Page 142 of Tempting Wyatt
Perusing the document makes me lightheaded. There’s a scene with Sutton crying at the dinner table while Willow and Isaac argue. The names are changed, but barely.
My throat constricts as her words choke the shit out of me.
This isn’t like the novels Willow reads, it’s a screenplay for television. There are notes about possible actors that could play us and stage directions.
It’s fucking Nina all over again.
No. No fucking way.
My heart and head go to war.
Ivy wouldn’t do this. She wouldn’t exploit me and my family like this. Not after everything. Would she?
God, how much do I even know about her? For all I know, Nina could’ve sent her here.
Stop. You know her mom never gave a shit, you know she was almost killed in a fire as a kid, and you know she is who she says she is.
Except I don’t know any of that for certain because I can’t think straight.
Inhaling deeply, I try to click the document closed so she won’t know I’ve seen it. I’ll ask her about it later. Surely there’s an explanation.
But right now, I want to break shit, and I need to go calm down.
A message notification pops up. I didn’t even know you could get text messages on a computer. Maybe I am the backward-ass hillbilly her ex accused me of being.
Someone namedDevyn Whitaker-Agent Extraordinairesent:
Studio LOVES the Paradise Valley submission. Pretty sure they’re going to make a HUGE offer by the end of day.
She already submitted this to someone. Without talking to me, without asking if it was okay to use my family, our lives, and our history like this.
My chest aches, and my airway damn near closes completely.
I’ve been calling her Hollywood as a joke—because she’s from LA. She was probably laughing her ass off at me the entire time.
I scroll down the screen and see bits and pieces of conversations we’ve had rewritten as scenes between characters in her script. Her moments with my family, the death of my father, even the conversation at the summit is in there.
The betrayal strikes me repeatedly in the chest. ItisNina all over again, but worse. Because Nina was nothing to me. I barely spoke more than a few sentences to her.
I’ve bared my soul to Ivy. Because I’ve fallen in stupid fucking love with her.
I want to smash the shit out of everything in this room—this laptop for one. But I won’t because I’m not that guy.
Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. But here I am, shocked as shit and hurt to hell and back. And feeling like a fucking moron.
I thought she’d genuinely been interested in the ranch, in me. But maybe there isn’t a genuine bone in her fucking body.
My mind runs wild with possibilities.
Maybe the same network that employs Nina and her vultures sent Ivy. I need to call the attorneys that I already owe a bunch of money to and see if they can stop this.
Maybe the story about her cheating ex is bullshit. Maybe it’s all lies to cover what she’s really doing here.
I don’t know. Apparently, I don’t know much of anything.And my lack of knowledge has left my family and my ranch unprotected.
All I do know is, much like when she first arrived, I want Ivy Anderson off my property.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
