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)
She’d done some other stuff as well back then, but it had been years since it all came to fruition, so I’m not so clear on all of it anymore. I just remember it being hell for my twelve-year-old self to wait to grow up so I could have what I wanted, what I’ve always wanted. Ryder.
Now things were out of control, and my dad was calling me every second, while this one had shown up looking for blood, no doubt. People like her never do anything without expecting something in return; another thing I’d learned too late is pity.
No matter what she says here today, though, I won’t let anyone take Ryder away from me. So, if she’s here once again to threaten to have him leave me and marry one of her daughters, I’ll just have to remind her that the whole world was now watching, and she and her daughters were no longer as they’d been a week ago.
The fact that they were losing ground fast and people were literally turning against them every second emboldened me, and for the first time, I felt ready to face her down. I would’ve done more coke, though, had I known that she was coming.
Chapter 31
*Elena*
“Are you shitting me? Is this real?” I kept looking back and forth from my phone screen to Sydney, who was sitting next to me on my bed, digging into a tub of ice cream like the world was coming to an end. She had the biggest smile on her face that had been there since she walked in half an hour ago.
“It’s the real girlfriend. I’d like to find this MengeLiNi person and give them a reward; they came prepared. I hear Mary and her demon spawn are catching their ass trying to do damage control, but I don’t see how they’re going to come back from this.”
“But how does this person know all of this?”
“I don’t know, but the receipts don’t lie. Maybe it’s someone close to them; who knows? They screw over friend and foe alike, and they must’ve pissed off someone by not paying them or any one of the other underhanded things they’re known for, but people were always too scared to say out loud. Whatever it is, whoever it is, I am here for it.”
I wasn’t sure how to feel about any of this. I’d taken some time away from the internet these past few days since the last uproar because the last thing I needed was stress. I’d all but locked myself away in my room when I wasn’t hiding out in the studio, scribbling furiously in my journal.
I don’t know what I expected when I wrote that song that I was sure Ryder would get the meaning of if he listened, maybe one last goodbye, not that we ever had the first, but something. There hasn’t been a peep out of him, but Janie and her cohorts have not been silent.
I doubt they deciphered the code; in fact, I’m sure of it and that their last attack stemmed from sheer jealousy of the mere fact that I was still alive, whichever. But I’d meant it when I said I was done, all the way done. It’s not like I owe him a goodbye anyway or a warning that I was ready to move on.
I don’t owe it to him, but we’d made vows to each other, though not binding in a court of law or anywhere except between the two of us, but they meant something to me. I’d meant every word when I said them. That’s why his betrayal had been such a heavy hard blow. Because I thought back then that he’d felt the same. I was sure of it.
I always thought I knew his heart, that I knew what he would not put me through, even with all of his shitty behavior. There were things we shared in the deepest part of the night, just the two of us, alone, things that were meant to be forever.
That song was basically letting him know that I was now ready to give up on my end of the bargain. It took longer than it should have, seeing as how he’d gone on with his life a long time ago. But that’s not how I do things. For me to truly go on and heal, I first had to let go of the woven dreams we’d shared.
Unlike him, who had just blasted his way out of our relationship in the most hurtful way possible, I had to take my time and not force myself to move on before I was truly ready. So much had happened since his wedding, my illnesses, my mental breakdowns, not to mention the worst heartache known to man, that I hadn’t had time to really focus on anything else other than mending.