Read Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? Online

Authors: Julie Butterfield

Tags: #betrayal, #second chances, #lottery win, #new start, #failing marriage, #lifestyle changes, #escape unhappy marriage, #millionaire lifestyle

Did I Mention I Won The Lottery? (8 page)

BOOK: Did I Mention I Won The Lottery?
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Every night
Rebecca decided that she would break the news, show him the ticket,
show him her bank account balance on the computer. She would
explain that she hadn’t told him earlier because she had wanted to
be absolutely sure. She would have to explain that she had already
bought a house, that would be hard, but initially she just needed
to tell him about the money, about her win.

But it simply
hadn’t happened. For some reason as she sat and watched him eating
his meal, listening to his usual angry rant about the state of
White’s since Peter Thompson took over, how humiliating they were
making it for him, how they didn’t know what they were doing; as
she listened to the excuses why none of his deals had completed,
listened to the reasons why there was no new business to be had,
she just couldn’t bring herself to say the words. She watched his
mouth move, his words falling out. She needed to tell him. She
wanted to tell him.

‘I’m going to
Leeds tomorrow.’

Daniel stopped
mid-sentence and stared at Rebecca, his fork halfway to his mouth.
‘Again!’

Rebecca didn’t
answer.

‘But you’ve
only just got back, why are you going again?’

‘Because I want
to visit mum again.’

‘But you’ve
only just visited her. Why do you need to go again so soon?’

Rebecca carried
on eating, meeting Daniel’s eyes across the table.

‘I mean,’ he
grumbled, ‘you are my wife. Is it too much to expect that you could
stay at home with me occasionally? Look after me instead of running
off to Leeds every two minutes to visit your mum. What about
me?’

Rebecca thought
about pointing out that this may have been the second visit in the
last two weeks but she had gone months before that without
traveling to Leeds because Daniel always made so much fuss about
spending money on train fares when there were bills to pay. She
stared at him as he shoved a forkful of vegetables in his mouth. He
hadn’t asked her about her mum. Hadn’t asked if she had been okay.
He hadn’t asked about Sarah, whether Rebecca had met with her, if
she was okay. He hadn’t actually asked about anything, her journey,
whether she had had a good time, where she had stayed.

In fact,
Rebecca mused, Daniel didn’t really ask her anything anymore, other
than when his food would be ready. He didn’t ask about her day,
about her health, about what she was doing.

He complained.
He complained that she hadn’t done enough chips or that she had
done too much rice. He complained that she hadn’t put any petrol in
the car or that she had forgotten to buy his favourite shaving
foam. He complained that she had the heating up too high, the
lights too low, the TV on too loud.

He complained a
lot.

And he told her
things. He told her how hard his life was, how unfairly he was
treated at work. He told her constantly how hard he had to work to
keep the roof over her head. He told her that things hadn’t gone
well, that the potential customers he had spent the weekend trying
to impress had gone to another packaging firm. He told her that he
was fed up with Peter Thompson, fed up with being overlooked. He
told her how disappointed he was with his life, how he had been let
down after all his hard work.

He told her
lots of things but he never asked her anything anymore.

He was still
talking. ‘It’s not easy you know, coming home and having to look
after yourself after a hard day at work. Just having you here
occasionally isn’t too much to ask. Another visit so soon seems
unreasonable to me. You live here!’

Now, thought
Rebecca. Tell him now. Tell him that there’s 15.7 million in the
bank and he doesn’t have to work anymore. Tell him that you’ve
spent 2 million on a house in Leeds and you want to leave
Darlington.

‘Daniel…’

‘What?’

‘It’s only for
a couple of nights, you’ll be fine.’

Rebecca caught
the train to Leeds the next morning. She had booked into Quebecs
again and was delighted to hear them say how happy they were that
she was coming back and would she like the same room. She arrived
early again, left her case to be taken to her room, smiled at the
receptionist and then walked down to Annie’s office where she was
treated to a warm welcome and the offer of a coffee.

‘I just wanted
to catch up,’ explained Annie. ‘The vendors have drawn up a list of
all the furniture that they are prepared to leave. There are just
one or two bits and pieces that they want to keep but the rest are
yours. Here’s the itinerary.’

Rebecca took it
and read through the pages of descriptions. It didn’t mean a great
deal. She hadn’t fallen in love with the furniture because of the
name or the style but because it had all looked so right, part of
the home she had decided to buy.

She handed it
back to Annie. ‘That looks fine.’

Annie cleared
her throat. ‘There are some very good quality items in there
Rebecca. They want an extra £50,000.’

‘Okay.’

Annie looked
relieved. ‘That’s not a problem?’

‘Of course not
Annie, I said I would buy the furniture, I didn’t expect them to
give it to me.’

‘Right,’
suddenly looking a lot brighter, Annie topped up Rebecca’s
coffee.

‘Well, all is
going to plan. They’d already had all the surveys done and now it’s
just a case of waiting for the conveyancing. As there’s only the
two of you in the chain it looks as though it will be yours on 19th
April.’

Just over two
weeks away. She really must tell Daniel. And soon.

Rebecca left a
smiling Annie and walked back to the hotel just in time to see a
middle aged woman arrive at the reception desk and ask for Rebecca
Miles.

Rebecca shook
her hand and asked the receptionist if there was somewhere they
could talk privately. Two minutes later they were in a small side
room, obviously used for such meetings and decked out with a small
table with chairs on either side and a pot of coffee.

It was a long
drawn out affair, especially for someone like Rebecca who hadn’t
ever been involved in investments and savings before but the woman,
Joyce McCrindle, had been efficient and clear.

Basically
Rebecca discovered that the large amount of money sitting in her
bank account was entirely hers to dispose of. When Joyce McCrindle
heard that Rebecca wanted to provide for her children but not
overwhelm them, she suggested setting up trust funds for them both
together with monthly allowances. When she heard that Rebecca’s
elderly mother was in a home and living from the sale of her house,
she suggested a separate account that would meet the cost of Gwen’s
care, her resident’s fees and perhaps give her a small monthly
allowance too, saving Gwen’s remaining assets.

When Joyce
McCrindle failed to find out anything at all about Rebecca’s
husband, she advised Rebecca that the money was not actually a
shared asset. Rebecca had come by it independently and it was
actually nothing to do with Daniel. When Rebecca protested that of
course it would involve Daniel, Mrs McCrindle put her hand on
Rebecca’s arm and repeated that it was entirely Rebecca’s decision
what she did with her winnings.

Complete with
brochures, leaflets and a better understanding of what was needed
to keep control of such a large sum of money, it was after 3.00pm
and Rebecca went back into reception to collect her key. Arriving
back in The Robinson suite was like arriving home. Rebecca sank
onto one of the overstuffed settees and put her collection of
brochures onto the table. She probably felt more at home here than
in Darlington, which was a sad thought.

She thought
about her new house. Only two weeks and it would be hers. She could
live in Leeds again in her beautiful new home. She just needed to
tell Daniel.

Unpacking and
slipping on her trench coat, Rebecca took to the shops and over the
next few hours she all but emptied Debenhams and House of Fraser as
she chose huge fluffy bath towels, colour co-ordinated bed linen
for every bedroom including a luxurious rich red brocade and velvet
throw for her own room, a top of the range selection of pans and
kitchen accessories, cushions, toiletries, glass vases, silver
photo frames, heavy cathedral candles - and anything else that she
could think of. All for her new home and left at the store for
delivery once Beech Grange was officially hers. Then Rebecca did a
little more personal shopping, this time walking confidently into
Harvey Nichols before eventually wandering back to the hotel with
her arms full of bags.

It seemed so
much easier to shop this week. She didn’t have the same feeling of
being a fake and as she walked around the shops she was overwhelmed
with the knowledge that she could afford just about anything that
she wanted. Instead of chewing her lip and wondering if she was
being ridiculous, Rebecca was full of a confidence that she hadn’t
known for years.

She had phoned
Sarah earlier who was amazed that her mum had returned to Leeds
again so soon and had said she couldn’t meet her mum that night.
They arranged to go the Parklands together the next day and then on
for Sunday lunch somewhere.

‘We’ll take
Granny,’ Rebecca had announced and when Sarah had questioned how,
Rebecca announced airily that they would book a special taxi, one
that could take wheelchairs.

So the next day
she and Sarah were driven to Parklands where they spent a lovely
hour. Rebecca wore a new pair of trousers with a top in a rich
bronze colour that brought out the new tone of her hair and made
her hazel eyes sparkle. They sat in the TV lounge and drank tea and
listened to the chatter all around them. Rebecca wondered again at
how pale and tired Mrs Wendover looked and planned to have a word
as soon as she could. Maybe the home was in trouble, maybe they
needed some help. Rebecca was certainly in a position to do just
that and she had to make sure it survived for her mother.

When lunch time
came so did the special taxi organised by Mrs Wendover and Rebecca,
Sarah and Gwen travelled the few miles to a local pub that Rebecca
remembered well from their time living there. The Sunday lunches
were famed and there was a table waiting for them close to a
roaring fire. Gwen got slightly squiffy on sweet sherry much to
Sarah’s amusement and Rebecca probably drank more wine than she
should have done but the afternoon was magical, only spoilt
somewhat by Sarah taking her hand in the taxi going back to Leeds
and asking, ‘Have you left Dad?’

‘What!’

‘Have you left
him?’

‘Of course I
haven’t,’ said Rebecca in amazement, ‘what on earth gave you that
idea?’

‘Well, this is
your second visit in as many weeks. You look amazing, happier than
I’ve seen you look for years. You’re spending money on yourself -
about time too. And, I don’t know, you just look different.’

‘And you think
that’s all because I’ve left your father?’

‘Well I could
see how leaving him would cause all of those things to happen,
yes.’

‘Well I
haven’t, silly girl. I’ve just missed being in Leeds, I’ve decided
to spend more time here, visiting mum and you. I’ll go down to
Bristol as well and visit Toby more.’

Sarah looked
doubtful. ‘It’s okay, you can tell me you know.’

Rebecca leant
forward and smoothed her daughter’s hair out of her eyes. ‘I would
tell you sweetheart. I would tell you if I had left your father. I
wouldn’t keep something like that a secret from you.’

Just 15.7
million pounds.

Sarah smiled
and squeezed her mother’s hand. ‘Well as long as you know, I would
be alright with it mum.’

Sarah wanted to
drop Rebecca off at her hotel. ‘Is it the Travelodge Mum?’

Rebecca didn’t
actually answer, saying they would drop Sarah off first although
she felt the taxi driver staring at her as he eventually dropped
her outside Quebecs.

Sitting in the
room that she had grown so fond off, she put her feet up. That
morning on impulse she’d decided to postpone her journey home until
tomorrow. She’d originally booked the last train back on Sunday
night but decided instead to catch the early morning train on
Monday instead. She would still be back in time for her afternoon
shift at the deli and she’d had such a wonderful day that she
couldn’t bear the thought of going back now and bringing it to an
end.

So she phoned
down to reception to order a meal, checked the train times and then
left Daniel a message on the house phone before putting on her
fluffy dressing gown and flicking on the TV with a deep sigh of
bliss.

Chapter 7

Rebecca decided
on the train journey back that she needed to do something about
work. In a little over two weeks she would be collecting the keys
for her house in Leeds. She obviously couldn’t keep working at the
Deli. She needed to let them know as soon as possible that she was
leaving, but of course she couldn’t tell them the truth.

So that
afternoon when she arrived at work she took Carol to one side, well
aware that Susie was listening in, and told her she was
resigning.

A loud wail
from Susie blocked out anything Carol was saying but the look on
her face was enough.

‘No! Oh Rebecca
- no. Why? Are you going to work somewhere else, where are you
going?’

Rebecca laughed
putting her arm around Carol and turning to face Susie. ‘I’m not
going anywhere, I would never leave you two to work somewhere else.
I just need to leave. I-I’m…’

She had won
15.7 million on the lottery and was moving to Leeds.

‘I just need to
spend more time in Leeds, my mum…’

She trailed of
and felt a sliver of guilt as both Carol and Susie immediately
nodded sympathetically.

‘Poor you,’
offered Carol. ‘Is she no better?’

Rebecca hated
using her mother as an excuse, it was a little like tempting fate
but it was either that or the truth and the truth seemed to be
something that was becoming more difficult by the day.

BOOK: Did I Mention I Won The Lottery?
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