No Matter What (156 page)

“Your daddy’s crying because he’s happy, sweetheart,” Layla said.
 
“He’s happy because your mommy’s gonna be fine.”

Ethan kept looking at Michael, wiping his eyes with his little hands. “Mommy’s not going to die?”

Michael shook his head.
 
“No, baby.
 
Mommy’s not gonna die.”

Ethan ran into his arms and Layla looked on as Michael hugged his son, holding onto him so tight.
 
She crouched down beside them, taking one of Ethan’s hands in hers.

“Granddad Reece has just called us from
England
.”
 
She smiled as he looked at her.
 
“And he told us that your mommy’s awake now.
 
The doctor’s have said she’s gonna be just fine.
 
She’s gonna get better, sweetheart.”

As he looked at her she couldn’t help but feel sad that a six year old had had so much stress on such little and innocent shoulders.

“Has granddad talked to mommy?” he asked, still holding onto Michael.

Layla shook her head.
 
“No, baby.
 
Not yet.
 
But JJ has.
 
He was there when she woke up.
 
She still needs a lot of rest at the minute, she’s very, very tired, but she’s gonna be ok.”

Ethan looked at Michael.
 
“Can
I
talk to her daddy?”

Michael squeezed his little waist, kissing his damp cheek.
 
“Soon.
 
You can talk to her soon, but you heard Layla.
 
Your mommy needs to rest for a little while.”

“I want to see her, daddy.
 
I want to see mommy.
 
I want to see her.”

Michael looked at Layla, and they both knew what they had to do.
 
Because Ethan wasn’t the only one who wanted to see
India
, and Layla knew that.

She smiled at Michael, gently stroking Ethan’s dark hair.
 
“I’ll go and start packing.
 
You sort out the flights.”

***

“She’s going to be ok you know,” Ray said to JJ as he stood in the doorway of
India
’s hospital room, watching her as she slept.

“I know,” JJ sighed, pushing a hand through his hair.
 
“I know she is.
 
It’s just that, every time she closes her eyes I’m scared she won’t wake up.”

Ray gently touched his brother’s shoulder.
 
He knew that he was still carrying so much guilt and Ray wished he would just forget all that and stop unnecessarily torturing himself.
 
They’d been through a nightmare but
India
had come through it. She’d survived.
 
She’d fought and she’d won, and she needed JJ to be strong now.

“She needs to rest, Joe.
 
You heard the doctors.
 
She’s going to be fine but she needs to rest.
 
She needs to sleep.”

“She’s been asleep for nearly two weeks, Ray.
 
I want her to be awake now. She needs to be awake.
 
I want her to keep her eyes open.
 
I want her to look at me and talk to me.
 
I want her to keep her eyes open.”

“Look, why don’t you take a break?
 
You need a rest too.
 
You haven’t left this place in days.”

JJ shook his head.
 
“I won’t leave until she’s leaving with me, Ray.
 
I’m staying right here beside her.
 
I’m not leaving her again.
 
I’m never leaving her again.”

“Ten minutes, Joe.
 
That’s all.
 
Come on.
 
Ellie’s in the relative’s room with Reece and Martha.
 
Go and see your daughter, go and give her a cuddle.
 
Tell her how her mummy’s doing.”

“She knows her mommy’s fine.
 
Ellie’ll be ok.
 
I need to stay here, Ray.”

“And
India
needs you to be in some kind of fit state, Joe.
 
Which you won’t be if you don’t take it easy.
 
Come on, take a break.”

JJ shook his head.
 
“I’m fine.
 
I’m not going anywhere, I’m staying right here.
 
I want to be here when she wakes up.”

Ray squeezed JJ’s shoulder and smiled.
 
“Ok.
 
But take it easy.
 
You’re not invincible, Joe, and she needs you to be strong now.
 
Remember that.”

JJ continued to watch sleeping wife.
 
At least she was breathing on her own now, her chest rising and falling slowly, and he didn’t want to take his eyes off her incase she stopped doing that, incase she slipped away from him again because the fear that that could still happen felt as though it was never going to leave him.

“Ray?”

Ray turned round and looked at his younger brother, who had his back to him as he continued to look at
India
.

“I’m over it, ok?
 
The fact that you two … I’m over what happened.
 
It doesn’t need to be talked about anymore.”

Ray looked at the floor, his hands in his pockets.

“No recriminations, Ray.
 
No fighting, no more questions.
 
It’s over.”

“Joe ... I’m so sorry ...”

“But you don’t touch her again, you got that?”
 
JJ turned round for the briefest of seconds, looking Ray right in the eyes.
 
“You never touch her again.”

***

India
’s eyes still felt heavy and tired but she was sick of sleeping.
 
She was sore from the bruises and the broken ribs and her head was all over the place with everything that had gone on.
 
But the doctor’s had explained it all to her now.
 
The accident had been something nobody had thought she’d survive but she had, and when she thought how close to death she’d nearly come it made her feel sick.
 
To think she might never have seen Ethan or Ellie grow up.
 
That thought was too frightening to get her head around.

Despite the head injury she’d received, bar a couple of broken ribs and a sprained wrist she’d broken no bones, and nobody could quite believe that, given the force with which she’d been hit.
 
But maybe it just hadn’t been her time yet.
 
That’s how she liked to think of it.
 
It wasn’t her time.
 
She could have been killed but she was very much alive and she now realised just how lucky she was.
 
It was a feeling that overwhelmed her every time she thought about it.

“
India
?”
 
It was JJ’s voice.
 

She opened her eyes, blinking a couple of times to get focus, trying to push herself up into a sitting position.

“Will you take it easy, honey?
 
You should be lying down, come on.”

“I’ve been lying down for almost two weeks.
 
Apparently.
 
I want to sit up, Joe.”

He slipped an arm around her, gently helping her to sit up, supporting her with pillows as he sat up next to her on the bed, but even that simple movement had worn her out and she snuggled in beside him as he held her close, kissing the top of her head.

“I thought you were never coming back,” she whispered.
 
Just the touch of him, being able to hold him again made her feel all weepy.
 
She’d wanted this so badly.
 
She just wished it hadn’t had to come to this in order for him to come back to her.
 
It shouldn’t have had to come to this.

“I love you so much,
India
.
 
And I acted like an idiot; I shouldn’t have run away like I did.”
 
He looked at her, tilting her chin up and ever so gently kissing her mouth.
 
“But let’s put the past behind us, ok?
 
I did some stupid things.
 
We probably both did, but ... but nearly losing you like this, it’s been the wake-up call I badly needed.
 
To make me realise how much in love with you I really am.
 
How much I love our family.”

“Kiss me again,” she whispered, looking into his eyes, his beautiful dark eyes. “Just kiss me, Joe.
 
Make me believe I’m really alive and that it’s all going to be ok. Just, kiss me.”

He put his hand to the side of her face, gently touching her warm, soft cheek, closing his eyes as he lowered his mouth down onto hers, kissing her slowly.
 
Oh God, it was so good to kiss her again.
 
So good.

She clung onto him as his mouth moved gently against hers, the taste of him making her feel dizzy and happy and warm inside.
 
She loved this man with all her heart and he was the reason she’d pulled through this, the reason she’d survived, she was sure of that.
 
They had a future together now.
 
An amazing future.

“I love you, Joseph Foster,” she said quietly, his hand still stroking her cheek, his mouth still close to hers.
 
“So don’t you ever leave me again, do you hear?
 
Don’t ever leave me again.”

He smiled.
 
The first time he’d smiled a smile that had come from his heart in weeks.
 
“I’m going nowhere, baby.
 
Nowhere.”

She closed her eyes as he kissed her again, his mouth slightly open, his body resting against hers as he held her and
India
could have stayed like that forever.
 
It was the only place she wanted to be.
 
Right here, beside the man she loved like crazy. The man she couldn’t live without.
 
The man she’d given up so much for but he could never know that.
 
He could never know anything that had gone on before, but the past was going to stay where it belonged.
 
The future was all that mattered, and all she wanted now was for them to get back to normal, back to the life she needed to have with him.
 
Back to a future she knew they had.
 
Finally.

EPILOGUE

The lights of
Las Vegas
stretched out in front of
India
as she looked out of the massive picture windows that took up most of one wall in the huge Penthouse apartment she and JJ were staying in.
 
It was a view she’d gotten used to, a view she loved.
 
A view that usually meant she was here for a reason, that something was going on, and this occasion was no different.

Tonight, in a lavish and not-very-secret ceremony she and JJ were re-taking their wedding vows in front of the people who meant the most to them.
 
Some members of the press and assorted other media had been invited, and she and JJ were going to release a selection of pictures approved by themselves into the public domain because this time they didn’t care who knew.
 
They didn’t mind if news leaked out.
 
What they’d all gone through had made them realise the priorities in life, and in
India
’s eyes, so many things looked different.
 
So many things had changed.
 
Her relationship with Michael being one of them.
 
He and Layla were now together and
India
was happy for them.
 
She really was.
 
The past was behind them now and everybody was moving forward.
 
Ethan adored his new step-mum who in turn adored him back twice as much and India thought it was incredible how far they’d all come.
 
Incredible, and sometimes unbelievable, but it couldn’t have worked out better.
 
She and Michael were friends, and that was all that mattered.
 
For the sake of their little boy that was all that mattered.
 
All the pain and the heartache and the hate, it was all gone.
 
All of it.
 
And it felt good.

Once again it was a time for new beginnings.
 
When she and JJ had finally arrived back in
L.A.
, after the accident, they’d bought a new home there, private and secluded, high in the Hollywood Hills, close to Reece and Martha’s new place.
 
She’d needed to be close to her family now.
 
After everything that had happened that had become very important to her.