Illusions of Love

chapter 1

‘Sometimes I think I’m cursed.’ India stared into the huge floor-to-ceiling mirror as she readjusted the long dark wig she’d placed over her own light-blond hair.

‘Cursed? In what way?’ Charley asked, leaning back against the counter, folding her arms as she watched her beautiful best friend try on wig after wig.

India swung round in her chair and looked at Charley. ‘Men. As far as men are concerned, I’m cursed.’

Charley smiled, turning India back around to face the mirror as she ran her fingers through the jet-black wig that made her look twice as gorgeous as she had done before. But that was the thing about India. She could adapt to any look, any style. It all came so easy to her.

India Walsh – movie star; and Charley loved her like a sister. Considering what they’d been through in the past there was no way those events could have made them anything other than close, even if – at first – it looked as though they would tear them apart.

‘You’re not cursed, India.’

How could you be cursed when you had the life India had? A life that had, over the years, included some of the hottest men in Hollywood. Oh yeah, India had certainly had her fair share of those. She’d even married a couple of them. So Charley wasn’t entirely sure “cursed” was the right word to describe India’s situation.

‘I’m not particularly lucky though, am I?’ India went on, pulling off the dark wig and shaking out her own hair, and Charley couldn’t help but be amazed at the way it just fell into place around her shoulders. ‘I really thought me and JJ… I thought we were forever, y’know? I thought that was it, that I’d finally found my soul mate…’

Charley watched India as she stopped talking and started fiddling with the leather cuff bracelets on her wrists. It certainly did seem that, as far as men were concerned, India just couldn’t seem to find the right man to settle down with, although it wasn’t for the want of trying. It was just that so many things had happened over the years, and India had obviously found it hard to move on from some of those events. Even though she had tried. It was just so sad that she couldn’t have found that happiness she really deserved with JJ, because they’d had it all. Or, at least, that’s what everyone had thought.

As a couple they’d had everything. A successful TV series, a gorgeous daughter; they were two of Hollywood’s most beautiful people and everyone had thought they were forever. But Charley suspected that forever was a word that India feared, and that was something which was stopping her from moving forward in a lot of ways.

‘Is it definitely over then?’ Charley asked, gathering together her brushes and curling irons as she tidied up her work station, ready for her next client.

India nodded, standing up and shaking her hair out once more, running her fingers through it.

JJ Foster. Joe. Her handsome, talented, sexy-as-hell soon-to-be-third-ex-husband. A man who’d done nothing but love her and yet still she couldn’t love him back the way he deserved to be loved. She’d tried, she really had, she’d tried harder than anyone could have imagined. After all there was Ellie, their totally gorgeous two-and-a-half-year-old daughter to think about, so India really had tried. But ever since her character in ‘Covert One’ – the extremely successful TV series she and Joe had worked on together – had left the show, it just seemed as though her heart wasn’t in her relationship with JJ anymore. Some people thought it was because she was still in love with another man, but that wasn’t the case. She’d moved on, no matter what people thought she might be feeling. She was stronger now, a different person, and maybe that was the reason she hadn’t been able to make it work with JJ. Maybe she needed a whole new start, a brand new beginning, and she just hadn’t been able to find that with him. Her fault, not his.

Originally from the North East of England, India had arrived in Hollywood almost twenty years ago, and Hollywood had loved her for every single second she’d been there. An extraordinarily beautiful woman, she had long blond hair that fell down her back in loose, natural curls, big blue eyes in a heart-shaped face and, despite now being in her early forties, she had a body that would put most women half her age to shame. But she wasn’t just beautiful, she was also an extremely talented and accomplished actress, able to turn her hand to anything – despite being dubbed the queen of romantic comedies. People queued up to work with her. Studios knew that an India Walsh movie made money so she was in the enviable position of being able to pick and choose the work she wanted to do. But it had surprised more than a few people when, for her latest soon-to-begin-shooting movie, she’d chosen to work with ex-husband Michael Walsh. Those who knew India well knew that, in the past, as far as Michael was concerned, her judgement had always been clouded and her reasoning blurred. Their marriage had been as turbulent as it had been passionate, ending in a way that was still painful to remember because she just hadn’t seen it coming. She hadn’t known anyone could hurt someone as much as Michael had hurt her, so for her to choose to work with him in such close proximity, after everything that had happened, of course there’d been a few raised eyebrows.

But things had changed. For India, anyway. Things had changed. She’d grown up, forgiven him, and her decision to do this movie, with Michael directing, it was her way of showing the world that she could work alongside him and not let her feelings get in the way. Because those feelings just weren’t there anymore, no matter what everyone else thought. So this was something she needed to do. To prove that to everyone. And maybe there was still a part of her that needed to prove that to herself, too.

A hot-shot Hollywood producer, in-demand director, and one of the most famous actors Hollywood had ever produced, Michael Walsh had been in India’s life for as long as she’d been in L.A. And despite their somewhat chequered history, they’d loved each other. Once. Maybe more than they should have done, because that love had caused incredible heartache, destruction and pain, as well as days of indescribable happiness. The birth of Ethan, their amazing little boy almost eight years ago, being one of them – a time when India had thought that her life was sorted, that she and Michael had been settled, ready to begin family life. How wrong she’d been. Ethan. The bond that held her and Michael together, even though there was very little that could really tear them apart. The past had already proved that.

At the age of forty-two India still had the world at her feet. She had a dream of a career, two beautiful children and, even though she was facing the end of yet another unsuccessful marriage, she could still have any man she wanted. Once upon a time she’d thought that Michael was the only man she’d ever want, and maybe that was something that had had a hand in the breakdown of her marriage to JJ, but those days were over now. One day she’d just woken up and known that she could never go back there, back to Michael. She couldn’t ever do that. But she knew she couldn’t stay with JJ either. Because he deserved so much better than her.

She’d loved JJ, of course she’d loved him. She’d loved him like crazy, and she probably still did, but she didn’t deserve him. He deserved so much more than she could give him, and she just didn’t have the strength to pretend any longer. She knew that he, along with everyone else, thought she still wanted Michael back in her life, but they were so wrong. Michael had asked her to work with him, that was all. But her lack of hesitation in accepting his offer had given JJ every reason to think differently, and she couldn’t really blame him, considering everything that had happened in the past. But it wasn’t true. She didn’t want Michael back, she knew that now. She just had to convince everyone else of that. But the fact she wasn’t fighting to make her marriage to JJ work – the fact she didn’t even want to – told her everything she needed to know.

‘It’s over,’ India sighed, picking her bag up off the floor and sliding it up onto her shoulder, leaning over to kiss Charley on the cheek. ‘Anyway, I’m off to Vegas soon to start work on this new movie, so that should take my mind off things.’

Charley smiled, hugging India tight. A few weeks in Vegas would probably do her best friend the world of good, Charley thought. Even if she was working. But whether being that close to Michael was the best thing for India, at a time when she was more than slightly vulnerable, she still wasn’t sure.

India smiled too, pushing her sunglasses down over her eyes as she made her way towards the door. ‘See you for drinks tonight? At my place? Miguel’s got some new cocktails he wants to try out, and you know me, I’m not one to pass up that opportunity. It’ll be fun. Bobby’ll be there. Even Layla said she’d pop round.’

Charley nodded, still smiling as she watched her friend walk out into the L.A. sunshine, paparazzi appearing out of nowhere to get a snap of one of Hollywood’s most beautiful women. Stronger than she’d ever been before, more self-assured, and ready to take on the world. Again. A better person for putting Michael Walsh behind her, and Charley just hoped it stayed that way.

She turned around and continued to tidy up her work station, taking a second to look around the vast floor space that was her new baby, her own little empire. Charley’s had very quickly become one of Beverly Hills’ most exclusive hair and beauty salons, and Charley had every reason to thank her famous best friend for that. The second anyone found out that India Walsh was a regular there, well; it was publicity that money just couldn’t buy. And she was more than grateful because, in just over a year of being open, she now had a second salon based in The Amber Palace Hotel, Casino and Golf Resort – the third and newest Las Vegas hotel to be opened by her husband, businessman and movie producer Vince Maine.

Charley loved Las Vegas. It was a city that had given her back her life. A city that had given her the most wonderful man in the world who, in turn, had given her the most beautiful little girl. Their daughter, Lily, was the most precious thing in her life, along with Vince, and Charley still couldn’t bear to think of her life before them. Because life before Lily and Vince just didn’t exist as far as Charley was concerned. She didn’t talk about it, she never went there. She didn’t need to. Not anymore. A lot had happened over the years, and one very important thing Charley had learnt was that it never paid to look back.

She’d fast-tracked her way through BeautySchool, determined that she wasn’t going to be just a figurehead for her salons, she also wanted to work. And, in the few short months since she’d gained her licence, she’d already built up quite a list of clients, a lot of them celebrities from the worlds of movies, music and modelling, all of them wanting to be seen where the stars hung out.

She was the happiest she’d been in years. She and Vince split their time between Las Vegas and their homes in L.A. – their Californian ranch, and their Spanish-style villa in Beverly Hills. She had everything she could ever have dreamed of, and just thinking about how different her life could have been still sent a shiver down her spine. But, like she’d always said, it never paid to look back. So she never did. She was happy now. Happier than she’d been in a long time. And what she wanted, more than anything, was for her best friend to feel the same.