Page 42 of Wanting Daisy Dead

Dan

‘Hey Alex, you could have told us,’ I say, which is an understatement.

‘If I had, it wouldn’t have worked. We needed you all to be honest.’

‘I guess that explains why you’ve been in touch with my wife again this year. Just wanted to find some dirt, did you?’ I ask, wondering what the fuck Georgie’s been saying to him.

‘Don’t be like that, Dan. I wanted to reconnect with a couple of the people I was fond of – and along the way I got a picture of their lives now, and their feelings about Daisy. It’s all cool, man.’

I don’t respond. I’m still humiliated that Daisy told him she was basically just using me as a cash line for her and the baby if David dumped her. What a bitch she was. Georgie was right all along.

We’re down to the serious stuff now, and as great as it all is for Alex and his new bride, it feels like the Last Supper to me.

I was hoping, as it was our final day, we might all spend it together.

Who knew what would happen at dinner, and I felt the need for company.

But earlier everyone took to their rooms, and Lauren locked her door – I know because I tried it.

I might attempt to make some amends there, but I think that’s over now.

It’s a relief, actually; she wanted more than I could give.

But I’m worried that this has pushed Georgie too far.

Earlier today, she told me she was leaving me.

At first I thought I could talk her round, convince her that Lauren was just a one-off here last night – and how could she break up our family because of a one-night stand?

But she really wasn’t receptive to anything I had to say.

In fact, she became more and more angry with me.

‘Dan,’ she finally said, ‘I want a divorce.’

I was shocked; I’d never expected that. In all the time we’ve been together, no matter how angry she’s been, she’s never asked me for a divorce.

I’m still trying to process this, and I’m concerned she might actually mean it.

I guess my takeaway from the weekend is to make sure the woman I’m seeing on the side isn’t an old college friend. Or someone from my wife’s book club, or a mother at our kids’ school – yeah, that was a tricky one.

But Georgie will come round; she always does.

When we get home, we’ll see the kids and I’ll take us all out for pizza and everything will be back to normal, and I’ll try to be faithful – for a while, anyway.

If, on the other hand, she means it, a divorce will cost me a fortune.

God, I hope I can convince her otherwise once we’re home .

.. If we go home? If they reveal tonight that Georgie did it, I might be asking her for a divorce.

This weekend has been so tense, and despite the threats from Tammy and Tiffany that they will discover who did it, I doubt they will. We all have our stories and secrets, and our own individual relationships with Daisy, be they good or bad.

What no one knows, even Georgie, is that, just the day before she went missing, Daisy asked to talk with me alone.

‘Come to my room later,’ she whispered in the kitchen. ‘Don’t bring her!’

So, that night, when Georgie was asleep, I crept into Daisy’s room.

There, she told me she wanted to be with me, and that I was the love of her life.

I was surprised at this sudden love-bombing, because Daisy, Georgie and I had, a few weeks before, had a very difficult conversation about the baby.

We wanted Daisy to have an abortion, but Daisy had completely rejected the idea.

I have to say I wasn’t as against the baby as Georgie was, but I was scared about telling my dad I’d got a girl pregnant.

Sticking with Georgie and letting her sort it all out was the easiest and kindest thing for me to do.

But there I was, in the bedroom next to Georgie’s, with this beautiful girl telling me she loved me and wanted to keep my baby.

I kept looking at her and thinking about coming home to her every night, with these little fair-haired kids running around.

Daisy was calm and chilled, rarely lost her temper and never tried to control me – in fact I was the one trying to control her.

I wanted to keep her. And that’s when I really started to change my mind.

‘Shouldn’t a baby have a mother and a father?’ she said.

‘Absolutely. I want it too,’ I said, and I felt so happy.

But now I know that it wasn’t my baby, it was David’s all along, and Daisy was just using me. And she would have gone on using me. Georgie said that’s what she was doing, and she was right – she’s always right. How am I going to survive if she divorces me?

I never told Georgie about this encounter with Daisy; she would have gone through the roof, caused the biggest scene, and probably dumped me straight away.

I wasn’t going to tell Georgie and wreck what we had before seeing how things might be with Daisy.

I mean, you don’t give up your job without securing another one first, do you?

So the next day I called Daisy, to try to plan our escape, but she burst into tears as soon as she picked up the phone.

She said she still felt the same, but she’d also been talking to David and felt very mixed up.

I realise now that Daisy was doing the exact same thing to me as I was to her – checking everything out before making a choice.

I tried not to put too much pressure on her over the phone. But I wanted her and the baby even more now, and I knew if I saw her in the flesh I could convince her to be with me. So I asked if I could meet her.

‘Not tonight, I’m going to Exmouth to meet David,’ she told me. ‘Perhaps tomorrow?’

I may be a bit of a hypocrite, but there was no way I was waiting for her to see David and then choose him .

I had to get to her first. So I told Georgie I was popping out for a few drinks with a mate.

She was pissed off, but by then I didn’t care, I just wanted to see Daisy.

I got in the car and waited outside our house for about half an hour, and then she eventually appeared.

She wandered off down the road to get her bus for her romantic reunion with David. But I wasn’t having that.

I stayed a safe distance from the bus all the way, and eventually pulled in near the beach, a few hundred yards from the bus stop.

It was dark and cold, and no one was about. I didn’t really know anyone in Exmouth anyway, so I was pretty safely tucked away. I could see her, but she couldn’t see me.

I was there a while, and then I saw someone walking along the front.

At first I thought it was Daisy – they were about the same build – but then the person disappeared.

I couldn’t really see from where I was, but by the time I got out of the car, there was a figure on the beach, and it looked like Daisy.

I decided to have a discreet stroll – see if it was her, and if so I’d go and talk to her, try and convince her to be with me.

But before I could get down to the beach, I saw the figure of a man walk down to meet her, and immediately I realised it was David.

Trying to keep out of sight, I moved nearer to where the couple were, and it was definitely him and Daisy, as by then some of her long blonde hair had escaped her woolly hat.

My heart stung seeing her with him, and it was painful to watch as they embraced for a long time.

I didn’t want to see this, but at the same time I couldn’t leave.

I felt rooted to the spot, just watching them and wishing it was me with her, down there on the beach.

I hung around for a while, and eventually watched them disappear arm in arm towards the beach huts.

I assumed they were heading inside one to talk, or make up, and they did – they had sex in the beach hut, which was revealed later through the DNA tests.

They were gone for about half an hour, and eventually I realised there was no point me hanging around, so I started to walk back to my car.

But as I turned to go, I suddenly became aware of a figure standing on the beach, looking back at the beach huts.

It was odd for someone to be standing there alone and still, in the freezing cold in the dark.

I couldn’t see clearly, but was still close enough to know they were there, and it creeped me the fuck out.

I felt so uneasy. In retrospect, I was right to feel uneasy, but it was hard to get a good look; I didn’t want them to see me, and so I began walking away.

But as I did, I turned one last time, only to see David and Daisy emerging.

They embraced, had a long, lingering kiss, and the person who’d been watching moved behind the beach huts.

Then David and Daisy parted, and he went one way down the beach and she started walking the other way in my direction, so I quickly jumped in my car.

I started the car, feeling sad and jealous, and I realised that I loved Daisy.

I’d never felt like this about anyone before, and I’d certainly never felt this horrible jealousy in the pit of my stomach.

I remember thinking this must be how Georgie feels, as I drove away down the road.

But as I approached the beach huts something made me drive slowly past, and under a street light I saw the other person, the one I’d seen before, crouching.

It was as if they were waiting. It was dark, and I didn’t get a good look, I just saw this figure loitering in the shadows.

It was so weird, and by now I thought it was probably some weirdo, a peeping Tom, and, aware that Daisy was walking back along the beach alone, I thought twice about leaving.

But then I considered how it would seem to her if I suddenly pulled up in my car as she stood at the bus stop.

She’d know I’d been following her and probably freak out.

So I just drove back home, but as I did, something in the back of my mind was niggling.

I thought about the figure waiting by the beach huts.

There’d been something familiar about the way they moved, the crouching, the posture.

That’s when I started to have the most horrible feeling that I knew who it was – so horrible I had to stop and have a drink.

I never told the police I’d been there; it would only have made me look guilty or weird, and Georgie had already covered for me by saying I was with her. So I kept quiet, kept myself out of the spotlight, and never told a soul what, or who, I’d seen that night.