it for you.”
“He has every right to read it, Georgia.” She lifted her chin. “You know that contract states that he has the first right of refusal, and you’ve withheld it from him. You should have heard him on the phone, heartbroken that you were using business to get back at him.”
Damian. Mom was scanning the manuscript for Damian. My stomach knotted, dropping to the floor.
“She’s not selling the rights!” Noah’s voice rose, tension ebbing from every line of his torso. “It’s hard to have first right of refusal on a deal that doesn’t exist.”
“You’re not selling the movie rights?” Mom stared at me in disbelief.
“No, Mom.” I shook my head. “He played you.” Damian had always been a smooth operator, but I’d never seen someone get one over on Mom.
“Why the hell not?” she fired back, stunning me into silence.
“I’m sorry?” Noah barked, stepping back to stand at my side, the shirt box safely tucked under his arm.
“Why the hell wouldn’t you sell the movie rights?” she shouted. “Do you know how much they’re worth? I’ll tell you. Millions, Georgia. They’re worth millions, and he—” She pointed to Noah. “He doesn’t own any of them. It’s just us, Gigi. You and me.”
“This is about money,” I whispered.
Mom blinked quickly, then adapted, her face softening. “Your party wasn’t, baby. But I was here. I really think that this could be the key to getting him back, and he promised to adapt it word for word. Don’t you believe him?”
“I don’t want him back, and I sure as hell don’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth!” I sputtered, fire streaking through my veins as the anger pushed through the armor of my disbelief. “Did you honestly think you could force my hand? Make me sell him the rights?”
Mom glanced between Noah and me. “Well, I can’t now, since that’s not the finished manuscript.” Her eyes narrowed on Noah. “Where’s the ending?”
Noah’s jaw flexed.
“It’s not done yet,” I snapped. “And even if it was, you can’t force me into anything.”
“Millions, honey. Just think of what that could do for us,” she begged, coming around the side of the desk.
“You mean what it could do for you.” I put myself between her and Noah. “It’s always about you.”
“Why do you even care?” Mom shouted.
“Gran hated movies, and you think that out of all her books, I’m going to sell the rights to this one to any producer, let alone the man who slept with everything in a skirt?”
“I don’t give a shit what Gran wanted,” she hissed. “She sure as hell never gave me a second thought.”
“That’s not true.” I shook my head. “She loved you more than life. She only cut you out of the will when you decided to marry a hopelessly-in-debt gambler, so you’d stop looking like a payday to every guy who crossed your path. She cut you out to give you a chance at finding someone who really loved you!”
“She cut me out as a punishment for making her raise you!” she yelled, jabbing her finger in my direction. “Because I was the reason my parents were on the road that night, coming to watch my recital!”
“She never blamed you, Mom.” My heart stuttered to life, aching for everything she’d gotten wrong.
“The woman you adore so blindly doesn’t exist to me, Georgia.” She looked past me to Noah. “Give me the endings. Both of them.”
“I told you, they’re not done!” How did she even know there would be two?
Her gaze shifted slowly to meet mine, her features transforming to a look of such pity that I recoiled, stepping back in to Noah. “Oh, you sweet, naive little girl. Didn’t you learn anything from the last man who lied to you?”
“This is done. You need to go.” I straightened my spine. I wasn’t the toddler she’d abandoned during afternoon nap anymore, or even the teary-eyed preteen who stared out the window for hours after she’d disappeared once more.
“You really don’t know, do you?” Sympathy dripped from her tone.
“Georgia asked you to leave.” Noah’s voice rumbled against my back.
“Of course you want me to leave. Why the hell didn’t you tell her it was finished? What else could you possibly get by keeping it from her?” Mom tilted her head just like I had, and I hated it. Hated that I looked so much like her. Hated that I had anything in common with her.
I needed her to go. Now. Once and for all.
“Noah’s not done with