Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
“As your friend, I want only the best for you. It’s more important to me for you to be happy than for me to be right. And if what has been released in the past twenty-four hours is true, then he’s as much a victim as you are. I think he’s going to need a lot of help, but it looks like the Saunders group is already on it.”
“I’ve seen Ryder; I learned some of what you’re telling me now from his own mouth.” So much for waiting to tell her. There was dead silence on the other end of the line.
“You’ve seen him? When? Where?”
I told her almost all of it, including the bit about Rachel.
“I’ll kill that bitch. Where the hell is she? I knew I didn’t trust her for a reason. Didn’t I tell you?”
“Yes, you did, so I guess we’re even.”
“How is that?”
“Well, I told you there was something odd about the way Ryder went off and got married to someone else on the day of our wedding, but you didn’t believe me.”
“That’s because he was a jerk. How was I to know that those freaks had all that shit going on behind the scenes? So Rachel was the one feeding them information about you. Damn, and she was the one you trusted to run your social media accounts. After hearing this, I’m not sure who’s the worst in that bunch.”
“Anyway, I’ve got to go. I have to be on stage in a couple of hours, and I haven’t prepared yet. I’ve spent all day with this mess and waiting for the time difference to call you. If Ryder shows up again, take it easy on him, I think he might need it.”
She hung up just as he came out of the shower drying his hair with a towel with another one wrapped around his hips. He had a quizzical look when he saw the phone in my hand. “Who was that?”
“Sydney, she called to tell me about Janie exposing what she did to you to us on TV. His reaction for a split second seemed a bit odd, but I guess that could be from the whole world knowing the truth about what had been done to him, or it could be my mind playing tricks on me.
Either way, I lost all track of my thoughts when he approached me, dropping the towel to reveal his erection as he got closer to the bed. For a long while, I forgot about Janie and everything else. Besides, I knew all I needed to know about that situation, didn’t I?
***
*Rachel*
“I don’t know too much about that part of their dealings.”
“We know better. We already know what you know. We just want you to say it for the record.” I looked at the two men who’s been at it for hours since they picked me up at the airport.
They made me go over and over again everything I knew about Mary and what I had done to Elena. Now that I was here in this dark, cold room, feeling isolated from everything else, I questioned whether or not it was worth it to do all that I had done.
The anger and resentment I’d felt towards Elena all those years had disappeared under the onslaught of their disapproving stares, so I didn’t have even that to keep me bolstered. I’d used that resentment for so long, overturning all the good that she had done for me in my head.
But now, after hours of listening to it being driven home time and again from these two, I felt lower than I ever have in my life. “Tell us again how they approached you. How did they get you to turn on your friend?”
“I’ve told you already. I wanted to be part of the Hollywood set. I wanted to be something more than just her friend. But I didn’t have the talent to do it. Mary approached me. It was Elena’s fault anyway; she’s the one who introduced me to them.”
At least there was that. I hadn’t gone looking for them. It was Elena herself who had introduced me to that family. At first, it was all good. But then Elena started to pull away from them. Miss. Goody two shoes hadn’t wanted to tell me the reason for it in the beginning, never wanting to start rumors about anyone.
But eventually, she’d shared that she got a bad vibe around them and wanted to put some distance between her and them. She never came right out and said what it was that she was feeling, but true to her word, she’d started avoiding them at every turn.
It was about that time that Mary started showing an interest in me. I should’ve known then that something was wrong, but I was too caught up in my own feelings, my own wants, and desires. “I didn’t start out wanting to hurt her, you know. Mary promised to get me in with the right people. I’ve known Elena for years, and she never once tried to help me make it.”