CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Worn out and now dry-eyed, Billie shoved socks and underwear into her suitcase along with the rest of the clothes she’d already packed. She’d be gone for quite awhile filming the movie but she wouldn’t need a wide array of wardrobe choices since she’d be working most of the time. The thought of being on a movie set again was the only thing getting her through the day.
Billie was a good actress but she couldn’t pretend that everything was fine. Not with Tyler. He’d see right through her little act. So it was with a heavy heart that she changed her and Sierra’s flight reservation to Paris from day after tomorrow to tonight. She needed to put some distance between herself and Tyler so she could get her head on straight. She needed to do something about her heart as well because it was currently lying in about a dozen pieces on the ground.
After reading the dossier that Tyler had collected on her, Billie had literally been sick to her stomach. Although there was nothing in there incriminating, and she’d told him the important highlights, it was still a horrible realization that he’d had her investigated. He’d dug into her past while all the while smiling to her face as if nothing was going on behind the curtain.
Nothing to see here, folks, except a private detective digging for dirt.
Tyler had lied to her. That was the most hurtful part of all of this, although his casual use of the word trust was a close second. He kept saying she wasn’t trusting him but all along he hadn’t trusted her. All he would have had to do was ask and she would have told him whatever he wanted to know. But he’d never asked. Not once.
The timing of all of this was disturbing as well. How old was the folder? He never cleaned his desk so it could have been five years old or five months old. She could have understood Tyler doing a background check on his new tenant when she first moved in. That made complete sense, although it was vastly more extensive than a credit and criminal history check.
But when she’d started to tell him about her family he could have said he already knew and saved her the less than pleasant trip down memory lane. Instead she’d spilled her guts and he’d acted all surprised, comforting her and telling her it was all okay. Clearly it wasn’t if he’d cared enough to hire someone to dig into her life.
The worst alternative was that he’d had her investigated when he’d decided to marry her for the movie role. That really blew the whole trust lecture he’d given her out of the water. Once again…all he’d needed to do was ask. He should have known that she’d never let him get dragged into some unsavory incident from her past. That lack of trust again.
She was hurt and betrayed and she wanted to crawl away and lick her wounds, whining about how life wasn’t fair. Figure out what the hell she was going to do about all of this because one thing hadn’t changed.
She loved Tyler. But she sure as hell didn’t like him right now. In fact, she was beginning to wonder if she even knew him. She couldn’t live with a man that lied and went behind her back and she didn’t want to have a husband that – when the chips were down – ultimately didn’t trust her.
All she wanted was a little time and space to figure out how she was supposed to feel about this. Was she overreacting? Should she just let it go? Was this a deal breaker? Trust was pretty important in a relationship, maybe the most important thing besides love.
* * *
Tyler bounded up the long staircase and into the bedroom, hoping to find Billie. He’d looked on the back patio, the living room, the library, and the kitchen. He’d been gone most of the day with meetings and then a session with his trainer and he missed her. A few hours of quality time sounded like the perfect way to spend an evening. Maybe he could talk her into seeing a movie or going out to dinner.
He found her packing, a suitcase open on the bed. She was preparing early so she must be excited. She wasn’t leaving until day after tomorrow. Tyler wasn’t happy to see her go but he was thrilled that she had this opportunity. Finally the public was going to get to see what he’d known for a long time. Billie had talent and working with Sam was an amazing opportunity.
She didn’t know it but he’d already talked to Sam about visiting the set in a few weeks once she was settled into the routine of production. There was no way Tyler could go months without seeing her. He could prepare for the role of Zak in Paris as well as Los Angeles.
“Hey, babe. How about we go see a movie tonight? I’ll buy the popcorn.”
To his surprise Billie didn’t turn toward him, instead continuing to place items in her suitcase. A student of body language, however, he noticed the almost imperceptible tightening of her shoulders when he’d spoken.
“Can’t,” she replied, concentrating on shoving shoes into the empty crevices of the bag. “I have a plane to catch. The car is picking me and Sierra up in about thirty minutes.”
Tyler was almost positive he’d been gone a few hours, not a few days. Had the studio made changes to the schedule at the last minute?
“Did Sam call? Are they starting to shoot early?”
This time she did stop what she was doing and looked at him, but her expression wasn’t happy. On the contrary, she looked like she’d lost her best friend.
But Tyler was standing right in front of her so it couldn’t be that.
“No, I’m leaving early. I can’t stay here right now. I talked to Sierra and she’s good with going tonight.”
A knot of fear was beginning to build in his chest as he studied her almost emotionless features. This wasn’t the Billie he had seen just this morning. Something had definitely changed. “Why can’t you stay here?”
Reaching for something in her suitcase, she pulled out a file folder and held it out. “Curtis and Sierra cleaned your desk today and found this.”
That knot of fear was like an anvil as his heart fell to his feet. He had a terrible, awful, horrifying feeling that he knew which file that was.
Why the fuck didn’t I burn it? Throw it away at least.
Somehow his trembling fingers grasped the folder and he was able to open it to see the contents.
Fuck.
“I can explain.”
There was desperation in his tone but then he was desperate. He needed her to believe that this wasn’t his doing.
Perching on the edge of the mattress, Billie folded her hands on her lap. “I’m listening.”
He sat down next to her, the folder still in his hand. “I didn’t do this.”
“Are you saying Curtis did it?”
This was awful. Truly terrible. He didn’t like the way Billie was looking at him, with no emotion. She should be yelling at him, slinging a few lamps at his head. Anything but this…coldness.
“No,” he replied quickly. “Listen, Garrett did this when we got engaged. I’ll fire him right now if you want me to.”
“Why would I want you to fire Garrett? He was doing his job.”
Tyler felt some small relief. Was she beginning to understand?
“Then you know that I didn’t do this?”
“That’s what you just said.”
He placed the file on the bed, not wanting to even hold it any longer. It represented something so shady and dirty, a part of this crazy business that he hated.
“So you don’t have to leave tonight.”
Standing, she moved away from him to the window and stared out, looking at the pool and the patio. “So when I told you…you already knew? Why did you pretend that you didn’t?”
Shooting to his feet, he went to pull her into his arms but she held her hands up and shook her head. Clearly this was far from being resolved. She thought he’d been playing a game with her.
“I didn’t know. Garrett gave this to me before but I didn’t read it. I opened it, saw what was in it, and closed it. I never looked through it, Billie. I knew if there was anything important you would tell me yourself. You have to believe me.”
She walked over to the bed and picked the file up, holding it in front of his face. “You didn’t read it? You didn’t look through it?”
He shook his head, panic surfacing and making it almost impossible to breathe. “I swear I didn’t. I didn’t need to.”
Opening the file, she paged through it until she found whatever it was she was looking for.
“You didn’t want to know that my mother drank herself to death and ended up running her car into a tree? That’s such a great little story.” She tossed the paper to the floor and pulled out another one. “Here’s a great find. My mother was arrested for prostitution but the charges were dropped. Really, Tyler, you should give Garrett a bonus for that one. Fuck, even I didn’t know that and she was my mother. There were so many things I learned about myself. It was like the world’s most horrifying storybook except that it was about my life.”
No tears, just condemnation. Sick to his stomach, he reached out for her but she slapped his hand away.
“I didn’t read it, and I don’t care about all of that.”
He was definitely going to fire Garrett. No matter how the man had saved Nate’s career he was possibly blowing the best thing in Tyler’s life all because he was a cynical bastard.
His voice came out like a croak as he tried to speak through the lump in his throat. That Garrett and some greasy private investigator knew things about Billie’s mother that even she didn’t know was…disgusting.
That made Tyler pretty horrible too. He didn’t get to come out of this unscathed.
A lone tear slipped down her cheek and Tyler was relieved to see her show some emotion. She’d been far too calm and he’d feared the worst.
“If you didn’t care, then why did you keep it? Why didn’t you put it down the shredder next to your desk?”