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)
My fingers were moving faster than my thoughts as I set the record straight. My only crime was wanting Ryder for myself. I fell in love with his image, just like most of them had when I was an impressionable young girl; they were just jealous that I got the brass ring and they didn’t, which is what I told them as I ripped into their deceitful asses.
Elena, Elena, Elena, that’s all they cared about. And then there were new pictures taken just a few hours ago, it seemed. Ryder held her hand as they sat at a table in some restaurant in the city. Ryder looked at her the way he never looked at me, which others seemed to notice as well as they started making comparisons.
I hurt like an open wound as people started posting images of Ryder and me and comparing them to pictures of the two of them from the past and now. It was plain to see the glaring difference, but reading the words and knowing that the world was laughing at me was more than I could take.
Just as I was about to toss the phone away from me, it rang. “Hello!” Please let it be a friend, someone who can help me in my hour of need. I didn’t check the readout, so I had no idea who was on the other end of the line.
“How does it feel? These are real people, not the bots you bought to lie and spread rumors and lies about Elena.”
“You don’t know anything.” What was she implying? That I had to buy public favor? That no one of the millions who had followed me on social media dying for a look into my life with Ryder was on my side?
“She got what she deserved; he’s my husband. He was never hers.”
“He’s always been hers. You were just a speed bump in their lives.” This little bitch is vicious. She’s too young to think and speak like this. Surely this is someone else messing with me.
“What kind of mental gymnastics did you go through to convince yourself that it was morally or ethically right to drive another person crazy? Why, after you had taken everything from her, did you feel the need to destroy her completely? Why was it not enough that you had stolen her love?”
I was breathing too hard to answer, but she wasn’t interested in my answer anyway since she seemed to think she knew everything. I should hang up; in fact, every time I hear her voice, I should hang up because, for some reason, this stranger, who I’ve never met, seems more capable of getting under my skin than anyone else.
But she kept going, tearing into me with her stupid words that only made me feel worse about my situation. Her words, more than the attacks on the internet, brought home the reality of my predicament and made me feel hopeless.
“I think I know the answer. Should I tell you? You’re her fan, aren’t you? It was her all along. You don’t even love him; you were obsessed with him, but you wanted to be her. You will never be her. And now everything is back where it should be.”
“Leave me alone.” This little bitch is just as bad as those two. “One day, I’m going to find you, and when I do, I’ll make you pay for destroying my life.”
“No one destroyed your life. You did that all on your own with help from your washed-up wanna-be father. He used you, and now he’s nowhere to be found.”
“How do you know that?”
“I know a lot. Oh, and by the way, that conservatorship wouldn’t have been of any use to you. Ryder put everything he owned in Elena’s name years ago. Checkmate.”
Chapter 78
*Lyon*
I watched in something approaching horror at the scene that played out before my eyes. I could be watching a movie; it was so surreal. Lions eating people isn’t something you see every day outside of a TV screen. When they were done, they just stopped as if being controlled and laid on the deck.
It was only then that I noticed the collars around their necks that were now blinking red. Someone was obviously controlling something. A figure covered in black from head to toe appeared and steered the boat further out to sea, and then the screen went dark.
“See, Uncle Hank, I told you, it’s like playing chess.” Her voice came through the speakers reminding me that she was there. I’ve been playing chess for years, and not once did I ever see anything like that.
“Lucretia Borgia, where did you get maneaters from?”
“I never poisoned any… um. I had help….”
“Hold it, who did you poison?”
“I never said I did.” It’s getting harder to navigate around her without crushing her spirit or curtailing her in any way, but the frigging girl is a bigger pain in the ass than her mother.