Page 16 of Enemies Under One Roof

Taken aback by the quick change of topic, she automatically grabbed them and scanned the front pages, unable to prevent a wince. Even after all this time they still had the power to hurt with their nasty and vicious stories; no wonder she’d tried to avoid them as much as possible since the folly pictures spectacle.

‘Not the headings, the photos. Ben’s in London.’ His lips curled.

She glanced over them one more time to see if there was any truth in the midst of the farcical fiction, before bunching them up and putting them under her arm. She wouldn’t read any more and as soon as she got inside, she’d burn them. There was nothing accurate about her location, but if Ben somehow led the press here, she’d wring his neck.

‘Do you think I lied about him being my boyfriend?’ She lifted her chin and speared Ethan with a healthy dose of defiance to hide her hurt.

His brows furrowed.

She held her breath.

‘No.’

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.’