Who Are You?: With one click she found her perfect man. And he found his perfect victim. A true story of the ultimate deception.. Megan Henley
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none …’ I admitted. ‘Maybe I should just leave it a minute and try again?’
‘Can’t do any harm,’ he agreed.
He got in the car and waited beside me, both of us useless, and then I tried again. And again. And again. Completely dead.
‘Oh, God!’ I wailed, thumping the steering wheel. ‘I’ve got to get to that appointment, and pick Ruby up, and a hundred other things! I’ll have to see if I can get a garage to come out and collect it. It’s always been such a reliable car – why now?’ I said, knowing full well that I didn’t have the money for a garage to come to the house, but not seeing what else I could do.
‘Take mine,’ said Vic.
‘What?’
‘Take my car – go to your appointment, load the boot up with what you buy, get your little girl, and I’ll help you unload it all when you get back.’
‘Really? Are you sure? You’re a lifesaver!’ I declared, kissing him on the cheek. ‘Do you not need to be anywhere?’
He looked at me, the sadness welling up in his eyes. ‘To be honest, Megan, I’d rather not be around anyone just now. You calm me down, you don’t expect anything from me. I’ll wait here, have a little think with your lovely dog at my side, and the tea will be brewed when you get back.’
I was so relieved. He maybe didn’t know anything about cars, but Vic had made my day a whole lot easier with that one offer. By the time I got back – with Ruby and a pile of treasure – there was a pot of tea and dinner waiting on me, Max had been walked and I had a vague feeling that some tidying up had been attempted.
‘Just call me your guardian angel,’ smiled Vic. By the time Ruby was in bed, we’d come to an agreement. He would kindly let me use his car for as long as I needed it in exchange for being able to sleep on the sofa and get some peace.
‘I love everyone in the collective,’ he told me as the day drew to a close, ‘but, by God, do I need a break from the sympathetic looks and sad faces. You, Miss Henley, treat me as if I’m almost normal.’
He was a perfect gentlemen. There was nothing physical between us, he never pushed his luck in any way; we just muddled along for a couple of days exchanging my sofa for his car. I knew that he needed to get his head together after all of the troubles he’d been through, and, to be honest, it was nice to have him around. He seemed safe – and I needed that. There was also a part of me which enjoyed being able to provide a refuge for such a damaged soul; I wasn’t sexually attracted to Vic in the slightest but I did want to be there for him, to be supportive and kind. I also liked the fact that he usually lived four hours away, so if things did go sour it wasn’t as if he would be able to keep popping in. He was a thoughtful house guest, always willing to take Max for a walk or help Ruby with her homework, and on the fourth day he also suggested that he give me a hand while I looked for a new car.
‘I can’t fix them,’ he said, ‘but I can hopefully stop you getting sold an old banger again.’
I jumped at the chance. A couple of days later we found the perfect one for me – it was cheap (it had to be), but it seemed in great condition. Vic helped me to get a good deal, and I drove home elated.
‘That’s you sorted then,’ he told me that night, ‘and I feel a million times better too. I can’t thank you enough for giving me this time to just be here without any demands.’ He said he’d be leaving the next day around lunchtime, and we made plans to meet up at the start of the next month.
I drove Ruby to school and got home just in time to find Vic loading up his own car. He didn’t have much luggage as he hadn’t planned to stay to begin with, so it wouldn’t take long. ‘Is there anything else you need for the trip?’ I asked him.
‘A sandwich?’ he asked, trying to give me puppy dog eyes. ‘Some biscuits?’
I laughed. ‘Go on then – I’ll do you a packed lunch if you give me a couple of minutes!’ However, as I was getting things ready it dawned on me how nice it had been to have him around. He must have been thinking the same thing because, as I absentmindedly buttered the bread, he wandered into the kitchen.
‘Megan …’ he began, ‘I don’t want you to feel under any pressure at all but …’
‘I know exactly what you’re going to say,’ I told him.
‘Are you a mind reader, Miss Henley?’ he asked, laughing.
‘I can certainly tell when someone is easy and there’s no need to change it,’ I replied.
‘So – I’ll unpack the car, will I?’ he asked, giving me a hug. I nodded and hugged him back.
We were very comfortable around each other and, one night, when I was in the living room listing stock on my website, Vic came in.
‘Megan,’ he began. ‘I’m not sure how to say this but … I’ve just had a really odd email.’
He’d been lazing around in the kitchen on his own laptop when the first message had come through.
Having fun with your slag?
‘Do they mean me?’ I screeched. ‘Who sent that?’
He shrugged. ‘I have no idea. I mean, I assume it’s talking about you, but it doesn’t say who it’s from.’
‘Well, who have you been talking to? Who does it say it’s from?’
‘See for yourself,’ he replied.
The email address it was from simply read ‘a friend’, then the host. I was no expert on anything technological.
‘You must be able to find out who it’s from?’
‘I’m as clueless as you. Only the collective know about you, really, and it obviously isn’t from them. But Megan – it isn’t the only one.’
He showed me a series of emails that had come in, with about ten minutes between each one.
She’s a liar you know.
You needn’t think she’ll make you happy.
She’ll lie to you, cheat on you, play you for a fool.
Have you worked out that she’s a dirty whore yet?
You must be an idiot to be hanging around that slut.
‘Vic! These are absolutely horrible – what can we do? Call the police?’ I said.
‘Not likely,’ he scoffed. ‘No one’s saying stuff like that about you, no one.’ Vic held out his arms to me and I buried my head in his chest. Who hated me so much that they would say these things?
‘It must be someone you know,’ I told him. ‘If they were sent to your email address, they must know you and they’re being nasty to you.’
He thought for a bit. ‘Maybe. It’s easy enough to find a way to email me, but it’s a bit odd that they’ve picked on you rather than just tell me that I’m a tosser or something like that. It’s … well, it’s a bit personal to you, really.’
He was right. It was horrible to have these things, these lies, said about me by someone I didn’t know. The tears started falling uncontrollably as Vic tried to console me.
‘It’s all a lot of crap,’ he said. ‘Someone just doesn’t want us to be happy – and, do you know what, Miss Henley? I’ve been very happy indeed here with you since your rubbish car managed to bring us together.’
He turned my face up towards his and kissed me properly for the first time. We’d mucked about a bit before, sometimes play-fighting and tickling each other like overgrown kids, but, this time, we finally admitted just how close we’d grown. Something horrible had brought us together, but now we had eventually