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)
I did ask about Elena’s safety, though they have yet to tell me about her part in all this, but all they would say is that she was being taken care of and not to worry. My only job, where she was concerned, was to stay away from her until further notice. As if!
Even if I can’t go to her just yet, I’d already made up my mind to contact her soon, or at least after I’d dropped the song with the message for her disillusioned ass. I’m still a little bit salty that she’d had the nerve to try to get rid of me with a song, totally overlooking the fact that it was I who’d done the unthinkable and married someone else.
The fact that I had my reasons, reasons I’d wiped out of my mind until now, is my justification, and once she hears what I have to say, she’d understand. At least that’s my hope and what I keep telling myself to make the days without her less painful.
I was hustled into the car like a visiting dignitary, with my two new best friends flanking me on either side. This isn’t how I’d imagined things going when I came back here.
I’d gone to the mountains to get my shit together so I could come back to her a better version of myself, but things had gone south with Saunders’s surprise visit.
But the hardest part was having to wait just a little bit longer before I could get back to Elena, to the better part of my heart that has been lying dormant for the past five years.
***
*Mary*
“What deal? Why am I only now hearing about this? And where the hell has he been all this time?”
“I told you. He was with the Saunders group. You know how Chadwick Saunders is. It’s just like him to nab him just like that with his holier-than-thou bullshit.”
It’s true Chad Saunders is just the type to pull a stunt like this, but there was something else bothering me about this whole ordeal. Not the fact that he’d practically kidnapped Ryder right out from under our nose, but the mere fact of who he is.
I’ve been trying for years to get in good with the Saunders family, if not their studio and holdings, but there’s never been a chance, and from the way things sound, I’m not about to get that chance now either. If it was just that that was bothering me, it would be an easy thing to get over.
There’s more than enough money to go around in this town, and I’ve made plenty over the years. I’ll probably go down in history as one of the most efficient businesswomen to ever walk the streets of L.A., though most people only know what I want them to and see what I want them to see. So money was not my concern; it was something else that kept niggling at the back of my mind.
I don’t like not having my finger on the pulse of everything that goes on around me, and though I don’t know much about the inner workings of Chad Saunders and his son, I know enough to know that he doesn’t play in the same pool that I swim in, this could prove to be a problem.
It’s true that he’s known for his eccentricities, and it wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen something in someone that no one else has and taken that person under his wing, but that’s the very thing that has me worried now.
Scott, the idiot, is only seeing dollar signs; he’s never been able to see past his nose. But I haven’t made it this long and come this far by being stupid. No matter what anyone else thinks or says about me, no one can deny that I’ve pulled off something that not even the Barrymores, Fondas, or any of the old Hollywood families have done, and I did it without ever taking an acting class, neither me nor any of my daughters as a matter of fact.
I know that that’s why I’m hated, though no one dares say it to my face or show their dislike or displeasure in my presence. But all they can do is eat my dust and kiss my ass as they bow down to my prowess. Now someone or something is trying to tear down everything that I’ve built, and the last thing I need is the likes of Saunders and his people sticking their noses in where it doesn’t belong.
“Since when is Ryder an actor? And how did he come to Saunders’ attention? These are the things I need to know.” Do I really need to spell it out for him? He knows as well as I do why we can’t have Ryder Sumner being under the influence of anyone else.