Arresting Decision

"Okay," Bethan said after a good thirty seconds of silence from Dave. "You can't confess. I wish that I could say that I am surprised but I'm not. Why would you admit it now? You're facing your own death and you still can't clear your conscience."

With one sharp movement of her foot, she pulled Dave back from the brink.

"What do we do now?" Christine asked, looking at Bethan. Her husband was a weasel but though she didn't want him dead, she wanted him to suffer.

"You untie me and let me go," Dave said, immediately regaining his composure now that he was no longer facing the literal abyss. However, what he did not know was that he was about to take a deep and long plunge into darkness. He was like a troublesome umbrella: never ready to collapse and eager to spring back to poke you in the eye.

"Shut up, Dave!" Christine said. "You have no voice here." She kicked him sharply, satisfied with the yelp he omitted.

"We need to call the police," Bethan said.

"What?!" Dave was not prepared for this at all. "Why would you do that? Christine, I'm your husband. You can't let her do that!"

Christine wanted to kick Dave again but was held by Bethan. "Don't. He's not worth it." And added so he could not hear: "Let's not give him any ammo."

Dave's judgement was severely impaired, whether because he was so used to things going his way or because he was desperate in the face of incoming punishment but he continued to plead. Years of selfishness will do that to someone. It makes them blind to what is real and gives them belief in themselves which is unfounded but believed to be so by them, nonetheless.

"Ladies. I'm sorry. Whatever you think I've done to deserve this treatment, I'm sorry."

"Shut up," Christine growled, menacingly. And then to Bethan, "Shall I make the call?"

"Hey! HEY!" Dave was trying to move so that he could stand but as he was on his back, arms tied as well as legs, he looked like a clothed sausage or a hampered breakdancer. "You don't want to do that! What are you going to tell them, eh? You assaulted me and tied me up! How do you think that's going to look?"

Christine started to look worried but Bethan calmly replied, "We'll take our chance."

"You'd be stupid to! Look, we can sort this out. I know we can."

Bethan said, "No, we can't," and then to Christine, "Call. Tell them what you saw. Don't lie," and to herself, quietly, "I'm fed up of lies."

Christine reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

"Wait! WAIT! Christine, don't do anything rash! I don't know why you're siding with her over me!"

Christine had gone to wander off to make the call but came powering back to answer Dave's audacious begging with a fury that was apparent in her face and her posture. "I'll tell you why! Because you're a liar! You've lied to me for years! You are incapable of telling the truth and just because we've been married for a long time does not mean that I have any loyalty to you."

Bethan stepped between Christine and Dave, a physical barrier. She felt remarkably calm. A point had been met, a decision made and she was happy to pursue it to the end.

"Well, what about Katie, eh? What do you think this will do to her? Her own mother getting her father arrested! What sort of mother does that to her child?"

Bethan was still calm but could feel heat at her core.

Christine, who had headed away, but was starting to come back again, belligerence in her frame, stopped as Bethan said, "Make the call, Christine. He's trying to rattle you. Don't let him."

But Dave was determined to be heard. "Listen to me, Christine, not her. You're going to tear our lives apart!"

"You've already done that!" Christine shouted.

"Katie will never forgive you!"

Bethan hated the way that Dave was using Christine's love for her daughter as a way to manipulate the situation. She stated in a way that she hoped would shut him up, "It's you who Katie will never forgive."

And added, "She knows exactly what you are."

Christine was a little way off but she had heard Bethan's comment and stopped her dialling. The way that Bethan had said that was a little too knowing. Was she imagining it? This day...she felt all at sea, not having any idea of what to believe or who...

Bethan felt Christine's stillness in her peripheral vision. A small lurch of nerves jolted through her but she said again under her breath, "No more lies." Bethan looked at Christine directly and waited. She could see Christine processing what she'd said and the way she'd said it and she was ready for the question. She told herself that she had done nothing wrong but with the situation being at a delicate point, Bethan knew that this could be upset enormously. Her knowledge of Christine was only from today and what she knew of Katie. It was pretty groundless but surely, the revelation that she knew Christine's daughter wouldn't completely undermine everything that had gone before.

Would it?