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