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)
How was I to know that the bad boy who was into drugs and wild living was genuinely seeking a different path? That his heart was so wrapped up in someone else that once his anger over the lies we’d fed him wore off, he’d pine for her until he became a shell of his former self.
I’d seen it from the beginning but was too stupid, was too trusting of the people around me, and believed in their constant reassurance that things would turn out the way I wanted. I’d bought into the lies and promises, none of them made by him, and had left myself open to this end.
If I had known, how different would this day be? If I had known that things would come to this, I would’ve made sure to safeguard myself to make plans for a future without him. But it was always unimaginable to me that something like this could happen, that a day like this would ever be.
But I had, hadn’t I? There had been no prenup; Dad had seen to that, but then Ryder tricked me, having me sign a postnup along with divorce papers. Still, I had been sensible enough throughout the years to steal enough money that would’ve set me up for life. I didn’t see it as stealing since I was his wife and deserved every penny of it. Besides, he has more money than he could ever spend in this lifetime.
But that little bitch had taken it all. This was all her fault, all her doing from beginning to end, and I didn’t even know her name. “Who is that little bitch?” I screamed above the music and was once again ignored. It was as if they couldn’t hear me, as if I wasn’t there.
Wait a minute, am I here? Don’t be an idiot, Janie; of course you are. Can’t you see the sunlight outside the car window? Hear the whoosh of the tires against the asphalt? Why do I feel so listless? Like I’m having an out-of-body experience? For some reason, that thought tickled me, and I started to giggle.
It had been so long since I’d laughed that the sound jarred me a little, and then I just continued laughing because it felt so good. Soon, I was crying harsh, jagged tears, but no one cared. There was no one there to tell me everything was going to be okay.
I wanted my mother, but there was a memory playing at the edges of my mind, something vital, something I had to remember. Oh yes, she was not allowed at the house. If she came, I would be left homeless. I had to hold onto that thought; I had to remember.
Remember what? Where did that thought go? Does it matter? My body felt light and stress-free for the first time since this morning’s fiasco, and I was feeling no pain. I wish all my days could be like this. Maybe they would be if I wasn’t such a horrendous bitch.
Hey, watch it. You’re my inner voice; you can’t talk to me like that. You’re supposed to be on my side. For some reason, that, too, made me giggle, and I started humming as the weight of the world left my shoulders, and I felt as if I were floating through the air without a care in the world.
“Should we tell Lyon about this?”
“Tell him what exactly?”
“That his kid made some kind of super drug. What the fuck was that back there?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know. You think she knows she said all of that out loud?”
“I doubt it.”
“What’s the end game here? Is she trying to make her crazy?”
“I’m not sure, I don’t think so. I do know I’m not fucking with any of her hybrid weed plants if it can do this shit to people. She just had a full-on conversation with herself and said way more than I’m sure she intended to.”
“It’s like truth serum on steroids. I think we should probably warn the others. Lyon’s little darling is sneaky, and if she can come up with something like this from crossing marijuana strains, who knows what else she’s done.”
“Her grandfather stays on top of her; I doubt he’d let her go too far.”
“Who? The pothead? Get real; he encourages her worse than her dad. Besides, he’s her guinea pig. Or maybe this one is.”
One of the men looked back at me as I stared into space, drifting on a cloud. I was trying to follow along with their conversation since theirs were the only voices I’d heard except my own in the last half hour, but things seemed a bit muddled.
I heard something about lions and drugs and pigs and figured we were going to the zoo, but before the thought could properly form, my eyes closed, and I escaped into nothingness.