“Oh?” I lean back in my chair, taking a sip of my water. “She mentioned me, did she?”
“Mmmm.” Mia hides a grin with her hand. “Said you shagged her PA years ago and sent the poor girl running to France.”
“Oh Jesus.” I cover my face, my cheeks burning. “Yes, yes that did happen.”
“Dominic Graves, womaniser extraordinaire.”
I drop my hands from my face with a sigh. “I’ve always liked women apparently. Perhaps a little too much.”
Mia shrugs. “Never cheated though, did you? That where you draw the line?”
My stomach has that uncomfortable, icy feeling sink into the pit of it, and I shift in my chair. “I saw first-hand the damage that infidelity does, and I was never going to do that.”
Mia’s expression softens. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring down the mood.”
“That’s alright. It is what it is, I suppose.”
“What was your mum like?”
I regard her with raised eyebrows. “My mum?”
“Yeah, Archie never really talks about her, and all I can find is the People Magazine version of her life.” Mia gives me a warm smile. “I’d like to know more about her.”
“She, uh, she was amazing.” I trace a finger along the rim of my glass and take a deep breath. “She was a good mum. She was so clever, she knew a lot about business and things. The family had money, sure, but my mum was the one who started putting things in place to really build up the club, and the Premier League in general. Sponsorships and foreign players, things like that. She did so well that other clubs started copying her contracts, asking her advice on deals.”
“All that while being a mum?” Mia nods appreciatively. “Good work.”
“Yeah.” I frown at the table. “She loved being a mum, I think that was her favourite thing in life. She never…” I trail off, realising I’m bringing the mood down even more. “She never got over the deaths of my brother and sister, I mean, you wouldn’t, would you? They were both so young.”
Mia reaches out to touch my arm. “Archie told me your brother had a heart defect?”
I nod, swallowing hard. “It was undiagnosed, they never noticed it. No one really knew anything back in the 70s. But he must have had a stroke or a seizure one night, we still don’t reallyknow. But my… my mum found him dead in bed one morning, when he was fourteen.”
“Holy shit,” Mia mutters, shaking her head. “That’s awful.”
“I’ve never forgotten her screaming. I still hear it in my nightmares.”
“Fucking hell, Dom. I’m so sorry.”
I nod, my eyes burning at the memory. “And then two years later, my sister gets hit by a lorry while she’s riding her bike home from college.” I laugh bitterly, meeting Mia’s concerned expression. “That was right before my premier season. I went to my sister’s funeral, and the next day, I played my first game. My dad said it would help get my mind off things.”
“Bloody hell,” Mia breathes. “How insensitive.”
“It was a right royal disaster.” Anger claws at my throat. “I was nineteen years old, I was a sad and grieving teenager, I was angry at the world, and my dad thought me going out to play football was a good idea. All it got me was a reputation for being violent on the field.”
“They called you Belter didn’t they?”
I smile and shake my head at the nickname. “What a reputation it was.”
“I’m so sorry, Dom. That’s all just… so sad.”
“My mum, she was never the same again. And then when Archie was just starting school, she was diagnosed with cancer.”
“Fucking christ.” Mia holds her hands to her head. “The poor woman just couldn’t catch a break.”
“No, she couldn’t. She fought hard for years, but… she died right when Archie was doing his exams.”
Mia runs a hand through her hair with a sigh. “That’s all just so sad. You’ve all really been through it.”
