reason, believe me. He’s been through this before.’
‘You should have told me.’ Vince stood up, pacing the floor, unable to take any more of this in. What the hell else was going to come out? He’d thought the crap going on around India, Dominic and Michael was bad enough, but this was just unbelievable! He couldn’t get his head around any of it.
Walking over to the window he looked out across the town he loved, trying to focus, trying to think of what to do next but for a man usually so in control he felt a little out of it right now. And he had to shake that off, he had to get his head together, and fast.
‘Okay. Look, this is what we’ll do.’ He turned round, facing Charley again. ‘I’ll get in contact with my lawyers, try and get this shit stopped. Then we contact the police…’
‘No!’ Charley almost jumped up out of her seat, a look of total fear passing across her pretty face. ‘No, Vince. Not the police, please. This is Jimmy Cash we’re talking about. If you contact the police…’
‘This is gonna end, Charley. Do you hear me? That man is not walking back into our lives and dragging up a past that you don’t need to revisit. I won’t let him do that. So it ends. Right here. It fucking ends.’
***
‘I had a call from my lawyer today,’ JJ said, smiling at Ellie as she ran towards him, throwing herself into his arms. India had taken her to the beach for the day with her brother, and whilst Ethan had now gone to Reece and Martha’s for the night, she was returning their very tired but very happy daughter to her father. ‘Have you spoken to yours?’
‘Yesterday.’ India looked at her little girl as she snuggled in against JJ’s legs, clinging onto him as he stroked her hair.
The image of her father, with the same dark hair and the same brown eyes, she was the most incredible little thing, a real daddy’s girl. And that’s what worried India more than anything. Oh, not that she was a daddy’s girl, that wasn’t the problem. JJ loved their daughter more than life itself, and Ellie loved him back like he was the most precious thing in the world to her, which he was. She was just a baby, only three-years-old, so of course her daddy was precious to her. No, what worried India was that Ellie would somehow become distanced from her, become too attached to JJ. After all, she was away so much these days, whereas JJ was the one constant thing in her life. Her daddy, not her mum.
‘What’s up?’ JJ asked, watching Ellie as she ran off in the direction of the living room, climbing up onto the sofa, curling up in the corner of it to watch cartoons on the TV above the fireplace. ‘You look as though you’re somewhere else.’
India sighed, leaning back against the wall, pushing a hand through her loose blond hair. ‘And that’s the problem, isn’t it?’
JJ looked slightly puzzled, narrowing his eyes but half smiling at her. ‘What is?’
‘I’m always somewhere else. Always away from my kids… Maybe Michael’s right…’
‘Michael? When did you speak to Michael? I thought he was still in Vegas.’
India looked at him, raising her eyebrows. ‘Come on, Joe. You know Michael better than that. After everything that’s happened no way is he going to stay in a different state.’
‘So, what happened then?’
‘He turned up at the beach house last night,’ she sighed. ‘Uninvited, trying to excuse his involvement in any of what’s gone on… at one point he all but accused me of neglecting my kids.’ She looked down at the ground for a second before turning her attention to Ellie, who was laughing that beautiful baby laugh at something on the TV screen, singing along to a song that was playing. ‘And maybe he’s right, y’know? Maybe I do neglect them.’
‘Hey, come on. Come on, come here.’ JJ pulled her into his arms, holding her close as she felt stupid, unwanted tears start to fall down her face. She shouldn’t be crying, she should be getting a grip and sorting out her life. Again. ‘You don’t neglect the kids, and you know that.’
‘Do I?’ She pulled away slightly, looking up into his beautiful dark eyes. Eyes she’d once loved beyond belief, and she just wished she really knew why she’d let their marriage break down the way it had. But then, she’d