Page 76 of Isabelle and the Beast

And then I think about what he’s taken from me:

My career.

My confidence as a man.

And, worst of all, my relationship with Isabelle.

But I’m so tired. I’m so tired of fighting Tristan and losing. I don’t know if I can find the strength to try again, especially if itmeans that he’ll come after Lily. I failed to keep her safe once, and I’ll never make that mistake again.

Chapter

Thirty-Three

ISABELLE

Aweek after I leave the castle, I now have the evidence I need to take Tristan down.

Maybe.

Just as I anticipated, Lily wasn’t the first woman Tristan manipulated and tossed aside. He has a long list of women, at least a dozen, who fell for his charms and realized he wasn’t truly in love withthem, but what they could give him.

Seven of them are willing to come forward. Two of them want to remain anonymous, but the other five are ready to put everything on the line for the sake of protecting other women.

The problem is that people don’t always believe women who come forward about their manipulators. Sometimes it even backfires and the women get made to look like they’re trying to get attention, and the man in question gains popularity. I just hope that isn’t what happens here. At the bare minimum, I hope that the Family Entertainment Network won’t want to associate themselves with Tristan when his reputation is in question.

I flop back on my couch, having finished my last phone callwith the fifth woman who wants to tell her story. Tomorrow morning we’ll contact Allegra at Inside Scoop, the same company who published my interview, and hope they’ll run the story.

Jen is still working in her office, tying up all the loose ends. I close my eyes and try to relax, but I don’t think I’ll be able to until everything is out in the open.

I haven’t even tried contacting Adam yet. But he hasn’t tried to call me either. Once everything is exposed, I’ll call him. Right now, I wouldn’t know what to say. I can’t let him know what I’m planning, but I also don’t want to lie to him.

I hear Jen step into the living room and open my eyes. She leans against the doorframe, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “You kept something from me,” she says.

I sit up. “What do you mean?”

“There’s one more woman for our list.” She stares me down. “Lily Stone.”

“How…” I swallow. I didn’t think she’d be able to find her connection to Tristan now that she’s been locked down. “How did you figure it out?”

She fixes me with a no-nonsense glare. “Really? You didn’t think with my ‘super tech skills’ that I’d be able to put that together? Adam punches Tristan, Lily goes incognito, and now you’re on a rampage to find these women who Tristan manipulated. It’s pretty clear.”

“When you put it that way…” I run a hand through my hair, calculating my words so I don’t break my promises to Adam.

But Jen makes it easy for me and starts talking. “Here’s what I think happened: Tristan manipulated Lily into falling for him, said something to Adam about it at the Goldies, and Adam punched him. Somehow Adam got to Tristan and convinced him to let Lily go, and Tristan dropped the charges in exchangefor them not saying anything.” She smirks at me. “How was that?”

“Pretty impressive,” I admit.

“If we can get Lily to talk—” Jen begins.

I shake my head. “She can’t. It’s in the contract.”

Jen sighs. “Well, I just called and left her a message.”

“Jen!” I jump off the couch. “Adam will kill me if she says anything. It’s not just the contract. He doesn’t want her to face the public backlash.”

“She doesn’t have to say anything. We might have enough evidence without her. But her story is the most compelling, and it clears Adam’s name. You know I’m right.”

She is. We both know it. But that’s a line I’m not willing to cross.

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