Love Redesigned (8 page)

‘That’s right,’ Harry said confidently as he went over to the gift bag his mum was holding.

‘First, here’s your birthday card. Only it’s not really a birthday card. It’s actually a picture,’ Harry babbled as he dug in the bag and pulled out his somewhat crumpled artwork and shoved it under Daniel’s nose.

‘Thank you,’ Daniel laughed as he inspected the picture, trying to figure out what it was.

‘And here’s your present,’ Harry said, handing the bag to his daddy. ‘You’ve got to be very careful with it and promise not to lose it or break it. It’s very expensive, and only boys are allowed to touch it.’ Daniel stifled the urge to laugh, and gave Harry a solemn look, signifying his understanding of the immense responsibility that had been bestowed upon him.

‘Oh, wow! A ball!’ Daniel said as he reached into the gift bag and pulled out a bright blue ball. ‘Maybe we can play tomorrow—if you’re free?’

‘Cool, Daddy,’ Harry said, and launched into a huge yawn.

‘I think we have a tired little man,’ Holly said as she stepped in and picked up Harry, who automatically wrapped his arms and legs around her. ‘I’d better take him to bed.’ She gave Daniel an apologetic smile.

‘But you’re coming back?’ Daniel said quickly. Holly couldn’t avoid a slight grimace. Part of her wanted to take Harry to bed and stay upstairs with him. Limited as it may have been, she wasn’t all that keen on the company she had endured so far at the party. But a small part of her wanted to stay with Daniel. Especially if it was just the two of them. Just then, Stephanie appeared from the wings, right on cue.

‘Let me take him,’ Stephanie said, reaching out for Harry. Holly hesitated, then kissed Harry on the hair, unpeeled him, and gave him to Stephanie, who whisked him away before Holly could change her mind.

‘Have you had a boob job?’ Daniel asked her in a low, intimate voice, close to her ear. It made the hairs on her neck stand to attention, and she felt all too aware that her dress was strapless—and that for once she had her cleavage on display.

‘Jesus, Daniel. No, I have not. That would be a combination of childbirth and the dress,’ Holly said, rolling her eyes at him, unable to suppress a smile. ‘You’re unbelievable.’

‘I like ’em,’ Daniel said, giving her chest an appreciative look. With a hand on the small of her back, he gently guided her back to the party.

‘I was thinking…’ Daniel said, leading her over to the bar area and handing her a glass of bubbly.

‘Oh yes,’ Holly replied, lowering her eyelashes at him as she took a sip of her drink. She was absolutely clueless as to what he was going to say next. He could start talking about split custody of Harry, or he could suggest they go and rip each other’s clothes off in the coat closet. She had literally no idea.

‘I was thinking about a partial redesign of the house. The interiors, more specifically,’ Daniel began, then watched her closely for a reaction.

‘Oh,’ was all Holly could manage, looking blank. She wouldn’t have predicted those would be the words to come out of his mouth in a million years, and she couldn’t for the life of her fathom why he would be discussing such a thing with her.

‘I’d really like to hear what your ideas would be to make it less cold and more homely in here,’ Daniel explained.

‘I… guess I could do that,’ Holly said eventually. She was unsure in what capacity she would be making these suggestions.

‘I’d pay you for your work, of course. I wouldn’t expect you to do it as a favour,’ Daniel said quickly, sensing her uncertainty.

‘Sure,’ Holly said, smiling brightly, now understanding that Daniel wanted to hire her services in a professional capacity. She couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed that it was only in a professional capacity that he wanted her and not as anything more. ‘I could probably fit you in in about three months. Would that work?’

‘Fine,’ Daniel replied—a tad abrasively to Holly’s ears. She wondered what he really expected. Did he expect her to drop everything at the drop of a hat for him?

‘Daniel! There you are,’ crooned Miranda as she sashayed towards them gracefully. ‘I think Steve wanted to discuss something with you urgently.’

‘Please excuse me,’ Daniel said to Holly in the same abrasive tone, then appeared to hotfoot it away from her as fast as humanly possible. Holly wondered how he’d managed to communicate to Miranda that he wanted an excuse to leave. Miranda’s timing seemed to be just perfect. Maybe he was wearing a wire, Holly thought to herself. Now Holly had the unenviable prospect of Miranda’s company.

‘Thank you for coming,’ Miranda began smoothly. ‘I know it means a lot to him—to see Harry,’ she finished.

‘I never wanted to get in the way of Harry and his father,’ Holly said truthfully.

‘Yes, perhaps. But now that Mrs Madison is gone, you can’t stop Daniel from getting what he wants,’ Miranda said, picking an imaginary piece of lint from her dress.

‘Excuse me. Mrs Madison is gone?’ Holly asked, shock permeating through her. She’d half expected to see the old matriarch that evening. She’d even mentally prepared what to say to her about her keeping Harry and her whereabouts a secret all these years.

‘Why, yes. Didn’t you know? I thought Daniel would have told you,’ Miranda said, clearly revelling in Holly’s ignorance.

‘No, I didn’t know,’ Holly whispered, feeling the colour drain from her cheeks.

‘She died six weeks ago. Cancer,’ Miranda said coldly, without a trace of sadness or emotion. ‘But if you ask me, it was for the best. She was in a lot of pain.’

‘How can you speak so unemotionally about her?’ Holly spluttered, feeling her own emotions well up to the surface, as she blinked furiously to keep the tears at bay.

‘That woman was a control freak. She kept Daniel from seeing Harry all those years ago. I assume you know about that,’ Miranda replied, with narrowed eyes.

‘Yes, but she’s dead, Miranda. Whatever she may or may not have done, she was Daniel’s mother and Harry’s grandmother. That’s a grandmother Harry’ll never get a chance to know,’ Holly said sadly. Holly looked across the room and locked eyes with Daniel, who’d glanced up from his conversation with Steve. Some part of her wanted to run to him and wrap her arms around him and kiss him all better. However strong Daniel professed to be, a loss was still a loss. And this was his mother. It must have hurt, and must still hurt a great deal. Daniel shot her a look of concern that lasted all of a nanosecond before he returned to his urgent conversation.

‘As you can see, Daniel is fine. More than fine, in actual fact,’ Miranda said, not having failed to notice the meaningful looks which had crossed the room.

‘And how would you know that?’ Holly asked, rounding on Miranda, unable to disguise her frustration with this irritating woman.

‘I see,’ Miranda said with a thin smile. ‘Something else you don’t know. It seems to me, Holly, that you’re one of the least well-informed people in the room. Let me see if I can go about and do something to enlighten you,’ she added snidely before slithering off in the direction of the stage.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Miranda began, grabbing the microphone at precisely the same moment that the song seemed to magically come to an end. There was a communal shuffling and hustling as the crowd assembled to get a better view of Miranda, holding court up on the stage.

‘I would like to take this opportunity to wish the man of the moment, Mr Daniel Madison, a very happy birthday.’ She halted only briefly to allow for a round of applause. ‘As some of you may know, the past few months have not been easy on Daniel, but he has coped with the strength and fortitude of a great man. I, for one, have been eternally impressed with his kindness and patience during this difficult time,’ Miranda said. There was a general hum of agreement as she paused, making a big deal at dramatically seeking out Daniel in the audience.

‘Daniel, won’t you come up here and join me on the stage?’ Miranda asked. Daniel began striding through a sea of people, all of them wanted to clap him on the back or shake his hand, slowing his progress up to the stage.

‘Whilst Daniel is taking his time in getting here,’ Miranda went on, ‘we’d also like to share with you, our dearest friends, some more positive news this evening.’ Holly was watching Daniel struggle through the never-ending congratulations—and on hearing Miranda’s last words, he seemed to kick it up a gear and plough through the remaining sea of people in a bid to get to Miranda. But he was too late. The words were out of her mouth before he could stop her.

‘We’re getting married!’ Miranda shouted at the top of her lungs, laughing loudly. Then there was a
pop
, and a ton of sparkly confetti floated down from the ceiling. After a momentary pause, during which the partygoers seemed to process her words, the cheering and applause began. Daniel finally mounted the stage and stood beside his beaming fiancée. He stood there and smiled, but didn’t appear totally natural or at ease. For once in his life, Daniel looked a little lost.

Holly was dumbstruck. She’d seen the whole thing play out before her eyes like a horrific car crash that she was powerless to do anything about. She felt numb. Absolutely and totally devoid of all feeling. Daniel was getting married. To
Miranda
. It was all just too incomprehensible for her to believe, much less take in.

Slowly, Holly’s senses began to return. She spied an exit nearby and walked slowly out into the cool night. The breeze was refreshing, and although she wasn’t at all drunk, it served to sober her up anyway. She still couldn’t really believe what she’d just heard, but her brain started to function as it dawned on her what Daniel’s reappearance in her life was really all about.

He
obviously
wanted a divorce.

Subsequently, a little voice in Holly’s head started working overtime. If a divorce was all he wanted, then why did he sleep with her? Twice? Why had he brought up the subject of her redesigning his house? What kind of twisted revenge game was Daniel playing with her now? One thing Holly did know for sure was that she didn’t know a thing about this man anymore. Perhaps she never really had.

It was some time later before Holly realised she wasn’t alone in the garden. She’d been so lost in her thoughts as she stared out across the grounds that she hadn’t heard whoever it was approach. Of course, she had a fair idea who it was. Most likely it was Daniel, probably with a wedge of papers from his solicitor’s for her to sign. Holly spun round and was surprised to find him standing right behind her. So close. She scanned his hands quickly and saw no papers.

‘How could you?’ Holly shouted at him, slapping him sharply across the cheek. He could have quite easily stopped her in time: her assault was well-advertised. But he let her do it.

‘I’m sorry, Holly. I never meant for you to find out like this,’ Daniel replied quietly.

‘You invited me to your bloody
engagement party
.’ Holly started to pace around in front of him. ‘I mean, I understand you’ve moved on. So have I. But you could have told me to my face. Not let me find out… like
that
.’

‘It wasn’t supposed to be an engagement party. And I did try to tell you.’

‘Oh yeah. When was that, then?’ Holly snapped, finally standing still and fixing him with a bitter look.

‘That day in your kitchen, and then again in your office,’ Daniel answered, weakly.

‘Well you didn’t try hard enough, did you? Maybe it was because your dick got in the way,’ Holly said, half-laughing out of frustration. She felt like an absolute fool, and the more she realised it, the angrier she felt.

‘I hope your revenge is sweet,’ she continued sharply, resuming her pacing. ‘If you set out to humiliate me, then you succeeded magnificently. And have no fear, I’m not going to put up a fight over the divorce. I shan’t be coming after half of everything.
I’m
not vindictive like that. Of course, it’s Harry I really feel sorry for. He’s not going to be able to understand why his father rocked into his life and then disappeared again just as unexpectedly. I can’t exactly tell him that you just came to fuck Mummy because you’re a sadistic bastard and then fucked off, can I?’

‘Calm down, Holly. I’ve said I’m sorry, and I really didn’t mean for things to turn out this way. And as for Harry, I’m serious about seeing him regularly. Of that I was certain from the beginning.’

‘How noble of you,’ Holly replied, rolling her eyes. ‘I hope you and your adorable bride enjoy alternate weekends with
my
son,’ she added sarcastically.

‘Holly, I’m not sure what you want from me. You know us getting married was a mistake; we barely made it a year. The fact you ran off proved we just weren’t compatible.’

‘We obviously were in the bedroom, as evidenced by recent events,’ Holly said snidely. She felt stung by his words, even if they were true.

‘What did you honestly think was going to happen between us? That we were going to get back together? As you said, you’ve moved on and so have I. Miranda makes me happy,’ Daniel said firmly.

‘I’m ecstatic for you both,’ Holly said, reverting to her sarcasm.

‘I know you’re upset and I’m pissed at how this has all panned out. This isn’t what I’d planned either. But sleep on it, and we’ll talk more tomorrow. We need to figure out a way for us to work together moving forwards. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to commission you to redo the house—so we can work on our relationship. For Harry’s sake,’ Daniel said in a reasonable tone. Holly felt like he was negotiating a business deal with a tiresome client.

‘Whatever you say, Daniel. You’re the boss,’ Holly said wearily as she walked back to the house.

‘Just tell me one thing, though,’ she said, looking back over her shoulder.

‘What?’ Daniel said, a look of uncertainly flashing across his features.

‘Does Miranda know you slept with me? And that you kissed me this afternoon like I was the love of your life?’ Holly asked, not caring about disguising her meaning. Daniel looked at her in complete surprise. The thought clearly hadn’t crossed his mind.

‘I didn’t think so,’ Holly said, more to herself than to him, as she turned her head and walked away.