Convenience

Part 5

David wasn't interested in anything more. 

It wasn't as if she did not know that from the outset. The fact she'd been kidding herself into believing they might learn to compromise and make a go of this marriage for a few years was due to the fact she thought him to be a man of integrity. Oh, and handsome. That helped. That glimmer of attraction had lulled her into believing that this arrangement might just work. They just needed time to get to know each other.

But it was like following another person. From a distance. Watching. Not her life. Just a stranger's life was playing out in front of her, except that it was her life. But she kept wishing: One day. Just one day. It would happen. Hopefully.

Beatrice had followed his progress in business from a distance. She knew from what she read and what she heard that he was scrupulously fair and acted with integrity. That gave her hope. She thought that if he devoted the same amount of energy, integrity and fairness to their marriage, then there was hope for this marriage of convenience.

But that was before her birthday came to pass.

Her husband failed to send her a birthday card. A simple thing. Waiting for the postman. Waiting for a call. A text. No flowers. Any message. Why does a birthday means so much? Where was he today? Not on her doorstep. Actually no message at all. That is all that it took. And her life route changed again.

That was enough to finally convince Beatrice that she was hardly more than a name on his books. If a man couldn't even remember to wish his wife a happy birthday, then it was hardly likely that she registered at all on his radar. He'd clearly seen her as just a means to a financial end. David's company would be in dire straights had it not been for the cash injection from her grandfather. The fact the cash injection came with strings, in the form of marriage, was not a problem. For David had chosen not to be constrained by those strings.

After the funeral he had phoned and told her to contact him if she needed anything. But he had not offered a shoulder or a hug. Upon her grandfather's death David stopped coming by the house. Over the months that passed after her grandfather's funeral contact between David and Beatrice became less frequent. For a couple of weeks after the funeral, a member of his staff would arrive, in the evening ask a few questions about how Beatrice was holding up, did she need anything, was there anything they could do, and when they received her token responses, they departed. After a couple of weeks she suggested they did not need to visit as she had everything under control. So he replaced those visits with daily calls, but not from him personally. An assistant would call to ask if Beatrice needed anything. The scheduled phone calls dropped from once a day to once a week when Beatrice politely informed his PA that she was fine. Initially Beatrice felt humiliated. Knowing that your husband had delegated a stranger to contact you to see to your welfare was not the way she had imagined married life to be. At the end of the month Beatrice had politely suggested that there was no need for his PA to contact her unless there was an emergency. So then all calls stopped.

A few months after her grandfather's funeral, Beatrice moved from her grandfather's house, because she sold it. And she relocated to the family holiday home near Raglan. It was a size of home she could manage. More importantly with some of the funds from the sale of the main house she was able to invest in her future.

Beatrice doubted David even realised she was no longer in Auckland.

Contact between them was non-existent. If it hadn't been for the fact she had sent him a letter with her forwarding address and telephone number and informing him she had sold the house, she doubted whether he would have even noticed she was no longer in Auckland.

David remained in Auckland, living just north of the North Harbour area and commuting into the city on a daily basis. Beatrice lived in Raglan. A few days after she'd sent him the letter to say she'd relocated to Raglan, she received a message on her answer phone. He suggested that they quietly seek a divorce.

Married and divorced in just over six months, she wondered whether that was a record. Beatrice also wondered whether she ought to suggest they go for an annulment, given they had not consummated the marriage. She hadn't bothered to reply to his voicemail. Beatrice assumed he would divorce her. After all, he had more to loose. So Beatrice had simply moved to Raglan. She put her energy into developing a small business and left David to follow through on his suggestion and divorce her.

That was five years ago.