Illusions of Love

by Michelle Betham

  ‘Who said anything about secrets?’

  He held out his hand. ‘Come on. Text your dad and tell him you’re gonna be a little late, because I think we need to talk. Don’t you?’

  ***

  ‘I know it’s going to take time for you to forgive me, Vince…’

  ‘You got that right, Charley.’ Vince leant back against the kitchen counter, pushing a hand through his hair, throwing his head back and sighing heavily as he stared at the ceiling. ‘You got that fucking right.’

  ‘All I know is that I want to make this better. I want us to try and work this out because I don’t want to lose you, Vince. I can’t lose you; I love you so much… I can’t lose you.’

  Vince sighed again, turning round to grab a glass, filling it with ice-cold water before knocking half of it back in one mouthful. ‘I know, Charley. I know all that.’

  Charley folded her arms against her, tears welling up in her eyes. She didn’t want to cry. She didn’t deserve to cry. What she’d done had been stupid and thoughtless and all she could do now was hope that Vince could forgive her. Or at least start trying.

  Vince turned round, looking at the woman he was crazy about, the woman he loved beyond anything, which is why finding her with Kenny had hurt so bad. It still hurt now, but not enough to make him want to walk away. He couldn’t walk away, not now. He could never walk away from her, not without a damn good reason, and whilst for some people finding your wife in the arms of another man may be more than enough to make somebody walk away from a marriage, Vince had come too far to even think about turning his back on this one. They were in the middle of some crazy shit right now and, under normal circumstances, Charley would never have done what she’d done with Kenny. But these weren’t normal circumstances. They were far from that.

  ‘Vince?’

  Her voice was pleading, and it wasn’t a tone Vince wanted to hear, she didn’t need to beg him. He wasn’t going anywhere, it was just hard to let her know that. It was hard to get the words out, that was all.

  ‘You aren’t going to lose me, Charley.’

  Charley felt the sigh of relief come from deep within, her shoulders instantly relaxing, but she kept her arms folded against her because she was more than aware that, whatever the circumstances, Vince staying by her side would come with conditions.

  ‘But you’ve got to understand, Charley… you’ve got to understand that I need you to be honest, okay? From now on – from this second onwards, honey, I need you to be honest with me.’

  All Charley could do was nod, but right now she would do anything it took as long as it meant she wasn’t losing him.

  ‘You talk to me first, you got that? You talk to me.’

  She nodded again, wiping a stray tear from her eye with the back of her hand.

  ‘Jesus, come here,’ Vince sighed, holding out his arms and she ran into them, clinging onto him, letting the tears of relief fall down her cheeks. ‘We’ll get through this, baby, I promise you. We’ll get through this.’

  And Charley knew he was right. She trusted him; she knew he wouldn’t lie to her. Whatever was about to happen – whatever Jimmy had planned next – they’d get through it. Together.

  ***

  ‘Pregnant?’ Michael gasped, trying hard to take in what Layla had just told him. ‘You… you’re pregnant?’

  Layla nodded, her hand resting lightly on her slightly swollen belly as she looked into his eyes – tired eyes, almost defeated eyes, but given what he’d gone through in the past few weeks wasn’t that only to be expected?

  ‘How… I mean, Jesus, this is a surprise… How long have you known?’

  ‘I’ve had my suspicions for a while but… when you had the heart attack I… I just knew. I had a feeling. A good feeling so, I got myself checked out properly, made sure everything was okay.’

  ‘And… and is it? Is everything okay?’ Michael didn’t know quite what to think anymore. Just a few weeks ago all he’d thought he’d wanted was India back in his life, things back to the way they’d used to be, but instead he’d discovered a son he never knew he had, suffered a wake-up call the likes of which he never wanted to experience again, and the realisation that India was never coming back to him. And now this. Now Layla was telling him he was going to be a dad – again.

  ‘It’s a whole new start, Michael. You, me, and this baby – it’s a whole new start.’

  She’d said out loud everything he’d just been thinking. Maybe it really was time to lay the past to rest and move forward into a new future, because he had the chance to do that now, didn’t he? He had the chance to start again, and after everything he’d put Layla through he should be more than grateful that she was still here by his side.

  ‘What happened, Layla… between me and India… what I did to her…’

  Layla walked over to him, shaking her head, putting her fingers to his lips. ‘Sssh, no. No, I don’t want to talk about it.’

  ‘But you need to understand… you need to understand that I… I…’

  He suddenly felt tears spilling from his eyes; hot, salty tears that had come from nowhere, or maybe it was just all that pent-up emotion finally breaking loose, he didn’t know, he only knew that he was feeling a sense of relief he’d never felt before. Relief that maybe that new start could finally happen after all. Without India.

  ‘I regret what happened every single day of my life, Layla. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about what I did to her… how much I hurt her.’

  Layla leant forward, kissing his tears away, stroking his damp face with her fingertips, blinking back tears of her own. ‘Hey, come on. Come on. She knows that, doesn’t she? She knows that, now. Look, I can’t say it didn’t shock me, and I did think about walking away…’

  Michael looked at her, surprised to hear her say that, then suddenly realising that he shouldn’t be surprised at all. Of course she thought about walking away. Who wouldn’t, in her position? ‘You did?’

  She nodded. ‘Yeah. I did. Once I knew you were okay, at the hospital – once I knew you were okay I went back to the villa and I thought about everything Reece had said, what he’d accused you of… I had to do that, do you understand? I had to think carefully about everything, knowing that I had somebody else to think about now.’

  Michael looked into her eyes, an overwhelming feeling of relief washing over him again.

  ‘But, even after all that thinking, after letting everything run round and round in my head, I could still only come to one conclusion – I can’t let you go. I’ve fought too hard, come too far… I’m way too much in love with you to walk away. But I’m taking a risk, and I’m putting all my trust in you, Michael, so I need you to promise me – promise me – that nothing like that will ever happen again. Because, you ever do to me what you did to India, and you won’t be forgiven. That I can promise you.’

  He looked at her for a few seconds, taking in this beautiful woman who’d stood by him through so much and he’d treated her so unfairly for most of that time, but those days were over now. Those days were gone. Oh, he’d never stop loving India, that was a given. But somehow he’d learn to live with it, with the help of this amazing woman in front of him. A woman who was finally giving him the chance to have that new life he so desperately needed. A woman who’d set him free.

  ‘I love you, Layla Boyd.’

  She smiled, taking his hand and placing it on her tiny baby bump. ‘Yeah. And I love you too, Michael Walsh. I freakin’ love you too.’

  ***

  India watched as Dominic tried to take in what she’d just told him – everything that Michael had done to her, everything that had led up to and then followed that time in her life that she still tried so hard to forget, because, as much as she hated having to admit it, her father had been right. It had held her back, prevented her from moving forward for far too long, because she’d never been able to face up to the fact that she and Michael – they just weren’t right for each other. Despite all those amazing times th
ey’d had together, the love they’d shared, their beautiful little boy – despite all of that, they really shouldn’t be together. Under any circumstances.

  ‘Jesus, India,’ Dominic said, sitting back in his chair as they sat outside by the main pool bar, the Las Vegas sun beating down on them as all around them another busy day in Sin City got underway. It felt like he’d been winded slightly. It was all a bit hard to take in. Over the past few months he’d found out that his father was capable of quite a few things he couldn’t quite comprehend, but this – this was a little difficult to get his head around. And a little difficult to understand just why India could ever have let him get so close to her again. Maybe his mother had had a lucky escape after all. Who knows what could have happened if she’d stuck with him. Who knew anything anymore. ‘I had no idea.’

  ‘Why would you?’ India replied, fiddling with the coaster in front of her. ‘Neither of us made it public knowledge. We just hoped we could one day put it behind us.’ She looked up at him, at the man who carried so much of Michael in him. Was it really wise to be letting herself get so close to him? ‘We handled it all incredibly badly, Dominic. And the biggest mistake I made was hiding it from the people closest to me. People like my dad.’

  ‘At least you admit that now.’

  India turned round to see Reece approaching the table, not taking her eyes off him as he joined her and Dominic.

  ‘Dad, I… I was just on my way…’

  ‘I thought I’d come and find you. Didn’t want to give you any more excuses to avoid talking to me.’ He looked over at Dominic, taking in his slightly stunned expression. ‘Nice man, isn’t he? Your father.’

  ‘Dad! Come on, you can’t blame Dominic for anything Michael’s done.’

  ‘It’s okay,’ Dominic said, standing up and pushing his chair back under the table. India stood up too, stepping into Dominic’s open arms for a hug. He kissed the top of her head, rubbing her back. ‘It’s alright. You two need to talk.’

  ‘So do we,’ she protested, nervous of letting him go after what she’d just told him.

  ‘We can do that later. How about lunch? Back here, 1pm. That sound okay?’

  She smiled, closing her eyes as he kissed her gently. ‘That sounds perfect.’

  He flashed her that movie star smile and slowly let her go, giving her hand one last squeeze as he walked away. ‘See you later then, beautiful.’

  She watched him walk away before sitting back down, looking at her father. ‘I’m sorry, okay?’

  ‘Sorry for not telling me what he did to you? Sorry for blaming me for his heart attack? Or sorry for not speaking to me over the past few days?’

  She started fiddling with her leather wrist cuffs, avoiding his eyes. ‘All of those reasons,’ she mumbled, suddenly feeling like some reprimanded teenager.

  Reece sat forward, taking her hand and making her look at him. ‘India, darling, I’m not angry, okay? Not with you, anyway…’

  ‘Don’t you see though, Dad? I don’t want you to be angry with him either. I don’t want all of that dragged up again. I don’t want to have to rake over everything that happened, not now. Not ever. It’s over, okay? And I know that for you that’s going to be harder to accept, because you haven’t had the time to take it all in but, please, if not for mine or Michael’s sake, then for Ethan’s. He doesn’t need to know about any of this.’

  Reece squeezed her hand, gently running his thumb over her fingers, looking up into her beautiful but anxious face. ‘I wanted to kill him. You need to know that. When I went to his villa that morning I wanted to kill him, and I can’t pretend I felt any other way.’ She felt tears prick the back of her eyes and she hurriedly blinked them away. ‘But it wasn’t my fault, sweetheart. What happened to Michael – it wasn’t my fault. It was just one of those horrible coincidences, that’s all. Oh, I can’t lie and say that, at the time, I didn’t think it was any less than he deserved, but now I’ve had time to think about it all… I could have handled it a lot better.’

  ‘Yeah, well, we all could have done that.’ She looked up at Reece, determined to make him see that she really was over this now. She really was going to try and move on. Somehow. But she was going to try. She and Michael, it was never going to happen again. Ever. ‘I’ve got Dominic now, Dad. I’ve got him to help me move on, and I can do that, I really can. I can do that.’

  ‘Are you sure Dominic’s the right man for you, India? I mean, he’s…’

  ‘Michael’s son, I know.’ She sat back in her chair, clasping her hands over her stomach. ‘I’m not saying it’s ideal, but maybe he’s what I need, y’know?’

  ‘You said that about Joseph, sweetheart. Remember? That’s exactly what you said about Joseph.’

  She threw her head back and stared up at the cloudless blue sky, feeling the sun warm on her face, wishing she was back at the beach, back in Malibu – back home. Away from all of this.

  ‘Maybe he’s just that little bit too close, my darling. To Michael. I just worry about you, India. I worry about you.’

  ‘There’s no need.’

  ‘You’re my daughter. I’m never going to stop worrying about you, same as you’ll never stop worrying about Ethan and Ellie. You’ll never stop worrying about them, believe me. And you have to do what’s right for them too, sweetheart.’

  ‘Yeah, I know that, Dad.’ She sat up, shaking herself to get rid of all the negative thoughts. She had a lot to do today, and she wanted to make sure it was all done before the wrap party that night. She looked at Reece again, right into his eyes. ‘I’m going to be careful this time, Dad. I’m going to take things slowly, I promise. Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen between Dominic and I, I have no idea what the future holds for us, if it holds anything at all. But I’m taking everything one day at a time, okay? No rushing into anything, no jumping in feet first. I’m just going to take it slowly and see what happens, after all, we’ve both got a lot of things to sort out, haven’t we?’

  Reece smiled, taking her hand again, giving it another squeeze. ‘Okay,’ he sighed, knowing he’d never make her change her mind about Dominic. Not yet, anyway. So, as usual, the best course of action he could take was to let her go her own way, but make sure he was well within reach if she needed him. ‘But listen to me, sweetheart. Listen to me. If you ever need to talk, about anything, you come to me, okay? You come to me.’

  She leant over and kissed him on the cheek. ‘I promise.’ She smiled at him as she stood up, grabbing her phone from the table. ‘I’ve got to go now. Things to do before the wrap party tonight. You are going to be there, aren’t you?’

  Reece nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m going to be there.’

  She bent down to give him one last kiss. ‘Good. Hopefully it’s going to be a great night… as long as you don’t…’

  He stood up, watching her as a fresh wave of anxiousness crossed her face. ‘India, darling, I’m not going to cause any trouble tonight. I promise.’

  ‘Really? You promise? I want this to be a good night, Dad. I want it to be the turning point for all of us, a chance for everyone to finally make that fresh start.’

  He pulled her into his arms for a hug. ‘Yeah, I know. I know you do. And that’s what I want too, baby. That’s what I want too.’

  And all Reece could do was hope that, this time, that fresh start finally happened.

  ***

  Dominic found Michael down in The Amber Palace casino. He looked relaxed, happy – his demeanour very different to the one he’d displayed over the past few weeks. He seemed like a different man. Like the weight of the world had suddenly been lifted off his shoulders. He was smiling at people, exchanging words with anyone who stopped him for an autograph, quite happily allowing his photo to be taken, and Dominic stood back for a while and just watched him. His famous father. A charming, polite, enigmatic man. A true star. But a man who also had the ability to become darkly dangerous.

  Taking a deep breath Dominic stuck his hands in his pockets and b
egan walking towards Michael, ready to get one final thing off his chest. And maybe India wouldn’t be too happy with what he was doing, but, for his own peace of mind, he had to say what he’d come here to say.

  Michael looked up as Dominic approached him, his once-relaxed face tensing up slightly because he was acutely aware that Dominic didn’t appear half as relaxed as he was feeling.

  ‘I need a word,’ Dominic said, sticking his hands in his pockets, looking at the man he still couldn’t call Dad – even if that’s what he really was.

  ‘Now?’ Michael asked, removing his dark glasses, pushing them up onto his head. ‘I’m on my way to make sure everything’s ready for tonight’s wrap party. Can it wait?’

  Dominic shook his head. ‘No. Not really. I’d rather we did this now, before tonight.’

  Michael narrowed his eyes, but he wasn’t going to put up a fight. This young man was somebody he needed to get to know, if only to find out just how many of the Walsh genes he’d really inherited. He was curious about that, if nothing else.

  ‘I don’t want a drink,’ Dominic continued. ‘And I don’t want to sit down for some cosy chat; I just want to talk to you. For a few minutes, that’s all. There are some things I need to say.’

  Michael was even more confused now. ‘Alright,’ he sighed, removing his dark glasses altogether, sticking them in his shirt pocket. ‘Let’s go outside. That okay with you?’

  Dominic nodded, thinking that keeping this conversation in a public area was probably best. For everyone.

  Michael followed Dominic out into the Las Vegas sunshine, both of them walking in silence until they reached the main body of The Strip which was bustling with tourists, everyone so busy taking in everything around them that they failed to notice the two famous movie stars amongst them.

  They’d walked for about five minutes before Dominic stopped, sitting down on a nearby wall, staring out ahead of him, watching the throng of people walking up and down The Strip – watching as they stopped to take photographs, most of them joining the large crowd that was waiting for the 12:00pm Fountains of Bellagio show to begin.