Page 111 of Marley

Maca’s eyes closed for an instant before opening, filled with tears.

“Why? Why would you do that?” He asked quietly.

“Why not? You didn’t want me. I wasn’t gonna be stuck with a kid on my own.”

“You wouldn’t have been on your own.” He wiped a tear from under his eye as he spoke.

“No? You would’ve left her and come back to me, would ya?”

He shakes his head no. “I’ll never leave her, not in this life time, not in the next.”

“And that’s why I did it. If I couldn’t have you, then why should I have your kid?”

She is seriously a piece of fucking work, this girl.

“I would’ve helped, I would’ve been there... I would—”

“I wanted you.” It was her turn to shout now. “I wanted all of you, not just a part-time dad for my baby. I wanted you, us, together as a family.”

Maca just stood there, shaking his head no.

“Mac, come on, mate. Let’s get out of here.” I reached out and touched the top of his arm.

His brown eyes looked across to mine. “I didn’t know, Marls. I didn’t fucking know.”

“I believe ya, mate. Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ll see if Len can change our flight and get us home to the girls earlier.”

“Oh, that’s right, drag him back to wifey.”

I’ve never hit a girl, but I swear to God I came close that night. I spun around to face her.

“You little bitch. Just shut your fucking mouth and fuck off out of my sight. You’ve had plenty of chances to tell him all this over the years, plenty of ways you could’ve contacted him and explained. Why the fuck would you do it like this, here tonight, in front of everyone?”

“Because he should’ve married me, not her, me.” She roared.

“You are off your fucking head if you think that was ever gonna happen.” I pointed at Macca’s neck.

“You’ve seen the words, it’s only her, it’llalways onlyever be her. Get your fucking head around that, else you can kiss your career goodbye and never work for us again.”

I grab Maca’s arm and lead him out the doors.

Milo was waiting for us outside and he called Len, who didn’t come to the game, but lined up a couple of meetings for that evening instead. Len contacted the private plane company, but they couldn’t get us a pilot straight away, so we went back to our hotel where Len met back up with us.

“What the fuck’s happened.” Was Len’s first response as I let him into Maca’s room.

We’d had a bottle of Jim Beam sent up to the room and had sat in silence for the ten minutes we’d had alone before Lennon arrived.

He looked at both of us and noting our sombre mood, he changed his tone. “What happened ... is something wrong?”

My chest felt tight, so I let out a long sigh before speaking. “Maca had a bit of a run in with Carla.” I started.

“Carla, producer Carla?”

I nodded my head, prepared to continue, but Maca interceded.

“I was seeing her on and off right up until I got back with G.” He admitted.

“Well, I think we all knew that, Mac. You never said it but I think we all knew something was going on between the two of you. What’s the problem then?” He asked while pouring himself a drink.