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)
It was not her fault that she had fallen in love with me; it was not her fault that Elena didn’t know how to keep a man. It was not her fault that I had chosen her. I was a liar and a cheat; she was going to sue me for half of what I owned because it was rightfully hers, and best of all, she was going to have me arrested for tricking her into signing the divorce papers.
No one else spoke as she rambled on and on, but I could feel Elena growing stiff beside me as we listened. When Janie finally ran out of breath, she stopped pacing back and forth and turned a look of venom our way and with the ugly red marks that were now on full display and the spittle at the corners of her mouth, her matted hair that had been tangled in the melee, and her eyes wild from whatever drug was coursing through her system she looked deranged.
“By the time I’m finished telling my story….”
“Which story would that be?” The voice seemed to come from the walls, startling the hell out of me as we all looked around, well, except for Jared and Travis, who looked bored as hell as they held up the wall, arms folded, with a disinterested air about them and dark scowls on their faces. I think Lyon trains his squad to do that because I’ve seen that same look at least once or twice on each of them back in L.A.
“You mean this one?” The voice came again, followed by a few seconds of silence before it was broken again. Everything Janie had said since we arrived came through the speakers loud and clear.
“Who is that?” Elena asked Travis, but I think I already knew.
“The nieces,” I answered her in a whisper, not sure why. I took her hand and waited for the other shoe to drop. Of all the things I could’ve imagined, all the places I surmised they could be taking us, this hadn’t even made it on the list.
While Janie stopped her ranting in stunned silence, the video that had been playing in the background was replaced with another scene, this one of Janie lying in a hospital bed bragging to someone off-camera about the things she had done over the years, some of them criminal.
It was pathetic and deranged and very obvious that she was either high or crazy at the time. She bragged about how she’d clasped hands with the Hudsons to drive Elena insane over the years, about the times they’d driven by her home to spy on her, the lies they’d told to make the public hate her.
She implicated not just Mary but her daughters as well, adding things I hadn’t been aware of, things that, if revealed, could make life very difficult for the sisters now that the mother was gone. She brought down everyone involved, including my mother, who had been swindled into believing that she was doing what was best for me.
She mentioned the doctor who had supplied them with the drugs Rachel had been feeding Elena and the fact that he was part of some sick pedophile ring in the church and things that made me want to throw up because I was once associated with these people and had no idea of the filth they were hiding.
The person in the room seemed to egg her on to say things that no sane or rational person would share, and that’s when Janie started spilling the truth about our relationship. She broke down as she recited the story about how I had spurned her even on our wedding night.
She spoke of the lengths she’d taken to get me to want her, the ways she’d tried to practically become Elena so that I would look at her the same way. She’d changed her hair, the way she dressed, and had even gotten some tattoos to match hers, but nothing she did ever seemed to work. No matter how many drugs she gave me, I always seemed to know that it was her and would reject her.
She moved on to blaming her accomplices and exposing some more dark things that I hadn’t known myself. It was hard to hear and realize just how stupid I was to trust Matt and Scott, how Matt had used the church against me all for money. How her dad had all but sold her with her approval for the sole purpose of taking over my life.
I was nothing in these people’s eyes; it was obvious. Just a body with money and fame that they could feed on like the parasites they were. The most sickening part, though, was when she giggled about the trafficking thing, which she only hinted at but with a maniacal look on her face. To her, the plight of those young girls and boys was little more than fodder she could use to blackmail Mary and the others if the need ever arose.