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)
I never thought Mary was my friend; I was never fooled into thinking that way, but neither did I believe her to be as evil as she’s turned out to be. Money and fame aside, the things that the nieces had brought to light are some of the most heinous things anyone could imagine, and the bad thing about it is they haven’t released the worst to the public just yet.
Even with that, there are things I saw and experienced myself with that family that might be hard for some to believe. I might have felt sorry for her daughters had I not seen them willingly partake in some of her misdeeds, all in the name of getting rich and famous. I just have to decide when and how I’m going to share what I know and put an end to them once and for all.
***
*Janie*
The skin on my face itched to the point that I tore it with my fingers, and it still didn’t let up. The more I scratched, the more it itched until my fingers were covered in blood and tears. The fear of being seen like this was overshadowed only by the fear that I was slowly losing my mind.
I kept wanting to scream but had to hold it inside for fear that I’d be found. I couldn’t even stop to think about what was going on because it all seemed to be happening too fast for me to keep up. I felt like someone coming off of a drug binge or awakening from a coma after months.
Nothing seemed real, and my mind kept flitting from one fear to the next until I was sure there was more than just the paparazzi after me. I don’t know how long I walked or even which direction I was headed in; I just knew I needed to get somewhere safe or, at the very least, off the streets for now.
The dive that I finally found was the last place anyone would expect to find me, so I figured I was safe for the time being, but now I felt trapped and alone. I was hungry, cold, and scared, with nowhere to run and no one to turn to. I can’t use my phone because it’s almost dead; I have no money and had used Apple Pay to pay for the room, which meant I couldn’t stay here for too long because although it was still in my maiden name, it wouldn’t be too long before someone figure it out.
I was about to climb the walls after pacing back and forth across the filthy carpet to peep out the windows expecting to see cameras flashing and voices raised with questions I didn’t have answers to when the phone pinged. I felt my heart race and pick up speed at the thought that whoever was on the other end of the line might be of help, but what I saw next made the world come crashing down around me.
The scream of rage got trapped in my lungs, and I threw the phone across the room. It didn’t break, thankfully, but even face down, the image I’d seen there was already firmly planted in my mind. The phone rang, and I knew without looking who was on the other end. It was almost a sixth sense now, and as much as I hated to answer, not knowing what that little monster had to say would kill me.
“What?” There was enough hate in that one word to end an army.
“Did you like my little gift?”
“It’s a lie. You doctored it just to screw with my head. Even if Ryder wanted to go back to her, she’d never take him back; I made sure of it.” Yes, all the lies I’d spread to the press had been for that purpose.
My fear of losing him to her one day had made me proactive, and though I never quite understood why Mary hated her so much and wanted to slander her, her plans fell very well in line with mine.
I’d used Ryder’s social media accounts multiple times to spread hate against Elena in the hopes that she’d see it and believe that it was him. Why wouldn’t she? I’d made sure that they never spoke to each other, and she’d been such a wimp in the beginning that she’d hid herself away, so there was never any danger of them running into each other.
I’d used everything I knew about her, things he’d said while high as a kite, to defame her. Those were things that only he would know, and in the very beginning of our marriage, when he still believed the lies that I’d told him and was full of venomous rage against her, he’d had some pretty colorful things to say. I’d used all of it to my advantage, along with the other made-up things I’d come up with to paint her in as awful a light as I possibly could.