See You at the Show (25 page)

“Then pull yourself together and deal with it.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

“End it, Daniel.
 
Now.
 
I don’t know what could have possessed you to get involved in something so foolish at a time like this…”
 
Angus looked at him.
 
“…who is she?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

“I need to know everything so I know what I’m dealing with here.
 
What the hell has got into you?
 
At a time like this you start a bloody affair?”

“She makes me feel different, Angus.
 
She makes me feel alive.
 
She makes me feel like I can do anything.”

“Who is she?”

Daniel looked down at the ground for a second.
 
“She’s a roadie.”

“Jesus Christ, Daniel…”

“With Black Rock Diamond – they’re a band.”

“Yes, I’m all too aware who they are.
 
What I don’t understand is...”
 
Recognition suddenly dawned on Angus.
 
“That time you wanted me to cover for you.
 
When you wanted me to tell Samantha you were staying over in
London
for a meeting...you were going to see
her
, weren’t you?”

Daniel nodded.
 
“I saw her for the first time at George Marshall’s daughter’s party.
 
The band were playing a private concert for Audra and she was there, setting up the stage - I couldn’t take my eyes off her, Angus.
 
She was the most striking woman I’d ever seen and I...I just had to see her again, I had to.
 
I don’t know why, I can’t explain, I just…when I heard they were playing five nights at Wembley I had to take a chance and find her, talk to her.
 
I don’t even know what made me feel that way, I don’t know what happened, I really don’t but, she just took over.
 
From the second I laid eyes on her she took me over.”

Angus went over to the sideboard in the corner of the office and poured himself a whisky, sitting down on the edge of a large black leather sofa.
 
“How long has it been going on?”

Daniel leaned back against the window-sill.
 
“A few months.
 
She’s been away with the band on tour and it…it started just before she left.
 
There was nothing I could do about it, Angus.”

“Oh, don’t talk rubbish, Daniel; there was
everything
you could have done to prevent this from happening.”
 
Angus sat forward.
 
“Have you any idea the trouble this could cause?
 
A female
roadie
?
 
You’re the Leader of the Opposition for Christ’s sake, possibly our next Prime Minister, and you’re having an affair with a female roadie, of all things?”

“What bloody difference does it make what she does, Angus?
 
That has nothing to do with anything.”

Angus stood up, finishing his drink and putting the empty glass down on the sideboard.
 
“It has everything to do with it, Daniel.
 
You are where you are because you have no baggage, no skeletons in the closet, nothing that anyone can dig up on you and that is why people trust you.
 
This could blow up in your face and change everything, do you realise that?”

“Of course I do!
 
I’m not stupid.”

“I’m beginning to wonder.”
 
Angus poured himself another drink.
 
“I trust you’re going to finish whatever it is you’re doing with this woman.”
 
He turned round to look at Daniel.
 
“Aren’t you?”

Daniel turned back to look out of the window, shoving his hands in his pockets.
 

“Daniel?
 
Look at me.
 
You
are
going to finish this, aren’t you?”

“I can’t, Angus.”
 
Daniel’s voice was quiet.
 
Talking about it, saying things he’d never said out loud before to anyone was suddenly making it all clear in his head for the first time since this had all began.
 
He turned round to face Angus again.
 
“I can’t finish it because… I think I’m in love with her.”

“Daniel...”

“I’m in love with her, Angus.
 
I didn’t set out for this to happen, I didn’t intentionally want my life turned upside down but it’s happened and I can’t pretend I’m not feeling these things.
 
I can’t do that.
 
Not anymore.
 
She’s everything that is wrong for me, everything I should avoid but I can’t walk away.
 
Not now.
 
I’m too far down the road for that.”

Angus sat down again, sighing heavily.
 
“Is she really worth everything that’s going to happen when this gets out?
 
Because it
will
get out.
 
If you’re seriously telling me you’re in love with another woman then this
will
get out.”

Daniel looked out of the window again.
 
“Isn’t it
your
job to make sure it doesn’t?”
 
Angus said nothing, just watched Daniel as he continued to stare out of the window.
 
“But if you really want to know, yes.
 
She’s worth everything, Angus.
 
She’s worth it all.”

Angus sighed again, sitting back in the sofa.
 
“Jesus, Daniel.
 
What about Samantha?
 
Are you willing to throw away all those years of marriage for some woman you’ve only known for five minutes?”

“I’ve got no choice.”

Angus sat forward, finishing his drink in one mouthful.
 
“You have every choice, man.
 
You walk away now, before it goes too far.”

Daniel turned round.
 
“It’s already
gone
too far, don’t you see?
 
I need her; I need to be with her...”

“You need to think about your career, your marriage, what it is you’re putting on the line here,
that’s
what you need to do.
 
Come on, start acting like the Daniel Madison I know.”

Daniel gave a small laugh, looking out across the river.
 
“He’s gone, Angus.
 
That Daniel Madison is no more.”

Angus knew he was fighting a losing battle here.
 
Daniel had quite obviously made up his mind.
 
And now
his
job had just got a hell of a lot harder.

“So, what are you going to do?
 
What are you going to tell Samantha?”

Samantha.
 
His beautiful wife, but he couldn’t carry on living this lie.
 
It wasn’t fair on her, or him.
 
She didn’t deserve it, he knew that, but sometimes you couldn’t control what life threw at you.
 
What she did deserve, however, was the truth.
 
He owed her that much.

He turned round, facing Angus as he spoke.
 
“I’m going to tell her it’s over.
 
The marriage, it’s over.”

And as he turned to look back outside again he couldn’t help smiling.
 
Somehow finally saying it out loud had made it all final, the decision had been made.
 
Daniel Madison was moving forward into unchartered territory.
 
And he was as excited – and scared - as hell.

***

Samantha had that uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
 
Things were changing, her life was shifting in a direction she didn’t want it to go, and the speed with which it was happening was heartbreaking, but she had no control over it.
 

The signs were there, everything was staring her right in the face.
 
Daniel was staying over in
London
more than he needed to, his excuses becoming weaker each time he called her to say he wouldn’t be home, and when he did decide to come back to
Berkshire
he’d spend most of the time shut away in his office.
 
He didn’t talk to her unless he was asking her to do something and he always came to bed after she’d fallen asleep.
 
Did he want to be alone so he could talk to
her
?
 
Was he secretly calling this woman who was taking her husband farther and farther away from her?

She spent every night lying awake, wondering who this woman was, what she looked like, how she spoke.
 
She wondered what they did together, how they spent their time because Daniel was being extremely clever at keeping it all a secret.
 
Had he made love to this woman?
 
Had they slept together?
 
Samantha didn’t want to think those things because it hurt too much but she couldn’t help it.
 
She couldn’t stop torturing herself.
 
She couldn’t stop the fear that this perfect, idyllic life she loved so much was about to be pulled from under her feet.
 
But she knew in her own heart what it was she had to do.
 
She had to confront him, she had to, there was no other way.
 
She couldn’t live with this hanging over her, not anymore.
 
The days of pushing it to the back of her mind and pretending it wasn’t happening were over.
 
She had to talk to Daniel.
 
She had to ask the question she never thought she’d ever have to ask.
 
And live with whatever answer he gave her.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Stevie looked around Daniel’s living room.
 
His flat was so different to hers.
 
It was full of expensive furniture, books and ornaments whereas hers was so much more lived-in, with guitars propped up against the fireplace and magazines and cushions strewn all over the tables and floors.
 
His walls were painted in muted tones of brown and cream, hers were splashed with bright, vivid colours, pictures of her with various rock bands and crew filling the spaces, giving the whole place a warm and welcoming feel.
 
She loved her flat.
 
She didn’t altogether feel comfortable in his.
 
They were so different in so many ways it was hard to believe they could ever have come together at all, but they had.
 
And now everything had changed in Stevie’s world, and it was all down to Daniel Madison.

“Are you ok?”

She turned round and looked at him, standing there in the doorway, his tie loose around his neck, his hands in his pockets.
 
He was home.
 
He looked tired, but that probably came with the job.

“I’m fine, but you look done in.
 
Long day was it?”

“They always are.”

She pulled off her t-shirt and stepped out of her denim shorts, leaning back against the wall in just black underwear and biker boots.
 
Daniel was fast getting used to the way she did things now, but she still never failed to make him feel as though he was being thrown head-first into some kind of extreme fantasy.
 
She took escapism to a whole different level.

“Come on then, Mr. Party Leader.
 
Come and say hello properly.”

He walked over to her, his hands still in his pockets.

“You
can
touch y’know.
 
You’re allowed now.”

He gently placed a hand on her hip as he leaned towards her, kissing her slowly.

“Yeah.
 
That’s better,” she smiled, stroking his face as she looked into his beautiful green eyes.
 
Quite when she’d fallen for this man she couldn’t remember, she didn’t know.
 
But she knew she’d fallen for him now.
 
Big time.

“Stevie, we need to talk.”

“Oh God, I’ve been talking all day, Daniel.
 
Can’t we just have sex?”

“Seriously, sweetheart, we really need to talk.
 
Even though you’re standing there, looking like some Swedish dream, we need to talk.”

She moved her mouth closer to his, sliding a hand round the back of his neck, and he could feel his resolve weakening.
 
A usually strong and sensible man, she was breaking down every defence he’d ever had.

“Dream first, talk later,” she whispered.
 
“Whatever it is, it can wait.
 
Can’t it?”

He kissed her again, her mouth open as it touched his.
 
“Yes.
 
It can wait.”
 
Of course it could wait.
 
He wanted to tell this beautiful, larger-than-life woman that he wanted to spend his life with her and he had no idea if she felt anywhere near the same but it could wait.
 
It could all wait.
 
He just wanted to be with her, and everything else came second to that.