One Night Scandal by Joanne Rock

Author:Joanne Rock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-06-04T18:51:46+00:00

Eight

Gaining access to the Ventura family estate hadn’t been as difficult as Scarlett feared.

She’d watched the Beverly Hills home for a day, to acquaint herself with the various entrances and to watch who went in and out of the property. There was a guard at the gate that led to a handful of exclusive homes, but getting past him was the easy part since she’d noticed he didn’t ring through to the owners for service deliveries. So she’d bought a box of organic produce and claimed she was delivering it to a house at one end of the street. Sure enough, the guard waved her through the gate, and she went to the Ventura home instead.

There, she only had to wheedle her way past an elderly gardener, who gladly opened another gate for her when he saw her fake delivery. She might have regretted taking advantage of the older man’s kindness if she wasn’t so thoroughly convinced her mission was just. The Ventura family had done something to alienate Scarlett’s mother when Paige—Eden—was just a teen.

Scarlett wasn’t leaving until she discovered the truth.

Now, as she lugged two hemp bags full of apples, peaches and Valencia oranges toward the delivery entrance of the expansive French chateau–style home, she wished she had a hand free to text Logan and let him know she’d made it this far. He hadn’t wanted her to enter the property alone, but as a rising star in Hollywood, Logan was too well known to sneak in anywhere.

Besides, she didn’t want him to compromise his standing with the director of Winning the West. Not that he seemed to care what Antonio Ventura thought of him. Ever since the director had held Logan’s phone captive on a movie set in the Congo, preventing Logan from messaging Scarlett for weeks, he had no use for the critically acclaimed film guru, even though he was the director of Logan’s current movie.

Which, she had to admit, she really liked. She’d been so hurt when she thought Logan had ghosted her. But ever since they’d reconnected, things were looking up. At least, with her relationship. But now her family—her family name—was in jeopardy.

Before she could step up to ring the bell on the delivery entrance—which consisted of ornate double doors slightly hidden by a magnolia tree—Scarlett heard a tuneful whistle from the side yard. Curious, she peered through a gap in the boxwood hedge into the European gardens full of paths, statues and fountains. At the far end of the property, a raised gazebo housed a well-dressed older man with his back turned to her.

The gray-haired occupant of the garden pavilion stood at an easel, a paintbrush in hand as he carefully shaded purple flowers with dark smudges on the canvas. Something about his bearing, or maybe it was the perfectly tailored blue shirt with cuffs perfectly turned up, announced his wealth and status. This was no servant. She’d bet her last dollar that the serene painter in the manicured gardens was the owner of the house.

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