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)
Ten mil? What the fuck is he talking about? I’m not making anything; I’m losing money here. How did Mary Hudson think that she could swindle me out of this much money? And how had I fallen for it? Me, the guy who was usually on the other side of these things, had been had in the worst possible way.
But he was right. I stand to lose everything if I don’t pay up. The public is worse than any court of law. My whole life’s blood will be gone in a second if I don’t do this. I’ll have to sell my house, the house I’d fought so hard to hold onto in the divorce, along with all my artwork and the things that made me feel like someone, like a man who had made it.
I should’ve known it was someone close to me behind this. Who else would know the things they did unless they were part of my inner circle? I’ve always been very careful and always went out of my way to keep certain aspects of my life well hidden. But she’s got my nuts in a noose.
She’d fed me to the dogs, and if I didn’t pay up, my life wouldn’t be worth shit. No one will work with me again, that’s for sure. This was very well played.
***
*Mary*
I tried to enjoy the glass of wine I’d been sipping on for the last half hour, but nothing had any taste anymore. It hadn’t for weeks now, come to think of it. I wish I could go back, back to when this whole thing started, and do things differently. But there was no use in looking back at what was and what could’ve been.
It’s done. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I got the money, and the deal was over. I lost some things, sure, but I know I can gain it all back, just as long as this MengeLiNi person keeps their mouth shut.
I wasn’t too surprised to learn that it was one and the same person who had been destroying my life in the tabloids that were behind this scheme, but I’m hoping that they’re true to their word and this was the end of it. Hopefully, they’ll find someone else to torment and leave me alone.
That bitch Rachel had disappeared, but when I find her, I’ll make her pay for what she’s done. She wasn’t in New York with Elena, I’d checked, and no one knew where she was. If it hadn’t been for her, I might’ve brokered a better deal for myself, but that name they’d mentioned was not someone to be taken lightly. He’s one of my biggest buyers, after all, and the less he knows about this, the better.
I’ve been doing clean-up duty, trying to keep this thing under wraps until it all blows over, but losing that much money has made me antsy. I need to make it back as soon as possible. Maybe I should raise the fee at the church. They’d pay whatever I ask because they don’t want their dirty laundry aired on the six o’clock news.
Still, I’d better lay low for a while not to ruffle any feathers. I’d had to burn some bridges to get that money and lost some contacts here and there, but in the end, it wasn’t anyone or anything I couldn’t stand to lose, and I still have my life. As long as there’s breath in my body, I can beat this; I can be back on top in a matter of months. I just have to make a few calls. Wasn’t there a rumor about Ryder planning another concert soon? Yes, things were looking up again. We’ll just have to make a few more sales than usual, but his concerts are always easy pickings. Only the crème de la crème of teenage beauties follow him and can afford to go to his overpriced crap. Time to get to work.
***
*Lyon*
I hung up the phone and rubbed my temple where a headache was starting in on my ass. My wife’s headache is in the bridge of my nose, and her spawn’s is in the temple. Between the two of them, I’m not sure which one is going to do me first.
“I told you she would triple it, didn’t I?” I sipped my beer and ignored him. He and my thieving ass daughter beggar belief. I’m not about to sit here and discuss how my ten-year-old daughter had Ponzi schemed her way into millions of fucking dollars.
She’d borrowed two hundred million from this clown, used fifty million to buy the catalog, blackmailed Mary Hudson for two hundred million, and was now set to get another one hundred and fifty million out of Scott.
Her plan was, if what she just told me was true, to give the catalog back to the kid and keep the one hundred and fifty million or most of it and give him a little something for his trouble, which he already got from the forty million he got from Scott for the fifty-million-dollar sale. She’d made three hundred and fifty million dollars in less than a week.