Illusions of Love (51 page)

With a force that sent her crashing against the wall he pushed her backwards, sneering at her as she ran a hand over her neck, the shock almost overwhelming her.
 
She was out of her depth here, Kenny had been right.

‘You really want to destroy me that much?’ she asked, keeping her back against the wall, partly because she needed to steady herself, and partly because she didn’t want to get any closer to him.
 
She wanted him to stay as far away as possible.
 
‘You really want to hurt me that badly?’

He walked back over to his desk, opening the draw, taking out a packet of cigarettes and slipping one out, lighting it up, taking a long, deep draw on it, blowing smoke up into the air before he looked at her, that sick smile still on his face.

‘Hurt you?
 
Yeah, now, there’s an idea.’

She watched him as he took another drag, leaning back against the desk.

‘Don’t you think it’s time to stop this, Jimmy?’
 
Charley was almost pleading now, but it was all she had left.
 
She was lost, she was scared, and she had no idea what else she could do, except get out of there.
 
‘Haven’t you made your point?
 
Haven’t you achieved what you set out to
 
do?’

‘Have I?’ he asked, raising an eyebrow, flicking ash onto the already filthy floor around him.
 
‘You really think I’ve achieved everything I wanted to?’

Charley felt any strength she had left slowly fading away as exhaustion flooded her body.
 
She’d never wanted to get out of a place faster than she wanted to get out of there.
 
‘How can you possibly hurt me any more than you already have?’ she whispered, trying to keep her voice steady as she spoke.

‘I thought you’d know the answer to that one by now, honey.’
 
He fixed her with one more cold and determined stare, his eyes never leaving hers as he spoke.
 
‘By hurting others, Charley.
 
By hurting all the others.’

CHAPTER 30

Reece couldn’t help feeling slightly relieved that, for him at least, filming on this movie had drawn to a close.
 
He’d found the whole process exhausting, but that had had nothing to do with the workload.
 
It was everything else; the constant media attention that he’d thought he’d be used to after all these years – but then, when your famous daughter’s new boyfriend turns out to be the long-lost son of her ex-husband the only outcome that could ever have had was to step things up a notch or two – the worry of India getting herself into something else that could only end up in yet more heartache, and the feeling that, once again, something was going on that he didn’t know about.

‘How about a vacation, now you’re done here?’ Martha asked, coming out of the en-suite bathroom, towel-drying her damp blond hair.
 
‘Maybe a couple of weeks in
Aruba
?’

‘
Aruba
?’ Reece asked, not looking up as he sat down on the edge of the bed, tying his shoe laces.

‘Yes,
Aruba
.
 
Palm Beach
, I thought.
 
Remember when we went there a couple of years ago?
 
Those beautiful sunsets, the walks along the shoreline and, oh, those cocktails…’

‘What’s going on, Martha?’

Martha stopped what she was doing and looked at him.
 
‘What do you mean, what’s going on?
 
I’m planning a vacation.’

Reece stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
 
‘Forget the vacation.’

‘You need a break, honey…’

‘No, what I
need
is the truth.’

Martha threw the towel she’d been using to dry her hair down onto a nearby chair, looking at Reece with an expression she hoped relayed nothing but confusion.
 
‘I don’t understand…’

‘Something’s going on, Martha.’

She felt her stomach take a dip, but she didn’t miss a beat.
 
‘Nothing’s going on, what are you talking about?’

He stood completely still, fixing her with a determined stare.
 
He could tell by her body language that he’d hit a nerve.
 
He was on the right track; he just had to push a little harder.

‘You’d never planned to come and join me here in Vegas.’

‘Are you saying you’d rather I wasn’t here?’
 
She knew that wasn’t what he was saying at all but she really needed to distract him from taking this conversation any further.

‘No, of course I’m not.
 
And you know that.
 
I love having you around, I miss you when you’re not here.
 
All I’m saying is that you had never originally intended to come here to Vegas.
 
I know you had work lined up, interviews, promotion… and you don’t normally re-arrange anything like that without a very good reason.’

‘I… I just wanted to be with you, that’s all.
 
We haven’t been together for a while, what with me being away filming…’

‘Cut the crap, Martha!
 
I know you too well.
 
You’re a professional, you don’t cause hassle without a bloody good reason, and we both know that.
 
You don’t like letting people down.
 
Do you?’

She looked at him, taking a deep breath, exhaling louder than she intended, what felt like the weight of a thousand secrets weighing heavy on her shoulders.

‘Nothing’s going on, Reece.
 
I just wanted to put my husband first for a change, that’s all.
 
What’s so wrong with that?’

‘Nothing’s wrong with that.
 
It’s just a little coincidental, in my opinion.’

She narrowed her eyes, pulling the towel that was covering her body tighter around herself.
 
‘Coincidental?’

He said nothing, just continued to look at her, almost as if staring would somehow coax something out of her.

‘Why haven’t you said anything before?
 
You seemed fine with me being here, so…’

‘Well, I was thinking about things, that’s all,’ Reece continued, walking over to the mirror, picking up his jacket that was slung over the back of the sofa on the way, slipping it on before running his hands through his hair.
 
‘You’ve been a little pre-occupied, ever since I made that flying visit to
L.A.
’
 
He turned around to look at her again, putting his hands back in his pockets.
 
‘Ever since
India
came to see you, in
Malibu
.’

‘I… I don’t understand.
 
I’ve been fine, I haven’t been preoccupied, Reece.
 
I haven’t…’

‘Well,
 
I think you have.’
 
He moved forward a couple of steps, keeping his eyes on her all the time.
 
‘She talked to you, didn’t she?’

‘You know she came over for a chat.
 
She needed to talk, there’s nothing unusual in that.’

‘No, there isn’t.
 
It’s just that, this time, I think she told you something that she’s never told
me
.
 
Am I right?’

Martha didn’t know what to do.
 
She’d promised India she wouldn’t tell her father any of what she’d disclosed, but it was more than obvious that Reece had his suspicions, and Martha wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it from him.

‘She needed to get a lot of things off her chest, sweetheart.
 
She was very emotional…’

‘I’m well aware of the state she was in at the time, Martha.
 
I’m also well aware that there was a lot going on in her head, but what concerns me is that you now know something that I’m still being kept ignorant of.
 
And that worries me.’

Martha looked up at the ceiling for a second, closing her eyes and swallowing hard.
 
‘I promised her, Reece.’

‘Promised her what?
 
Martha, what did you promise her?’

Reece felt as though he was experiencing that same old déjà vu again, that cold feeling he always experienced when another secret was about to be uncovered that he wasn’t going to like and he could feel his head pounding with the pressure already.
 
Because, whatever it was, he knew he wasn’t going to like it.

Martha looked at him, still unsure of what to do, still unsure as to whether breaking
India
’s trust was the right way to go.
 
‘I promised her I wouldn’t say anything.
 
I promised her that everything she told me was spoken in confidence…’

‘I’m her father, Martha.’

‘And that’s why she doesn’t want you to know.’

‘It’s to do with Michael, isn’t it?
 
What he did to her?
 
You know, don’t you?’

Martha nodded, unable to lie about that, at least.
 
Although, exactly what she was going to tell him she was still unsure of.

‘What did he do?’ Reece asked, his voice shaking because he was so close to finally finding out just what that man had done to his daughter that had caused her to shut him out of her life for almost seven years.
 
Nobody did that without a damn good reason, especially when a child was involved.
 
Nobody did that.
 
Least of all
India
.

‘I can’t tell you,’ Martha whispered, gripping onto the sideboard, her fingers clinging on with a strength she hadn’t known she’d had.

‘Oh, you can,’ Reece said, not willing to be left in the dark any longer, not now he was this close.
 
‘You can tell me.
 
It’s easy.
 
Just say the words, Martha.
 
Just say them.
 
What did he do to her?’

Martha shook her head, tears starting to well up in her eyes, her nails digging into the sideboard as she gripped it tighter.
 
‘Baby, I can’t.
 
She promised me…’

‘Fuck promises!’ Reece shouted, frustration getting the better of him.
 
‘I don’t care what you promised her, Martha.
 
I won’t be kept in the fucking dark any longer, do you hear me?
 
Now, whatever she told you, you tell me
,
okay?
 
You tell
me
.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Jesus fucking Christ!’
 
Reece pushed a hand through his hair again, pacing the floor.
 
‘Okay, well, if
you
won’t tell me then maybe I need to speak to
India
myself…’

‘No, Reece, please…’
 
Martha reached out to grab his arm, stopping him from storming out of the bedroom.
 
Letting him leave when he was in this frame of mind could only spell trouble, and nobody needed any more of that.
 
‘Wait!
 
Okay?
 
Just, wait.’

Reece swung back round, leaning against the wall, sighing heavily as he looked at his wife.
 
‘No secrets, Martha.
 
I thought that’s what we’d agreed.
 
We’d have no secrets.’

‘This is different, and you know it is.
 
She talked to me in confidence, and I’m not entirely sure that she’d actually intended to tell me as much as she did, I think it all just came tumbling out…’

‘What did he do to her?’
 
Reece spoke slowly, not taking his eyes off his wife.
 
‘That’s all I want to know.
 
What did he do to her that caused her all that pain?
 
Because, whatever it was, it’s affected the rest of her life.
 
So, what did he do to her, Martha?’

Martha looked right into his eyes, still not knowing if what she was doing was the right thing for
India
, but for the sake of her marriage she knew she had to tell Reece the truth.
 
He deserved to know.
 
She couldn’t hide it from him any longer. Even if the consequences of giving him the information he’d wanted to know for over seven years were something she didn’t want to think about.

‘Martha… what did he do?’ Reece asked one more time, his voice quiet, pleading almost.

She took a deep breath, looking down at the floor to gather her composure before she unleashed the all-too-obvious storm that was almost definitely going to come, finally looking up to meet her husband’s eyes.
 
‘He raped her, Reece.
 
Michael, he – he raped her.’

***

Dominic stood in the doorway, standing back slightly as he watched her sit down on the edge of the bed, pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail.
 
He watched as she stood up, walking over to the mirror, dressed only in the sexiest of powder-pink underwear and for a second he had to look away, rubbing the back of his neck, his stomach somersaulting 360 degrees because just looking at her was enough to make him crazy.