Page 98 of The First Chord

She didn’t gasp or look angry, or even look shocked. Nothing at all that I’d expected, but then she was the manager of a rock band, so she’d probably seen and heard it all before. She simply nodded.

“That changes a few things, I suppose.”

I winced. “Are you mad?”

“Nothing to do with me, love. You’re both adults and if you can’t take precautions then that’s on you two.”

“That’s the thing,” I protested. “I’m on the pill and I never forget it. I swear.”

She raised a sceptical eyebrow. “Ronnie has super sperm then.” She pointed a finger at me. “And please don’t tell him I said that.”

Her wry smile brought some relief, because I didn’t want to disappoint her. Already, she was someone I wanted to impress. She was a proud mother to her boys, and who didn’t want to impress their boyfriend’s mum?

“The nurse told me earlier that these things happen. She said it could be I hadn’t taken it at the same time every day. With the travelling from country to country, from hotels to the bus I might just have taken it a different time and messed it up.”

The warm smile I received brought with it relief. Her eyes weren’t hard or unbelieving and I was hopeful that I had her blessing.

“I don’t think for one minute you planned this, Amber. You’re a good girl, a loving and kind girl, and I’m not worried about your intentions. Don’t get me wrong,” she said, blowing out her cheeks, “it’s going to cause me a shit load of problems, but nothing we can’t sort. As for problems, your husband has caused us a big one.”

“God, what’s he done now?” My heart sank. It was never ending and was only going to get worse; he didn’t need to add anything else.

“There’s an article about your accident. Apparently, Ronnie accused him of being involved and pushed him away from you. Someone caught a picture of it and Jimmy told the press that Ronnie has some sort of weird obsession with you.”

“Oh my god, no.” Hot, angry tears threatened to fall, but I knew if they did I wouldn’t stop. I did not want to waste one more ounce of emotion on that man. “Do you want me to make a statement to say he’s lying? Because I will!”

She shook her head. “We’ll leave things as they are for now. I’ve got Aliyah, my assistant doing a bit of damage control. We’ve made a statement as the band’s representatives to say he was misquoted during a very emotive moment. The usual stuff.”

“Are you sure? Because I really don’t mind throwing him under the bus.”

“Honestly, love, you’re fine.” Letting go of my hand, she sat back in her chair and studied me. “Despite looking like you’ve gone a couple of rounds with Tyson Fury, you look so much stronger than I’ve seen you before. Jimmy really did do a number on you, didn’t he?”

Exhaling some of the negativity, I nodded. “For years. It’s only now that I can see it clearly. He was never good to me. Wanting me to stay in the room while he went to dinners or parties, wasn’t because he was worried I’d get bored, him not wanting to buy a house but live practically rent free off his uncle wasn’t so he could save to buy me my dream house, him sleeping around wasn’t because I was frigid. It was all him. All what he wanted, and he just manipulated me into thinking it was because he loved me, because he wanted the best for me, because I wasn’t good enough for him. And I know differently now.”

“Good girl. That’s great to—”

Ali didn’t finish what she was going to say because the door burst open and a nurse I’d never seen before came in.

“I am so sorry, Mrs Fox, but Mr Fox is here. He will not believe you do not want him in your room. He is making much noise and arguments.” Her mouth was in a grim line and it was evident that Jimmy had pissed her off.

Ali stood up. “I’ll see to him,” she said to both of us and then turned to me. “You try and get some more sleep. I’m sure Ronnie will be back soon, and you have a lot to talk about.”

“He already knows. I spoke to him on Elliot’s phone earlier.” She frowned. “Long story, but Jimmy took mine.” Her face then morphed into an expression of concern. “It has a lock on it. He won’t be able to find anything.”

“Okay.” She patted my hand and then turned back to the nurse. “Take me to him.” Then under her breath she said, “Fucking little shit.”

It was official, I now had Ali looking out for me, too. Me and the little human growing in my stomach.

CHAPTER43

RONNIE

The corridor leading to Amber’s room was far too bloody long. It felt like I’d been running down it for miles. It had been bad enough that on the way out of the hotel we’d bumped into Ali, and she’d wanted to catch up.

Finally, after me edging towards the door for ten minutes, she’d told me that Elliot had to come as chaperone, in case there were press hanging around. After the longest fifteen-minute journey of my life, we got to the hospital, and I left him in the canteen with his latest baby book and had made it to Amber.

Slapping a hand against the door, my stomach churning with nerves, I pushed it open.

“Amber, baby.”

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