A Model Mother

Chapter 5

Latterly, Bill had also handled the break-up with Rose, dealing directly with her lawyers and the media. Bill had liked her and had been as shocked as everyone else over the split. Miles had remained tight lipped about it and had not revealed to Bill his real reasons for the split. Bill continued to be discreet and supportive, he didn’t question Miles’s motives and for that Miles was hugely grateful.

The photographs he had received of Rose had upset him so badly that he had shown them to no one. But now that he knew that Lloyd was his son, it was a game changer; he knew that he would never be able to cut Lloyd out of his life; but he didn’t yet know how much slack she would cut him in terms of having access to him. If necessary, he would use the pictures as leverage; should it come to a prolonged or difficult custody battle then the pictures would become the nuclear option, once she knew he had them he hoped it would force her to be reasonable.

And that was why he was meeting with Bill. He intended to hand a couple of the photos over so that Bill could carry out some investigation into who the two men in them were. He wanted names, addresses, occupations and how long they had known Rose and whether they were still seeing her.

He had looked through the set of ‘photos, and chosen the ones to hand over. He wouldn’t give Bill any of the ones with Max on, he would keep those just for Rose’s eyes. Instead he would give Bill a photo with each of the two other men on. Again, he was not choosing to hand over the more intimate ones, although he was certain that if Bill saw them he would immediately realise why Miles had left her.

There was one of her lying on a sun lounger, besides a pool, wearing her favourite yellow CK bikini under a translucent wrap. A parasol was angled over the lounger and sitting on the lounger, with his back to the camera with her was a blonde hunk, dressed only in trunks and bronzed all over. He looked like some Scandinavian Norse god, not an ounce on his muscular frame. Rose had her hand cupped behind his neck and was pulling his mouth towards hers; he had his hand on her waist, the thumb extended as it was obviously caressing her skin through her wrap. It was an incredibly sexy shot, and what it told was that this was not a couple who were strangers; they were perfectly comfortable in each other’s company. 

The next shot in this series was the one that he would give to Bill. Clearly impatient, the blonde god had stood up and was looking, unknowingly straight at the camera, whilst holding out his hand to Rose, who was hurriedly gathering her stuff together on the lounger.

Anyone could easily guess why they were in such a hurry! In fact he could picture exactly where they would be headed as he recognised the hotel. It was the Manila Shalimar; he had visited that pool himself – it was on the top floor of the hotel with stunning views of Manila. He knew that Rose had visited it too, on a business trip, in fact she had called him from her bedroom whilst there and they had talked intimately on the ‘phone. He almost retched at the thought that this blonde dummy might have been in bed next to her whilst she and Miles had talked.

The second ‘photo he picked out for Bill had been taken in Vegas. This time Rose was enjoying herself in a casino, the photo was dark but Miles could make out her profile and recognised the dress she was wearing as she sat laughing with a man sitting on her left. This time it was not the blonde God but a dark haired tanned man, good looking in a film star kind of way. He had his arm draped casually around her. Miles had some more intimate snaps of the two of them, but this snap gave a good facial view of the man.

Quickly Miles called his mother, who was delighted to hear he would be in London. He told her he had a favour to ask and would catch up with her as soon as he could.

When Bill arrived Miles handed over the photographs in a sealed envelope.

“Do me a favour; don’t look at them until I’ve gone. There are two photographs in there, Rose is in both. I want you to find out everything you can about the two men. I’ve written on the back of them the location and the likely dates they were taken. It’s important Bill, I will need all the evidence I can get if I’m to have the upper hand in negotiating access to Lloyd. If it turns out there’s enough dirt to have Lloyd turned over to me then I’ll do that too.”

Bill was shocked but respected Miles’s request and left his apartment with the envelope still sealed.

Once in London, Miles barely bothered to rest before confirming Rose’s address and asking one of the drivers who worked for Seton UK, to drive him past the block of flats where she lived. As he drove up the road he damned his misfortune to be spotted by her best friend, Delma, who made a display of getting out her ‘phone whilst staring at him with undisguised disgust.

Miles tried to shake off the image of Delma’s face but had found it difficult to. He and Delma had got on like a house on fire when he had been going out with Rose; the break-up had been so fast that he had not had to assimilate any of the emotions or fallout from Rose’s family and friends. He felt uncomfortable and guilty and neither of these emotions were normally familiar to him. He wondered if Delma knew of Rose’s infidelities and if she did, whether she had condoned them.