So, the moral of this story is, it doesn’t matter how much you spend on your wedding, or who is there, as long as you are there and your partner; it is all that matters. Whether you spend thousands or hundreds, the outcome is still the same; you are married to the person you love and at the end of the day behind closed doors it is just you two from now on. We had been on a rocky journey since the engagement. It had not been smooth sailing but that is life. It wasn’t easy and everything we had been through had made us stronger for it. Seven minutes it took to become man and wife after all the planning, all the stress, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Instead of having one full on day where it goes by in a flash and you are thousands lighter, we had five days where we had seen a different part of the world, somewhere we both wanted to go, and even had our honeymoon chucked in. Of course, it would have been nice to have family there to witness it but at the end of the day it was about two people, the bride and groom, and sometimes love makes you selfish.
I gave myself a year to change. First step was realising it wasn’t my fault and I hadn’t done anything to encourage them. I was a child when most of this happened. I finally went to the police, and telling them about the rape and the abuse I suffered for those two years at the hands of Malcolm McCormack, my dad, I finally feel like a weight had been lifted slightly off of my shoulders, as now I had told the truth. I even told my mum. I know he will never get to answer for his crimes unless they hold a séance, but I know what happened and it was not my fault, none of it.
Edward thought I was beautiful enough to marry so that was all that mattered now, our future together, starting a family. I couldn’t wait for the next chapter in our life. In other good news, I found out I was pregnant and we were over the moon as I had been told by doctors in the past that it may not be possible for me to have children due to the endometriosis, so falling pregnant naturally was a miracle.
So, nine months to a baby coming soon.
One Month Later
As I opened the door the police were standing there.
Someone growing weed again probably down the road.
‘May we speak with Mr Edward James? The policeman said’ phew I thought nothing to do with me. Not that I had done anything wrong but I did start to panic thinking what if I had done something and didn’t realise it.
‘Come in,’ I said, ushering them in. ‘You want a drink or anything?’ ‘Edward,’ I shouted out to him as he was in the garden, ‘the police are here to see you’.
‘No thank you, ma’am we are here on official police business.’
Oh I thought what could they possibly want Edward for? Maybe he had witnessed something and not told me.
Edward came in from the back garden holding a hammer.
‘Edward James, put down the hammer, please, sir’
Edward did as he was told and dropped the hammer on the floor.
‘Edward’? I asked him, confused.
‘Where has that hammer come from?’
‘Edward James, I am arresting you on suspicion of the murder of Malcolm McCormack’
They kept saying the lines that police say on the TV programmes I had watched, reading him his rights. It didn’t seem real; this wasn’t happening.
‘What’s going on? Edward wouldn’t hurt anyone. You have got it wrong,’ I shouted.
‘I called them India, it’s okay’
Edward looked into my eyes and smiled rubbing my tummy.
I looked down at the hammer laying on the carpet floor, stained with what looked like dried blood. Was that the hammer that had been used to bludgeon Malcolm’s head in? I had heard rumours in the town that was how he was killed, but he couldn’t have done it. He wasn’t even in the same town. He was away training again at the time.
‘The murder weapon is there.’ He pointed to the bloody hammer. ‘You will find all my fingerprints on it.’
It didn’t make sense at all.
As he was marched out the front door in handcuffs he winked at me and mouthed, ‘Nobody will ever know, I love you.’
Nobody will ever know what? I thought. Did he think I had murdered Malcolm, because I didn’t as much as I had wanted to.
I gasped and it hit me, it was Spence.
The end.
