Page 40 of Summer at Croftwood Cinema
‘Have you got a minute to chat?’ The perfect opportunity to talk to Toby was being handed to her and she was going to take it. It might help to settle things in her own mind before the weekend. She was acutely aware that being involved with Ed meant she owed him a better explanation that he’d had so far.
‘Of course. Come over when you’re ready.’
Once there were no customers left to serve, she left Jack to it and headed over to Toby.
‘I won’t be a sec,’ he said, ‘I’m finishing up a live chat with a client.’
He typed furiously for a minute or so and then closed the lid on his laptop.
‘So, what can I do for you?’ He smiled, making his eyes crinkle at the corners and Patsy felt like she could tell him anything and he would understand.
‘I need to get divorced, ideally without having to have anything to do with… my husband.’ It was a long time since she’d said those words and it felt uncomfortable.
‘How long have you been separated?’
Patsy gave him a look of surprise but realised, of course he could easily make that assumption. He lived in Croftwood and everyone knew that Patsy had been single until Ed.
‘Three years. I left and he didn’t know where I was. Until recently.’
‘So, I’m guessing that something happened to make you think you needed to sort out the divorce?’
She nodded. His gentle, understanding tone was making her feel a little bit emotional.
‘Can you tell me what happened?’
‘He turned up at the cinema a couple of weeks ago. He posed as a buyer for the chairs and arranged to meet me.’
‘Right. So can I assume that the relationship was controlling, abusive in some way?’
Patsy looked at him in surprise.
‘If he had to dupe you into meeting him after three years of him not knowing where you were, it’s fairly obvious.’
She nodded. ‘He seemed normal when I met him. It happened so slowly that I don’t think I noticed it was happening until when I did notice there was nothing I could do to stop it.’
Toby nodded as if he understood.
‘It started when I got my first decent job. He was an accountant there. He seemed respectable but he always had some side hustle going on which I’d assumed was harmless, for a bit of extra money. We got together quite quickly, I suppose and that whole time, you’d never have known that anything was off. As soon as we got married, he started getting jealous if I mentioned anyone from work, men mainly. The department I worked in used to go out for drinks sometimes after work and he started coming along even though he wasn’t invited. He used to loiter, saying he had come to walk me home so that I felt obliged to leave early and go with him instead. That turned into him escorting me to and from work almost every day. I just… I lost everything else in my life.’
‘I know how easy it is to get into that situation, I’ve seen it so many times and you’re not the only one to not realise what’s happening, not by a long chalk.’
‘Thanks, that’s nice to know because looking back, it seems so obvious and stupid not to have realised. Anyway, it got to the point where all I could do was go to work. My friends had started to get fed up that I wasn’t going out with them anymore and drifted away. Everyone at work thought it was weird that he met me at the door every day so I didn’t have anyone. My parents live up in Cumbria and I didn’t want to worry them. Then I did get up the courage to tell one of my old friends. I bumped into her in Birmingham one lunch time when I’d popped out for a sandwich and we went for a coffee. She laughed when I told her what was happening. She thought I was having a bit of a moan about my husband and told me some story about how her husband got annoyed if she didn’t text him when she’s on a night out, as if that was the same.’
Now that she’d started telling the story, it spilled out with an ease she hadn’t thought would be possible. And reliving it with Toby next to her made it a little bit easier.
‘So you feel you’re ready to start proceedings?’ Toby asked.
‘I’m hoping he’ll see it as an indication that it’s not worth messing with me. I need to take back control of the situation so that I can move on.’
Toby nodded. ‘What do you think his motive is for seeking you out now?’
‘His motivation is always money. He saw me in the paper with the cinema chairs so maybe he thinks he can get in on the cinema action, when in fact it’s nothing to do with me financially.’
‘Has he got a track record of anything to do with extortion or blackmail?’
‘Well, he’s been in prison for fraud.’
‘Right. A tricky customer then. Although divorce-wise that could work in your favour because we can clearly claim unreasonable behaviour.’
