“In your opinion was Miss Marx a domestic violence victim of Mr Stanton?”
“Yes,” he replies. “Without a doubt in my mind.”
Ben receives a text, reads it and frowns, and then he hands his phone over to me.
Ben, this is Detective Smith. I am just ringing to let you know that we have found Mr Julian O’Reilly. He is deceased and it appears he has been dead for a long period of time by suicide. Maybe over twelve months. Call me and I will let you know what we have found.
Julian is the man who has tried to kill both Joshua and me-the software geek. He’s dead? The bastard is dead. I close my eyes in relief and up until now I didn’t realize how scared of the man I actually was. He couldn’t have killed Tash if he’s been dead that long, so this narrows the suspects down. This is good. This is progress.
My eyes flick back to the court proceedings as I hand the phone onto Nicholas so he can read it.
“That is all, Mr Wells. I call to the stand Mr Todd Smithson.”
Joshua drops his head and Vincenzo whispers something in the ear of his secretary and she nods and scribbles something down on a pad. I turn to see who is coming out and my stomach drops. It’s that fucking idiot that Joshua is on the assault charge for. This just gets worse.
“Hello Todd,” the prosecutor purrs.
“Hello,” Todd replies.
He points to Joshua. “Do you know this man?”
“Yes,” he replies.
“How do you know him?”
“I lodged an assault charge against him in Australia.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Because he attacked me one night in Australia when I was dancing with Natasha Marx.”
The prosecutor frowns. “Please explain what your injuries were?”
“I had a broken nose and three broken ribs,” he replies.
“All because you were dancing with Miss Marx?”
“Yes.”
“Why is that?”
“He was insanely jealous. He just ran at me on the dance floor and attacked me right there and then, and then when we were taken to the security office he attacked me again. He was arrested and spent the night in jail.”
The questioning goes on but I have stopped listening-they are twisting everything. For hours I sit still, traumatised by the evidence they are supplying. Witness after witness attesting to Joshua’s cocaine usage, his cage fighting, his dominance and his past womanising. Finally, when I don’t think any of us can take any more, I hear the words “Court adjourned, resuming 9 am tomorrow.” And the sound of the hammer rings through the room. Joshua drops his head into his hands as the journalists go into overdrive.
It’s about twelve at night and I am tossing and turning in my bed. What’s going through Joshua’s mind right now? Is he ok? I have never felt so out of control-Natasha, Joshua, work… Nicholas. He is staying in the bedroom next to mine and it’s comforting. What does that mean?
He walks past the door in pyjama pants. “Are you still awake?” he whispers.
I roll onto my back and my eyes drop to his muscular naked torso and the scattering of dark hair on his chest. “Yes,” I reply. He walks in and sits on the side of my bed and takes my hand in his. “Are you ok?” he asks.
I smile sadly as I look at his face in the darkness. “I don’t know to be honest,” I reply.
He tenderly swipes the hair back from my forehead and his eyes hold mine. “It will work out, sweetheart. I don’t want you scared in here alone,” he whispers gently.
For some reason those words bring a lump to my throat.
“Let me sleep in here tonight. Nothing sexual. Just sleep,” he whispers as his eyes hold mine.
I bite my bottom lip and nod. “Ok,” I whisper nervously.
He smiles and walks around to the other side of the bed and climbs in behind me and pulls my body close to his and wraps me in his strong arms. I feel myself instantly relax as he kisses my temple from behind.
“I’m here babe. I’m here,” he whispers. “I’m not going anywhere.”
I smile sadly into the darkness. Oh Nicholas, I love you. I wish desperately that I was your first and only love… like you are mine.
Natasha
I lie in bed as I watch Joshua and me making love. I could watch it all day. In fact I have been doing just that. We are making slow gentle love. He is on his widespread knees, one forearm is holding his bodyweight off me and the other hand is on my behind as he holds me how his body wants me. God I miss him, I miss his smell, his touch, his love. I can’t live like this, without him. I’m like a plant starved of the sun. I’m suffocating even though I have air because the air that I’m breathing is polluted with hate. Help me. Somebody, please help me. On the other screen I see Joshua walk into our bedroom and I grab the remote and point it to the television. I smile a sad smile as I watch him. He lies down on the bed and starts scrolling through his phone. He smiles softly when he gets to an image. I can’t see the image but I know it’s of me. He has been reading my diaries word for word and I have seen that smile many times over the last fortnight. He sits slowly up and frowns-what’s he doing? He stands and goes to the wardrobe and from the back of the door takes off my wedding dress in its black velvet bag and holds it up to look at it. Tears instantly overflow from my eyes. I’m supposed to be planning our wedding right now. He hangs the hanger back over the door and slowly unzips the bag as my heart breaks. This isn’t how he is supposed to be seeing this dress. He takes it out and holds it out for his gaze and then turns it and looks at the back. The lump in my throat is big and hurts so much as I try and deal with watching him do this. He then lays it up against his body and puts his cheek down to rest on it as it drapes over his shoulder. Dear god. He starts to sway as if dancing, oh no. He is dancing our wedding song alone. He thinks I’m dead. I watch a tear roll down his cheek. The full extent of the horror we are living overwhelms me and the scariest thing of all is soon I might be dead-there is every possibility that death is just around the corner for me. I will be a distant memory in the lives of the ones I love. How do I turn this around?
Dad, please help me. Help me think of a plan to get out of here. I need to get out of here.
I flop back to lie on the bed and then something comes up on the news channel that I haven’t seen before so I flick the remote to turn up the volume.
In breaking news, Joshua Stanton has just been arrested for the murder of his wife Natasha Marx. Evidence has been found in his place of residences that is a direct link to her murder.