Page 75 of Living Hell

TWENTY-FIVE

Tyler

IT HAD BEEN TWO DAYSsince Iona went to the doctor and she wasn’t any better. I asked her what was wrong, and she mumbled something about the flu. I hadn’t seen any medication and wondered if she refused it.

“I’m so glad you called, Dr. Ferguson. I had been meaning to meet with you,” Babette said from the same booth I met her at over a month ago.

I scooted in and glanced around, wondering if I had been followed. Iona had no idea I was meeting with her agent. I had tried to ask Cara what was wrong with Iona, but she played the innocent to perfection. I knew Iona told her something, but she wouldn’t give me a single clue as to what’s wrong with my fiancée.

Now I was scared Iona had some terrible disease that would take her away from me forever.

“Good, because I need the truth.”

I was done wasting time. If Iona was dying, I wanted to know so I could run into her arms and spend every last second on this Earth cradling her.

She smiled. “Great! I wanted you to know that the house is yours. I spoke with my lawyer, and we realized that your documents are legal and mine were flawed. Instead of some court battle over who owns what, I’m stepping aside.”

“I thought I had to go along with the fake fiancée thing until the end of October before you gave me the house?”

She nodded and lifted the menu. “I.D. got those apple fritters last time and they looked delicious. Maybe I’ll try those and some coffee.” She lowered the menu and leaned forward. “That coffee is addictive. If that company ever decided to sell it outside of this place, they’d make a killing. Too bad I’m not in the coffee business.”

“We’re talking about the house, not coffee.”

“Are you sure? Because I thought you wanted to meet me to discuss I.D.”

“Yes. I mean no. I mean, yes, Iona and the house.”

She waved her hand at me and sat back. “Then go on.”

No wonder she got things done in Hollywood. People probably agreed to anything she said just so they could get away from her.

“Why the sudden change with the house? According to my contract with you, I must stay her fiancé for two more weeks.”

“What’ll it be?” Debbie came over with pen and pad of paper in hand.

Babette smiled up at Debbie and handed her the menu. “Apple fritters and a cup of coffee.”

And that was the exact moment I figured out Babette Gotti. The act she put on for everyone.

I shook my head at Debbie and handed her the menu before she walked off with Babette’s order.

“The coffee’s divine. You’re really missing out,” she said.

“You’ve been lying to us this whole time, haven’t you?”

Her gray eyes flickered up to meet mine, and I didn’t flinch. For that one second, her perfect act slipped, and she revealed the frightened, desperate woman she always hid. “I never lie. I don’t have to.”

“You always lie. That’s your life, one big lie.” I puffed out a laugh. “You can call it a bluff or redirecting or any number of pleasant-sounding words you want to spin together to make yourself feel better, but in the end, it’s still a lie. My father was a crook. I was raised by professional liars. I know how to spot one and I’m looking at one right now.”

Despite what I said, her steely mask went right back in place.

“And what lies have I been telling? That I’m not a Hollywood agent? Because last I checked, when I called any casting director in the movie industry, and that includes Bollywood, they answered my call.”

I waved off her statement. “Not about your career. But everything you built it on. Does Iona know how much you lie to her on a regular basis?”

She thought I was pulling this out of my ass. Little did she realize that being raised by parents who knew how to twist anything into their favor, a kid learned a thing or two or twenty.

I should have realized it the day I met her. When I was about to walk off and she hooked me with the deal to get my house back. Only someone accustomed to using people to get what they wanted did things like that—the ol’ bait and switch, switching things last minute to catch the sucker’s eye. And to her, I was that sucker.

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