Chapter Five #2
A bubble of pleasure washed through her. His belief meant more to her than she wanted to acknowledge and eased the band that had gripped her chest since he’d handed her the papers.
‘Why is he in England? To get you back?’ Ethan asked.
She trusted few people—she’d learnt to be that way—yet he deserved to know, and deeper than that, she wanted to tell him.
‘Because this is where his girlfriend lives.’
He frowned. ‘Wh—’
‘And I don’t mean me.’ She raised her hand to stop him. ‘The woman he left his wife for.’
‘That wasn’t you?’
‘No. Molly was a make-up artist on our last movie. She’s married with two young kids.’
Ethan crossed his arms. ‘And you took the fall?’
‘Not on purpose. Once the news broke that Ben had left Amy, he planted information it was for me, which took me unaware.’ That was an understatement, after being chased down the street, fearing for her life.
He jammed clenched fists into his jacket pockets. ‘What a worm.’
Despite herself she laughed again. It was a perfect description of the vain narcissist she’d starred with.
‘Yes, he is. The press love him, though; the golden-haired hero, who was dragged away from his wife by…well, me.’ She didn’t need to add the descriptions the press had given her, Poison Ivy being one of the most popular and hurtful.
‘Why haven’t you announced otherwise?’
‘I did put out a statement. But it was mostly ignored, and I never named Molly because of her kids. By then her husband had contacted me and begged me not to. He’s devastated and trying to protect them from the fallout.
Trying to get them used to their parents no longer being together, never mind a ton of paps stalking them.
I could never be responsible for that happening. ’
A bleakness crossed his face, which had her aching to console him.
He would have suffered the same torture from the press after his parents’ deaths.
Their passing would have been shocking enough for anyone to deal with, let alone being ten years of age and hounded by the press.
It sickened her to think he’d been on the receiving end of one inch of the tactics usually enacted on her.
She didn’t know how she would have coped with that level of attention in the wake of her own parents’ deaths.
‘No children deserve to be hounded.’ His voice deepened with a ferocity that made her shiver.
‘Which is why I’ll never announce otherwise,’ she reinforced. No matter what happened from this point on, she wasn’t naming Molly.
A gleam of something, possibly approval, flashed in his eyes.
Her breath caught. Approval? No! It couldn’t be; her imagination was getting away with her.
‘Does Ben know you’re in England, at WillowGlen?’
‘No! Only my assistant and my friend Alison know.’
Since the disastrous visit years ago, she’d never again been photographed at WillowGlen and had purposely kept Ruby and any association with her out of the press.
In fact, she’d downplayed Ruby’s role in her life, claiming her visit for the party had been a one-off, and had laughed off any ongoing connection with Ethan.
She’d done it to protect them, although Ethan would no doubt bristle at the very suggestion, and it hadn’t been easy; it had caused her a tonne of guilt to say the seemingly careless words.
But it had been necessary, and ultimately achieved the required results.
Ruby and WillowGlen had been dropped from any reference to her life, and no paps had stalked its perimeters whenever she’d been in England.
As for Ethan, it had thrown water rather than fuel on the tabloid fire, and eventually the press had stopped mentioning and rerunning snaps of their infamous kiss.
‘And they can be trusted?’ His eyes narrowed.
‘Yes.’ She hoped she wasn’t proven wrong, remembering how her former publicist had betrayed her so spectacularly. Ivy had promptly fired her, and as a result had received an unwarranted reputation for being difficult to work with.
Ivy’s shoulders slumped as exhaustion hit.
She’d chosen to be Ivy and all that went with it to hide herself in plain sight, making herself an easy target for nasty headlines and people using her for their own agendas.
Causing her parents’ deaths had defined this path for her, but it was getting harder—not easier—to keep up the charade, to not truly stand up for herself and allow Annie out.
Which filled her with even more guilt, like she was betraying her parents all over again.
‘Does Amy know the truth?’ Ethan asked.
She shook her head, not only to convey her answer but to shake off thoughts about her parents.
‘I contacted Amy when the news came out, told her I wasn’t involved with her husband and had never been.
She wasn’t inclined to listen.’ Which was one way to describe the viciousness at the other end of the line.
‘Either way, her husband publicly humiliated her and she was out for blood. She wasn’t particular about whose. ’
‘She knew it wasn’t you and still publicly blamed you?’ Ethan’s incredulousness was a balm on a still-raw wound.
After all, he had a valid reason to want her hung out to dry, rather than believing her about Ben, yet he did.
Even after she’d deliberately hurt him, he was giving her the benefit of the doubt.
Not because he was a pushover, far from it.
No, it was a reflection of his strength of character, combined with an inherent decency which was impossible to hide, despite the circumstances of their time together.
And the more she spent with him, the deeper her regard for him grew.
Elation and dread beat at her because she wanted his regard, wanted him to look at her like he had that day, when the connection between them had shone brighter than the midday sun and melted her defences.
But she couldn’t allow that to happen again; she didn’t deserve it and he’d be repulsed if he knew the real her and what she’d done.
That was something she could never risk, because she’d never recover.
‘I met Amy on the set, and she wasn’t overly nice.
But then again, neither was Ben. I thought at the time what a well-suited couple they were.
’ She grimaced at how off the mark she’d been and unaware of what had been unfolding around her.
Would it have made any difference? Would she have been able to prevent being embroiled in a scandal she’d had nothing to do with?
‘None of it changes the fact that she doesn’t deserve to be treated so badly, and neither do I. ’
‘No,’ he agreed.
She blinked, surprised by Ethan’s simmering outrage.
Could it be that he saw past the stereotype she’d built around herself and didn’t want her head on a spike like millions of others?
Now that Ruby was gone, she no longer had anyone on her team, and a warmth flooded her that Ethan might be barracking for her.
‘It’ll die down. Or the truth will eventually be exposed. Either way, I refuse to get further involved in their drama.’ She pushed aside a strand of hair the breeze had brushed across her face to find him staring at her with an intensity that uncurled her almost frozen toes.
He shook his head, like pushing aside an unwelcome thought. ‘I’m heading back inside. You hungry?’ he asked briskly. ‘I got just about everything on your list and also picked up some hot soup and fresh bread from the café for lunch.’
The moment he said the words, her stomach rumbled.
Her hunger roared to life, the combination of fresh air and the calming presence of the Virtues working their magic.
But deeper down, in a place she didn’t like to acknowledge, she knew it was because of sharing the truth with Ethan, and him believing her.
‘Starving.’