Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When a blacklisted actor gets a voicemail from his agent that she needs to see him, urgently, it’s never a good sign.
Sandra’s one of the only people from my old life who knows where I’m staying, and apparently, whatever she has to say to me is important enough that she’s going to be here tomorrow. She wants to meet at the big hotel on the lake.
To say I’m anxious is a gross understatement. Not even a hint as to what this is all about.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
I peer up at Izzy as she approaches me in the living room like I’m some wounded animal.
I let out a humorless laugh. “Is it that obvious?”
She grimaces. “You look a little… green.”
As I sigh, she sits in the armchair adjacent to the couch, those gray eyes warm if a touch concerned.
“My agent wants to see me for the first time since I left L.A.”
She hums in response, purses her lips. “Your agent didn’t say why?”
“That’s the issue. She said nothing of the reason.” I lean back on the couch. “I don’t even know why I care, honestly. I’ve all but given up on my old life.”
Her head tilts to the side as she regards me. “Maybe you haven’t. Not really.”
I blink at her a few times as I contemplate, setting my jaw as my brow tightens.
“Being an actor, making movies… it was all I had ever wanted in my life since I was a kid. When my dad got transferred to America for his job, I saw it as a sign.” My head shakes slow at the memory.
“I’d been active in the theater department at my high school.
Enrolled in UCLA after graduation. I had no idea that my parents were about to split up. ”
Izzy casts me a sympathetic look, and I sigh again.
“My dad cheated on my mum from nearly the second we arrived here. When he got the woman pregnant, he just up and left us. Actually took his new woman back to England with him.” I bare my teeth a moment.
“But Mum had no way to stay here without Dad’s work visa, and she had to go back to her family.
I was able to secure a student visa and stay to complete my education.
Then, I got lucky and landed my first Hollywood acting gig. ”
“I wouldn’t call it luck, Asher,” Izzy says. “You’re very talented.”
“And being British is a boost in America.”
She takes on a wicked glint in her eyes. “Well, the accent is pretty hot.”
I laugh in spite of myself. “So I’ve been told.” As I sober, I look at this gorgeous specimen of a woman before me. The draw I feel toward her cannot be contested. She must know the truth.
“What my dad did to my mum is why I would never be unfaithful.” My voice is quiet, pain lancing my chest. “My mum went through so much after Dad’s betrayal.
Everything stuck with me, every enraged emotion, every depressed moment.
So, when Cordelia Blaire tells the world that I cheated on her, I beg of you to not believe it’s true. ”
Izzy rises from her seat and approaches, sits beside me on the couch, then takes my hand in both of hers.
“I didn’t believe it from the start,” she says.
“I never knew about what you went through growing up, but like I said, I know how kind you are. I don’t think anyone who’s ever met you would believe that woman’s story. ”
My laughter is bitter. “That’s not true, considering I’m a pariah now.” I squeeze one of her hands. “But I’m glad you don’t believe it.”
“Why didn’t you fight back? Tell the truth?”
There’s the crux of it. “The truth is that I told her our relationship was at its end, and she went mad. She swore she would end my career, that she’d use me as a stepping stone to advance her career.
” I huff. “And she has. But…” How do I explain?
“When the rumors began to spread, and I saw how the paps ran with the story, dragging my name through the dirt, instead of getting angry, I felt a sense of… relief, in a way. I think I was so stressed, living that life, that I saw an opportunity to escape and took it.”
She’s quiet a moment before asking, “Do you regret not fighting back now?”
I raise her hand to my lips and kiss her fingers. “No. If I had done, then I wouldn’t be here with you right now.”
Izzy leans her head on my shoulder, and the warmth that blossoms in my chest is more comforting than anything I’ve felt in a long while now.
“You need to figure out what you want, Asher. In your career, in life, all of it. But you need to be honest with yourself, if not the world. It kills me that people would think you’d do something vile like that woman says you did, but I support you not publicly contesting it if that gets you to where you want to be in life.
” She tilts her head to look up at me. “If you want to leave Hollywood and acting behind, then that’s what you should do.
But if not, you need to figure out how to get back to it. Save your reputation.”
Is it as simple as that? After all this time, just figuring out what it is that I want and making it happen?
Snaking my arms around Izzy, I pull her into my chest, wrapping her in a tight embrace as she does the same to my waist.
I may not know what I want from my career, but I do know precisely what I want in life.
To be with Izzy Ross.