Sarah felt it was high time she tried to track down Greg’s ex-wife Cara and to try and get her version of events.  She’d heard enough about her in the past from Greg, his mother and Kim.  She’d heard the damning portrayal, most of which she hadn’t really believed.  Now she wanted to know the truth.  She didn’t know where Cara lived or worked and she had no phone number or address but she did once overhear Greg’s mother telling him that Cara had just got a new job as a manageress in Hather’s Off License in Nexton and that he should tell the CSA because he’d be able to get more maintenance out of her.  Sarah made enquiries there but found that Cara had moved on.  After phoning various off licenses and offices she eventually located her in a clothing company in Lanlow.

            “Good morning, can I help you?” a cheery voice sailed down the telephone line.

            “Hello, can I speak to Cara Hatherway-Bramley please?”

            “Speaking,” came the friendly reply.

            “Oh.... hi.... um,” Sarah spluttered, nervously.  “You don’t know me but I’m Sarah Hawthorne, Greg’s ex-fiancee.”

            “I’ve heard about you.... Hi,” Cara responded, warmly.

            “Um, I hope you don’t mind me phoning you but I just wondered if I could ask you a few things.... about Greg.  You see I’ve left him.... for good this time.  But I’ve had a terrible time.  It was bad enough when I was with him, cos he was always drunk and violent, but it’s even worse now.  He’s been harassing, threatening, stalking, calling social services on me.  It’s as if everyone is on his side.  The police won’t do anything to stop him.  And I’m worried sick that I’ll lose my babies.  He seems to get what he wants all the time.  It baffles me.  Blokes go to prison for far less than what he’s done,” Sarah gushed, trying to condense three years into three minutes.

            “Tell me about it,” Cara interrupted, sighing sympathetically. “I didn’t think you’d stay with him very long.  He’s a real bad egg.  I stupidly put up with over twelve years of marriage to him and nearly didn’t live to tell the tale.  He tried to kill me; slashed me with a bread knife.  I’ve still got the scar on my stomach where I had fifteen stiches.”

            “Oh my God.” Sarah gasped in horror, “Why didn’t you press charges?”

            “I was too scared.  He’d make the most abominable threats. He said he’d do the job properly next time.  He forced me to tell the hospital that I’d been mugged and stabbed in the forest where we used to live, by a traveller, and that my attacker had fled.  Greg’s attacked me loads of times.  He stuck a gun to my head once…. and that was witnessed by a few people.  But he still got away with it - witness intimidation.  He pushed me onto a fire.  The back of my legs got burnt but the police did nothing.  I had to call them out loads of times but all they did was take notes.  I never knew what he had over the police.”

            Sarah butted in, “He told me that you’d attacked him with a knife.  He showed me the scars on his wrist.  Kim said she saw you do it too.”

            “No; never.  That’s a lie.  He’s the biggest barefaced liar you could ever meet.  He slashed his own wrist.  He tried to commit suicide.  Pity he never managed it; ruddy schizophrenic.  He made Kim lie, to save face.  He forced us all to lie, all the time, to save his skin.  I bet he told you that I was a schizo…. and addicted to valium?”

            “Yes; he’s telling everyone around here now that I’m one…. and an alcoholic and a manic depressive.  Christ, I wish I’d spoken to you earlier.  I wish you’d warned me.  I always used to say to Greg, ‘I bet Cara could tell me a thing or two about you’,” Sarah babbled on, relieved to be talking to someone at last who really understood and who was being straight with her.

            “I wish I’d warned you too,” Cara continued, “ but you probably wouldn’t’ve listened.  I bet he told you that he took over my debts too?”

            “Yes, he said that when you left him you owed money all over the place and so he had to take out a massive seventeen thousand pounds loan.”

            Cara jumped in, “Well that’s grown!  Actually it was for ten thousand pounds.  It’s probably gone up so much because he borrowed from a loan shark who charged extortionate rates.  The loan was for a brand new car that he wanted.  I’ve never had debts.  They were always his.  In fact we always had bailiffs at the door cos he was so useless with money.  And he’s got countless judgements against him, all in his name.  I suppose he told you about all the affairs I’m supposed to have had too, as if I ever had the time!  I was always working, to bail him out.  He probably told you that I used to hit and strike out at Kim and Lee as well…. Well I lost count of the times I had to stand in front of my kids to stop him beating up on them, especially Lee.”

            “This all sounds so familiar,” Sarah gasped.  “Why did you stay with him for so long?”

            “I tried to leave him a few times but he always managed to hunt me down and then he’d virtually drag me back home with him.  I’d get a black eye or a bruised cheekbone and a stern warning not to try and run away again or I’d get worse next time.  In the end I couldn’t take it any more.  I was living off my nerves.  I knew I had to get away from him, for good.  So I managed to get myself a bed-sit, secretly, and then one day I left work and I didn’t go back to the family.  I fled, seventy miles.  No one knew where I was.  I phoned to tell Greg that I wanted a divorce.  I begged and pleaded with him to let me talk to my children.  I wanted to tell them that I love them and that I was getting another home, a safer one, ready for them.  But he just swore at me and told me not to bother phoning there again because I’d made my bed and now I must lie on it.  I wish to God now I’d taken them with me, into a women’s refuge, if need be.  But at the time I thought it was better to get another job, a flat, a school etc sorted out first; miles away from Greg.  I thought it was the responsible way to do it.  I guess I hadn’t really thought it through and was too hasty at the time to get myself out of there and well away from Greg.  I totally misjudged his reaction.  I stupidly thought he’d be reasonable and would do the right thing for the sake of Kim and Lee.  I really never thought he’d cold-heartedly use them as his weapons to punish me.  Christ, I was so naive.  The price I paid for that mistake is incalculable, I’ve lived that period and I’ve weeped, countless times over.”

            Sarah listened awestruck as Cara, her voice noticeably breaking with emotion recommenced.

            “I was hysterical.  I was out of my mind.  Greg said that I was never to show my face near his house again; I was never to go near Kim and Lee and that if I ever turned up in Dingleton, he’d come after me and would beat me senseless.  He said there would be the biggest bloodbath I’d ever seen.  He said that he’d know if I’d been in town.... because.... h-he knows.... everyone.... and he said that he has people looking out for him.  He said he was ‘protected’ and that I only had myself to b-blame.  He said that.... I’d f-forfeited my kids because I’d…. w-w-walked out on them.”

            Sarah’s blood ran cold.  She could identify with so much of what she was hearing.  Her heart ached and reached out to the voice, which was trembling and faltering pitifully.  How she felt for this broken woman whom she’d never met but with whom she had so much in common.  The pain in Cara’s voice was heartbreaking; the wretched anguished memories seemingly worse over the years, not less.  Her hurt and loss was immeasurable.

            Cara struggled to carry on:

            “I…. telephoned my children’s school, pleading and p-praying for help.  Miss Jones suggested that I write to Kim and Lee, care of the school.  So I did.  I sent dozens of letters asking them to write back to me at my local…. post office. But I didn’t get one reply.  Greg had stopped my children…. writing to me.  I thought justice would be done in court but by the time proceedings were under way, Greg had well and truly brainwashed my kids and had turned them against me.  He’d told them that I didn’t…. l-love them, that I left them because I didn’t care about them, that I was a t-terrible mother, that I’d left so that I could move in with my…. boyfriend.  I found out all these things later on. He told them such awful, vicious lies.  Kim believed them all and now she hates me.  He promised them the Earth, Moon and the Stars if they told the court welfare officer that they wanted to live with him.  And they f-fell for it.  He even managed to get them to say that they didn’t want…. to see me.  Oh, he kept his word alright, he did buy them lavish gifts, including…. a…. horse for Kim, a m-motorbike for Lee, but…. it wasn’t for long; bailiffs soon removed them. 

            Greg had that court eating out of his hand.  I was denied everything, except the right to w-write to my ch-children…. once a month.  I was told that I hadn’t done myself any favours by walking out on my children.  I was portrayed as an irresponsible, uncaring, selfish woman.  I…. n-never got over it.  I don’t know how he did it.  I heard that he had glowing reports from the police but I’ve no idea why; they knew about the violence he inflicted on m-m-me and the kids and about his motoring offences.   Social services knew that he neglected and abused Kim and Lee too.  I know that some of the neighbours were very worried about them at times and so were the head teachers at their schools.  Many referrals were made because they took lots of days off school.  I heard that one of the reasons was so that cuts and bruising inflicted on…. Lee…. by his father would have time to heal.  They were also forced to take time off to look after their father because he was always ailing, having panic and asthma attacks, stomach pains etc.  Their schoolwork suffered immensely and b-both were well below average.  I heard that they were unhappy and lonely and that Lee was a school vandal and in with a g-gang of troublemakers, causing criminal damage and dossing about on park benches and in caravans, but nothing was ever done.  Even the E-d-ducational Welfare Officer was called in to do an....  investigation, but nothing ever came of it.  I know the kids get my letters.... but Kim doesn’t want anything to do with me.  Lee does write now.... and he has visited me a couple of times.... but he is still so controlled by his dad and so terrified of him.... So am I.  Even today.... I dread him tracking me down.”

            Glassy-eyed Sarah was almost crying with Cara who was by now having great difficulty getting her words out amidst bouts of tears.

            “I feel so, so sorry for you Cara.  That evil fiend has put us both through hell; the system has let you down atrociously.  And I’m going crazy thinking that history is repeating itself.  Will you help me?  Will you testify in court so that they hear the truth about Greg, and in the doing you might find some solace.  Maybe it’ll bring you closer to your children, especially Kim.  Maybe even now they don’t know the full truth.”

            “I can’t,” Cara cried, “I’d like to help you; really I would but I’m too scared.... scared of Greg and scared that I’ll jeopardise the already fragile relationship I have with my son.  I can’t risk it…. I’m sorry.  It’s too late for me now.  Too many years have passed.  I can’t openly support you.  Greg would turn it against me and I’d lose Lee completely.  I just couldn’t bear to go through all that again.  I-I have to go now....”

            Sarah sympathised and urged, “I do understand.... but if you change your mind,

here’s my phone number.  I’m sorry I brought all these painful memories back for you.  Maybe, in time, you’ll see that I can help you.  Please think about it.  Don’t let that

contemptible bastard continue to control and violate you or your kids any longer.  We can fight this together…. Please call me.”