No Matter What (100 page)

Michael led the way into the house and into his study, shutting the door behind the two of them and walking over to his desk.

Kenny looked around the room.
 
He’d been in this house so many times but he’d never been in here.
 
The door was usually always locked, but it was just how he’d imagined Michael Walsh’s study to look - dark walls, wood flooring, and a huge oak desk at one end behind which was a large, black leather chair and huge bay windows covered by dark wooden Venetian blinds.
 
There were pictures of Ethan all over the place, and on the walls were photographs of India – an oversized framed black and white photograph of her lying naked - bar some killer heels - on a bed,
 
taken from her ‘Viper’ shoot back in 1996, just after she and Michael had got together; and one of her when she’d been quite heavily pregnant.
 
In that one she was also naked.
 
He seemed to like naked pictures of his wife, but then, who wouldn’t?

“She’s beautiful.
 
Isn’t she?” Michael asked, noticing Kenny looking at the photographs on the wall.

Kenny looked away immediately, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall.

“But she’s mine, Kenny.
 
Do you understand?
 
India
is mine.”

“What the hell is all this about?”

Michael walked around the front of his desk and leaned back against it, resting his hands on the edge.

“I know all about you and her, Kenny.
 
I know all about that brief … affair – is that what you’d call it? - back at the beginning of 1997, and I know all about that night in Vegas.”

Kenny couldn’t say anything.
 
He didn’t know what he’d been expecting Michael to say but it hadn’t been this.
 
Had he said anything to
India
?
 
Something told him he hadn’t.

Michael reached behind him and picked up a piece of paper from his desk.
 
“You might want to take a look at this.”

“What is it?”

Michael held it out to him.
 
“Take a look.
 
It’s something you need to see.”

“Do I?”

Michael continued to hold out the piece of paper and Kenny walked towards him, carefully taking it from him.

“Read it.”

Kenny looked down at the sheet of paper, scanning the words on it, reading them slowly.

“It’s all there in black and white, Kenny.
 
Ethan ... he’s
my
son.
 
Just like
India
is
my
wife.”

Kenny looked up.
 
He didn’t know what to feel.
 
He couldn’t even get his head around what was happening here.
 
“I ... I don’t understand.”

Michael folded his arms, continuing to lean back against his desk, looking straight at Kenny.

“You may have some kind of hold over my wife that I can’t break and that’s fine.
 
I can deal with that.
 
I can deal with you being her friend because I can’t stop that.
 
Not without
India
getting suspicious.
 
But you forget any ideas you might still have about anything else happening.
 
You don’t touch her in that way again, you don’t even
think
about it.”

Kenny narrowed his eyes as he looked at Michael.
 
“And what about
India
?
 
What about what
she
wants?”

“She wants
me
,” Michael said, his expression never changing.

“You know that for sure, do you?”

Michael laughed.
 
“You can’t win this one, Kenny.
 
Not anymore.
 
It’s over. Oh, I suspect that you had some idea that if Ethan was yours then maybe India would finally come running to you, but even if that had been the case, even if this test had showed that he
had
been your son, then she would never have known.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’d have dropped the whole subject, Kenny.
 
You’d have let it go.
 
And I would have made sure that she thought Ethan was mine.
 
But, hey, we don’t need to bother with all that now, do we?”

Kenny stared at him.
 
“You’re fucking crazy.”

Michael shrugged.
 
“I love my wife, that’s all.
 
I’ve loved her from the second I saw her and without you in the way she would have been mine far sooner.
 
But you
got
in the way, and I sat back and watched you blow the one chance you had with her but that’s it now.
 
It’s over.
 
You lost.
 
And you will
always
lose against me, Kenny.
 
I can promise you that.”

“I’m not out of her system yet, Michael.
 
Vegas proved that.
 
You know, she didn’t take that much persuading to let me fuck her.”

Before Kenny realised what was happening Michael had punched him hard, sending him reeling backwards against the wall.

“You talk about her like that again …
don’t
push me any further.”
 
Michael’s voice was steady, despite the increasing anger he was feeling.
 
“I put up with it all, all the lies she told me, all the times I knew she was with you, I put up with it all because I love her so much it fucking hurts, and in the end she always came back to me, but that’s not enough anymore.
 
I want her with me without the threat of you.
 
So you will
not
get in the way again.
 
I won’t let it happen.”

Kenny put his hand to his jaw, feeling blood between his fingers.
 
“You can’t stop anything from happening, what kind of fucking power trip are you on?”

Michael moved closer to Kenny, his eyes serious as he stared at him.
 
“Finish it, Kenny.
 
Any ideas still left that in pretty-boy head of yours regarding my wife, you forget them now.
 
Or, believe me, what’s happening here is just for starters.”

“Are you
threatening
me?”

Michael smiled, a smile that definitely didn’t reach the eyes, as he slowly backed away from Kenny.
 
“Call it a, friendly warning.”

Kenny wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, tasting blood from the cut on his lip as he did so.
 
This guy was out of his mind.

“She’ll never stay with you, Michael.
 
Not when she finds out what kind of crazy bastard you are.”

Michael walked over to the table in the corner and poured himself a drink, turning round to look at Kenny.

“The only thing I’m crazy about is that woman out there.
 
She’s my life.
 
Her and our little boy are my life and you are
not
going to take that away from me.
 
You had your chance, Jesus, she married you and you threw that away!”

“But she still comes back for more.”

“Because you let her.
 
But you won’t do that again.”
 
Michael looked straight at him.
 
“Will you?”

Kenny just shook his head, his hand still on his now throbbing jaw.
 
“Do you
really
care about her?
 
Or is this just some game to you?”

“Oh, this is no game, Kenny, believe me.
 
I care about her more than you or anyone else will ever know and I’m not letting her go.
 
I won’t lose her to you, not to anyone.
 
But especially not to you.
 
Now, I think it’s time you left this party, don’t you?”

Kenny turned to leave.
 
He’d had enough for one night anyway, he just needed to sleep.
 
He’d always known there’d been something about Michael Walsh that wasn’t right, something he’d never felt comfortable around and now he’d finally had the proof.

“Oh, and, Kenny?”

Kenny turned round and looked at Michael as he stood there, one hand in his pocket, the other clutching his drink, his face expressionless again.
 
“You tell
India
nothing about this.
 
Do you hear me?
 
Because if you do, I’ll know about it.”

Kenny just gave him one last look and left, closing the door behind him.

Michael watched him leave, finishing his drink and leaning back against the table, closing his eyes for a second.
 
His hand was shaking as he put down the empty glass, looking up at the photographs of
India
on the wall.
 
She was worth it.
 
She was worth it all, all the pain and the heartache and the times when he’d known she was with Kenny Ross, she was worth every second.
 
Because he had her now.
 
Ethan was his son,
India
was his wife, and that was all Michael had ever wanted.
 
Now it was time to put the past behind them and move forward.
 
Because surely, after tonight, there could only be good times ahead.
 
In Michael’s mind there was no doubt about that.
 
Kenny would leave
India
alone, and they could finally get on with being the family he’d always wanted them to be.
 
Surely nothing – nothing – could stop that from happening now.
 
Nothing that Michael could think of, anyway.

***

“Everything ok?” Reece asked, as
India
arrived back inside the marquee, taking Ethan from him and kissing his little cheek.

“Everything’s fine.
 
Why?”

“Because you said you were going to get Ethan a bottle and you’ve come back without it.”

“Oh Christ, I knew there was something ... I’m just tired.
 
It’s been a long day, I got distracted ... I just forgot.
 
I’ll take him inside now.”

“Distracted by what?”

She looked at him.
 
“Nothing.”

“You got distracted by nothing?”

“Is there a point to this line of questioning?
 
I got distracted, I forgot his bottle. I’ll go get it for him now.
 
It’s not a problem.”

“I’m worried about you,
India
.”

She started walking out of the marquee, glad to see that people were starting to drift away now.
 
She really just wanted this night to end.
 
Her head was starting to pound and all she wanted was to curl up and sleep.

“I can look after myself, dad.”

“I’m not sure you can, sweetheart, the mess you’ve got yourself into.”

She couldn’t help but let out a cynical laugh.
 
“Jesus, if you think it was a mess before then you’ll love the next instalment.”

The minute she’d said that she knew she should have kept her mouth shut.

Reece stopped walking and grabbed her arm, swinging her round to look at him.
 
“What are you talking about?
 
What’s going on,
India
?”

She sighed, sitting down on the nearest chair, Ethan now flat out in her arms. “Michael knows, dad.
 
He knows about me and Kenny, he knows about Ethan and the fact he could have been Kenny’s ...”

“Whoa, hang on,
India
, slow down will you.”
 
Reece sat down next to her.
 
“Ok ... you say he knows ...
how
does he know?
 
Have you spoken to him?”

She shook her head, looking down at her sleeping baby as she stroked his face. “I found something in his study.
 
It was just lying on his desk, dad ... just lying there. Maybe I shouldn’t have picked it up, but ...”

“You’re doing it again, sweetheart.
 
Can you start making some sense?
 
What did you find?”

She looked at her dad.
 
He didn’t deserve to be mixed up in all of this.
 
All he’d ever done was love her and all she’d done was bring worry to his doorstep.
 
He should have left her there in
England
all those years ago and he wouldn’t have this stress.

“DNA test results.”

“Oh
Jesus
,
India
.”
 

“I don’t know what to do, dad.
 
It’s like everything’s falling apart and it’s all my fault.
 
I’ve been so stupid!”