Michelle Betham - Final Score

‘She didn’t say anything about shacking back up with him , though, did she?’

‘But even you said that was on the cards, kiddo.’

‘I didn’t think… I… They’ve planned a whole new life together in a matter of weeks, Max. With my son!’

‘Okay. Okay, I understand how much…’

‘You understand nothing. Nothing. I loved her. I loved her so fucking much, and I thought… I thought that when Rico was born… I thought he’d bring us closer.’ He was pacing the floor now, pushing a hand through his hair, backwards and forwards in an almost nervous action.

‘You always knew he was never going to go away, Ryan.’

He stopped pacing for a second and swung around to look at his agent. ‘But maybe I always hoped he would. Somehow. Jesus!’ He slammed himself back against the wall, resuming the repetitive motion of raking his hand through his hair, stopping only when the doorbell echoed through from the hall. He looked out of the window, catching sight of Ronnie’s burnt-orange 4x4 on the driveway. ‘That’s her.’

Max held up his hand, a silent order for Ryan to stay exactly where he was. ‘I’ll get it. And Ryan? Don’t blow this, okay? Don’t start acting like a petulant kid who thinks the world owes him a living.’

‘She’s taking my child away, Max.’

‘She’s doing what she needs to do to be happy. And you’re just going to have to deal with that. I’ll call you later.’

Ryan watched Max walk out into the hall; he heard the front door open and muffled voices before she finally appeared in the doorway. She looked as though she’d been crying, and her dark-red hair was all mussed up and windswept. She was beautiful, and to look at her broke his heart more than he cared to admit.

‘I’m sorry, Ryan. I should have told you sooner. I should have told you before now.’

‘Yeah. You should have.’

She looked down for a second, digging her hands deeper into the pockets of her cream coat. ‘It’s all happened so fast…’

‘No, it hasn’t, Amber. It hasn’t. Because it never stopped happening. You and Jim Allen, you never stopped being together, even when you were apart.’

‘You don’t know…’

‘I know it all, Amber. I know you never really loved me; I know I was always just some kind of buffer between you and him, someone to run to when he was treating you like crap. I know that’s all I ever was to you.’

‘That’s not true.’

He looked at her, her eyes shining with fresh tears, and yet still all he could feel was love. He wanted to hate her for what she was doing, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t hate her. ‘Just admit it, Amber. Please. No more pretending, okay?’

She leaned back against the doorpost, pushing a hand through her hair as she stared up at the ceiling for a couple of beats. ‘Why does everything always end up so complicated?’

He wasn’t even sure she was directing that question at him. She wasn’t really directing it at anyone, she was just thinking out loud, or that’s what it seemed like.

‘When are you going?’ he asked, his voice calmer now. That anger he wanted to feel just wouldn’t come.

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘Jim’s last match in charge is New Year’s Day. He wanted to finish on a home game.’

‘That’s big of him.’

Amber threw Ryan a look, telling him his sarcasm wasn’t something she appreciated. Tough. He didn’t appreciate her taking his son hundreds of miles away, but he wasn’t being given much choice in the matter.

‘I wanted to leave sooner,’ she whispered, her eyes staring down at her black ankle boots.

‘That desperate to get away from me, huh?’

Her head shot up and she glared at him. ‘Grow up, Ryan.’

‘What do you expect, Amber? Did you think I’d be happy for you? Really? Did you think I’d be jumping for joy at the thought of my son – my son – being brought up by a man who has basically taken from me the one person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with?’ He walked over to her. His head was all over the place, and that anger he’d wanted to feel earlier was now creeping in, spreading slowly. ‘And now he’s not only taking you away from me, he’s taking my son, too. So I can’t be happy, okay? I can’t do that.’

Her eyes locked onto his, and all that guilt she knew she deserved to feel flooded through her, like someone had just opened a floodgate somewhere inside her. ‘I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But I can’t… I need him, Ryan. I need him.’

‘Like shit you do, Amber. You don’t need anyone. The Amber Sullivan I first met, where’s she gone, huh? Where’s she gone? Because she wouldn’t have let herself be dragged down by a man she knows she should have left behind a long time ago. She wouldn’t have done that.’

Amber shook her head, taking a deep breath, her eyes still locked on Ryan’s. ‘But she did, Ryan. Don’t you see? That’s exactly what she did.’

*

Jim leaned back against his desk and looked around the office he was about to vacate in just a couple of weeks’ time. Part of him felt a little sad about that, because he’d come here to Newcastle Red Star, and turned this club around. He’d given them the success they’d craved for decades; he’d helped them become league champions, seen them through several good Cup runs and stints in Europe they could only have dreamed of before. So his decision to leave and go back to Endleigh United wasn’t going to be a popular one. He knew that. Only a matter of weeks ago he’d been determined not to let anything get in the way of ensuring this club stayed right where it belonged, at the top of the League. That memory just intensified the guilt he was already feeling at leaving them like this, in the middle of a season in which they were doing well. They were doing really well. And he was leaving them. But he had no choice. He was a different man now. Things had changed; his life had changed. He had Amber back. And if he wanted to keep her; if he wanted to make sure it worked this time, something had to give. And that something was Newcastle Red Star.

Thinking about Amber also made Jim realise that it was going to be his private life under scrutiny at this press conference just as much as his professional one, which made him slightly uncomfortable. Anything to do with his personal life becoming public made him uncomfortable. For years Jim Allen had been a very private man, an enigma, almost. The most anyone knew about him was that he was better at his job than any manager of his generation. But then everything had come out about his past relationship with Amber, about Brandon Palmer being his son – about his marriage ending because Amber was pregnant with Ryan Fisher’s baby, even though that had only been part of the problem. And now – now it was going to happen all over again. Today wasn’t only about telling the footballing world he was making the trip back down south, it was also about telling the world he was back with the woman he loved. And for once he wanted everyone to know that. He wanted them all to know how much Amber meant to him. He was quite willing to expose himself emotionally if that’s what it took to show just how much he loved her. If that’s what it took to prove that, this time – this time it was for keeps.

‘You okay?’

He looked over towards the door, a smile spreading across his face the second he saw her. ‘I am now. Come here, come on.’

She walked over to him, stepping between his legs as his arms circled her waist. ‘I just thought I’d pop in and see how you were feeling.’

‘I’m fine. Is it busy out there?’

‘You could say that, yeah. The place is teeming with press and media, as you’d pretty much expect.’