m afraid. Your Mum and Dad have plans and Sam’s busy with her new boyfriend.”

  A flash of Russell wandered into my thoughts. He was very handsome. I started wondering if I would see him again soon.

  “OK, what time?”

  “Come round at eight sharp.”

  “Brilliant. See you then. ’Bye.”

  I put the phone down, and looked at my watch. I was running slightly behind, so I left in a rush. There was nothing unusual in that, though.

  That night, walking as steadily as I could in my red platform court shoes, I rang on Daisy’s doorbell. As I waited for them to answer, I brushed the black-striped short-sleeved fitted shirt and matching black leather pencil skirt I’d bought for an occasion such as this. Ollie appeared at the door entrance and smiled.

  “Hi, Beth. Come on in.” He pointed his arm in the direction in which I should go. Ollie shut the door and followed me.

  Tuesday morning, I woke up to the sunshine beating through my window. It was nice to have some sun. The past couple of weeks had been mostly rain and dapple-gray clouds. Dinner at Aunt Daisy’s the night before had been nice. We’d had a great catch-up. It had been too long since we’d done anything like that. Well, today was a day off from work. Time for some serious shopping with Meg.

  I waited for Meg outside a coffee shop. It was nice and warm in the sun. Birds were singing. A breeze was cool on my face. I felt happy and there wasn’t much could change that.

  When Meg turned up, we went and sat in the coffee shop. I was talking and laughing away to Megan when my phone started ringing. I scooped it out of my bag and answered it. It was Sam. The next words that came out of her mouth made the ground come away from under my feet.

  “Bethenny! Dad’s in hospital!”

  My cup of coffee fell to the floor of the shop. With a smash, the coffee made a large puddle on the floor.

  “Oh, my god!” I gasped out.

  Sam started to talk again. “He had a heart attack.”

  CHAPTER 2

  Sam was crying on the phone, so it was a little hard to understand her. “You have to come now!” she sobbed, then broke the connection on her end.

  Time stood still for what
felt like forever until Megan brought me ‘round, calling my name.

  She said, “Bethenny, what’s wrong? What’s happened?”

  “That was Sam. It’s Dad… I have to go…

  Without thinking, I got up, grabbed my coat and left with Meg on my tail.

  “Beth! Please tell me, what happened?”

  “They think Dad had a heart attack. I have to go to the hospital.”

  “Let me drive. You’re in no fit state to do anything.”

  I gave Megan my bag and raced to my car. Scenery seemed to fly past the car window. I hoped that I wasn’t too late. I hoped he was still alive. Even though we were going very fast, it wasn’t fast enough. All the traffic lights seemed to be red. Poor Mum! I couldn’t imagine what she was going through.

  All of a sudden, the car screeched to a stop. We were at the hospital. I jumped out, ran through the sliding doors and up to the main desk where two nurses and a receptionist were.

  “Yes, um, my Dad was brought in here with a heart attack.”

  The receptionist looked up at me through her glasses.

  “What was the name, please?”

  “Mr. Dempsey.”

  She started to tap the keys on her keyboard, and then looked back up.

  “Go down that hall. Turn left at the end. Then turn left again, then take the second right. It’s room seven”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  As I walked through the pastel blue hospital corridors, my thoughts, for some reason, turned to Russell. Of all the things or people to think of. I wondered how he was taking this; after all, he had just arrived in England.

  As I turned the corner, I saw Mum and Sam sitting on plastic chairs on one side of the corridor. On the other side were Aunty Daisy and Uncle James. Mum looked terrible; like she had been up for days. Sam had her arm around Mum and James was comforting Daisy. The scene looked like a picture from a funeral leaflet. God, I hated doing things like this. Mum and Sam were both fine with their emotions, but I was completely different. Sam looked up to see me.

  “Bethenny! Oh, thank God you’re here.”

  She started to cry again. I couldn’t do that now; not while Mum sat right here. I had to be strong. Moving closer to Sam, I encased her in my arms.

  “Don’t worry. He’s strong. He’ll be fine.” I made it sound like I actually believed what I said. I moved over to Mum and said, “Mum, are you OK?”

  Silently, she looked at me as if through a haze and just nodded her head. I had never seen her like this before. Her silence was the worst thing. If she had been crying, that would have been better. Poor Dad; he had always seemed so strong. All we could do now was pray that he would be all right.

  I looked at Aunty Daisy and asked her, “How are you?” With her plastic cup of coffee in her hand, she smoothed her shoulder-length golden hair behind her ear and smiled.

  “Yes. Thanks, sweetie.” She got up out of her seat and walked over to Mum. Bending down so she was level with Mum’s eyes, she put her hand on Mum’s arm and started rubbing gently. “Would you like me to get you a drink, Gabby?”

  Mum wiped her eyes with a tissue. “No; thank you, Daisy.” Mum patted Daisy’s hand in appreciation. Daisy went and sat back down.

  “Where’s Russell?” I asked as it suddenly occurred to me that he was missing.

  Sam said, “Oh, um, he should be back soon. He dropped me off and then went to the appointment we had with an estate agent.”

  Puzzled, I asked, “Estate agents?”

  Sam looked at my wondering face. “We’re looking for a place to start living permanently.”

  “Oh, right.” The corridor went back to stony silence. The atmosphere was as if everyone was frightened to speak to each other. In some ways, their silence spoke a thousand words. It was strange. Everyone in this small space was worried about each other. We were all worried for Dad who lay in a hospital bed all on his own.

  I really disliked it being so quiet, and asked, “Aunty Daisy, how’s Ollie?” She looked up, shocked that somebody had uttered a word.

  “He’s doing very well, Bethenny. Thank you for asking.”

  “Does he like living in Germany?”

  “Yes, I think he does.”

  “How long has he been there?” You could see her working it out in her head.

  “About ten years now. Is that right, James, ten years?”

  Uncle James nodded his head up and down. He said, “Yes, Daisy. Ten years. My, how time flies.”

  You could tell that they felt awkward talking like this here. So I just left the conversation at that. It reverted to silence.

  Then, without a warning, the quiet was broken.

  “Mrs. Dempsey?”

  All five of us looked round to see a white-cloaked doctor. The doctor couldn’t have been much older than I was.

  Mum stood up. “Yes?”

  Moving her medium brown hair out of her eyes, the doctor told Mum, “Your husband’s condition is stable at the minute. He will have to stay in hospital for tonight, though.”

  “Was it his heart?”

  “At this moment we can’t say for sure. There are still more tests that we have to do. As soon as we know, we will tell you. For now though, go home and get some sleep.”

  “Thank you.”

  With that, the doctor was gone. I turned back to Mum. “If you want to go home, Mum, I can stay.”

  “No, love; it’s all right. I’ll be staying for a little while yet.”

  Her eyes were bloodshot. If anyone else had seen her right then, they would have sworn she had gone 10 rounds with a heavyweight boxer and lost. I didn’t know what else to say or do. Her and Dad had been together for 34 years. She didn’t know any other life.

  Sitting there, I started to reminisce of past times with Dad. Such as the time he tried taking me fishing and I fell into the river. I just remember Dad paddling in after me. The water was icy cold, There was a picture of Dad and me post-swim. We looked like a set of drowned rats.

  I could laugh about it now. Mum wasn’t so happy to see us when we walked in the kitchen. All she kept going on about was how wet the car seats were. He didn’t take me fishing for a couple of years after that escapade.

  Then there was the Christmas that he decided that he wanted a real Christmas tree. Not a four-foot or even a five-foot one. No, he went and got a nine-foot tree. It wouldn’t even fit in the house. Again, Mum was furious, and he spent most of Christmas Eve cutting it down trying to get it to fit. There were pine needles all over the floors through the house. That wasn’t the best Christmas we had as a family, but it was definitely the funniest.

  I suddenly couldn’t cope with everything, so I decided to take a walk and clear my mind a little. My mind was beginning to feel like my computer at home; too crowded with unwanted information.

  I announced, “I’m just going to get myself a drink. Where’s the machine?”

  Mum looked at me. “The next flight up.” She pointed at what I could only guess were the hospital stairs.

  “I’ll be two minutes.”

  As I walked up the stairs, a huge wave of relief washed over me. It was like a surfer surfing “the big one.” Tears started to stream down my face. Within seconds, I was sobbing. I stopped and sat down on the stairs with my face in my hands.

  Someone said, “Are you OK?”

  Startled, I lifted my face to see who had just spoken to me. Through a tearful blur, I saw Russell. Without any control over my emotions, I burst into tears again.

  He slid over to sit next to me, put his arms both sides of my shaking body and cradled me like an infant. I looked into his eyes and felt myself being swept away. Wiping away my hot tears with his thick thumbs, he leaned in close to my face until his soft, warm lips pressed firmly against mine. My head began to whirl. I was in complete and utter ecstasy. Inside, I was torn between what I wanted and what was right. Suddenly, without warning, he pulled away.

  I looked at him. I was stunned by what had happened. I couldn�
�t comprehend what had made him kiss me and then pull away.

  He said, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. That shouldn’t have happened.”

  He got up and quickly walked back to where he had come from. It took me a few minutes to set my head straight. Did he really want to do that or had he been caught up in the moment?

  It felt like he’d wanted to kiss me. Wiping my eyes, I slowly stood and went on to the drinks machine. I was worried that he would go down and tell Sam what had happened, but a small piece of me hoped that he did.

  I was reluctant to go back down to see Mum, but I know I had to. I arrived to find that Sam and Russell had gone.

  “Hi,” I whispered to Mum. “Where’s Sam?”

  “Oh, Sam was tired, so they went back to get some rest. She’s exhausted.”

  Obviously, Russell hadn’t said anything.

  “What’s happening with Dad now?”

  “They’ll probably get the test results tomorrow. If all is well, he should be out in a couple of days.”

  “Are you going home tonight?”

  “No. I expect I’ll stay here, just to be sure that he’s out of the woods. You can go if you want. I’ll be fine.”

  “OK, Mum. I’ll be back in tomorrow, all right?”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you too, Mum.”

  I gave Mum a kiss on her forehead. I turned ‘round to Aunty Daisy and Uncle James and kissed and hugged them both.

  I walked out of the hospital and realized that it had started raining again. As Megan had driven my car back to my house, I had to get a taxi.

  In the taxi, my mind started to wander back to that kiss. What had it meant? With my head beginning to ache, I leaned it on the cold taxi window to ease the throbbing. Between all the crying and the rain rapping against the window, I started to feel sleepy. My eyelids moved slowly down.

  I woke with a jump and eventually realized that I was being shouted at.

  “Miss! Miss! We’re here! At the address that you wanted? Miss?” The driver shook my arm.

  I was still in the warmth of the cab. Pulling myself out into the cold of the wind and rain, I paid for my fare. I walked upstairs in a haze and slumped into bed. I immediately fell back into my slumber. I had a dream about chasing Russell. Every time I got near to him, though, he would end up another mile away from me.