42
Dean
October 4th, 2018
To say Dean was pissed off was an understatement. As he stared at the paperwork in front of him, he knew he had the plan right there; it was staring him in the face.
He just ran the risk of it not being good enough. It was too little, too late because Ella was on her way to her appointment by now, Matthew was beaten up back at his house.
That was, at least, how the plan was meant to go. Dean knew she was up to something, and that something would mean she wouldn’t be attending that appointment, and she probably wouldn’t be going back to her parents either. He just wished he knew what her plan was, and whatever it involved, he hoped for that unborn child’s sake, as well as Ella’s, that it worked. If it did, she would be a valuable asset to what he was cooking up as he stared at the ‘contract’ on his desk.
The problem was that he didn’t know what was coming next, and that made him feel unsettled. He didn’t like surprises, not one bit.
He glanced at his clock:
Three.
Two.
One.
“Dean, I thought I told you to have a few days off?”
Just as Dean had predicted, his father waltzed into his office without bothering to knock.
“I needed peace,” Dean lied. “Best place to get it right now is here.”
“Your mother is phoning the registry office this morning. We should have a date for Ella to go in and cancel her notice to this… orphan boy and we can finally get this mess sorted out.”
Merely a month ago, Dean wouldn’t have blanched at that phrase, but this was his present.
“You don’t look happy, son.” Anthony stepped further into his office. Dean watched his father closely. “You can finally be married to Ella; you’re still the next in line to take my role when I retire. Which… I was thinking. My wedding gift to you, Dean… I will retire when you wed her. Meaning you’ll be CEO in no time.”
Dean wasn’t surprised. He didn’t even crack a smile. His father spoke as if he was the next in line to the throne or something; something Ella had made a comparison to merely a month ago. If he wasn’t so pissed off, he would have laughed.
“I thought you would express more gratitude, Dean.”
Dean lowered his hands from where they were arched near his mouth. He leaned forward in his chair. “What is the plan, Dad?”
“What do you mean, son?”
“Did none of you predict when you wrote the contract that this kind of thing would happen?” Dean asked, and he realised that that was the one question no one had bothered to answer, or even ask, before now. He was sure Ella had thought about it because Dean certainly had.
His father sighed and sunk in the seat opposite the desk; something Dean found amusing. It was a power play; his father was the one being questioned, and Dean was the one with all the power. He found it interesting how the layout of a simple office could make one feel almighty power against the person at the other end. Dean could understand one thing about his father at that moment, and that was why he loved the power so much.
Dean’s plan was all in his mind, and all he needed was Ella to escape the clutches of her parents. Though, he knew it could work if she didn’t; all they needed was time. He was going to take everything from the bastard that was sat in front of him, and he was going to free Ella, Matthew, and their unborn child. He was going to secure his money and company.
“Of course, the thought crossed my mind, Dean. I’m human after all,” Anthony scoffed.
Was he, though? Dean wondered.
“So why is this a surprise to everyone?” Dean asked. “That one of us, or both of us, would find someone we loved?”
“It’s not a surprise at all, Dean. The problem is that Ella knew her duty. She knew since she was sixteen, she had time to process it, time to know the stakes as Adrian and Martha handed them to her. The point is that she went against them anyway. But we’ve found her now. As long as she doesn’t fuck this up again, everything will work out,” Anthony told him.
Dean could see the hint of evil sparkling in his eyes, even from across the room. It sent shivers up his spine.
“What if she does?” Dean enquired.
“Then it’s simple: the… problem gets eradicated.” Anthony shrugged. “You know that, son. You know what we do to problems. I’ve told you enough times over the years.”
The answer sounded light-hearted enough, but Dean knew he was threatening Matthew’s life, and the very life growing inside of Ella. At that, Dean knew he needed to act fast to make his plan work. His father exited the office.
He loaded up the internet; Ella would have a plan in place, and he knew they were due to get married soon. With any luck for them, it would be sooner rather than later. He needed to know when, and he needed to move cautiously. He knew when he approached them, they wouldn’t believe he had changed and that he wanted their help. Matthew certainly wouldn’t believe him, especially after everything Dean had done.
But he would deal with that when he could locate them, and he needed to work out what her plan was.
∞∞∞
Dean looked at the clock in his car as he parked. It was half-past twelve. Ella’s ‘appointment’ was due at ten in the morning. When Adrian phoned Dean at exactly twelve, he had told him that Ella never actually attended said appointment, and Martha had come home without Ella.
Ella had disappeared. According to Martha, she went to the toilet before they attended the appointment, and when she’d been in there for fifteen minutes, Martha went to look for her, but couldn’t find her. Security apparently couldn’t trace her, and by the time Martha alerted her husband, Ella had been missing for an hour.
Dean sighed. He knew exactly where Ella was, but he just didn’t know how she had pulled it off. It hadn’t taken him long to work out which registry office he needed to call; and it didn’t take him long to find out the date, time, and location of their wedding.
Dean had to hand it to Ella. She had never been very subtle in his eyes, but this time, she had executed the perfect coup. By the time Dean had been alerted of her disappearance, she had been married for an hour. The contract was done with, and Adrian had no idea.
She was fucking smart, and she had won.
He smiled to himself as he pressed the doorbell. As soon as he heard the booming voice of his would-have-been father-in-law get closer to the door, he stopped smiling and plastered on the worrying expression he needed.
The door opened, but Adrian didn’t even acknowledge him. He marched straight back to where his wife was standing in the middle of the door to the lounge.
“You should’ve been keeping an eye on her, Martha, what the fuck have you done?” Adrian bellowed.
Dean looked at Martha, an upset expression on her face. He knew she had never been really into the idea of the arranged marriage but went along with it anyway because that’s what women in the Atkins and Webb families did. Dean could have sworn he saw a slight proud expression on Martha’s face as she stared at her husband.
“I don’t know what more I could have done, Adrian! She needed the toilet, I watched her walk in, I waited by the door and didn’t take my eyes off it until I walked in there to find her,” Martha defended.
“You should have gone with her!” Adrian scoffed. That protruding vein as it made an appearance like a speed bump on his temple.
Dean saw a little of himself in him, though; the anger when things didn’t go his way, the threat of his money being taken from him.
Dean swore to himself at that moment that he would stop being so obsessed. Those words Ella told him that night of the party, the knowledge of her now-marriage and her impending parenthood, the look she gave Matthew when he saw them together – it had changed Dean.
It was ironic, really, how the exact woman who made him obsess as if nothing else mattered, was also the one to change him back to the person he used to be before. He wondered if she would find it poetic, or just disturbing.
He would get his money, and he would take over from his father. But he would not let himself become as obsessed as Adrian was, he just wouldn’t allow himself to be that obsessed anymore.
Dean knew he had lost. But he still had the chance to get what he wanted, but he would also change his goal: he wanted justice. For himself, for Ella, for Matthew and their unborn child. He knew at this point, if Adrian found out where she was, he would tell Anthony, and they would kill Matthew. His father had told him so that morning.
“Has she contacted you, Dean?” Martha turned to him.
“No, she hasn’t.” Dean shook his head. “I tried to call her, but her phone is switched off.”
He knew he had to play this very carefully. He needed to contact them; he needed to get his plan in motion. But he also needed to balance not arousing suspicion of where she was and who she was with; though it would only be a matter of time before Adrian worked it all out and stormed over to that house with a gun.
“I will kill her! And I should kill you, too, Martha, you stupid bitch!” Adrian screamed. Dean backed off as the enraged voice bounced off the walls and ceiling.
He had always loathed the way Adrian treated her, and as he watched Martha almost curl into herself, he realised something.
Martha never showed an ounce of care for her husband. She did as she was told, but she never presented herself as a woman in love. He remembered the way she looked the night before when Ella was standing up for herself – a proud mother.
She had taken Ella to the hospital that morning.
Her story didn’t quite add up; how she watched the door the whole time Ella was in the bathroom, and yet when she went in, she couldn’t find her. Dean knew the toilets she was talking about at the entrance to the hospital. There were no windows, you had to walk down a narrow corridor to get to them. There was no conceivable way Ella could have disappeared without Martha knowing if she had truly been watching the door.
Dean met Martha’s gaze.
She nodded at him, clear as day. He nodded back, and together, they silently conveyed what he had worked out: Martha had helped her daughter escape. Dean smiled. He had more time than he thought, and together, they would overthrow this shit. The woman was smarter than his parents and her husband gave her credit for.
They should never underestimate a mother’s love, Dean thought.
“I will phone around; see what I can find out,” Dean announced. He watched Adrian nod in his direction. Dean walked out, knowing he had to track down Ella and her new husband.