Illusions of Love

by Michelle Betham

  ‘Get what out in the open?’ India asked, looking at both Dominic and Michael, that bad feeling in the pit of her stomach growing ten-fold as she noticed the way they faced each other, something in both their eyes letting her know this wasn’t going to be good news. It just wasn’t. ‘Dominic… do you know what he’s talking about?’

  He squeezed her hand, but he didn’t break the stare. One set of piercing blue eyes looking right into the others. ‘It’s okay, baby. Really, it’s okay.’

  Michael laughed, throwing his head back, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘You really believe that, do you? After what you’ve done?’

  India felt herself starting to panic. What the hell was going on here? This was crazy, she didn’t understand any of it. But, looking at Dominic, she knew he did. He knew exactly what was going on, and it scared her. ‘What’s he talking about, Dominic?’

  He squeezed her hand again, turning to look at her, tilting her chin up and quickly kissing her mouth. ‘It’s going to be okay, honey. I promise.’

  ‘What is? What’s going to be okay? I don’t understand…’

  ‘There’s something I need to tell you, India.’

  She stared up at him, every inch of her body gripped with a fear she couldn’t describe. Everything had changed in an instant. The whole atmosphere had turned, and she suddenly felt cold and nervous, wary of anything anyone was about to say to her.

  ‘Telling her now isn’t really going to help, is it?’ Michael said, and Dominic swung round to look at him, his ice-blue eyes angry now. ‘You’ve left it too late. Haven’t you?’

  ‘Left what too late?’ The rising panic in India’s voice was evident as she stared at the two of them. ‘Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on here?’

  Dominic said nothing; he just clung onto her hand, a fear building up in him that he just hadn’t anticipated. He’d dreamt of this situation so many times, dreamt of facing Michael and letting him know just what it was that he’d taken from him, but it wasn’t working out like that at all. Nothing was going to plan, nothing was happening quite how he’d envisaged.

  ‘Dominic…’ India’s voice was shaking now, an anxiety she couldn’t explain completely taking over.

  ‘Do you want to tell her?’ Michael asked, unable to look at her because he knew how much this was going to hurt her. But it had to happen. She needed to know. ‘Or shall I do it?’

  Dominic felt his breath catch in his throat, preventing him from saying anything at a time when he really needed to speak. He needed to make sure she understood.

  ‘I told you there was something you needed to know about Dominic MacDonald, didn’t I?’ Michael said, finally looking at India, his heart breaking at the confusion in her eyes. But he’d make it better, just like he’d used to. He’d make it all better, and she’d forget about Dominic MacDonald and all this pain he was about to cause. With his lies.

  India couldn’t say anything. The fact her ex-husband was involved in all of this only served to make her panic more, after what she’d experienced at his hands in the past.

  ‘He’s lied to you, baby. He’s been lying to you all along.’

  India looked up at Dominic, a questioning look in her eyes.

  ‘Honey, let me explain, I need to explain…’ He should have told her upstairs. He should have told her himself and prevented this from happening, but he’d had no idea Michael already knew. How could he have? The guy had given nothing away. How could he have known? Jesus, he’d handled this really badly. The minute he’d started to feel anything for this woman he should have told her the truth.

  ‘Explain what?’ India whispered, slowly letting go of his hand, but her eyes didn’t leave his.

  ‘I… Jesus, this is hard…’ He pushed a hand through his hair, but Michael saved him the trouble of trying to explain any more.

  ‘He’s my son, India. Dominic MacDonald, movie star – he’s my son.’

  CHAPTER 22

  Dominic MacDonald was born in Manhattan, New York, thirty-six years ago to a woman called Elizabeth Holt. She was nobody important, just an ordinary young woman who’d worked as a legal secretary at a large Manhattan law firm. Until she’d met a young, aspiring actor called Michael Walsh one night in a diner after a visit to an off-Broadway theatre with some girlfriends.

  They’d hit it off, she’d fallen head-over-in-heels in love, and within a matter of weeks they’d married in a small and quiet civil ceremony before moving into Michael’s modest Manhattan apartment. Less than six months later she was pregnant and rapidly falling out of love with Michael.

  Back then he’d been just another struggling young actor trying to find work wherever he could so money had been in short supply. The bills were mounting up, and Michael had started to become more and more controlling. Elizabeth hadn’t been happy, she’d wanted more from her life than scrimping and saving with a man who wanted to know her every move. She wanted a man who could look after her, give her everything she wanted. Not someone who was only going to dominate her, and possibly their baby too.

  But she carried on, trying to make things work for the sake of their unborn child. Until, five months before Dominic was born, she met Alan MacDonald, a partner at the law firm where she worked. He was an older, kind and sensitive man who’d moved from Scotland to New York when he’d been just twenty-three.

  He’d always held a torch for Elizabeth, and after a particularly emotional lunch one beautiful, sunny New York afternoon, Elizabeth had found herself opening up to him completely, telling him how unhappy she was with Michael but how frightened she was to leave because she wanted this baby to have a father. The thought of bringing up a child alone terrified her, and although she felt trapped in a marriage that just wasn’t working, she didn’t want her child growing up without a dad.

  Alan had listened, falling in love with her more with each second that had passed, and he’d grasped that chance to be her knight in shining armour with both hands. His chance to save her from something that was making her so unhappy. Because he’d known he could change that. He’d known he could be the man she needed in her life. The man both Elizabeth and her baby needed.

  In a matter of days he’d persuaded her to move in with him, promising her the life she’d always wanted, and the father for her baby that Michael could never be.

  Of course, at the time, nobody had had any idea that Michael would turn out to be one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, but even when that happened Elizabeth never regretted her decision to leave him without ever telling him about Dominic.

  She had an amazing life with Alan. He adored her, and she adored him twice as much, and he was a perfect father to Dominic. Alan made sure he never wanted for anything, and he was the most loved child. Both Elizabeth and Alan worshipped him, and Dominic had grown up thinking that Alan was his father – no-one had ever told him any different or alluded to anything other than that.

  Even after Alan tragically died in a road traffic accident on his way home from work one evening early in 2009, Elizabeth had let Dominic go on thinking he’d lost his real father. Alan had been his real father after all, hadn’t he? He’d brought him up, supported him through school, been there for him when he’d got his first acting job, gone with him to his first movie premiere; loved him beyond anything else.

  But then Elizabeth had fallen ill. Breast cancer. Too aggressive to treat successfully she went downhill fast, and that’s when the guilt had caught up with her. She felt Dominic deserved to know the truth about who his real father was, and it was news that had stunned him as he’d sat there holding his dying mother’s hand, trying to take in everything she was telling him. Michael Walsh, Hollywood superstar, was his real father. It explained his acting talent, his mother had smiled as she’d closed her eyes and left this world, leaving Dominic confused, but not angry. How could he be angry when he’d had the best life? With two wonderful parents.

  His mother had obviously had her reasons for not telling him the truth, and he didn’
t blame her. But he blamed Michael Walsh – a man who had no idea that Dominic even existed. His mother had told him how controlling Michael had been, how dominating he could be, how things had to go his way or he just wasn’t happy, and how living with that wasn’t what she’d wanted. She’d explained how she hadn’t wanted Dominic to be brought up with that atmosphere around him. So Dominic blamed Michael completely. He could never blame his mother. She wouldn’t have left like she had without good reason.

  So, Dominic thought maybe it was time for Michael Walsh to get a surprise he could never see coming. Something that would blow that control issue straight out of the water.

  But for months Dominic did nothing with the information he’d been given, because he’d known how much he needed to think about what his next move would be. He had to think really hard if he wanted to get it right. So he’d spent a lot of time looking into the life of Michael Walsh, finding out as much as he could about him, and it wasn’t difficult. He came across as a tough but likeable man to work with, and a lot of people admired him. But Dominic knew different.

  He also knew that to really get at Michael Walsh it meant hitting him with something right between the eyes, something that he’d find hard to take. And whilst finding out that Dominic was his son would be surprise enough, finding out that his estranged son was sleeping with his ex-wife – the only woman Michael Walsh had ever loved, and the woman he still wanted back in his life because he made no secret of that – well, that had to be something that would hit him the hardest.

  So, when Dominic found out he’d landed the male lead in Michael’s new romantic comedy, alongside India Walsh, he knew that was going to be his perfect opportunity. Fate had played a part when he’d needed it most.

  Dominic didn’t want or need Michael as a father at this stage in his life, but he wanted him to know – when he finally revealed who he really was – that he wasn’t the only force to be reckoned with. He, Dominic MacDonald, long-lost son, could be someone in control too. He wanted to show him he’d inherited not only his acting talent, but also his determination to let nothing get past him. What Michael Walsh wanted, Michael Walsh usually got, but not this time. This time Dominic had been determined to show him that things were different now. There was a new kid in town, here to shake things up, here to make him sit up and take notice.

  Dominic MacDonald was going to take the only thing that Michael Walsh really wanted away from him. That had been his plan. That had been his intention…

  But the best laid plans don’t always go the way you’d expect them to, and this plan had certainly veered way off course for Dominic as he looked at India, her face a mask of confusion as she stared at both him and Michael. Father and son.

  ‘You knew about this?’ she whispered, looking from one set of blue eyes to the other, a sudden realisation making her feel sick to her stomach. Those eyes. Now she knew why there’d been times when she’d felt almost uncomfortable looking into them. Because they were the eyes of Michael. The same blue eyes. With the same ability to lie to her whilst under some illusion that they loved her.

  ‘India, I can explain, baby, if you’ll let me…’

  She shook her head, pulling her hand away as Dominic tried to take it, determined not to make a scene. Not here. Not when the press and media were still around. This wasn’t something she really wanted to deal with in front of an audience, although it was quite obvious it wouldn’t stay a secret for long. How could it? She’d lived her life in a fish bowl for far too long to think that this could just be brushed under the carpet without anybody realising it’d happened.

  ‘He lied to you, India. Do you see that now?’

  Michael’s voice made her turn around and she fixed him with a stare as an all-too-familiar feeling of déjà vu flooded through her. ‘And so have you,’ she hissed, trying to stay calm. ‘If you knew about this, if you knew who he was and what he was doing but you still chose to keep me in the dark then you lied to me too, so don’t stand there and pretend this was all his fault.’ She looked from one to the other – two handsome men who’d messed up her life once too often. ‘You’re as bad as each other.’

  ‘India!’

  ‘No, Dominic! Just… no.’

  She turned and walked away, as calmly as she could without drawing too much attention to a situation that was going to kick off big time anyway, she was all too aware of that. She just didn’t want to be around when it happened.

  ‘India… what the fuck’s going on?’ Kenny asked as she pushed past him on her way out of the club, just desperate to get away and find some privacy because she could only be strong for so long. She could only hold everything back for a few more minutes and that time was fast running out.

  She looked at Kenny, into the eyes of a man who’d been there to pick up the pieces of every crappy relationship she’d ever had. Was this going to be one time too many, or would he still prove to be the only man she could rely on right now?

  Kenny held out his hand and she took it, furiously blinking back angry tears that were threatening to fall and he sensed that, pulling her quickly out of the club.

  ‘Come on, kiddo. Let’s get you out of here.’

  ***

  ‘What’s going on over there?’ Vince asked Reece, whose attention seemed to be focused on some kind of altercation involving India, Dominic and Michael.

  A sense of dread filled Reece as he watched India so obviously trying to stay calm in a situation that seemed anything but. ‘I don’t know,’ Reece sighed, leaning back against the wall, pushing a hand through his hair. ‘But it doesn’t look good, does it? Shit! I knew something was going on. I could fucking sense it!’

  ‘Whatever’s going on, Reece, you couldn’t have known about it.’

  ‘I knew something was going on, Vince. And that’s all I needed to know.’

  He looked over to see Kenny dragging an obviously distressed India out of the club. Great! Another pile of crap had evidently hit the fan, and once again Michael Walsh was in the middle of it all.

  Reece closed his eyes for a second, sighing heavily, knowing that all he could do now was wait and see what happened next, and be there for his daughter if she needed him. Only, this time, he was determined not to be shut out of whatever was going on. This time he wanted to know everything. This time Reece Brogan would not be left in the dark.

  ‘Aren’t you going after her?’ Vince asked, shaking Reece back to reality.

  ‘No,’ he sighed, downing the rest of his brandy in one mouthful. ‘I think I’ll let Kenny deal with it for now. He can handle India just fine. No, what I’m going to do, Vince, is find out just what the hell’s going on over there.’

  ‘Do you want me to talk to Michael?’

  Reece shook his head. ‘No. I’ll deal with this myself, Vince. And this time, he’s going to tell me the truth.’

  ***

  ‘What the fuck did that gain either of us?’ Dominic hissed, staring at Michael. This man may be his father by blood, but in every other sense of the word he was nothing. And whatever Dominic had wanted to prove to him, it just didn’t matter anymore. None of it mattered, because the only thing he cared about, he’d hurt. The pain in India’s eyes had shattered him and shown him what a stupid act this had been from the beginning. He should never have started it, never have put the wheels in motion. He should have just confronted Michael himself without involving India at all, that would have kept him in control, given him the upper hand, instead of the situation they now had in front of them. One hell of an end to a game that really had no winners.

  ‘She needed to know who you were. She needed to know what you were playing at,’ Michael replied, as cold and calm as he always was in these situations. ‘And I don’t think here is the place to be talking about this, do you?’

  Dominic continued to stare at this man who stood before him. A handsome, intelligent but calculated man. But then, wasn’t that exactly what he was too?

  ‘You won’t win, Dominic. I can promise you
that. Not against me, because I’m all too aware that that was your intention. To take away the one thing I love more than anything. So you need reminding that, where India is concerned, you will not win.’

  Dominic narrowed his eyes as he looked at the man who was supposed to be his father. What had his mother ever seen in him? What the hell had India ever seen in him?

  ‘This isn’t a game anymore,’ Dominic said quietly, trying to keep his emotions in check but all he could feel was a crushing pain across his chest as the realisation of the situation hit home. The realisation of what he’d done, and how hard it might be now to rectify any of it.

  ‘Isn’t it?’ Michael smirked, raising an eyebrow.

  Jesus! Was this guy for real? ‘The game’s over, Michael. It’s over.’

  ‘Oh, it’ll never be over. Not until India is back where she belongs, back by my side, because she will be. In time. Once I’ve talked to her, explained just how much of a shock this has been to me, too…’

  ‘Didn’t you hear her? Are you so fucking deluded that you don’t realise she hates both of us right now? Can’t you see that?’

  But all Michael did was smile, turn around and walk away, leaving Dominic more alone than he’d ever felt in his life. But one thing was for sure, if Michael wanted whatever game this had turned out to be to continue, then he could play it on his own, because the only thing that mattered to Dominic right now was proving to India that he loved her. Whatever had happened he was sorry, so sorry he couldn’t begin to explain. But he loved her with every beat of his heart, he knew that now because, if he didn’t, then surely this pain he was feeling wouldn’t hurt quite so bad. Dominic MacDonald had fallen in love for the first time in his life, and now he had one hell of a fight on his hands to win back the woman who’d taken over his life. One hell of a fucking fight.

  ***

  ‘He said he was falling in love with me, Kenny. He said that, not ten minutes before we came back downstairs. He said that. And he made me believe, y’know? He made me believe that he was telling me the truth. And when I looked at him, when I looked into those eyes… Jesus, those eyes…’