No Matter What (45 page)

“I’ll need to talk to her, Michael.
 
You’ll know why ... she’ll tell you, I hope.
 
But I really will need to talk to her.”

“Ok, well, maybe tomorrow.
 
Alright?”

Reece nodded, looking over at
India
once more but she turned away, and that in itself broke his heart.

“I’m sorry,
India
.
 
I’m sorry you had to find out like this, but, believe me, there are reasons.
 
For everything.”

“Reece ... tomorrow,” Michael said, holding India closer to him as Reece reluctantly left the room, his head down.
 
He was a man defeated.
 
Whatever had gone on here had been painful for both him
and
India
, that was quite obvious to Michael.

He waited a few seconds, still hugging India to him, kissing the top of her head, stroking her hair as she clung onto him before he tilted her chin up to look at him.

“Ok, baby.
 
Are you gonna tell me what all that was about?”

“I can’t believe it, Michael.
 
I can’t believe he stood there and told me that ... why now?
 
I don’t understand ...”

Her voice trailed off and he looked at her.
 
“Told you what,
India
?
 
What did he tell you?”

She looked up at him, her eyes wide and questioning, red from the tears she’d been crying.
 
“Reece … he told me … he told me he’s my … he’s my father.
 
He’s my dad, Michael.
 
Reece Brogan is my dad.”

CHAPTER 24

The set was stuffy and hot and Charley had a headache.
 
This movie was tough going and she knew Jimmy was putting her though it deliberately, trying to punish her for whatever he thought was going on and she was trying so hard not to let it get to her but she was finding it increasingly difficult to cope.
 
She was clinging onto the fact that she was almost there, so close to getting away from here, so close to escaping this sad and lonely life she was living.
 
But she wasn’t even living, really, was she?
 
She was existing.
 
And that wasn’t the same thing.

Jimmy was a sick man, she knew that now.
 
He was extremely good at the charming gentleman act but when things stopped going his way he turned into a sadistic and twisted monster, a control freak of the highest and most dangerous order and she was tired of it now.
 
Ever since he’d found out about Terry hanging around he’d made sure she was never left alone.
 
He’d made sure that, even when she went to the bathroom, someone was there, making sure she never went anywhere without his say so.
 
He’d made it harder for her, but he hadn’t made her give up hope.
 
She was just going to have to be more careful about this than she’d first thought.

But she hadn’t seen Terry today.
 
He’d been there every day for a good few days now and today was the first time she hadn’t seen him.
 
Maybe he’d just managed to hide out of sight, maybe he was just going to be later than he usually was.
 
He had a job to go to after all.
 
That’s what she hoped, anyway, because the thought that he’d decided this was too dangerous and he wasn’t coming back was something Charley couldn’t even begin to contemplate.
 
She needed him to still be there because if he wasn’t, how else could she make her escape?

“Charley!
 
Over here!
 
Now!”

Jimmy’s voice boomed out across the studio floor and she wrapped a white towelling robe around herself and walked over to him.
 
He grabbed her arm and pushed her outside into the corridor.

“You might think I’m stupid, sweetheart.
 
You might think you can outwit me but I know what’s going on.”
 
He was standing over her, his hand holding her arm in a vice like grip, his face far too close to hers.
 
But this threatening stance was something she was used to now.
 
She could deal with it.
 
“You make
one
move, just one small move
anywhere
near him ... you try, even once, to escape from me and you’ll be sorry you even thought about it.
 
And that’s a promise.
 
Nobody – and certainly not some English tramp – makes a fool out of me.
 
You know where you’re better off and, believe me, I’m telling you now, to try and change that would be one hell of a mistake to make.”

She stared at him.
 
He was evil, pure evil.
 
The man was a power crazed egomaniac in this sick and twisted world he lived in and he may have thought he’d got her right where he wanted her with his threats, but she didn’t care anymore.
 
She’d play the dumb bimbo, tell him what he wanted to hear if that kept him off her back for a while, but she would never give up.
 
Never.
 
No matter what he said or what he threatened her with because nothing could be worse than what she was enduring now.

“I’m sorry, Jimmy.
 
I’m really sorry.”

His grip on her arm loosened slightly and he smiled at her, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
 
“Good girl.
 
Now go on, get back in there.
 
You’ve got work to do.”

She smiled back at him and Jimmy watched as she walked back into the studio.
 
She really thought she had him fooled.
 
She honestly thought that a smile and an apology was going to make him think she’d decided to forget about leaving but Jimmy Cash wasn’t that gullible.
 
If she thought that was going to make him back off then she was even more stupid than he’d first thought.
 
He meant every word of every threat he’d thrown her way.
 
One wrong move and she’d be sorry, and he was ready and waiting to make that move because he knew it was coming.
 
And he’d make her pay in a way she’d never thought possible.
 
A price so high she could never have imagined and he wouldn’t be sorry in the slightest.
 
Charley Miles had brought it all on herself, and there’d be nobody else to blame but her.

***

Michael poured a cup of black coffee into
India
’s favourite mug and took it over to her.
 
She was curled up in the corner of one of the sofas in the sitting area of the kitchen watching the news on TV.
 
He sat down beside her, handing her the mug of coffee.

Yesterday’s news had been hard for
him
to get his head around so heaven knows how she was coping.
 
She hadn’t said much last night, after Reece had left. She’d just sat in the living room and watched TV and he hadn’t wanted to push it.
 
He’d wanted her to sort things out in her own head before he made her talk about it. She hadn’t slept much either.
 
He’d felt her tossing and turning, felt her restless beside him and she looked tired this morning.
 
With good reason.

“How are you feeling?” Michael asked her.
 
India
just shrugged, still looking at the TV on the wall.

“I don’t know.
 
I don’t know what I’m feeling.
 
I don’t even know how I’m
supposed
to feel.”

“You need to talk to him.
 
You need to let him explain.
 
And all those questions in your head, you need them answering.”
 
He took the mug out of her hand and put it down on the table beside her, taking her hand in his, holding it tight.

“I’m not ready yet, Michael.”
 
She looked at him.
 
“You’re right, I know you’re right and I know I need to talk to him and I will.
 
Just ... just give me a couple of hours.
 
My head’s still all over the place and I just need to think.”

“I can stay with you this morning, if you want me to.
 
I don’t like leaving you like this.”

She shook her head, squeezing his hand.
 
“No, it’s ok.
 
I’ll be fine.
 
Really.
 
I’ll be fine.”

“Why don’t I get Kenny to come and keep you company.”

That one sentence made her stomach turn over and she felt all that guilt come crashing down around her again.

“Maybe talking to him would help,
India
,” Michael smiled, and
India
knew that this was one special man here.
 
He had no idea what was going on with her and Kenny and yet here he was almost pushing the two of them together.
 
But, despite everything that had happened over the past few days, Kenny was still her best friend and she could do with that shoulder to lean on right now.
 
Nothing else, just for him to be there and help her make sense of all this.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she sighed.
 
“Maybe it
would
help.”

“Ok.
 
I’ll go give him a call.”

India
watched him leave the room, throwing her head back against the sofa, sighing heavily as she closed her eyes, hugging her knees to her chest.
 
Reece

Brogan - Hollywood movie star - was her father.
 
All those years he’d been out there and she’d never known.
 
How was she supposed to get used to that overnight?
 

She got up and walked over to the mirror in the corner of the room, staring at her reflection closely.
 
Tilting her head to one side she looked closely at her eyes, her mouth.
 
Oh God!
 
She had his eyes, she definitely had his eyes!
 
How come she’d never noticed that before?
 
Because she’d never really had a reason to, had she?
 
She pulled her hair back off her face and looked harder.
 
The resemblance was there, it was there and she’d never seen it, she’d never noticed it, never realised for one second.

“You can see it now, can’t you?”

She spun round to see her brother standing there.

“Michael let me in.”
 
He walked over and stood behind her, looking at her reflection in the mirror.
 
“It’s funny but, it’s so obvious now, isn’t it?”

She continued to look at herself, seeing more of Reece in her own face every second.
 
It was so weird she could barely get her head around it all.

“What’s Michael doing calling Kenny?” Terry asked, throwing his bag down on the floor.

“He wants him to come over and keep me company.
 
He’s got to go to work.”

Terry raised an eyebrow and
India
sat back down, curling her legs up underneath her.
 
“Don’t start, Terry.
 
I’ve got enough to deal with.”

“Reece finally told you then?”

She looked at him.
 
“What do you mean,
finally
told me?”
 
She sat up.
 
“Did you
know
?”

What could Terry say?
 
He couldn’t lie to her.
 
He nodded.

“When?
 
When did he tell you?
 
How long have you known, Terry?”

“Since just before Christmas.
 
India
, it’s a long story, you really need to talk to Reece …”

“And I will, but why the hell didn’t
you
tell me when you found out?
 
How could you know this and not tell me?
 
Jesus, Terry, I don’t believe this!”

She pushed a hand through her loose blonde hair and got up again, pacing the floor in front of him.

“Believe me,
India
, I wanted to, I wanted to tell you but Reece ... he wanted to do it himself, he wanted to wait for the right time.”

“The right time?
 
Is
there a right time for something like this?”

“I had to respect what he wanted to do. You’d just announced you were having this baby and he didn’t think it was right to tell you at that time.”

“His grandchild, Terry.
 
I’m having his grandchild, and he didn’t think it was right to tell me he’s my dad?”

Terry got up and went over to her, grabbing her arms to make her stand still. “You need to talk to him,
India
.
 
Really.
 
You need to talk to him.”