33
Ella
September 2018
W hen I’m lying in bed with Bailey being my little spoon, I take a chance and look at my social media. With Dean knowing where I am, there’s no reason not to log in and take a look. I keep my chat offline and scroll through the few messages on my wall asking if I’m okay and to get in contact with them. There are a few posts on my wall with random pictures of me on a missing person poster that seem to have been shared far and wide across random groups and our old sociology group. I notice that people have gotten onto Matty’s wall to ask him where he’s been recently.
Are people that thick? Two people who they know are together, despite not being ‘Facebook official’ as people call it, have disappeared, and they don’t put two and two together? Or are they just keeping it quiet because they know we haven’t made ourselves official on social media?
I log off and cuddle up properly with Bailey as the door opens and Matty walks in quietly. Bailey starts snoring just as he clambers into bed and moulds himself around me.
“I think we should put an offer down on that house,” he whispers. “I know you’re awake.”
“I think we should move elsewhere, Matty. We can’t be na?ve enough to think that that’ll be the last we see of Dean or any of them.”
“No, but I also think we shouldn’t run away from our problems. They can do what they like at this point. We need to face it head-on,” he says. “With any hope, the fact that you’ve completely gone against this pact will give old Anthony and Amelia a heart attack or five and they’ll be out—”
“Matt,” I warn. “We’ve run away from our problems for three years now.”
“Exactly why we need to face up to them. We should put an offer down tomorrow; we have the deposit money stashed away, once the sale of the penthouse goes through, we can pay the rest of the mortgage off. We move, get married in two weeks, and along the way, we just deal with it. This is the time, Ells, where we take a stand.”
I sigh and don’t answer him. The idea of fleeing everyone and everything is so enticing. Our lives have been one thousand times easier without stress. If I could carry on the life of a runaway with Matty, I would. But deep down, I know he’s got a point. I don’t know how I could look Anthony or Amelia in the eyes without mentioning their disgusting crimes. To me, Anthony is just as bad for sweeping his wife’s crime under the carpet. I don’t think I could look into my father’s eyes again for knowing about it and using it to get what he wants.
I assume my mum knows, otherwise, why would she have agreed to all of this? There is no way she can’t know, which makes her just as culpable as the others. It also makes sense as to why she was more on my side than anyone else, and why she didn’t want this for me.
“We will get through this, Ells Bells. We’ve come this far,” Matt whispers into my shoulder blade. The words get absorbed into my skin and float around my bloodstream until they reach my heart. I know he believes we will, and to some extent, I know we will. But now, I feel like the people of Pompeii instead of the volcano, and I’m waiting on the edge of the city, waiting for the volcano to erupt.
∞∞∞
“Oh look, it’s been an excellent day! We’ve heard our song on the radio on the way here, we’ve just bought our first home, well my first home anyway, oh, and we move in a month, get married in a week. It’s like the world is being kind to us today!” Matt grins as he starts the car the next day.
“Yeah, the world is looking down on you because the estate agent knows we had the money, Matty. If we walked in there and applied for a mortgage, you bet your bottom dollar it wouldn’t have gone that smoothly.”
“I mean, to be fair, you’re right. We’ll recoup the losses when the sale goes through anyway,” he says nonchalantly. I roll my eyes. “And once I get a job. Now we have a house, that’s next on the list of things to do.”
“I better look—”
“Ells, I know you hated the thought of being a housewife, but you’re pregnant. Maybe in a year. For now, focus on the baby,” he says. “Not to mention once you get your name out there around this area, it’ll be easier for them to track us.”
“They know where we are, Matt. Don’t be na?ve to think they don’t. I’m surprised we haven’t heard anything yet. It’s been a week since Dean appeared. We’re literally on a ticking time bomb here.”
He doesn’t answer me, and the impending doom swirls in the pit of my stomach – though it could be gas.
“What about moving my stuff from the penthouse?”
“Nick said he’d help me. We’ll hire a moving van. To be honest, now Dean knows, it doesn’t matter who goes. The place isn’t yours for too much longer. He and I will go closer to the time if you give us a list of what you want. We’ll hire someone to ditch the rest. Easy-peasy. You and Bailey can have a relaxing afternoon to yourselves.”
I nod in response as we pull back up at Nick’s home. We both climb out of the car and shut the doors behind us.
“Just think, Ells Bells, in exactly one week, we will have been married for a day already!” He grabs my hand as we walk into the house.
I smile as Bailey starts jumping at me, excitedly trying to lick my face.
“Ells.”
“Hmm?”
He appears in the lounge with a grin on his face.
“What have you done, and how much did it cost?”
He hands me a parcel addressed to him. “I was going to keep it a secret, but it’s just arrived, and I can’t!” He grins, those eyes sparkling their dark glitter at me, and we both know it makes me melt. I take the package and open it up to reveal a ring box.
“Matty, we said no—”
“Yeah, well, I don’t need a ring, I’m using this one.” He gestures to the promise ring on his ring finger. “I wanted to get you something.”
I open the ring box; a silver band with sparkling diamonds sits there. It’s perfect, simple, and it matches well with his mother’s ring. “Matty, it’s gorgeous.”
“You like it?”
“I love it, thank you!” I smile, putting my arms around his neck.
“If you want, we can go and get you a new engagement ring too, to go with it. Then you can have—”
“I’ve already told you; I don’t want a new one. I love this one. It has more meaning behind it, Matty,” I tell him. “I’d rather have these rings. I don’t need fancy, massive things to show off. I’d be honoured to keep wearing your mum’s engagement ring. Whatever happened to her wedding ring?”
“We buried it with her,” he says. “We thought it would be a nice thing to keep the engagement ring for something like this, or at least to keep it as a reminder, like the necklace. We kept both their wedding rings with them just so they had something with them down there. I don’t believe in that, but Nick suggested it.”
“That’s lovely, though,” I say. “I bet wherever they are, they’re proud of you both. With Nick becoming a teacher like they were, with you getting your degree.”
“Somehow I don’t think they’d be proud that I fell for someone who was already technically engaged, and then ran away with her and got her pregnant, endangering all three of us.”
His eyes dull in that sad puppy-dog way he always does.
“Matty, they’d be bloody proud of you for everything. Including standing up for what you believe in. I mean, hopefully, they would approve of me, but I think they’d be proud that they’d raised you.”
“I hope they’d be proud.”
“I think they would be.” I kiss him; it’s a sad, bittersweet kiss that neither of us is really into. Something about talking about the dead doesn’t make what should have been a romantic moment, romantic. But this is the only way I know how to assure him properly that I appreciate him, and that he has unconditional and true love forever, no matter what.