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)
So, the fact that she’d used these two things to hurt me spoke volumes about her anger and hatred toward me. For that reason, my mind kept going round and round in circles, but there were no answers.
That was until my phone rang as soon as I stepped out of the shower half an hour later. “Hello, Elena.” The voice didn’t sound familiar, and too late, I realized that I hadn’t checked the caller ID.
“Who is this?”
“Your boyfriend calls me his niece.” It took me a second to catch on since Ryder didn’t have any nieces, but then I recalled him calling MengeLiNi the nieces. My heart started racing though I had no idea why, but somehow I knew that I was talking to someone who could give me answers.
From the way Ryder spoke about her, I knew that she was highly intelligent, and he seemed just a little bit afraid of her though he hadn’t come right out and said it. But the person on the other line sounded young, cheerful, and nothing at all like the scary being he’d described.
“Yes, I’ve heard about you.” There was so much I wanted to say, so much to ask, but for some reason, I couldn’t think of a darn one of them.
“I’m calling to give you a heads-up. Someone will be knocking on your door any minute now with a package. You’ll find all the answers about Rachel and what she’s done inside.”
“How did you….?”
“It’s common sense that you’d want to know.” That’s all she said before hanging up the phone again. True to her word, there was a knock on the door which was strange in itself since I hadn’t rung anyone into the building, and when I opened the door, I got another surprise.
“Wait, aren’t you….?”
“Yes, Elena, I’m one of the men who took you to the Russo mansion on Friday night.”
“Jared, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Here, this is for you. She said you should read it all tonight and put it out of your mind, whatever that means.”
I thanked him and accepted the package, then watched him walk away as I wondered why a grown man who looked like he could bench press half a city block was running errands for a little girl that sounded like she wasn’t long out of the nursery.
I was tempted to believe that some of Ryder’s recollections about the nieces, and this one in particular, were a bit exaggerated, but now I’m not so sure. It tickled my fancy, though, where my imagination was going. I love the idea of some little boss bitch running things from her ivory tower.
I snickered as I headed back to the comfort of my bed and tore open the envelope. A memory stick fell out into my hands, and there was a sheaf of papers inside as well. Now that I knew what I held in my hands, I was a little bit hesitant to open it and look.
The friendship was over, no doubt about that, but in my hands, I held the explanation of why and how someone I had trusted with my life had betrayed me. It was a heavier load than I’d expected.
***
It took hours. Hours of tears, anger, and sorrow. I mourned the loss almost as hard as I had the loss of Ryder all those years ago. My heart hurt, and I felt sorry for myself for a time as I questioned why the people I loved found it so easy to hurt me this way.
Reading about what she had done was hard, but hearing the bile she spewed against me with her own mouth was harder. You’d think the fact that she’d clasped hands with my known enemy to tear me down was the worst she could’ve done, but she’d outdone herself by drugging me and making me believe that I was losing my mind.
I wanted to throw up. I wanted to bury myself beneath the covers and not come out for a very long time, if ever. I thought of all the things I’d shared with her. My innermost thoughts, my secrets, things that I now know she’d used against me.
Hearing that it had been Mary and the Hudsons who had put her up to it only made it worst, and I cried bitter tears of regret for all the trust that I had given her. She hates me for the very things that I had tried to do for her. Each of my milestones had been like darts to her heart.
The thing is, had she shared this with me, had she ever told me how she felt, I would’ve gotten her the help she needed. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my friends. I would’ve kept some of my accomplishments hidden from her and not rubbed them in her face as she believed I was doing. It never even entered my mind to do such a thing.