Unspoken: A story of secrets, love and revenge by T. Belshaw (best reads of all time .TXT) 📗

you what. Why don’t I bring a bottle of wine around tomorrow evening? We could make a night of it.’

‘Works for me,’ said Tania. ‘I’m off Tuesday and Thursday night this week.’ She smiled at him seductively. ‘Make it two bottles eh? Let’s get pissed.’

She leaned forward, giving him a glimpse of that wonderful cleavage, then she pecked him on the cheek and with a curt, ‘bye now,’ closed the door in his face.

Calvin smiled to himself as he walked back to the car and retrieved his attaché case. Things couldn’t have worked out better. Jess wanted a couple of nights with her bloody Nana, well, she could have them.

He walked into the Uni building whistling. Things were looking up.

Chapter 21

Jess

The drive to the farmhouse seemed to take longer than usual, though there was little traffic. Jess’s mind was in turmoil over what to do about Calvin.

She loved him still, there was no doubt about that, but she couldn’t and wouldn’t take much more of this. She wondered what had happened to make him change so much in such a short space of time. He did say he was under pressure, but from what? It could be work, though they gave him as much leeway as he wanted. He worked remotely a lot of the time so he didn’t even have to go into an office, lab, or whichever area he covered. Maybe that was it. Because she worked from home too, maybe they were spending too much time in each other’s company. Everyone needed a break in a partnership. Most couples only ever saw each other in the evenings or at weekends. She decided that she’d talk to him about it. She could work from a café some days or the local library. That would be good for her really as all the research tools she would ever need would be at her fingertips and she liked books much better than the world wide web, amazing as that was.

As she waited at the traffic lights near Tesco Direct. her thoughts turned to his accusations. Was she really as innocent as she was trying to make out? Had she been a bit selfish? She couldn’t remember any real instance of it, though if he was so utterly convinced that she was, there had to be a reason, hard as it was to fathom.

Calvin had always been sensitive to criticism; she was well aware of that. She wasn’t sure where that had come from. Had he been brought up doted on and spoilt, or had he taken more than his fair share of put downs as a child? It was hard to say. He never talked about his father other than to say, ‘he left us’; maybe there was a connection there. Had his father been a bit of a brute, or had he been a loving father that had left them suddenly, leaving Calvin bereft? She couldn’t talk to him about that topic, she had tried a few times early on in their relationship and he’d just clammed up.

She did worry that he was a narcissist; he was showing all of the classic traits. She wasn’t sure if there was any way to bring someone out of that condition. She doubted it, but maybe it could be held in check. She decided to do some research later.

Jess pulled the car into the farm’s drive, grabbed her bag, checked her face in the rear-view mirror, forced a smile and got out of the car. She slammed the door shut and walked up to the front door crossing her fingers and hoping that Nana looked as good as she had the previous day. Then she did something she had never done as a life-long unbeliever. She offered up a short prayer.

Chapter 22

Alice

Alice sighed and stared at the clock as it ticked another two minutes of her life away.

Last night’s dream had been vivid. The dark part of the tunnel had shrunk back to leave just an outer rim, while the light in the middle was both brighter, yet somehow, even softer. The figure in the light was getting clearer, the shape larger and the beckoning motion, surer.

She wasn’t frightened of the prospect of meeting whoever, or whatever, it was in the tunnel, she had always wondered what lay beyond death’s final embrace and now, unlike the vast majority of healthy people, she was getting closer to discovering exactly what secrets lay ahead. The figure in the light surely meant there was some sort of existence beyond this earth. She was both intrigued and excited at the prospect.

She wasn’t quite ready to explore the unknown yet though, she still had things to oversee in this lifetime. She could do without the clock’s unreasonable theft of her time. The story had to be told before she passed on. She owed it to Jessica, herself, and the people who were no longer around to speak for themselves.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Jess walked into the lounge.

‘Hello, Nana, how are you today?’ She studied Alice carefully, she looked pretty much like she had yesterday. Her skin had a little colour and her eyes were bright. She looked to the ceiling and silently thanked whichever deity had answered her prayer.

‘Hello, Jessica. I’m as well as can be expected for someone of my great age, and I do feel quite spoiled seeing you so often.’ Alice studied Jess in exactly the same way that she had just been appraised herself. She didn’t look as washed out as yesterday, though there was a hint of redness around her eyes. She decided not to pry today.

‘Where’s Gwen?’ Jess asked.

‘She’s off to the shops. Apparently, I have run out of gravy salts or whatever they call them nowadays.’

‘Granules,’ replied Jess.

‘Granules,’ repeated Alice. ‘Whatever next?’

Jess laughed.

‘They’ve been around for years, Nana. You’ve been buying them without knowing it.’

‘Do you know, I thought it looked a bit lumpy for gravy salts, it used to be like powder.’

Jess took off