Authors: Michelle Betham
‘
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…’
India sat cross-legged on the bed in Kenny’s apartment on the top floor of The Amber Palace, tears she’d thought she’d wanted to cry still welling up behind her eyes but she was refusing to let them fall.
She was still too angry, too confused, and she wanted to stay strong not break down like the weak person she could sometimes be.
This time she wanted to stay strong.
Kenny sat down next to her, handing her a glass of brandy which she downed in one.
‘Why couldn’t I see it in his eyes, Kenny?
I mean, they’re Michael’s eyes… they’re Ethan’s eyes…’
India
stared at Kenny, a look of realisation suddenly passing across her face.
‘Dominic he… he’s Ethan’s half-brother, Kenny.
Could this get any more fucking complicated?
The man I’ve been sleeping with is not only my ex-husband’s son, he’s also my own son’s half-brother!
Why the fuck is my life always like a bloody movie script?
Huh?
Why?
Why can’t anything just be bloody simple?’
Kenny wished he could tell her why, he really could.
But even
he
couldn’t have seen this one coming.
Dominic MacDonald, the long-lost son of Michael Walsh – who the hell would have ever thought
that
?
Certainly not him.
Out of everything he could ever have envisaged happening that hadn’t even come close to anything he’d imagined.
‘Did you tell him.. ?’
‘Did I tell him what?’
India
asked, pulling her knees up to her chest, hugging them against her.
‘That I loved him too?
No.
I didn’t.’
Kenny looked at her, at the way she seemed to drift off into the distance, the way her eyes clouded over.
She might not have
told
Dominic anything, but it was more than obvious to Kenny that she
felt
something.
‘You can’t avoid him, you know.
You can’t avoid either of them, seeing as you’re in the middle of shooting this movie.’
‘Yeah, I’m very much aware of that, Kenny, thanks.’
She sighed, pushing a hand through her hair, flinging herself backwards onto the bed, throwing her arms up above her head.
‘What a fucking mess!
Sorry, make that what
another
fucking mess!’
He lay down beside her, resting up on one elbow as she turned on her side to face him.
‘How do I do it, huh?
How do I always get myself into these situations?
My dad’s going to go fucking crazy when he finds out.’
‘Well, knowing Reece, yeah.
He probably will.’
She couldn’t help smiling.
‘Shit!
What am I gonna do, Kenny?
You’re right, I can’t hide out up here forever, but I just want to get away, y’know?
For a little while.
A few days away from the press party that’s gonna kick off big time when they get wind of
this
little gem of a story.’
She let out another loud sigh, falling over onto her back again, closing her eyes.
‘I need to get out of here, Kenny.’
He looked at her, pushing her hair from her eyes as he stared down into them.
‘How about I try and take your mind off things for a little while, huh?’ he asked, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth; a smile that was infectious because
India
couldn’t help breaking into one too.
‘And how do you plan to do that then?’
He cocked his head to one side, his smile getting wider.
‘Remember the old days?
Back in the very beginning?
When we were the very best of friends – with benefits?’
‘Benefits, huh?’