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Mike Holmes stared at her for a few beats, during which Evan actually squirmed a bit, before he dialed up his perfect smile again. “Well, Evan, as much as I’ve loved having you all to myself, the time has come to take a quick break and then welcome my next guest to the sitting room.”
The screen went black for a few moments, which had obviously been a commercial break during the live show, and when the picture came back on Mike Holmes was staring directly into the camera.
“The team and I have been very sneaky about my next guest,” he said, leaning forward in a confiding manner. “We’ve kept him off tonight’s roster because we wanted to surprise you. After his last stormy visit, I must confess, I feared we’d never see him back on the couch. Which would have been a tragedy, since it’s always such a pleasure having him here. But he very generously agreed to come back onto the show tonight. Ladies and gentleman, please welcome… The one! The only! The SUBLIMELY talented Mr. Trystan Abbott!”
The audience went wild as the live studio band struck up the show’s theme once again, and Trystan strode confidently onto the set.
Iris’s hands were up over her mouth as she gawked at the screen, not sure what to expect next. Trystan exchanged a warm handshake with the man he’d comprehensively shunned just ten days ago, and after a cool nod at a starstruck-looking Evan, who was now sitting on the other end of the couch, took his seat closest to Mike.
Trystan had lost weight since his previous interview and Iris wondered if he was preparing for a role or something. His cheeks had hollowed and the bones looked sharper beneath his taut skin. There were angles and shadows that had not been present the last time she’d run her fingers over his face. He was thinner, yes, but still devastatingly attractive. Iris sucked her quivering lower lip between her teeth to prevent the sob lurking in her throat from escaping.
“You okay?” Colby asked and Iris nodded, unable to speak. They heard the front door open and a few moments later Chance was in the living room, but Iris couldn’t drag her attention away from the screen long enough to acknowledge him.
She heard him exchange a quiet greeting with Colby and was peripherally aware of him sitting down in the easy chair on her left.
“Trystan,” Mike Holmes gushed. “Welcome back.”
“Happy to be back, Mike,” Trystan said, clearly comfortable as he sat with his thighs spread and one arm draped over the back of the sofa. As always, he took up more than his fair share of space, but the couch was so large he didn’t infringe on any part of Evan’s space.
“Have you met Evan Brooks?” Holmes asked, gesturing toward Evan, whose eyes were sparkling with excitement. She had a winning smile on her face, and she’d angled her upper body toward his and was leaning toward him eagerly.
“I haven’t yet had the pleasure,” Trystan said with a cool smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. He turned that lukewarm smile on Evan. “Miss Brooks? Charmed, I’m sure.”
“Oh, please call me Evan,” the woman gushed and he nodded, but all that legendary charm was conspicuously absent.
Evan finally seemed to notice that he wasn’t quite as receptive to her charms and she dialed down the enthusiasm a notch, before saying, face somber, voice throbbing with—what Iris knew had to be—feigned sincerity, “I’ve been meaning to reach out and apologize for any trouble my little article may have caused you.”
“I doubt you would’ve managed to reach me. My team filters out all unsolicited attempts at contact.” There was a smattering of laughter at the unequivocal put-down, but Trystan continued in that same devastating monotone. “But that’s beside the point. You and I came out of this debacle none the worse for wear, didn’t we? The public has been very supportive of me after the truth about Trish surfaced. Her family have suffered unnecessarily and I’d hoped to spare them that, so perhaps I’m not the one to whom you should be apologizing?”
“Of course,” Evan backtracked hastily. “I did express similar doubts to Iris when I understood how troubled Trish Nesbitt had been, but she was adamant about leaving it in.”
Iris made a choked sound of protest and Trystan’s eyes narrowed as he stared at Evan in that assessing way of his. Evan visibly squirmed beneath that penetrative stare.
But Trystan merely said, “Was she?”
“It was quite impossible to dissuade her.”
“The thing about Iris, Ms. Brooks?—”
“Evan, please,” she invited warmly.
“No.” His icy, unequivocal response prompted nervous titters from the audience and Evan blinked in confusion.
“You were saying,” Mike Holmes prompted. The focus had been on Evan and Trystan for so long that the host’s interruption was almost jarring. Iris had nearly forgotten he was there. “About Iris? I know you were reluctant to discuss her last time, but I gather you’re a little more open to speaking about her this evening?”
Trystan didn’t reply, his focus still trained on Evan. Iris knew how it felt to be pinned beneath that relentless hawklike stare and she almost felt sorry for Evan.
“I was saying,” Trystan continued. “The thing about Iris is that she never seemed particularly interested in journalism. The opportunity to interview me fell into her lap and she would have been foolish not to pursue it. She was filled with enthusiasm and can-do-it-ness when she showed up on my doorstep, and everybody knows by now what followed. I treated her poorly and kept her locked in a room for days.”
“She was intruding,” Mike Holmes was quick to point out.
“No, she wasn’t. My manager had okayed the interview and Iris had every right to be there. Funny how none of those leaked excerpts from her journal—which would have entirely vindicated her of any whiff of wrongdoing—never revealed that snipped of information, isn’t it? I was being the arsehole and people have been much too quick to dismiss my behavior, and divert blame onto her. She was properly terrified to be locked in that room and had I known—” He shook his head. “I would have behaved differently. I don’t make a habit of terrorizing women and keeping them locked up in rooms. She caught me at a particularly vulnerable time, but that’s still no excuse for my treatment of her.”
“In the end you were correct to be wary of her though,” Holmes said. “Considering everything that happened afterwards. She betrayed your trust.”
“You have that backwards, Mike,” Trystan said, his voice quiet, the studio audience—likely the entire nation, Iris included—so riveted by what he would say next you could hear a pin drop into the expectant silence. “I betrayed her trust.”
“I’m not sure I follow,” Holmes said and Trystan shifted his focus back to Evan who was staring at him with huge eyes.
