and he knew that she was exhausted from the constant fighting she had to do in order to try and keep that unwelcome past from ruining her future.
‘Where’s Vince right now?’ Kenny asked.
‘He’s in L.A.’ Charley replied without turning round, busying herself folding more towels. ‘There are things that need sorting out at the Beverly Hills salon…’ She finally turned round to face Kenny, and he felt his heart sink as he noticed her eyes filled with frightened tears. Frustrated tears. ‘I just haven’t got the fucking strength, Kenny. I haven’t got the strength to deal with it all right now.’
He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight against him as she started setting those tears free, crying it all out, and Kenny didn’t know what to say. What could he say? That it was all going to be alright? That it would all eventually sort itself out? That wasn’t true, so he couldn’t tell her that. She didn’t need false promises and pretend hope. Because nobody was entirely sure just what it was they were dealing with here. Nobody was sure at all.
CHAPTER 31
‘You can’t just go barging on in there, Reece, not with the amount of press and paparazzi still hanging around.’
‘So, you tell me that Michael Walsh raped my daughter – something she didn’t feel she could tell me…’
‘For good reason, Reece.’
‘Oh, you think so? You think it was for the best that she kept something so important from me for all these years?’
‘Yes, I do. I do, alright? Because if she’d told you, you’d have reacted exactly like this, going in there all guns blazing…’
‘And what the hell do you expect me to do, Martha? Sit back and forget what you’ve just told me? I’m her father. She should have come to me…’
‘She dealt with it in a way she felt was best, Reece. She put Ethan first, she did everything she could to make sure that little boy still had a dad... She dealt with it.’
‘She dealt with it? You really think that, do you? Shit!’ He pushed a hand through his hair, turning away from her for a second as he began to pace the floor. ‘Everything makes so much more sense now, y’know?’ He turned back to face Martha, trying really hard to keep his feelings under control but it was becoming increasingly difficult. ‘All those years she spent shutting him out of her life, then everything that happened after she saw him again, after all that time… It all suddenly makes sense. And I had no fucking idea…’
‘She did it to protect you, Reece. And to protect Ethan, especially to protect Ethan, you have to know that.’
He leant back against the wall, briefly staring up at the ceiling, sighing heavily as he looked at his wife. Martha’s face was full of anxiety and he knew that was because she’d be worried about what he might do next, concerned about how he must be feeling after hearing news that would knock any father for six. ‘She never dealt with it at all, Martha. She might think she has, but she hasn’t. Now it’s so obvious why her marriage to Joseph didn’t work out… Jesus! And now she’s involved with Michael’s fucking son!’
‘Reece, baby, come on. None of this is Dominic’s fault. He had no idea Michael was his father until a few months ago, and he has no idea what Michael did to India.’
‘She hasn’t told him?’
Martha shook her head.
‘But she told Kenny, am I right?’
‘And JJ,’ Martha whispered.
Reece looked down at the ground. He wasn’t surprised. He’d always known those two had been privy to information that he never had been. ‘I can’t let this go, Martha.’
He felt her touch his arm and he looked up, tears suddenly filling his eyes.
‘He raped my baby. He did that to her… How am I supposed to deal with that?’
Martha took his hand, squeezing it gently. ‘I don’t know, my darling. But for India’s sake you have to think about this, you have to think about her…’
Reece shook his head, fresh anger rising up inside him. ‘No. No, I need to talk to him…’
‘Reece!’
But it was no good. Michael Walsh had hurt his daughter in a way even Reece hadn’t thought possible, and he couldn’t just sit around and let that go. Someone had to pay for that, and Reece was determined that someone wouldn’t be India.
***
Vince was tired. He was tired, and he was missing Vegas. Missing Charley. Missing Lily, his gorgeous little