Chapter 25

After having made peace with Charlie and becoming close friends with her again and, accepting that's all I could have for now, I lied and told her I was okay when she told me she was dating a guy again, I was a bit surprised Charlie wanted to be with guy again after what Brax did to her, I thought she would never go near another man again especially as it had not been the first time Charlie had been raped, but I guess Charlie must have got over it more than I thought she did.

When Charlie asked me to meet him, I was not looking forward to it at all, his name was Daniel Brown and worked as a junior doctor at the hospital who Charlie met him through work, when she attended a road traffic accident which really upset her, because the woman involved was pregnant, but she didn't make it but, Daniel had helped save the baby, they became close when he had offered Charlie a shoulder to cry on when she had struggled to get over what happened, she had never experienced someone die before and it really got to her.

Charlie was really excited about Daniel, she could not stop talking about him all the time, when we talked on the phone and, she wanted my approval of him, because she said that although we weren't together she valued my opinion and had told me, I was a good judge of character, Ruby had made it clear she was not happy she had already met Daniel and told me there was something not quite right about him, but I persuaded her to give him a chance, but she pointed out that I shouldn't be giving him a chance seeing that he made it impossible for Charlie and I to get back together, she was right or course but I thought that by not accepting Daniel I would further lose Charlie. Ruby made it clear, she would give Daniel a chance for my sake, not Charlie's because she knew how I still loved Charlie and, I was only going along with this because of that.

We had arranged to meet up at Angelo's which was taken over by some rich business man from overseas. I was nervous but I persuaded Ruby to come along too even though, she was adamant she wasn't going, she'd had, had a big row with Charlie about Daniel and was staying with Bianca, she wanted to stay with me, but Charlie refused because of school and I agreed with Charlie, so I suggested Bianca's because she was a teacher at the school, so could make sure Ruby didn't slack in her studies and Charlie agreed to that as a compromise.

I was meeting Charlie and Daniel at the restaurant at 8pm, Ruby and I arrived 5 minutes after, Charlie and Daniel had got there, Charlie was really pleased I had got Ruby to come also, but I had got Ruby to come for me not Charlie, because I didn't want to sit there with them on my own, but I never told Charlie that.

The evening was quite tense, Daniel was ok for first impression, but I had to agree with Ruby, there was something quite not right about him and, I could 't help but notice Charlie didn't seem as happy as she made out she was. Daniel seemed very manipulative of Charlie, he ordered her meal for her and if she was drinking too much for his liking he tried to make her look stupid by telling her off for drinking too much. Ruby looked at me to see what I thought, but I choose to not to give anything away.

The meal couldn't have ended any quicker for my liking, much to the relief of Ruby too. Daniel insisted on paying for everything which I didn't bother argue with, whilst he went up to pay Charlie asked me what I thought, I looked at Ruby who was anxiously waiting for me to say I didn't like him which I didn't, how could I tell Charlie that,to say I didn't like him would have just looked like I was jealous even though that would have been the truth, I knew Charlie was looking for an answer so I just avoided her question and said if she was happy that was all that mattered.

Ruby was furious with me when I drove her back to Bianca's she asked if I still had any feelings for Charlie or had I lied to her too, I told her that I was still in love with Charlie, but I couldn't make her love me back, when she quite obviously didn't. Ruby said she didn't think so, that she believed Charlie was only with Daniel to make me jealous, I told Ruby it had worked I was very jealous but I couldn't show Charlie that because being jealous destroys relationships and Charlie clearly didn't look like she was trying to make me jealous she had that look in her eyes I had seen when we first got together, Ruby disagreed with me, I told Ruby that if she was right then I needed to play it cool otherwise I could end up pushing Charlie more towards Daniel.

I was about to drive away from dropping Ruby off, when Bianca appeared asking me to come in, because she wanted to talk to me about Charlie.

I went inside and, Bianca told me she had seen Charlie with Daniel a couple of days before down at the beach and, Charlie was nearly in tears because Daniel was having a go at her for talking to some guy who happen to walk past and said hi, Bianca said Charlie seemed to know this guy, but Daniel was angry because he said that Charlie had spoilt their afternoon together, she said he was really laying into Charlie, that she was walking along the beach with Liam and he had to intervene because Daniel had completely lost it and, it looked like he was ghoing to hit her, then when she asked Charlie about it later that day, Charlie seemed afraid to talk about it. Ruby asked if I could see what she was talking about now, that I really needed to get back to the bay to get Charlie back.

I told Ruby that I would finish the case I was working on, then I would ask Miles and Leah if I could rent a caravan for a while, Bianca said no I couldn't do that, I could move in with them, as Liam and April wouldn't mind, April said no it would be fun and it would cheer Ruby up. I was outnumbered, so I agreed, but Ruby had to let me sort this out my way. She hugged me and said no one would ever be good enough for Charlie except me, I was flattered by that and hoped all my effort would pay off, I did feel a bit better having spoken to Bianca because she had proved things weren't quite what Charlie had me believe they were and, Charlie was as happy as she had told me she was, but I wasn't sure why or why she would be with someone who was quite obviously a bully and would probably hurt her, especially being a police officer who dealt domestic violence all the time and, in our training we were trained to see the signs and this was definitely a sign Daniel was capable of domestic violence, it hurt that to see Charlie allow herself to be put in this position, but until Daniel did anything there was nothing I could do.

That night I went back to my apartment and started going through all my evidence so that I could present it to the Crown Prosecution Service, to see if they thought I had enough for a conviction. I was up all night making sure all the evidence I had was in order, so that I could get back to sort out what was going on with Charlie, and not have to worry about any come backs or having insufficient evidence, because I did not want any interruptions, if I was going to be keeping a very close eye on Charlie and Daniel.