Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135517 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
That led me to wonder why someone who was supposed to be there for me would want me on that shit. If he noticed that I was looking at him a bit, askance he didn’t show it; he just went back to his phone. I had to think and think fast if I was going to pull this off, but I knew I had to do it.
But who could I trust? And why do I suddenly have this fear that I can trust no one? It was something I could put my finger on, but it was there in my gut. There was only one person other than her that I could turn to for answers.
Not that I trusted this person, she’d fucked me up royally from birth, but we were in a better place now, or at least we used to be. I hadn’t seen much of her since I got married. Why is that again? I don’t remember any falling out or anything that would keep us apart.
When I was with Elena, she made it a point to have my mother around. We were always either going to her, or she was coming to us. That’s one thing about Elena. She was all about family and had shown me the joys of being surrounded by your blood.
So what happened? What had caused the rift between us these last few years? I thought really hard and tried to remember but kept drawing a blank. I closed my eyes and slid down in my chair as if falling asleep, but my mind was working in a way it hadn’t in a long time. I still would give my left nut for something to take the edge off.
***
“Ryder, what are you doing here? I thought you were on tour halfway across the world.”
“I am, Mom, but I need something from you. I need your help with something.”
“What? What is it? What’s got you so flustered?”
“I need you to tell me about this.” I held up my phone with the image of the promo for Elena’s documentary.
“Oh, you’ve seen it. It’s a real tear-jerker, isn’t it?”
“Yes, but what the hell is it about?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, is any of this true? Did these things really happen to her, and who the fuck did it?”
“Are you serious? Wait, you are serious. You mean you didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“Everything she said is true. I’m still reeling from how brave she is to have done that. Thankfully it was a big hit, but it could’ve gone sideways for her.”
“I do not understand a word you’re saying, Mom. Tell me about the bullying and the social media bullshit.”
“Who else? Your wife and those friends of hers were behind it. You too, so I don’t know why you’re pretending here now.”
“Me too what?”
“Don’t play coy, Ryder; you said some pretty awful things about her on social media as well.” That doesn’t sound right. Wasn’t Janie and my people in charge of that?
“Show me!” She seemed skeptical at first, but then she led me into the family room and turned on her iPad. “Here it all is. I don’t know why I kept a folder full of this nonsense, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
It took hours of back and forth, and my anger grew with each minute that passed. “I didn’t know about any of this.”
“How could you not know? Weren’t you there?”
“In a word, no.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I spent the last four years drunk and high.”
“What do you mean? I thought Janie said she was getting you help for the drugs and alcohol addiction. No wonder you look like shit. I knew that shit about you being sick was crap. I should’ve come to see you myself.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Are you for real? Your wife and her family all but threw us out the last time we were there.”
I didn’t know how to feel about the things she was saying and the picture she was painting. Some things that I’d once put off as drug-induced hallucinations now seemed to warrant a closer look.
“I don’t understand why they would do this.” What was the point behind all this? Why was Janie doing it? Hadn’t she won? And why did some of the things she’d said sound like things Elena had shared with me in confidence? How had she got ahold of that information? I looked down at my phone as the answer came to me.
I never erased the past conversations and texts between Elena and me. Though it had been some time since I last looked at any of them, I could almost repeat them verbatim. That’s how I’d recognized them in some of the things that had been shared on social media by my wife and her inner circle.
“What the fuck is going on here?”