Johnny's Girl by Paige Toon Read Free Book Online Page A

gone.’
    ‘Did you speak to him?’ His eyes flash as they stare down at me and I curse myself as my face heats up. I don’t know why I feel guilty.
    ‘I said hi, yeah,’ I reply defensively, meeting his direct stare. ‘Have you seen Dana?’
    He tenses and looks up, his gaze moving around the room and then stopping suddenly. He looks down at me again. ‘Mmm.’
    I never wanted Johnny to set eyes on Dana ever again, let alone speak to her.
    ‘Do you want to speak to her?’ I ask in a small voice, desperately hoping the answer is no, but believing I owe him that because of my conversation with
my
former flame.
    ‘No,’ he says firmly. ‘I have nothing to say to her.’
    The relief is immense.
    He gently kisses my lips. ‘Can I take you home?’ he asks.
    ‘Um… Kitty.’
    ‘She looks fine to me.’
    I turn around to see her laughing with Dex. She has her hand placed flirtatiously on his chest and he’s grinning down at her.
    ‘I need to talk to you,’ Johnny adds in a low voice and my eyes shoot back to look at him.
    ‘What’s wrong?’
    ‘I’ll tell you when we’re in the car.’
    ‘Is it the boys?’
    ‘No, no,’ he says hurriedly. ‘Everyone’s fine.’
    But something
is
wrong. He didn’t deny it. That wasn’t anger when he walked in the door; it was something else entirely. And the fact that he hasn’t even given me the
Spanish Inquisition about Joseph, tells me that whatever it is he’s about to reveal, is going to hit me like a tonne of bricks.
    My heart is hammering as we say goodbye to Kitty. She doesn’t seem to mind being left alone with Dex. I’ll call her tomorrow for an update, but right now, I want to find out what
Johnny wants to talk to me about.
    Davey is waiting for us. I give him a wary look as he opens the door for me. I wonder if he knows what’s going on?
    ‘Thanks, Davey,’ I say, as Johnny climbs into the car behind me. He punches the button by the mini bar to put the privacy screen up, then guides me to the back of the car. He sits
down beside me and takes my hands. I have a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
    ‘Wendel called me,’ he says in a low voice, not meeting my eyes.
    ‘Right…’ I say uncertainly. Wendel is Johnny’s solicitor. It was due to him that I got the job of Johnny’s PA in the first place. I was working for an architect at
the time – he was a client.
    He looks up at me and his eyes are full of sorrow. Whatever it is he wants to say, he’s finding it extremely hard.
    ‘Just tell me,’ I urge him.
    He swallows hard.
What is it
? ‘Wendel spoke to a man earlier today, claiming to be the stepfather of a girl who…’
    My imagination strikes me with thoughts much faster than Johnny can speak. Has he had an affair? Has he cheated on me since we’ve been married? Oh God, no. Please, no…
    ‘…is the daughter of one of my first fans,’ he continues.
    Eh?
    ‘Her mother passed away recently. She never told her daughter…’
    Mind still racing… I don’t understand. Where is this going?
    ‘…who her real father was,’ he finishes.
    He looks deflated and then it all falls into place. One of my worst nightmares has come true.
    Johnny has a daughter. A daughter who he never knew existed.
    When Johnny first found out about Barney, the thought occurred to me that my son might not be Johnny’s only child. He made a mistake with me, not using a condom – what was to say
that he didn’t make other mistakes with any of his
seven hundred or so
groupies? What was to stop one of
them
conceiving his child? I tried to persuade myself that they would
have come forward by now – that no secret would have stayed hidden for this long. But maybe – like me – another woman felt the need to stay silent, the need to keep her
child’s identity a secret for who knows what reason. Now, the truth has come out – and I don’t know why.
    Johnny grips my hands tighter. I feel numb.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ he whispers.
    ‘Tell me