stared straight ahead of her, clasping her hands together in her lap. ‘He’s okay… now. He’s okay now, but…’
She wanted to cry – she needed that release, she really did – but no tears seemed willing to fall, and instead all she felt was a crashing numbness and a feeling of emptiness that swept over her in constant waves.
‘Shit! How… What the fuck happened?’ Kenny tried to put everything that had gone on that morning with him and Charley to the back of his mind, because all he wanted to do right now was be there for his best friend when she needed him. And she needed him right now, more than ever. He’d been by this woman’s side for almost twenty years and knowing what he did, knowing her past and the way she’d always felt about Michael Walsh, despite all the crap he’d kicked in her face, Kenny knew this wasn’t going to be easy for her.
‘Reece,’ India whispered, still staring straight ahead of her.
‘Reece?’ Kenny frowned. ‘I don’t understand. What do you mean?’
India turned to look at him. ‘I told Martha. I told her about Michael – about what he did to me...’
‘And she’s told Reece.’ It wasn’t a question.
India nodded slowly, turning to look up the empty corridor. ‘I don’t know why I’m surprised, I mean, my dad… he only did what any father would probably have done if they’d found out their daughter had been…’ She trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, her voice verging on emotionless.
Kenny reached out to take her hand, squeezing it tight. ‘Are you saying that’s what caused it? The heart attack? That your dad confronting Michael caused this?’
She looked at him, shrugging. ‘Well, I can’t imagine it helped, Kenny. I mean, Michael’s almost sixty-years-old, isn’t he? And he thrives on stress, puts himself under so much pressure on an almost constant daily basis…’
‘Most of that’s self-inflicted, kiddo.’
‘Yeah. I know that.’ She sighed heavily as she threw her head back, staring at the stark white ceiling above her. She hated hospitals. All they brought back were unhappy memories of times she didn’t really want to think about anymore. ‘I’m sorry, Kenny. I didn’t mean to be so defensive, I’m just worried. He’s Ethan’s dad, after all. And Ethan loves him so much; he’d be devastated if anything happened to him.’
‘And what about you?’
She looked at him. ‘What about me?’
‘How would you feel if anything happened to him?’
India turned away again, and that in itself told Kenny everything he needed to know.
‘Have you seen him yet?’ Kenny asked, still holding onto her hand.
She shook her head. ‘No. Layla’s with him.’
Kenny looked around. ‘Where’s Dominic?’
‘Well, he isn’t playing the dutiful son, that’s for sure.’
Kenny was a little surprised at the tone of her voice when talking about a man she professed to be crazy about. ‘Is that what you think he should be doing?’
‘Can you quit with the psychoanalysing shit, Kenny. No, I don’t think it’s what he should be doing, I just… Jesus, I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.’
‘Trouble in paradise, huh?’
She looked at him again but said nothing, her attention suddenly diverted towards Reece who was walking towards them, his head down, his hands in his pockets. India stood up and waited for him to approach them, her heart beating ten to the dozen, her head not entirely straight but she was feeling way too emotional to even begin thinking about what she was going to say before she said it. She didn’t really care anymore.
‘What have you done?’ she whispered, waiting until her father’s eyes met hers before she spoke, her voice quiet but steady.
‘I did what any father would do, India. You think I’m just going to forget about something like that, huh? Forget what he did; forget all the shit he put you through…’
‘So, killing him is the way to go then?’
‘Don’t exaggerate things…’
‘He had a fucking heart attack, Dad! You do know that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, India. I was there, remember?’
‘Yeah. You were there.’
‘This wasn’t my fault, India…’
‘Y’know, I kept that information from you – what happened between me and Michael – I kept it from you because you didn’t need to know, you didn’t need to know any of it because we worked it out, Michael and I. We came through it…’
‘Jesus, come on, India! Do you really expect me to believe all that crap? You came through it? You honestly think that’s happened? You shutting him out of your life for all those