The Video Tape Ch. 03

"Oh, I'll bet she has, but what does your company say about you two swanning in and out whenever you like?"

"Stella is my private secretary now, Emily."

A somewhat strange look came over Emily's face. But I ignored it and continued.

"Stella has children of her own who are at school as well, so it's helpful for both of us to share the school run sometimes. Both of us only work part time now. I'm the chairman of the board and can virtually do as I wish."

"Congratulations. When did you become chairman?"

"About five years ago. I didn't know you didn't know."

"How could I?"

"I'm sorry."

"If you say I'm bloody sorry one more time I'm going to brain you."

I showed Emily to her room and left her to get some sleep. Several times during the day I looked in on her but she didn't stir until I woke her about a half past three. She took another shower and came down wearing a snug fitting pair of faded jeans and a white blouse. Although I pushed a cup of coffee in her hand, she spent the next fifteen minutes pacing the lounge like a lion in a cage. When Stella's car finally pulled up outside, I thought Emily was going to have a fit.

"How do I look?" she asked me, smoothing her hair and clothes as she looked in the mirror.

"Like a beautiful mother waiting for her daughter to come home from school," I replied. Emily's face broke into the first proper smile I'd seen for some years.

"Thank you." She grinned at back at me, but added, "But I told you, I don't need your crap."

Emily stayed in the lounge as I went to open the front door, which Bridget came through like a tornado. Seeing the open door to the lounge she made straight for it without acknowledging my presence.

"Mummy!" she screamed, and ran into Emily's waiting arms.

"You knew I was going to be here?" Emily asked Bridget.

"Daddy told me this morning that you were probably coming back to live with us today. I've been so excited I've nearly wet myself."

Stella came in the door with her two little ones, and I lead them through into the kitchen. Stella's children ran straight out into the garden to play. They had spent a lot of time at my house over the years and tended to treat it as their own. Stella herself began the task of preparing our evening meal. Look, I never have been that much of a cook and when Stella and her family visit she takes over in the kitchen. Self-preservation, she calls it.

"How is she?" Stella asked me once the children were out of earshot.

"I'm not sure. I don't think I'm her favourite person."

"I'm not surprised. What did you expect?"

"I haven't got the faintest idea what I expected. How can one plan for something like this happening?"

"You can't. You are going to have to take things one day at a time."

"Easily said, Stella, but I've got one big problem," I retorted.

"Only one? I thought you had a whole great list."

"There's only one burning one that I'm worried about."

"Oh, shit, you're still in love with her, aren't you?"

"So that's why you've worked for me so long, because you can read me like a book?"

"Probably. I do know in advance when to keep my head down. But, Tony, you know she might not love you any more and who could blame her?"

"I know, I know, I wasn't born yesterday. I'm going to have to eat humble pie until I can make her forgive me and then fall in love with me again."

"Good luck to you!"

Suddenly Stella's two children appeared at the back door demanding to know where Bridget was. Emily must have heard them and she came into the kitchen with Bridget. It was plain to see that they had both been crying.

"Go play with your friends, Bridget. I want to speak to Stella for a little while."

Somewhat reluctantly Bridget went outside with the two little ones. For a moment Stella and Emily looked at each other, then completely to my surprise Emily walked over to Stella and they gave each other a hug. Stella looked into my eyes as they were doing so and I got the message to make myself scarce.

But I didn't go far! Not sure whether I was doing the right thing, I slipped into the dining room and stood out of sight of the kitchen beside the serving hutch.

I could hear the two women crying for some time and then Emily said that they had better get on with the children's meal. For a long time they got on with the business of cooking and catching up with - well, mainly - Stella's life. Emily asked about her husband the children.

I waited impatiently; eventually I knew they would get around to the subject I wanted to know about. Stella teased out of Emily that there had been no men in her life since the divorce, which I was pleased about. But Emily said she was never going to trust men again. Which I wasn't pleased to hear, but it was only to be expected.

"What about Tony, Emily?"

"He's the father of my child, but I can't trust him any more than I can any other man."

"You know he loves you."

"No, I don't think so. I doubt he ever did love me. He loves his pride. He loved having me hanging on his arm, when I was beautiful. But all I was to him was a piece of window dressing that he threw away when he thought it was stained."

"No, you're wrong. Tony has been an extremely eligible bachelor since - well, for some time now. He's had some very impressive and wealthy women make a play for him over the years. If it was a trophy wife Tony was after, he could have chosen from the best, but he's shown no interest in any woman to my knowledge."

"You don't see everything, Stella."

"Emily, I know your husband maybe better than you did yourself before... Anyway the reason he took everything the way he did was because he loved you so much. He couldn't believe that tape when he first saw it. Emily, if those windows hadn't had those safety locks on them he would have been splattered all over the street that day. I had to call security to stop him doing it, you know."

"I never knew that he...."

"Not something that he was very proud of. I think there's only me and a couple of the security staff who do know. But I can assure you, if he could have got that window open you'd be a widow now, not a divorcee."

There was silence for a few minutes, except the sounds of the meal being prepared.

"Emily, please don't tell Tony I told you that. He'll kill me if he finds out I did!"

"No, no, I won't say anything to him. But it's such a shock to hear it. Tony's so... so in control of his emotions."

"Not when you're concerned, Emily. He never has been. Why do you think he pushed you so far away? Didn't you understand why he wasn't ever at those visits you had with Bridget?"

"No, I thought he hated me and making me visit Bridget at his brother's house was just... oh, I don't know... I thought he wanted to make me travel all that way just because he could."

"No, it was because he couldn't bear to see you. His heart was broken."

I could hear both women sobbing again, but they had to get themselves under control when the children came inside demanding to be fed. Stella called out to me as I slipped through the connecting door into the lounge. I couldn't afford to be caught eavesdropping.

Stella's husband turned up just as we were sitting down to eat. I have never been able to work out how he manages to do that. Stella and he must have a built in telegraph.

He was introduced to Emily and knowing what had gone on, he acted as if her being there was nothing out of the ordinary. After we had eaten Stella and her family went home, somewhat earlier than they normally did and somewhat to the consternation of the children.

Once they had gone Bridget retreated to her room to do her homework. Emily went up with her for a while but then came back down saying that she had been dismissed until Bridget had completed her school tasks.

"She takes after her father," Emily said as she entered the lounge. "She gets on with the job and doesn't want any distractions."

"Well, the sooner she has it finished the sooner she can come down again," I replied.

"That's what she said," Emily commented. "It could have been you talking."

Emily then asked if she could use the phone. I told her she didn't have to ask. It was her phone as far as I was concerned. She chose to use the handset in the kitchen. When she came back she told me that she wasn't on duty at the café that evening, but she'd called her employer and told him she wouldn't be in for the next few nights either.

I'd like to be able to say that life at home dropped back into the normal happy home we'd all like to have, but it didn't. Under the circumstances it wasn't surprising. The following day Stella turned up to take Bridget to school rather early. I was surprised as it was really my turn. But Stella told me she wasn't going to be in the office that day, because Emily and she had something on.

Then just before the two women left with the children, Stella pulled me to one side and demanded, "Credit card please?" Oh, this wasn't so unusual. When Bridget needed new clothes or anything, Stella would make the same demand. How do these guys get on who don't have good secretaries?

I kind of kicked around the offices that day and made a nuisance of myself. Well, I couldn't get my head around much in the way of work. Anyway, without Stella around, I had little in the way of a program for the day. Oh, yeah I had a couple of appointments in the diary but really I wasted a day.

I called Inspector Morris -- again. I bet he was getting fed up with me calling - he said he had no news, but he did ask me to bring Emily into the station the following morning.

That afternoon when I got home - I'd knocked off early - I got the surprise of my life. A complete stranger was coming out of the house with Stella on their way to collect Bridget from school.

Emily's hair looked like it had cost a fortune - which it probably had - and she was dressed in a dress that had definitely made a hole in my credit limit. Not that I objected.

"Are you coming?" Stella asked.

"Don't see why not," I replied.

"Right. We'll all go in your car, since it's bigger," Stella said, opening the front passenger door.

Emily went to reach for the backdoor handle.

"No, Emily, you sit in the front with your husband; I'll ride in the back."

Emily did as she was told. Whether the husband comment had hit home or not, she didn't apparently react.

The evening, up to a point, was a repeat of the day before. But this time when Bridget went up to do her homework Emily remained in the lounge with me.

"Your hair looks nice." I tentatively offered to Emily expecting a sarcastic reply.

"Thank you." She smiled back at me.

"And you looked wonderful in that dress." I almost said beautiful but chickened out.

"I should do; this dress has cost you a fortune."

Still no sign of any attack from Emily, I decided to push my luck.

"It doesn't mater how much it cost. If it wasn't on a beautiful woman it would look like a rag."

Okay I'm not a bleeding poet; I was doing the best I could.

"What are you after, Tony?"

"Nothing. I'm just trying to tell you, you're as beautiful as you ever were."

"Tony, you make a god awful liar; you always have. Now don't I remember you saying that to me once?"

"Emily, I...."

"Emily nothing. Just get it through your thick head I'm here for one reason. My daughter! I'll be civil to you. Damn it, I'm quite happy to spend all your money for you, if you'll let me. But don't ever think you are going to mean anything to me again. And it'll be a bloody cold day in hell, before I ever get back into bed with you, if that's what you're thinking."

I was still trying to think of what to say to her as she closed the door.

End of Chapter Three...

*

Please note

I'll repeat what I said in the forward to the first part of this story the chapters will be submitted at seven-day intervals or as close as circumstances will allow. I've been asked why I'm doing it this way and the answer is "because I wish too". Damn it, some stories are posted with months between the posted chapters, why should anyone get out of their pram because I'm leaving seven-days between each chapter of this one. No one is twisting your arm and insisting you read it.

Yeah, I'm just about as pissed off as Emily is!