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)
There was a lot left to be done and said between us, things that needed to be made clear, but now was not the time. The hardest thing I have to look forward to is how to keep her in the dark while I go off with Lyon and his squad on their rescue mission.
Because it’s so soon after we got back together, I’m a little worried about how she’s going to take my absence, but the only alternative is to not go, and I have to be there. The more I think about what had been done in my name, the more enraged I become. It breaks my heart to know that while I was on stage living my best life, young women who had come to see me perform were being snatched away from their families.
It’s a sinister and disturbing act, but I can’t say I’m surprised that Mary Hudson had come up with something like that. Scott and Matt, yeah, those two surprised me. I knew Scott was money hungry, but I didn’t realize that he would go to such lengths. As for Matt, I’d trusted him to keep me safe. He was the one I went to when things were at their worst when I felt my soul was in danger.
I shared my innermost thoughts with him more than I ever did with anyone else. I stupidly trusted in his title, spiritual leader, because I was too blind to see the truth right in front of me. I know now that I was just being lazy, looking for some quick fix that was going to make everything go away without having to do the work.
I believed the shit he said to make me feel good about myself and the life I was living. I needed to believe that there was some kind of redemption for me, and he gave me that. But I didn’t realize at the same time he was using me for his own gain or that he had another agenda that was set to destroy the one good thing in my life.
It was he who talked me into marrying Janie, him who had always been pushing for the two of us to be together every time Elena and I had a falling out. I never paid it too much mind since I was never in any danger of marrying her or anyone else, so I always just laughed it off when he would start singing her praises. But that was before they concocted that horrendous lie about her killing my unborn child. Both Matt and Scott knew how much I wanted to start a family with her.
They’d complained at first that I was too young, but we’d been together for so many years by that point that I knew I was ready, and so was she. We were at that point in our lives where we were ready to settle down; we’d even talked about putting the whole entertainment scene behind us, at least for a while, and concentrate on us and starting our family together.
I’d stupidly shared those hopes and dreams with the two men I trusted more than any other. Not knowing that they would use my trust against me. What hurt more than anything, though, was not their betrayal of me but the way they’d hurt her. I could overlook everything else but that.
As for Mary, I know just how to hurt her. The nieces have been doing a pretty good job at tearing her down in the public eye, but there were things I doubt even they knew about that family, and I was just the one to expose them. I never had any interest before, but now that she’d crossed the line, I’ll make sure and bring to light all their dirty little secrets.
Now that I’m no longer under the influence of anything stronger than coffee, it amazes me that their fans haven’t seen through their bullshit yet. It’s hard for me to criticize since my own livelihood depends on public favor, and I’m far from perfect, but I’m still dismayed that human beings are so blind that they can’t see beyond the painted faces and fake luxury goods to the real monsters behind the masks.
As far as I was concerned, it was all business. Mary had a great business plan that she’d turned into a billion-dollar franchise using her daughters and the faces and bodies she’d bought them over the years. It wasn’t like they were the first to do it; she just did it better and on a grander scale, but that’s all it ever was, a business venture, at least in my eyes.
Because I knew them, I knew the real deal and saw them for what they were, actors playing out a scene. Too bad the rest of the world forgot that and started buying into their bullshit and trying to live their lives the same way. Again, if that’s what people wanted to do, that was their business, not mine. I just wanted nothing to do with any of them after seeing their real faces and the greed and ugliness that they kept so well hidden from their adoring fans.