Chapter 24 #3
“Ms DuMont,” Collins cut me off harshly, practically glaring daggers at me in warning before turning with a smile to face DCI Ramsbottom.
“You wish to speak to my client. Can we do that here or are you expecting to hold this informal discussion at the nearest station?”
“Oh,” That one word from my lips sounded like a wail.
Heck, it was a wail.
I started to fidget on my feet, already visualizing the police leading me away in handcuffs.
And why was Collins now calling me solely by my maiden name?
It had been Mrs Bradley before the cops showed up.
“We want her statement on record,” DCI Ramsbottom confirmed.
“Oh,” This ‘oh’ sounded more desperate, teary-like.
I wrung my hands together and Dante began to fidget too.
It was catching.
“Fine. We’ll come to the station today and my client will give her statement. This will be cleared up today .” Collins wasn’t messing around.
I wondered if he could speak to the police as such and not catch a case himself.
“Oh,” My third ‘oh’ was barely above a whisper.
“We have a production on,” Dante exclaimed, starting to pace then pausing when DCI Sturridge gave him the evil eye.
“We’re putting on performances each night this week. You can’t do this-”
“We’ll be needing to speak to you too, Mr Palmer,” DCI Ramsbottom added.
“What?” Dante looked pale, and I meant pale for a ‘chock-full of beautiful melanin’ person.
His dark skin tone literally went ashy with trepidation before my eyes.
“But – why – I-”
We exchanged glances.
We were both shitting it now.
“Oh,” Dante let out his ‘oh’ in a huff.
False bluster, maybe?
Collins sighed loudly then said, “I’ll be representing them both. There is no conflict of interest as the warrant is in line with funds being passed through the company. They are both named as company directors and I’ll be representing the company as a whole. Right, Ms DuMont?”
“Right.” I agreed quietly.
“Now once your people have collected whatever unnecessary evidence you think is pertinent to this case,” Collins drawled.
“My clients and I will meet you at the station of your choosing to give their statements today .”
Dante and I looked at each other once more.
One way or another, it seemed Collins was going to sort this out today.
What had Geoffrey done?
What had he involved me and my company in?
Shit.
I couldn’t do jail time!
Aunt Cleo was going to murder me for shaming our family.
Oh fuck.
If I got sent down, would I have to give birth in prison?
The Courts wouldn’t send a pregnant lady to prison, would they?
What the hell was I thinking about that for?
I had done nothing wrong.
“We’re innocent.” I shouted in desperation, startling almost everyone in my office.
“Yes, you are,” Collins nodded and patted my shoulder.
“Don’t worry about a thing. Now don’t speak unless I advise you to and let me handle this.”
I stayed quiet.
Dante stayed quiet.
We were both probably wondering about extradition laws and whether we could hop a plane back home before the end of today.
“Can I talk to you?”
“Always, son.” William Jr glanced askance at Matt, swishing the whiskey around in his tumbler as they stood side by side.
“You are staying for dinner, right darling? I’ve just told the staff to set another place for you.” Portia Bradley bustled back into the informal drawing room, beaming widely in delight over Matt’s unexpected visit.
“Mum, I’m not stopping,” Matt added a smile to his words to lessen the blow.
“I just need to have a word with Dad.”
“Nonsense,” she huffed.
“Of course you’re staying for dinner. You drove all the way here and I’m not letting you leave without making sure you eat. Plus it will be nice to have a catch up. You’re always too busy for me of late.”
“Mum,” Matt sighed.
“It’s a flying visit. I’m not staying for dinner.”
Portia shrugged, a smug gleam to her eyes as she said with motherly coyness, “I’ve already told Grumps you’re staying. He’ll be down shortly.”
William snorted in amusement at Matt’s grunt of defeat.
“Have you forgotten how devious your mother can be?”
“I’m not devious,” Portia chastised before waltzing over to offer her cheek for the obligatory kiss.
“Your sister and the girls are on their way also. They should be here in half an hour.”
“For crying out loud,” Matt didn’t bother keeping his annoyance in check.
Portia tapped her cheek with a well-manicured finger.
“Hush. They come to dinner at least once a week regardless of what they have going on and it has nothing to do with your arrival today.”
Matt narrowed his eyes at her before pressing a dutiful kiss to her cheek.
“Much better,” Portia stepped back and quickly appraised him.
“You look terrible, Matthew. Are you taking care of yourself?” She turned to her husband.
“He looks terrible, doesn’t he?”
Matt closed his eyes and took a long, deep breath.
“Leave our boy alone,” William Jr warned jokingly.
“He’s fine.”
“He will be,” Portia frowned.
“Did Adam tell you we will all be spending Christmas and the New Year on the Cotswolds estate? I hope you’ve made the necessary arrangements. A few days out there and you’ll be back to your old self.”
Matt opened his eyes.
“No, he didn’t. I thought we were doing Christmas here, as usual.”
“I decided it would be best for us all to get away,” Portia explained.
“I did consider a family trip abroad, but you know what Grumps is like.”
Matt pinched his nose bridge while taking another calming breath.
“I’m sure it’ll be lovely.” He gave his dad a pointed look.
William jerked to attention and placed a gentle hand on his wife’s back, slowly ushering her forward.
“Matthew wants a private word, sweetheart. Why don’t you check on Dad for me? See what the old codger is getting up to before dinner.”
“Is it about work?” Portia fumed with maternal concern.
“Really, William. Can’t you ease up on him? And don’t you dare yell at him like you did with Adam last night on the phone. I overheard you and I am not pleased with the way you micro-manage the boys. This retirement of yours is nothing more than a farce.”
“Darling,” William interrupted her when Matt made a strangled sound of exasperation.
“We won’t be long. I promise you’ll have all of dinner to monopolize his time. Give us a few minutes, ok?”
“Humph.” She snorted, her chin lifted haughtily.
“Fine. I will be expecting you in the salon for pre-dinner drinks in twenty minutes, not a second more.”
“Mum, please,” Matt called wearily.
Portia’s features softened as she observed him.
Then she stepped away from William’s touch on her back to hug Matt tightly.
“My poor darling. What am I to do with you? Hmm?”
Matt managed a small grin, slightly perturbed by her sudden physical show of affection.
“What am I to do with you ?” he teased in an effort to lighten the worry he saw on her face.
“Unscheduled hugs? Have you written me out of the will and now feel some form of parental guilt?”
“Oh behave,” Portia laughed, but took a moment to stroke his cheek before moving away.
Arching an eyebrow at her husband, she left her reminder, “Twenty minutes then no more business.”
She swept out the room, leaving the lingering trace of her perfume on the air and the sharp slam of the door ringing in their ears.
Matt said nothing for a few seconds, and his dad didn’t immediately press for answers.
The seconds turned to minutes and still the words wouldn’t come.
“What is it, Matty?” His father finally asked, worry made his tone rushed and harsh.
“You can tell me anything. You know that.”
“I found out from my solicitor that Madi’s pregnant. She’s carrying another man’s child and I bloody despise her, Dad.” Matt blurted out angrily.
“I need you to tell me what to do because right now I just want to wring her fucking neck. You’re my father and I need you to help me, man to man, because I want nothing more than to see her suffer for this.”
William let out a heavy sigh.
“Son, your mother and I didn’t raise you to resolve your problems when you’re in the throes of anger, it’s beneath people like us. Now I don’t know exactly what went on between yourself and Madison,” He shrugged his shoulders.
“Your brother was vague with his brief explanation. But I do know whatever you’re feeling right now will pass. Trust me.”
Matt ground his teeth together, completely unsatisfied with his father’s response to his most painful confession.
How could he possibly be certain what Matt was going through would pass?
He had come to his father instead of unburdening himself to Adam, in the hope that the older Bradley would no doubt be wiser.
Adam didn’t understand marriage, but their father would.
He needed advice.
“It’s her best friend. Bloody Dante Palmer.” Matt spat out.
“I can’t even get my head around that. She never wanted children with me.” Matt clenched his fists in an effort not to punch the wall.
“Said it would ruin her career. But she’s more than willing to have a child with him ? She’s a fucking racist. She didn’t want my baby, but she’ll have his . It’s what she’s always wanted deep down: the perfect black family with her beautiful black baby. And it’ll be beautiful. Palmer’s not a bad looking chap, and Madi, well, she’s…beautiful. Her baby will be perfect and I bloody despise her. Was the thought of it so distasteful to her? Having a child with me? We’re not even divorced and she’s already moved on. How can she do this to me? I know I’m not a saint but Christ Almighty, I don’t deserve this. Do you think I deserve this? Is this some divine form of payback for my previous behaviour? If so, it’s not bloody fair. You’ve done much worse than I could ever do and nothing this bad has happened to you. Tell me what to do, because I want to fucking kill her.”
“Firstly, you need to calm down,” William put the tumbler he’d been holding down on the nearest surface.
“Dad, she’s my wife and I,” Matt stopped speaking.
He was past angry.
How could she do this?
Knowing he had wanted a child with her and cruelly denying him the chance only to let bloody Palmer impregnate her!
She was a selfish, racist bitch.
“You love her, I know,” William said with sympathy.
“I know you do. I knew it from the first moment I saw you two together, and although your mother won’t admit, she did also.”
Matt’s face twisted as a self-deprecating laugh fell from his lips.
“It’s not done me any good now, has it?”
His father was silent for a moment.
Then he said quietly, “Your mother left me once.”
Matt’s mouth parted in shock and his father nodded slowly.
“Oh yes, of course we told everyone in our social circles she was visiting extended family, but truthfully,” He chuckled sadly.
“I had no idea where she was. Hannah was only about a month old, and she took her.
“Mum left you?
” Matt was incredulous.
His mother was such a stickler for appearances.
The thought of her running away from his father, with a new baby no less, was mind-boggling.
“It was my fault,” William hastened to say.
“Don’t blame your mother. It was all my fault. I,” He cleared his throat.
“Well, I was less than faithful at a time when she needed me the most…pregnancy didn’t agree with your mother. She’s always had a ghastly time of it. I thought after Hannah she would never have another,” William sent him a paternal smile.
“But she went on to have my two boys, Adam and you. Quite brave of her, if I do say so myself.”
“You were unfaithful while she was pregnant?” Matt scowled at his father.
“I’m not proud of what I’ve done,” he replied tartly.
“And you continued being unfaithful,” Matt shook his head in disgust.
“This isn’t helping, Dad.”
“She came back,” William explained.
“Dad, your Grumps, completely lost his rag and hired this man to hunt her down. Do you remember the house in Burgundy? In Cote d’Or? It was quite old and had that working well which fascinated you children.”
Matt shook his head slowly.
“Ah,” William rubbed his chin, uncertainty etched on his face.
“I’m sure we sold it long after you were old enough to remember the place. Are you sure you don’t-”
“I don’t remember, Dad,” Matt interrupted tersely.
“Mmm,” he grumbled.
“Perhaps you were too young to remember. We didn’t holiday there often when you were small. Anyway, it belonged to your Mum’s father, he inherited the property from his mother. Terribly costly to maintain the bloody thing. I practically had to force your mother to sell it.”
“Dad,” Matt pressed, wanting him to get to the point.
“She hid out in Burgundy,” William admitted with a small smile.
“Two months, I had no idea where she was with my Hannah. It drove me to the brink, not knowing. You see, she never spoke of her father much, what with the circumstances of his passing,”
Matt tried not to sigh in exasperation.
Passing.
They all knew his maternal grandfather had committed suicide when his mother was only a young girl.
It was never spoken of.
The old death certificate stated accidental death by misadventure.
Anything else would have been too humiliating for his mother’s family to endure.
“Obviously I had no inkling of her Burgundy property in those days, as I said she never really spoke about him,”
“Dad,” Matt was impatient.
His father waved a hand through the air.
“Grumps paid this man to find her and he did. Then Grumps brought her home. I never found out what he said to her, but she returned with your sister in tow and I assumed all was forgiven.”
Matt raised a disbelieving eyebrow at his father’s words.
William smirked, a thoroughly mocking smirk it was.
“I was young and thought her two months disappearing act, with my firstborn, was punishment enough.”
“I gather Mum didn’t think so,” Matt retorted dryly.
“No,” William’s face fell for a split second before he smiled again at Matt.
“She did not. We loved each other, yes; but she never looked at me the same again. She never trusted me completely afterwards.”
“Understandably,” Matt drawled without a hint of compassion for his father.
Matt knew exactly what his mother felt.
Once the trust was broken, it was bloody broken.
“My point is, she stayed but she wasn’t really mine anymore, not the way she used to be.” Again a flicker of sadness washed over William’s features.
“And nothing I did could take us back to the people we were, so I continued to be,” He shrugged and avoided Matt’s gaze.
“A philanderer,” Matt suggested brusquely.
“Yes. She had her relationships and I had mine.”
“Dad.” Matt staggered a little, just a little.
“I did not need to have that verbalized. Look, we all know you and Mum don’t have the healthiest of marriages but I need advice on my failed marriage. No offence, but a marriage resembling yours was the last thing I wanted.”
William huffed then tilted his head in begrudging acknowledgement to his son’s brutal and honest opinion.
“Can you forgive her?”
Matt stared at his father for a few moments.
“Well, can you?” William asked again.
“No,” Matt half-shouted.
“I can’t forgive her. Maybe…maybe if she wasn’t pregnant. I don’t know…I would always be thinking what if she…I can’t forgive her.”
“Then there’s your answer,” William went to reclaim his tumbler, took a substantial sip, then picked up a matching glass and poured some whiskey out for Matt.
“If you can’t truly forgive her, it’s best to end it as cleanly as possible.” He handed over the glass.
“Your mother forgave me, in her own way. Mind you, forgiveness from your mother is my own personal form of purgatory. Being with the woman you love the most when you know she no longer loves you…it’s purgatory, son. You’re lucky, you can start afresh, put this terrible business behind you and-”
“And what?” Matt cut him off.
“Find someone else?”
“Yes.” William agreed as Matt took the tumbler from him and drank the whiskey down in one long gulp.
Eyeing his son, William continued, “Someone more suitable. I know I’ve not been a very vocal fan of Madison, but I could always see the love you had for her. I respected that, but it’s time to move on, she has, so should you.”
Matt nodded slowly, mulling over his father’s words.
“You’re right, I know this. I guess, I needed to hear it from someone else.”
“Of course, I’m right. I’m your father, damn it.” William said with bluster.
The right pocket of Matt’s trousers vibrated.
Pulling out his mobile he chuckled with a bitterness which made his father step closer in concern.
“Speak of the devil,” he said in a dark voice.
“I’ll leave you to take that,” William said softly when he caught a glimpse of his daughter-in-law’s picture flashing on the screen.
“Do try and stay calm.”
Matt watched his father hurry out the room and quietly close the door before answering the call.
“Yes?”
“Hi, it’s me,” she greeted.
Matt remained silent, eyes narrowing as he moved to pour himself another drink.
“I’m just about to head on stage, but uh, well I wanted to speak to you, to thank you for sending Collins,” she rushed her words.
“I would have called earlier but the police interview took so long, then we had to get prepared for tonight’s show, and-” She took a deep breath.
“How did you know? I mean, you knew, right? That’s why your lawyer turned up here today.”
“I suspected something,” Matt confirmed as his regret over answering the call in the first place increased.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she sounded upset now.
“How could you keep this from me, Matt? You always had a go at me for keeping secrets. Why would keep something like this from me? How long have you known? I don’t – why didn’t you tell me?”
“I’ve had my suspicions since the initial background check at the very beginning of our relationship, and I didn’t tell you because I quite like my freedom.” Matt snorted.
“Tipping off is a criminal offence, one which is punishable by up to two years imprisonment and or a fine. Knowing the type of person you are, humph, I couldn’t risk you inadvertently blabbing to that unsavoury solicitor of yours.”
He heard her sharp intake of breath, knew she was deeply hurt by his barbed insult, and he hardened his resolve.
“You knew for that long? Wow. It all makes sense now. The way you acted…you only sent Collins to protect yourself, didn’t you?” she asked with trembling words.
“Because we’re still married and I still have Bradley on my surname.”
“You can be quite clever sometimes, not often, but sometimes.” Matt delivered the nasty jab with some measure of satisfaction.
Never mind it was a lie.
Never mind the real reason he had sent Collins was because he wanted to protect her.
Never mind he felt – viciously stopping that train of thought, Matt continued with cold determination.
“I hear congratulations are in order.”
There was an uncomfortable pause on her end.
He could hear the faint background noises, pick out a few strident voices yelling instructions.
Matt wondered about her new performance.
He had spotted a harsh review in the Arts and Culture section of Nathan’s newspaper yesterday.
The bugger had probably deliberately left it open on that page.
“Collins told you,” she finally said.
“He did.” Matt couldn’t be any colder.
“Thank you for making it much easier to facilitate a favourable outcome for me in our impending divorce. By the way, how long were we separated before you and Dante started fucking?”
“Matt, I,” she stopped, then started again.
“I need to tell you something. There’s something you should know,”
Matt ignored her faltering words and forged on.
“Does he know you were fucking around on me before? That you’re incapable of true loyalty? But if we’re honest, you’ve always been far more loyal to him than me.”
“Matt, please, just listen ,” her voice was thick with tears.
He could hear that quite clearly.
“Listen to what?” he hissed down the line.
“Your oh-so-sad explanation of how you ended up sleeping with him? I don’t care. I can’t wait until you’re out of my life for good. You are, without doubt, the biggest mistake I have ever made. Truly, you are.”
There were little sniffles coming from her side, then, “About what Collins told you, I – they’re, well, I may not have been clear – I mean, I didn’t mean to be so unclear, or maybe I did - I was scared and – look, you’re the, what I’m trying to say is that Dante-”
“Do you think I have nothing better to do than listen to your nonsensical babble? I don’t give a fuck, poppet. ” His scathing interruption caused her shocked gasp to whisper down the line between them.
“The only reason I sent Collins was to ensure my family name didn’t get dragged through the muck by association with you and that criminal character! Whatever we had is over. I don’t love you, and you obviously feel the same; the fact you’re pregnant with Dante’s – I always knew you and that wanker-” He took a ragged breath to calm himself.
“You know what? Good luck with whatever you do in your life, it no longer concerns me.”
“Ok,” she replied in such a small voice it made him cringe.
“Thank you, for getting Collins to sort it out. I’m eternally grateful for that, he’s a great lawyer, I’d probably be in jail right now if he hadn’t been there. Thank you. A-and I’m really sorry for everything else. I tried, just know that I did try. I do love you, even if you don’t believe me and I hate you for what you did to us, but I love you all the same. Goodbye.”
The sudden dial tone in his ear signified she’d ended the call, stealing the malicious and wholly childish opportunity away from him.
The cheeky little thing!
Matt glared at the mobile in his hand before tossing back the drink he’d poured while speaking to her.
His eyes burned.
He staunchly assured himself it was the effects of the strong whiskey.
It had to be.
It had nothing to do with the growing ache and jealousy inside him.
It had nothing to do with the fact he desperately lamented that his poppet’s unborn child should have been his.
That baby should have been his, but it wasn’t.
Matt’s eyes watered and he hastily poured himself another shot of whiskey which he promptly downed.
The alcohol, it was the alcohol which made his eyes burn.
She didn’t love him.
Her words were lies.
She was a proven liar and he could have any woman he wanted.
The life he’d imagined with her was over.
The dream now lying in the ruins of a living nightmare.
He would move on with his life.
Money and success, he didn’t need anything more.