Illusions of Love

chapter 30



Reece couldn’t help feeling slightly relieved that, for him at least, filming on this movie had drawn to a close. He’d found the whole process exhausting, but that had had nothing to do with the workload. It was everything else; the constant media attention that he’d thought he’d be used to after all these years – but then, when your famous daughter’s new boyfriend turns out to be the long-lost son of her ex-husband the only outcome that could ever have had was to step things up a notch or two – the worry of India getting herself into something else that could only end up in yet more heartache, and the feeling that, once again, something was going on that he didn’t know about.

‘How about a vacation, now you’re done here?’ Martha asked, coming out of the en-suite bathroom, towel-drying her damp blond hair. ‘Maybe a couple of weeks in Aruba?’

‘Aruba?’ Reece asked, not looking up as he sat down on the edge of the bed, tying his shoe laces.

‘Yes, Aruba. Palm Beach, I thought. Remember when we went there a couple of years ago? Those beautiful sunsets, the walks along the shoreline and, oh, those cocktails…’

‘What’s going on, Martha?’

Martha stopped what she was doing and looked at him. ‘What do you mean, what’s going on? I’m planning a vacation.’

Reece stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets. ‘Forget the vacation.’

‘You need a break, honey…’

‘No, what I need is the truth.’

Martha threw the towel she’d been using to dry her hair down onto a nearby chair, looking at Reece with an expression she hoped relayed nothing but confusion. ‘I don’t understand…’

‘Something’s going on, Martha.’

She felt her stomach take a dip, but she didn’t miss a beat. ‘Nothing’s going on, what are you talking about?’

He stood completely still, fixing her with a determined stare. He could tell by her body language that he’d hit a nerve. He was on the right track; he just had to push a little harder.

‘You’d never planned to come and join me here in Vegas.’

‘Are you saying you’d rather I wasn’t here?’ She knew that wasn’t what he was saying at all but she really needed to distract him from taking this conversation any further.

‘No, of course I’m not. And you know that. I love having you around, I miss you when you’re not here. All I’m saying is that you had never originally intended to come here to Vegas. I know you had work lined up, interviews, promotion… and you don’t normally re-arrange anything like that without a very good reason.’

‘I… I just wanted to be with you, that’s all. We haven’t been together for a while, what with me being away filming…’

‘Cut the crap, Martha! I know you too well. You’re a professional, you don’t cause hassle without a bloody good reason, and we both know that. You don’t like letting people down. Do you?’

She looked at him, taking a deep breath, exhaling louder than she intended, what felt like the weight of a thousand secrets weighing heavy on her shoulders.

‘Nothing’s going on, Reece. I just wanted to put my husband first for a change, that’s all. What’s so wrong with that?’

‘Nothing’s wrong with that. It’s just a little coincidental, in my opinion.’

She narrowed her eyes, pulling the towel that was covering her body tighter around herself. ‘Coincidental?’

He said nothing, just continued to look at her, almost as if staring would somehow coax something out of her.

‘Why haven’t you said anything before? You seemed fine with me being here, so…’

‘Well, I was thinking about things, that’s all,’ Reece continued, walking over to the mirror, picking up his jacket that was slung over the back of the sofa on the way, slipping it on before running his hands through his hair. ‘You’ve been a little pre-occupied, ever since I made that flying visit to L.A.’ He turned around to look at her again, putting his hands back in his pockets. ‘Ever since India came to see you, in Malibu.’

‘I… I don’t understand. I’ve been fine, I haven’t been preoccupied, Reece. I haven’t…’

‘Well, I think you have.’ He moved forward a couple of steps, keeping his eyes on her all the time. ‘She talked to you, didn’t she?’

‘You know she came over for a chat. She needed to talk, there’s nothing unusual in that.’

‘No, there isn’t. It’s just that, this time, I think she told you something that she’s never told me. Am I right?’

Martha didn’t know what to do. She’d promised India she wouldn’t tell her father any of what she’d disclosed, but it was more than obvious that Reece had his suspicions, and Martha wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep it from him.

‘She needed to get a lot of things off her chest, sweetheart. She was very emotional…’

‘I’m well aware of the state she was in at the time, Martha. I’m also well aware that there was a lot going on in her head, but what concerns me is that you now know something that I’m still being kept ignorant of. And that worries me.’

Martha looked up at the ceiling for a second, closing her eyes and swallowing hard. ‘I promised her, Reece.’

‘Promised her what? Martha, what did you promise her?’

Reece felt as though he was experiencing that same old déjà vu again, that cold feeling he always experienced when another secret was about to be uncovered that he wasn’t going to like and he could feel his head pounding with the pressure already. Because, whatever it was, he knew he wasn’t going to like it.

Martha looked at him, still unsure of what to do, still unsure as to whether breaking India’s trust was the right way to go. ‘I promised her I wouldn’t say anything. I promised her that everything she told me was spoken in confidence…’

‘I’m her father, Martha.’

‘And that’s why she doesn’t want you to know.’

‘It’s to do with Michael, isn’t it? What he did to her? You know, don’t you?’

Martha nodded, unable to lie about that, at least. Although, exactly what she was going to tell him she was still unsure of.

‘What did he do?’ Reece asked, his voice shaking because he was so close to finally finding out just what that man had done to his daughter that had caused her to shut him out of her life for almost seven years. Nobody did that without a damn good reason, especially when a child was involved. Nobody did that. Least of all India.

‘I can’t tell you,’ Martha whispered, gripping onto the sideboard, her fingers clinging on with a strength she hadn’t known she’d had.

‘Oh, you can,’ Reece said, not willing to be left in the dark any longer, not now he was this close. ‘You can tell me. It’s easy. Just say the words, Martha. Just say them. What did he do to her?’

Martha shook her head, tears starting to well up in her eyes, her nails digging into the sideboard as she gripped it tighter. ‘Baby, I can’t. She promised me…’

‘F*ck promises!’ Reece shouted, frustration getting the better of him. ‘I don’t care what you promised her, Martha. I won’t be kept in the f*cking dark any longer, do you hear me? Now, whatever she told you, you tell me, okay? You tell me.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Jesus f*cking Christ!’ Reece pushed a hand through his hair again, pacing the floor. ‘Okay, well, if you won’t tell me then maybe I need to speak to India myself…’

‘No, Reece, please…’ Martha reached out to grab his arm, stopping him from storming out of the bedroom. Letting him leave when he was in this frame of mind could only spell trouble, and nobody needed any more of that. ‘Wait! Okay? Just, wait.’

Reece swung back round, leaning against the wall, sighing heavily as he looked at his wife. ‘No secrets, Martha. I thought that’s what we’d agreed. We’d have no secrets.’

‘This is different, and you know it is. She talked to me in confidence, and I’m not entirely sure that she’d actually intended to tell me as much as she did, I think it all just came tumbling out…’

‘What did he do to her?’ Reece spoke slowly, not taking his eyes off his wife. ‘That’s all I want to know. What did he do to her that caused her all that pain? Because, whatever it was, it’s affected the rest of her life. So, what did he do to her, Martha?’

Martha looked right into his eyes, still not knowing if what she was doing was the right thing for India, but for the sake of her marriage she knew she had to tell Reece the truth. He deserved to know. She couldn’t hide it from him any longer. Even if the consequences of giving him the information he’d wanted to know for over seven years were something she didn’t want to think about.

‘Martha… what did he do?’ Reece asked one more time, his voice quiet, pleading almost.

She took a deep breath, looking down at the floor to gather her composure before she unleashed the all-too-obvious storm that was almost definitely going to come, finally looking up to meet her husband’s eyes. ‘He raped her, Reece. Michael, he – he raped her.’



***



Dominic stood in the doorway, standing back slightly as he watched her sit down on the edge of the bed, pulling her hair back into a loose ponytail. He watched as she stood up, walking over to the mirror, dressed only in the sexiest of powder-pink underwear and for a second he had to look away, rubbing the back of his neck, his stomach somersaulting 360 degrees because just looking at her was enough to make him crazy.

When he looked back up she was brushing mascara over her eyelashes, dusting blusher over her cheeks, applying make-up that her naturally beautiful face just didn’t need. The urge to touch her was almost overwhelming. So, moving from his position in the doorway, he walked into the bedroom of India’s Las Vegas villa.

‘Don’t turn around,’ he said, standing behind her, his hands resting on her hips. ‘I want to look at you, just like this.’

She smiled, meeting his eyes in the reflection in the mirror, leaning back against him as he gently kissed her neck.

‘I just want to take a second to look at you,’ he whispered, running his hands lightly up over her hips, the curve of her waist, taking in the smell of her perfume, the way she felt as he touched her, listening to the tiny sighs she gave off as his fingers stroked her skin. ‘Because you are so f*cking beautiful.’

She reached up and slipped a hand round the back of his neck, still looking at their reflections, their eyes locked together, the chemistry so obvious it was practically sending sparks ricocheting off the glass.

‘I’ve never felt this way about anyone before, you know that, don’t you?’ Dominic whispered, his hands circling her waist, pulling her back against him.

She closed her eyes as he continued to kiss her neck, each touch of his lips on her skin sending a million tiny electric shocks right through her. ‘Maybe you’ve just never let yourself feel this way.’

He gently turned her around so she faced him, touching her slightly open mouth with his, kissing her like she was the most precious thing in the world to him. Yeah, things sure were changing in Dominic MacDonald’s world, and even though he was still getting used to these new, unfamiliar feelings, he knew exactly where he wanted to be – right here, with this incredibly complicated and beautiful woman.

He smiled, stroking her cheek with his thumb as he looked into her still slightly questioning eyes. ‘Believe me, honey, I really haven’t felt this way before… You don’t believe me, do you?’

She smiled too, taking his hand and squeezing it tight. ‘Yeah. I believe you. I just don’t want to rush into anything, that’s all. And if this is all new to you…’

‘I’m thirty-six-years-old, India. I think it’s about time I started experiencing some grown-up feelings, don’t you?’

She started playing with his belt, unfastening it, sliding it out of his jeans and throwing it onto the floor. ‘Grown-up feelings are overrated,’ she said, a half-smile playing around the corners of her mouth as she stared up into those incredible ice-blue eyes of his.

He raised an eyebrow, sliding a hand down the side of her pink panties, pushing them down slightly. ‘Overrated, huh?’

‘Yeah,’ she whispered, standing on tip-toes, her mouth resting on his. ‘Overrated.’

‘That’s a pity, because, I quite like the idea of doing something really grown-up with you, right here, right now.’

She slid a hand up under his shirt, touching his rock-hard chest, letting her fingers stroke it gently as she continued to stare into his eyes. ‘Well, I’m not gonna stop you,’ she smiled, finally closing her eyes as he kissed her a little bit harder and a little bit deeper, pulling apart only for the briefest of seconds so he could rid himself of his T-shirt, exposing that perfect body he was so famous for. A perfect body that was about to meet another perfect body, both of them falling onto the bed, still locked in a long, deep kiss, their need for each other taking over anything else.

India pulled away first, lying back and throwing her arms above her head, smiling at this man who’d come out of nowhere and turned her life upside down with his shocking link to her past. A link she was still getting used to, but for now she was putting it to the back of her mind.

‘Come on then,’ she said, arching her back slightly, her whole body aching to have him. He was naked now; naked and beautiful, and hers. If she wanted him. Which, right now, she did. ‘I’m waiting.’

He smiled too, leaning over to kiss the base of her throat, slowly pulling her panties down, letting his fingers stroke her inner thigh as his mouth moved down to her breasts, covering them in tiny, light kisses that made her gasp out loud. Noises that turned him on like nothing else, and he was ready to go, he was so ready, but he hadn’t finished yet. Dominic MacDonald had never been the kind of guy who just f*cked and ran, he liked to play first. He always had, and playing with India Walsh was an experience no guy in their right mind would want to rush.

So he was taking his time, taking in every inch of her, touching her in all those special places until she screamed with frustration, begged him to come inside. He wanted to take her to the edge then bring her right back; he wanted to make her as crazy as she made him. He wanted to enjoy her. Because he’d almost lost her.

What he could do to her with just the lightest of kisses or the touch of his fingers on her naked skin, India could never describe that to anyone else, because she wasn’t sure anyone else would ever understand. Sure, she’d had some great sex in her time but Dominic took her to a level even she wasn’t sure she’d ever reached before. He could turn her on with a kiss, make her crazy with a smile, confuse the hell out of her just by being who he was, but she needed him. She needed to feel him right where he was now, so close to her, about to take her over once again in the most beautiful of ways.

She threw her head back and closed her eyes, her fingers gripping the pillow as he pushed his way into her with a force that rocked her hips back into the mattress, his hands holding them down, keeping her steady as he thrust deeper, and she pulled her legs up, allowing him to go as far as he wanted.

‘Dominic…’

He shook his head, looking into her eyes, his fingers entwining with hers above her head as her legs wrapped around him, their bodies rocking in perfect rhythm. ‘No talking, okay? We don’t need to talk.’

She inhaled deep as she felt him push into her again, breathing out in a loud moan that turned him on to the point of no return but he wanted to hold out for just a little longer, just a little bit longer. He wanted to keep looking at her face as he made love to her; he wanted to see her perfect breasts rise and fall as she breathed heavy, the sweat slowly forming between them, running slowly down her flat stomach. He wanted to live this fantasy for as long as he could. But that couldn’t be forever, and as she pushed her hips up against his he gave one final, hard thrust, shouting out as he did so, clinging onto her hands, keeping her close as her body jolted up against his.

A white hot pain crashed through her as she felt his release, a pain that almost made her scream out for him, a pain so beautiful she wanted to feel it forever as it rocked her entire body, every inch of her tingling as it spread right through her, until it finally subsided, leaving both of them exhausted.

‘Jesus, Dominic…’ India breathed as he rolled over onto his back, lying beside her, taking her hand, ‘… what the hell was that?’

He smiled, turning onto his side so he could look at her, his eyes once more falling on those perfect breasts as they continued to rise and fall, her breathing slowly returning to normal. ‘I’d call it amazing sex. What would you call it?’

She turned her head to face him, smiling too, squeezing his hand. ‘Yeah. I’d say that pretty much described it.’ She ran a hand down between her breasts, aware that his eyes were following her as she did so. ‘I’m gonna have to have another shower now.’ She looked at him. ‘You did this.’

‘Want me to help you get cleaned up?’

She laughed, turning onto her side too so they faced each other, kissing him slowly, not really wanting to leave the bedroom if the truth be told. She wasn’t in the mood for the media frenzy that was still following them around; she wasn’t in the mood to face press and paparazzi, not today. She wasn’t in the mood to face Michael just after she’d had incredible sex with his son. Today she just felt like staying right here, with Dominic, both of them naked with nothing to do but explore each other and work out just what it was that was happening here. Because she still wasn’t all that sure.

‘Well, showering together does preserve water, I suppose…’ India said quietly, running her fingers gently over his rough, unshaven chin.

‘There you go then. We can have sex and help the environment,’ Dominic smirked, stroking the curve of her waist, her hips, resting his hand on her thigh.

‘Who said anything about having sex?’ India smiled, looking into his handsome face, those eyes so like Michael’s staring back at her, but she was determined she could get past that. She had to. She had to try and get past that.

‘You really think I can take a shower with you, watching that incredible body of yours all soaped up and wet… You really think I can do that and not want to f*ck you?’ He took her hand and moved it down so it touched him. ‘I mean, I’m already hard just thinking about it.’

She smiled again, letting her fingers run lightly up and down him, making him groan out loud as she pushed him onto his back, climbing astride him. ‘I don’t think we’re even gonna make it to the shower, handsome…’ She carefully guided him back inside her, lowering herself down onto him as he closed his eyes and moaned louder because she was gripping him like a vice, holding onto him like something he’d never felt before, so tight it almost hurt. ‘Do you?’

No, he didn’t. But he was quite happy to stay right where he was because he was being given the ride of his f*cking life by a living, breathing fantasy. A woman he was all too aware his father wanted back. But she was going nowhere. India Walsh was his now, he was making sure of that. And daddy was just going to have to get used to it.



***



Michael wasn’t expecting anyone. He never really got visitors, unless you counted Vince who made regular visits to his villa in vain attempts to try and get him to go out for a drink or play some Blackjack in the casino. But Michael wasn’t one for playing. All work suited him just fine right now. He had a movie to finish, and that was proving harder work than even he had anticipated. But then, he hadn’t banked on the speed bump that was his long-lost son turning up. Turning up and taking India from him, from right underneath his nose. How the hell had that happened?

He walked to the door, opening it without looking up; his concentration was focused on yet another story in yet another magazine about the complicated set-up that was his life. But these stories were an everyday occurrence now, he was almost numb to them.

‘Well, this isn’t much of a welcome, is it?’

He looked up at the sound of her voice, almost dropping the magazine. ‘Layla! I… I…’

‘Wasn’t expecting to see me? No, I don’t suppose you were. In fact, everyone seems surprised to see me.’

‘Everyone? Who… who else knows you’re here?’ he asked, still standing in the open doorway.

‘I saw Kenny last night, and Vince. Oh, and I bumped into India on her way to make-up just now.’

Michael looked at her. ‘You’ve seen India?’

Layla stared back. ‘Yeah. And she is looking good, Michael!’

Michael tried to give her a smile that said he knew she was, and he didn’t really care anymore, but Layla knew him better than that.

‘Oh, come on, Michael. She was holding hands with Dominic MacDonald, looking for all the world like a woman who was in the throes of falling head-over-heels in lust, and I have to say, I can’t really blame her. He’s one handsome son-of-a-bitch.’ She fixed Michael with a look. ‘Although, I’m sure his mom was a totally lovely woman.’ She pushed her way past him into the villa. ‘India’s too busy with your son to be concerned with you anymore, Michael.’

Michael hurriedly closed the door and followed her, her undoubtedly expensive four-inch heels click-clacking their way across the marble-floored hallway as she made her way through to the living room. ‘What are you doing here, Layla?’

She swung round to look at him. ‘What am I doing here? Well, since you didn’t really have the courtesy to end things properly between us before you left L.A. I just had to assume that our life together was over. Am I right?’

He sighed, sitting down on the arm of a nearby chair, throwing the magazine down, watching as it fell open on a page which carried a photograph of India snuggling into Dominic on the movie set – his movie set – Dominic’s arms holding her tight as they smiled at each other.

‘Michael…?’

He looked up at Layla. ‘I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve to be treated the way I treated you.’

‘No. I didn’t.’ She walked around the room, picking up pictures of Ethan that Michael had scattered around the place in an attempt to try and make his temporary accommodation feel more like home. Family photos. And a lot of them were not only of Ethan, there were also plenty of pictures of his incredibly beautiful mother, too.

Putting a particularly happy photograph of India and Michael in happier times – cuddling their little boy as a baby – back down onto the sideboard, she turned to face Michael again. ‘But I accepted it, Michael. I accepted that it was over and I tried to move on. Me and Kenny even got back together for a short time.’

‘Kenny? You slept with Kenny Ross?’

She folded her arms. ‘What did you expect me to do? Live like a nun? You left me in limbo, Michael, remember? I wasn’t going to just put my life on hold while you made some ridiculous attempt to try and win India back.’

‘I haven’t been trying to…’

‘Oh, save it, Michael. Of course that’s what you were trying to do. Until Dominic MacDonald got in the way.’ She walked over to him. ‘So, you’ve got one hot young movie star for a son, huh? Looks like Michael Walsh has skeletons in the closet even he didn’t know about. Who’d’ve thought?’

Michael got up, walking into the kitchen, but Layla was right behind him.

‘This must be quite a difficult time for you,’ she said, leaning back against the kitchen’s breakfast bar, watching as Michael busied himself making coffee. ‘I mean, there you are, trying to win back your ex-wife when the kid you never knew you had was right under your nose, taking her away from you before you’d even had the chance to get close.’

‘I was close,’ Michael murmured, spooning coffee into the machine before swinging round to look at her. ‘When we first arrived here in Vegas I was getting close to her. Things were okay, y’know? We were good.’

‘And then he turned up.’

Michael looked down at the ground, pushing a hand through his hair.

‘Look, Michael, I didn’t come here to hurt you, really, I didn’t.’ Layla walked over to him, taking his hand, and he looked up at her. ‘I was hurting when you left L.A. though, do you understand that? I was confused and upset, and then all of that turned into some ridiculous anger that did nothing but drain every ounce of energy I had left because I knew that you couldn’t carry on our relationship because you still wanted India back. It was obvious. And I thought Kenny might be a distraction, y’know? Something to take my mind off things, but in the end I had to walk away from that because I just knew that he was harbouring some notion that maybe he was still in love with India too…’

‘Kenny’s still in love with India?’ Michael asked, looking at Layla through narrowed eyes.

‘Kenny’s always been in love with India. He’ll be in love with India forever, any idiot knows that.’

For once Michael felt as though he and Kenny finally had something in common. Because he was going to be in love with her forever too, whether he liked it or not.

‘I guess what I’m trying to say is…’

‘Why are you here, Layla? I mean, is there a reason?’

She kept hold of his hand and he made no attempt to let go. ‘I know you wanted her back, Michael. I know that, and I accepted that, and if you and Indiahad got back together I would have accepted that too. Really, I would have. But…’ She shrugged, ‘… then came Dominic MacDonald. He walked into her life – into both your lives – and she fell for him. Even after the shit hit the fan, Michael, she’s still with him. You have to face up to that. You’re too late.’

Michael looked into her eyes, saying nothing. He had nothing to say.

Layla rubbed his knuckles with her thumb. ‘I know you still love her, Michael.’ She looked up into his eyes. Blue, blue eyes that she could never fully trust, but she could handle that. ‘But, the thing is, I still love you. God help me… I still love you. And I want you back. You can’t have her, but you can have me. So, what do you say, Michael?’



***



‘I shouldn’t have gone to see him,’ Charley sighed, shoving a pile of freshly washed black towels into a cupboard. ‘I’ve made things worse, I know I have.’

Kenny watched as she ran around the large and spacious store cupboard of Charley’s @ The Amber Palace, trying to keep herself busy, but it was more than obvious that it wasn’t really working.

Charley stopped what she was doing for a second and looked at Kenny. ‘Well, aren’t you going to say “I told you so”?’

Kenny shrugged, his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his black jeans. ‘What would be the point in that? You’ve just said yourself, you shouldn’t have gone to see him. But I’m just as much to blame. I shouldn’t have let you talk me into finding out where he was.’

Charley sighed again, beginning to line up trade-sized bottles of shampoo that didn’t really need sorting. ‘Shit!’ She swung round and leant back against the shelf unit, pushing a hand through her long, dark, naturally curly hair, staring up at the ceiling. ‘What the f*ck have I done?’

Kenny walked over to her. ‘What exactly did he say, Charley?’

She looked at him, scrunching up her eyes and nose as she tried to remember a meeting she’d rather put out of her mind forever. The stench of that seedy office still stuck in her nostrils, the sight of that evil man so close to her something she just couldn’t forget. ‘He said… he said something about hurting everyone else. I asked him how he could possibly hurt me any more than he already had done, and he said… he said something about hurting all the others… Kenny, I’m scared. After what happened with Terry… What does he mean, Kenny?’

Kenny had no idea. But they were dealing with Jimmy Cash here, so whatever he meant it wasn’t going to be good.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied, almost dismissively, because he was still finding it hard to believe they were in this mess all over again. ‘I really don’t know. But you need to talk to Vince, honey. You’ve got to let him know what you’ve done…’

‘No, Kenny, I can’t do that. He’ll go ballistic!’

‘Yeah, and with good right, don’t you think? He was dealing with it…’

‘Jesus, come on, Kenny! He was never going to be able to “deal” with a man like Jimmy Cash. Not even Vince can manage that.’

Kenny watched as she resumed her pointless tidying-up of a more than well-ordered store cupboard. If he was concerned about the situation they were fast getting into then she was ten times more nervous about it, and probably with good cause. Not a day went by when her name wasn’t in the press, when new and more damaging photographs of her weren’t being published, and he knew that she was exhausted from the constant fighting she had to do in order to try and keep that unwelcome past from ruining her future.

‘Where’s Vince right now?’ Kenny asked.

‘He’s in L.A.’ Charley replied without turning round, busying herself folding more towels. ‘There are things that need sorting out at the Beverly Hills salon…’ She finally turned round to face Kenny, and he felt his heart sink as he noticed her eyes filled with frightened tears. Frustrated tears. ‘I just haven’t got the f*cking strength, Kenny. I haven’t got the strength to deal with it all right now.’

He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight against him as she started setting those tears free, crying it all out, and Kenny didn’t know what to say. What could he say? That it was all going to be alright? That it would all eventually sort itself out? That wasn’t true, so he couldn’t tell her that. She didn’t need false promises and pretend hope. Because nobody was entirely sure just what it was they were dealing with here. Nobody was sure at all.