Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Sydney’s phone made a weird sound in my hand, and I looked over at her as she stuffed another heaping spoon of ice cream past her lips. “What was that?” She held her hand out for the phone.
“It’s my new alert for whenever this MengeLiNi makes a new post. Let’s see what they’ve got.”
She scrolled through her phone and then held it up for me to read.
“To all Elena Gianni fans, you are not helping her but adding to her stress when you take part in these hate campaigns against the enemy. Maybe you should read the lyrics of her songs which are pretty much a blueprint for how she wishes everyone to be treated.”
“If you love her and want to support her, buy her music, her perfume, and support the clothing line she’s about to collab on. Be part of the solution, not the problem. “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without a fight.” Sun Tzu. Figure out what that means and stop making her ill. They’re using you to destroy her because their evil knows no bounds. The stress will kill her.”
Who is this person, and why do they care so much? How can they know me this well? “Wait a minute, how do they know about the clothing line? We haven’t gone public with that yet.”
Just then, my own phone dinged with an incoming message. The number didn’t look familiar, but the first line made me curious. “Go dark for the next few days; no social media. We’ve got you.” I showed Sydney the text, and she seemed overly pleased while I freaked out internally. This was like something out of a spy movie.
Chapter 32
*Janie*
I braced myself and waited for the volley of insults that always followed after the hellos were out of the way. I felt the energy coming off her, the smell of sulfur, and knew where she’d been.
This could get very ugly if I’m not careful. It had been some time since I’d had a meet with Mom to have her cast, and with Ryder in the wind, most of her efforts had been on keeping him under some semblance of control even from a distance, although we had no idea if it was working or not.
“So, what are we going to do about this mess you’ve gotten us into?” How did I know she would blame me once again for her own screwups? It’s not my fault that people were now ostracizing and canceling her family because of her actions and theirs. “Didn’t you hear me? I asked you a question.”
I wanted to yell back at her that it wasn’t my fault she was known as the woman who pimped her daughters out for clout and wealth. Ever since that post was made, it’s been open season on the whole Hudson clan, something I would’ve enjoyed immensely if the same person wasn’t after me as well.
In the last few days, my business had come under attack, and things I’d once thought were long forgotten were now front and center on everyone’s minds because of this vindictive person who’d spent the last few days attacking me and everyone I knew in this town.
I was hoping Mary would have the solution to this mess, but here she was, asking me for help. “I’m not sure what you want me to do.” She got close to my face, and I leaned back to avoid her fetid breath and the overabundance of perfume she’d drowned herself in to hide that old lady smell that permeated her whole person.
I’m not sure who she thinks she’s fooling as if all the Botox and plastic surgery could hide the fact that she was an aging relic. Her eyes were even darker than usual today, which meant I had to tread carefully, or she could easily go off the rails, and that would be the end of me.
Not for the first time, I wished my dad had found another way in as I looked away from her intimidating glare. I’m almost certain he didn’t know what he was getting us into, but Mom and my aunts back in her home country had said that she was the one to go to, that she would be the one most open to our plans as long as the price was right.
But no one could’ve known the depths she would go to or the darkness that lived inside her that she’d kept so well hidden from the rest of the world. So, instead of a greedy old woman whose only interest was in where her next dollar was going to come from, we were in bed with a viperous snake with three heads. And, of course, once again, I was the one stuck with her since my family was on the other side of the country, enjoying the fruits of my labor without putting in any of the work.