Illusions of Love (60 page)

Vince had to blink a few times to try and make sense of what he was seeing in front of him.
 
His wife – his beautiful wife – kissing Kenny Ross.
 
And not just any kind of kiss, oh no, this was a kiss that held some kind of meaning and it was all Vince could do not to be sick as every fear he’d had stashed away at the back of his mind came tumbling forward at an almost perverse speed, the shock of what he was witnessing hitting him head on.

‘Is there something going on here that I should know about?’
 
He finally managed to find the words, his aura of calm belying the way he was really feeling.
 
And he gained no satisfaction whatsoever from seeing the guilty way they sprang apart.
 
His wife, and Kenny Ross.

Charley grabbed the sheet, covering herself with it as Kenny jumped up off the bed, quickly pulling on his clothes as Vince continued to stare at the scene before him.
 
It was so obvious what had been going on here, so if they tried to fob him off with some kind of pathetic excuse…

‘Vince… I’m so sorry…’ Charley said, her voice shaking, a desperate tone to it that didn’t escape Vince.

‘Our daughter is asleep in the room next door.’
 
Still his voice was slow and steady, and even
he
didn’t know how he was managing to do that because inside he was falling apart.
 
‘Lily… she’s asleep and you’re in here…’

‘Vince, listen, we can explain…’

Without even looking at Kenny Vince held up his hand, silencing him before he launched into that “
there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation to all of this
” speech.
 
Something Vince couldn’t be bothered to listen to.
 
‘Can you just leave.
 
Please.
 
I’d like to talk to my wife – alone.’
 
His eyes never left Charley as he spoke, but Kenny got the message loud and clear.

He glanced over at Charley, who didn’t meet his eyes, she was still staring at Vince.
 
But Kenny didn’t like the idea of just leaving her there, by herself.
 
‘Charley… do you want me to…?’

‘I said, can you just leave!’ Vince’s voice was raised slightly, but still he didn’t turn to face Kenny, still he kept his eyes very firmly on his wife.
 
‘Now!’

Charley heard the door close behind Kenny as he left the bedroom, but Vince said nothing for a few seconds, which only served to make her more nervous and scared than she already was.
 
She’d never seen Vince this way before, but then, she’d never cheated on him before, had she?

‘I won’t ask what’s been going on, because it’s more than obvious,’ Vince began, not moving from where he was stood, his face still an image of calm control.

‘Please, Vince…’

He held his hand up to silence her, just as he’d done with Kenny.
 
‘Don’t say anything, okay?
 
Not yet.
 
I’m not ready to hear it.’

Charley pushed a hand through her dark curls, finally moving off the bed, scrabbling around for her discarded clothes.
 
Vince stayed silent.
 
She felt sick, but what could she do?
 
What the hell did she expect?

‘Why, Charley?’ Vince finally asked the one question – the
only
question – that needed to be asked.

Pulling her shirt over her head she sat down on the edge of the bed, an almost defeated air about her.
 
She couldn’t lie her way out of this one.
 
She’d known what she was getting into from the minute she and Kenny had started this – whatever it had been.
 
And they should never have started it in the first place.
 
Two weak people, one huge mistake.

‘Well?’ Vince asked again, his voice carrying a slightly harder edge than it had done before.

Charley looked up at him, tears starting to burn the back of her eyes.
 
‘Jimmy Cash he’s… he’s a dangerous man, Vince.’

‘What the hell has Jimmy got to do with
you
fucking Kenny Ross?’

Charley threw her head back, sighing heavily.
 
‘I could talk to him, y’know?
 
Kenny.
 
I could tell him how I was feeling, what was going on in my head…’

‘And you couldn’t talk to
me
?
 
I’m your fucking husband, Charley.
 
We had no secrets, nothing, everything was freakin’ perfect, honey!
 
So why the fuck is this happening, huh?
 
Why couldn’t you just talk to
me
?
 
I thought we were handling this, I thought we were dealing with it… I assumed you could talk to me now it’s all out in the open… Shit!
 
How stupid was I?’

Charley looked at him again, the guilt she was feeling at what she’d done so overwhelming it took her breath away.
 
‘He killed Terry, don’t you remember?
 
Jimmy, he… he punishes those I love to get back at
me
.
 
That’s what he does, because he doesn’t care.
 
But I
do
.
 
I care about what happens to you, Vince.
 
Jesus, I love you so much…’

‘Well, you’ve got a real weird way of showing that, sweetheart.’

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, hot, frustrated tears now spilling down her face.
 
‘If I’d told you everything from the beginning, everything that was going on with Jimmy, you would’ve shot off and done something… I don’t know what, but you might have got yourself involved in… in… oh, Jesus, I don’t know.
 
All I know is that I love you too much to put you in danger, to put you in Jimmy’s firing line.’

Vince looked at her for a second, part of him still so angry with her he just wanted her out of there, and part of him wanting to hold her tight and make all the pain go away.
 
Which part he listened to he still wasn’t yet sure.

‘I’m not that kind of person, Charley.
 
And I thought you knew that.’

‘I only did what I thought was right.’

‘What?
 
And sleeping with Kenny Ross was
right
?’

‘No, Jesus, no.
 
Of course not.
 
I meant…’

‘I know what you meant,’ Vince sighed, finally moving from where he’d been standing since he first entered the bedroom, leaning back against the wall, closing his eyes for a second.
 
But nothing had changed when he opened them again.
 
He was still in the middle of a situation he didn’t want to be anywhere near.

‘But I
didn’t
go running off to hunt him down, did I?’ Vince said, looking at Charley again.
 
Her head was down, her hands clasped together in her lap.
 
She felt guilty alright, that was obvious, but seeing that and knowing that didn’t really make him feel any better.
 
‘When the truth came out, when you finally
had
to tell me about Jimmy, I didn’t go running off to sort him out, did I?
 
I’ve got it under control, Charley; we’re dealing with it, so why this shit with Kenny?
 
Why?
 
I don’t fucking understand, honey.’

‘He was my escape.’
 
Charley’s voice was almost a whisper now.

‘Your
escape
?’ Vince asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
 
‘Your fucking
escape
?
 
From what, Charley?
 
Your escape from what?’

‘When I was with him I didn’t have to think about how scared I was.
 
I could talk to him without him feeling as though there should be more he was doing, I could forget the fear and the worry…’

‘And what was
his
excuse?
 
Huh?
 
What the fuck was
he
escaping from?’

Charley looked at Vince.
 
‘
India
.’

Vince couldn’t help but laugh out loud – a cynical laugh – pushing a hand through his hair.
 
‘
You
need to escape from
me
, and
he
needs to forget about the fact he’s never going to have the only woman he really wants.
 
So he does that by sleeping with my wife, does he?
 
You’ve managed to create one holy hell of a mess here, haven’t you?’

Charley stood up, sticking her hands in her pockets to prevent her from reaching out to touch him, because that’s what she really wanted to do.
 
She wanted to hold him and tell him how sorry she was, how she’d never meant for this to happen, that somehow she’d just got caught up in a situation she’d had no control over.
 
Or was that just another excuse she kept telling herself to keep yet more guilt at bay?

‘It went too far, I know that now.
 
I was wrong and I’ve been stupid…’

‘Stupid?
 
That’s an understatement, honey.’

‘Can’t we just talk about this, Vince?
 
Please?
 
For Lily’s sake.’

‘Oh no.
 
No.
 
Don’t you bring our daughter into this.
 
No.
 
Look, I really can’t do this now.
 
I need to get my head straight, I need to get out of here and think.’

‘Vince…’

‘Maybe one day, Charley, okay?
 
Maybe one day.
 
But not now.
 
I really can’t do this right now so, get some things together and I’ll make sure there’s an apartment ready for you by this afternoon.’

‘No, Vince, please… we can talk about this.’

He shook his head, unable to look at her anymore because if he did there was every chance that he’d back down, and he couldn’t do that.
 
Not yet.
 
It was way too soon.

‘I’ll give you a couple of hours to get sorted, okay?’ he said, making his way out of the bedroom.
 
‘Someone will drop off the apartment key card for you as soon as possible.’

And that was it.
 
He was gone.
 
The only good thing that had ever happened to Charley.
 
And she had nobody to blame but herself.

***

Reece strode purposefully through the hotel gardens, along the narrow, winding, flower-lined walkway that led to the private villas, ignoring the constant vibrating of his cell phone in his jacket pocket.
 
It’d be Martha, trying to make him back off, leave it alone, but he couldn’t do that.
 
Not anymore.
 
He’d had enough of the secrets and the lies that had almost torn his family apart.
 
This time he was going to confront the man who’d caused his daughter so much pain.
 
The man whom his daughter seemed unable to forget, despite everything he’d done to her.

Reece couldn’t get his head around it, he couldn’t quite understand what was going on in her mind, why she still felt so much for a man like Michael Walsh, and right now he didn’t really care.
 
He just needed to confront Michael, to get rid of his own demons.
 
What kind of a father would he be if he just let this go?

Approaching Michael’s villa, Reece slowed down slightly, looking around him, making sure India was nowhere to be seen before he almost ran up the long driveway, hammering hard on the imposing wooden front doors, stopping only briefly for a second or two to catch his breath and breathe in deep, preparing himself for the confrontation to come.

Hammering hard on the door again he heard voices from inside, drawing closer, shouting at him to stop with the knocking.
 
Reece took a step back, more than ready to do what he should have done over seven years ago, his heart beating ten to the dozen as he waited for the door to be flung open.
 
And when it finally was, Michael stood there, his face stoic if not slightly puzzled at the sight of Reece on his doorstep.

‘Something wrong?’ he asked, but before he’d even got the words out of his mouth Reece had pushed him inside, sending him reeling back against the wall.
 
‘Jesus, Reece, what the fuck…?’

‘Don’t… don’t even talk to me, you got that?
 
Don’t talk to me, because I don’t want to hear anything you have to say to me right now.
 
I don’t want to hear the excuses and the lies and the…’

‘What the hell is going on here?’ Layla asked, running into the hallway, wrapping her pale pink silk dressing gown tighter around her.
 
‘Reece?’

Reece didn’t move his eyes away from Michael’s.
 
‘You raped my daughter.
 
You did that… and you think I can just forget about it?’