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