Shattered Hearts

Chapter 14

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?" Dale asked when he realised Charlotte had been talking at length and he'd drifted off. Talk about unprofessional. 

"I was saying I'd better get going," Charlotte said with exaggerated patience as she looked pointedly at the clock. "I can't afford any more of your time."

He sat up and straightened his tie, feeling weary. "I wish I had better news for you. It must be frustrating that we're pretty much spinning our wheels here."

Charlotte nodded, her eyes downcast. "I knew it wasn't going to be easy but I thought I'd be further down the road by this stage."

Dale frowned taking her words as implied criticism, and who could blame her? If she'd had a better, more experienced lawyer she probably would have made more progress. As it was, he was being outgunned by Nick's lawyer every step of the way. He glanced at the picture of Rosalind on the left-hand side of his desk and felt even more despondent. It was becoming an all too familiar feature of his life, there was always some guy who was a little bit better than him.

"You can't give up now," he said pulling himself together. "Not when you've come this far."

"And spent all this money," she said with a half-laugh.

"True, if there'd been anyway-"

"I'm joking, Dale. You've done more for me than I would ever have asked of you."

"You're too kind," he said glancing again at Rosalind's picture. "I've consumed myself in your case to avoid looking too closely at the problems in my own life."

The smile left Charlotte's face and she reached out to touch his hand. "I'm sorry about what you've gone through, what you're going through. To be honest, I think a lot of us have seen it as choosing between Ros and Darlene and we've forgotten that you're a victim in all of this as well."

He couldn't help wincing, the last thing he wanted was to be seen as a victim, the whole thing was humiliating enough as it was. "It's okay, I'm sure it was worse for Darlene than it was for me. They've been married longer, they have a child and another on the way."

"You could leave her," Charlotte said taking him by surprise. "No one would blame you if you did. You don't have the same ties binding you to Rosalind that Darlene has to bind her to John."

He gave her a wry smile. "And what about for better or worse?"

She laughed lightly. "Well if you believe that then you should be encouraging me to seek a reconciliation with Nick."

"That's like comparing apples and oranges. What Nick did was beyond the pale, Rosalind's transgression was..." He stopped, not even knowing what to call it. A misdemeanour, an error of judgement?

"You don't have to stay with her though, there's no right or wrong answer." She met his eyes before taking a deep breath. "Look I should have left Nick years ago. The first time he raised his hand to me, the first time he cheated, I'd have saved myself a lot of heartaches if I had. But do you know what kept me there?" He shook his head. "It was my misplaced sense of pride. I couldn't stand the thought of coming home with my life in tatters. I was more concerned about what other people would think than in doing what was best for me."

"And you think that's why I'm staying with Rosalind?"

"If it is then things will only get worse."

Dale nodded. That was pretty much the crux of it. Was he staying with Rosalind out of strength or weakness? He'd told himself their marriage was worth fighting for but Ros had casually disregarded her vows when the ink was still drying on their marriage certificate.