Illusions of Love (69 page)

‘It’s enough.
 
It’s more than enough.
 
It’s way more than enough,’ he smiled, and she returned it, kissing him back, lightly stroking the back of his neck as her lips moved against his.
 
‘It’s way,
way
more than enough.’

‘Okay.
 
That’s sorted then.’

‘But, in the future…’

She threw her head back and sighed, letting go of him.
 
‘The future is the future, Dominic, and I don’t have a bloody clue what it holds.
 
I’m not even going to second guess it anymore, so let’s just take what we’ve got, run with it, and see where we end up, alright?
 
Let’s just be spontaneous for a while.’

He shoved his hands in his pockets, smiling at her.
 
‘Okay.
 
I can do spontaneous.’

‘You sure?
 
No more ultimatums?
 
No more stressing that I’m going to run off with daddy?’

‘Are you?’

‘Am I what?’
India
asked, checking her phone for messages.

‘Going to run off with my father.’

She looked at him, sliding her phone back into her pocket.
 
‘No.
 
I’m not.
 
I’m just glad he’s okay, and I really hope he can make a go of things with Layla… Look, I’ve really got to go and talk to my dad…’

‘You’ve still not spoken to Reece since Michael’s heart attack?’

India
shook her head, desperate to get away before Dominic could start asking any more questions.

‘What’s the big secret,
India
?
 
Come on, honey.
 
If we’re gonna try and make this relationship work then I’m not sure I want secrets hanging over our heads.’

‘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 they’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.’