The Reunion: The Van Helsen Series, #3

The Reunion

The Van Helsen Series, Volume 3

L Tait

Published by L Tait, 2015.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

THE REUNION

First edition. November 16, 2015.

Copyright © 2015 L Tait.

ISBN: 978-1519944306

Written by L Tait.

Also by L Tait

The Van Helsen Series

Frenemies

Home Truths

The Reunion

Loose Cannon

Satan's Game

Artistic Differences

Keeping Secrets

Identity Crisis

Undecided...

Standalone

If Only!

School Daze!

Random Quest

I'm Not As Green As I'm Cabbage Looking!

The Work Experience

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Also By L Tait

The Reunion (The Van Helsen Series, #3)

When I look back at everything that had happened to me over the past year, I find it very difficult to believe that it actually had happened, and, there are times when I know that I had been given the world.

However, it didn’t excuse the fact that I had paid a very high price to get it.

I was engaged to be married to, possibly, the most amazing man I’d ever met.  It didn’t matter to me, that I was seventeen, and he was twenty nine.  I, Hazel Woodford, wanted the world, and his wife, to know that age didn’t matter as far as true love was concerned, and our four month old daughter, Jana, was irrefutable proof of just how strong the bond between us really was.

But, that said, Kris Van Helsen was a force to be reckoned with.  We’d overcome some difficult

and testing situations, as a result of his rather chequered past.

Nevertheless, despite all that, we’d managed to weather the storms, and were hoping that the future of our relationship would involve less of the cloak and dagger style of secrecy during its early stages, and more of the honesty and trust that would definitely lay the ghosts of the past to rest.

But, little did I know that the strength of our relationship would be tested to breaking point, as the past would return to haunt us, and that it would turn our lives upside down.

( As if three near death experiences, witnessing two deaths, and being cross examined in court hadn’t already turned my life upside down!).

So Kris, our daughter Jana, and I had returned home to Glasgow, after having spent some time in Bergen, where Kris, his younger sister Anoushka, and I had been giving evidence at an Inquiry held by the organisation Kris worked for, as an agent, the CIB.

(Which stands for Criminal Investigation Bureau.  Kris had been employed as an agent in their Norwegian branch, and it was while working undercover on his first assignment, that we’d met, and fallen in love, and became engaged, as well as parents).

Then, we started making plans for our wedding.

Kris had taken an indefinite leave of absence from his job, awaiting news of his next assignment, which he’d probably receive in due course.  In light of the recent events that had taken place in Bergen, I’d had enough adventure to last me a lifetime, and hoped that our lives would finally return to a sense of normality.

But, normality was a luxury that our lives would not allow us to enjoy, even in its smallest amount.

In short, and I hated admitting it, Kris was a jinx, and exorcising the demons of his life was nothing short of a full time job, but, I’d made a start, and was prepared to go the distance with him, whatever it took.

Although, as a general rule, we didn’t keep secrets from each other, I was keeping quiet about one particular thing that I was constantly experiencing, because I didn’t want to worry him.

For the past month, I’d been having nightmares.

My mind kept replaying the events of that fateful evening on the mountainside in Bergen, where Kris and I had almost lost our lives.

Every evening, when I went to sleep, even though I had Kris beside me, my subconscious mind would take over, and I would hear Cassandra’s enraged scream as she fell, and while, in the nightmare, like the real life situation, Kris managed to save me, a second figure, whose face was shrouded in darkness, would push Kris over the edge, and then, before I even had the chance to respond, the same mysterious person would show me no mercy, and push me over the edge as well.

It was almost as if my mind were battling with some kind of unresolved matter concerning that evening, like an instinctive gut feeling that, even though all of the skeletons in Kris’s closet had allegedly been summarily dealt with in spectacular style, there had to be something I couldn’t quite accept, but I didn’t know what it could possibly be.

Confiding in Kris would completely invalidate everything I’d so strongly believed in after I’d told him about not letting the past rule our future.

So, I was sure he’d be less than sympathetic in view of my present frame of mind.

I suspected that Kris knew that something was bothering me, but, he never asked any questions, or even approached me concerning the unusual pattern of behaviour that I’d so recently adopted.

I’d gone from one extreme to the other.

Some nights, I’d be restless, and I’d sit in the nursery, watching Jana sleep, just staring into space until dawn.

On other evenings, I would sleep for unnaturally long periods of time.

But still, the nightmare would perpetually haunt me.

Kris had , no doubt,  put it all down to delayed post natal depression.

But, I knew better.

Then, one night, a change occurred, which unnerved me.

As usual, I was on the Cliffside, and Kris had pulled me back, but, instead of being pushed over the edge by the mysterious stranger, who I still couldn’t identify, I actually started fighting with him, digging my nails into his face and shouting to Kris to go and get help.

But, then I felt a hand grab my ankle, and I turned to see Cassandra climbing back up the mountainside.

So, then I tried to fight the two of them off.  The unknown man and the seemingly indestructible Cassandra.

Then I felt myself being violently shaken, even though I was still desperately trying to escape them.

Kris’s voice broke gently into the darkness, and I kept calling his name, almost crying with relief that he’d come back for me.

At length, I opened my eyes, as I was still being shaken.

‘Hazel...Haze...Hazel, wake up.’ said a voice that I knew only too well.

‘It’s all right...you’re having a nightmare.  Snap out of it.’ the voice went on.

‘Kris? Oh, Thank God! You’re all right!’ I sighed, recognising my surroundings and falling back against the pillows.  ‘You could have been killed!’

‘What? Excuse me, Hazel, I’m sorry, I don’t understand.’ Kris insisted gently.

‘Dear God, Child! I don’t know what you were dreaming about, but, it sounded like you were the one almost certainly facing a fate worse than death, not me.’

Then, I became more than a little hysterical, and I cried, for possibly no apparent reason other than the acute stress I was currently experiencing.

Kris immediately took me in his arms and held me tight, letting me vent all of my frustration, my helplessness, my inability to let go of the past, and, all the while calming me down in the way that only he could, his voice and its whispering words were like gentle rain after a very heavy thunderstorm.

Now, I knew that I would have to come clean and tell him what had made me act in such an odd manner, and, considering how mad he’d been when I didn’t tell him I’d been feeling ill, as a result of being pregnant with Jana at the time, I was even more apprehensive about telling him about this, which would almost certainly make him very cross with me.

But, I couldn’t escape the question that I was sure Kris would ask me.

Which, at length, he did.

‘Okay, Haze! Spit it out! What’s going on?’

‘Are you sure you want to know, Kris?’ I asked, in a guarded tone of voice.

‘You’re damn right I do! Hazel,’ he insisted, pausing to switch on the lamp resting on the bedside table, ‘I was finding it difficult to sleep tonight, so, I did what I always do on such rare occasions.’

‘Which was?’ I inquired, suddenly intrigued.

At this point, I could have sworn I saw Kris redden slightly, as if he were about to make some sort of embarrassing confession.

‘

Well...I, er...watch you sleep, Haze.  It usually soothes me, but I was very alarmed this evening.  You looked as if you were actually fighting with someone.  You were very distressed.  So, when I tried to get you to wake up, you turned your defensive behaviour on me, and it took me all of my strength to restrain you.  Now, I want you to be completely honest with me Haze.  How long has this been going on?’

‘I reckon this was probably a one off, Kris.’ I replied, with a casual wave of my hand.  ‘I’m fine, really.  Now, I think I’ll go back to sleep.’ I finished, turning away from him and trying to get myself settled under the covers.

But Kris wasn’t convinced.

‘Hazel, I don’t believe you.’ he asserted, in a stern tone of voice, grabbing my shoulders and turning me round to face him.

His eyes bore into mine, and, all of a sudden, I felt very vulnerable and scared by his barely suppressed aggression.

My gaze travelled down to briefly rest on his smooth, muscular chest, before returning to meet his serious, unwavering look.

‘Well...I...ah...’ I started, tentatively.

‘Well, what, Haze? Tell me.’

‘Kris,’ I said, taking a deep breath, ‘You remember how cross you were before, when I was suffering from morning sickness with Jana, and I kept it from you?’

‘Ja. Go on, Hazel.’ coaxed Kris, his steely gaze softening slightly.

‘Well, do you promise not to be mad at me if I tell you the truth about the nightmares I’ve been having?’ I ventured.

‘That depends.’ he stated, running a hand through his thick mane of blond hair, and resting his head on his elbow.

I knew then that I had to get it all out in the open, put my troubled mind at rest, and prepare myself for the barrage of anger from Kris, that would inevitably follow my confession.

‘Okay, time to come clean Kris.  It’s been going on for about the past month or so.  I’ve been having the weirdest dream.  It’s been so terrifying, Kris, and it’s always the same dream, but, tonight, there was something different about it, and I got really, really scared, Kris, and, I tried to fight him off.  I did all I could...and...and...’

My voice gave up on me then, and I closed  my eyes, waiting for the inevitable lecture that would come as a result of everything I had just told him.

But, instead of being told off for keeping quiet about what had been troubling me, Kris put a finger to my trembling lips, and drew me to him.

‘Ssh...ssh...’ he soothed, stroking my hair, as silent tears slid down my cheeks, tears which he gently kissed, as if to ease my emotional pain.

‘So...you’re not cross with me?’ I whispered, looking deeply into his aquamarine eyes.

‘Cross? Good Lord Hazel! I know I should be, but, I’m not.  This is something you don’t have any conscious control over.  And, I suspected there was something going on with you, judging by your behaviour of late.  The long naps you were taking and your spaced out manner was enough to tell me something wasn’t right.  So,’ he paused to kiss me very gently, ‘What was it that you were dreaming about that caused you so much distress, Dearest?’ Kris asked, quietly.

Now I was really stuck.  Maybe he’d send me off to the funny farm along with all the other nutters who let silly things rule their lives to the point of obsessions and nervous breakdowns.

However, in this case, I’d reached the point of no return with Kris, and I knew that I had to be up front with him, and basically hope that I wasn’t shipped off to the crazy house on the first available mode of transport.

So, I told him, in detail, about my recurring dream, feeling almost relieved at being able to tell someone, at last, what was on my mind.

And, the whole time, Kris listened intently, interrupting me in places, to ask me to slow down (as it was all coming out in a bit of a confused jumble of words and phrases).