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)
“Isn’t that because you have no acting or singing abilities whatsoever?” Hearing it put that way still stung. Mary had tried. She’d set me up with an agent and had even gotten me a few readings, but nothing ever panned out. Still, she’d promised to keep trying, which she had.
It was because of that; that and my growing resentment for Elena that had led me down the road to destruction. The more she achieved, the more I grew to hate her. So, when Noel and Nicole started bashing her in my presence, I felt justified. I wasn’t the only one who thought she thought she was better than everyone else. I wasn’t the only one who hated her guts for being good at everything she did.
When they came up with the scheme to come between her and Ryder, I was all for it. I knew better than anyone that that would break her. I was hoping that losing him would destroy her, and it did. I knew they were only using me because of my friendship with her, that because she had cut them off, I was their only way to her, and I was glad. I was finally useful for something.
I knew I was being used, but I didn’t care. Not as long as it meant watching her suffer the way I had all those years as her sidekick. I felt the same euphoria I had that day when I saw her broken and devastated on the bathroom floor after Ryder left her standing at the altar.
But it didn’t last long because these two were still here, looking at me with disdain and reproach in their eyes. “Tell us about the doctor, the one who gave you the drugs you’ve been feeding her.” I looked down and away, suddenly realizing the shit I was in. How comes I didn’t think about this and the repercussions? Because I never thought I would get caught.
***
*Mary*
“How do they know all of this? There has to be a leak somewhere. Matt. It has to be Matt. He must’ve made some kind of deal with the Feds for a lesser charge.”
“I doubt that seriously. Although the girl he was caught with is pretty young, there are ways around that. It’s been happening for years; he could’ve just said she lied about her age. Any good lawyer could make that go away. His reputation might take a hit, but others have come back from that and worst.”
“No, this is something else.”
“It can’t be Janie; what little she knows wouldn’t have brought this kind of heat. And the blackmails started before she started spilling her guts. I don’t think she’s working with these people because they seem to be after her as well. Any word yet or where she disappeared to?”
“No, I have people looking. Andrews is in a motel. He’s not going anywhere, and Matt’s still holed up at his friend’s place in Connecticut. He tried boarding a plane to New Zealand, but they wouldn’t let him leave, of course.”
“We have to tell him to keep his mouth shut no matter what, Scott. No one has been named so far, so we might still come out of this thing with our skin intact.” We were shut up in my office away from the kitchen because I still hadn’t found whatever that bitch Rachel had planted here.
The last twenty-four hours have been hell. I keep waiting for the knock on the door to come any minute, not sure which I fear most, the law or one of the men or women I’d procured young boys and girls for over the years.
I have no doubt that my life is in danger from either one. One would put me away for good, and the other would just kill me to keep what I know hidden. How had everything come to this? Even my daughters were being dragged through the mud.
Years of carefully built and cultivated personas were being destroyed, all my life’s work down the drain because of a few spilled words, and I still have no idea who is behind it all. The thing with Elena and Ryder was now the least of my worries. If my position in the trafficking ring comes to light, it will be all over. The fact that I’ve been pimping my own flesh and blood out for fame and fortune will pale in comparison if the world finds out what I have really been up to all these years.
It was a perfect setup and had done tremendously well. No one would ever suspect the truth behind why I had pushed my daughters into the limelight the way I had. The world saw me as a hard-working mother who took her daughters from relative unknowns to household names.
But no one would’ve guessed that there was a more sinister reason behind it. The plan had been born from my own mind, with no help from anyone. I’d spent years in the background being overlooked until I happened upon a need, a need that the Hollywood elite had to keep hidden.