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)
“If it takes that look off your face, I’ll do something, but it might not be what she expects. I don’t want to fight you on this, but the reality is, even though she’s broken today, if things had turned out differently, she wouldn’t give a damn about you or me, for that matter.”
“She’s only feeling sorry for herself, Elena, and I know you have a soft heart, the kind of heart that could feel for your enemies, but look at it from my side, she drugged me for five years, she helped facilitate a lie against you, a lie that tore us apart. She, along with the Hudsons, Scott, and Matt, plotted and schemed to tear us apart for the sole purpose of controlling my money and me, and they didn’t care what that did to us. Just remember all that when you start to feel like we’re not being kind to her.”
“I know, Ryder, I know; I won’t forget what she did to us. I think I’m just tired; I just want this all to be over. But I want more than anything to start our new life together without any baggage. I don’t want us to look back on this with any regret. I’m not so much worried about what people might say about me, but what about you? If we don’t handle this situation correctly, it could come back to haunt you and me by association.”
“Don’t get me wrong; I won’t do anything against my conscience, and I won’t live my life according to what the public wants or thinks; I’ve had enough of that the last five years to choke me. But whatever we do, we have got to be able to live with it. Agreed?”
“Yes, agreed.” His kiss on my temple was soothing and helped ease some of the tattered places inside.
It’s times like this that I would turn to Rachel or Sydney. But one turned traitor, and the other was upset with me. I know what Mom would say, so she’s not an option. No mother likes to see her child suffer, and it might be too much to ask her to have any kind of compassion for Janie and the others. Mary and Scott were already dead. I’m still trying to come to terms with that. No one knows where Matt is, and Rachel is in custody.
“Wait a minute; you don’t think… no, it can’t be.”
“Think what?” I looked at the two silent men up front and back at me. Although we were talking as low as humanly possible, I had the feeling they could still hear us, so I shook my head at him and mouthed the word later while pointing at them with my eyes.
Left alone with my thoughts, I felt very uncomfortable. Have you ever seen an animal achieve a feat that it shouldn’t have been able to? You experience that feeling of otherworldliness that sends shivers down your spine, and that feeling lingers and stays with you, leaving you feeling somewhat lost and just a little bit scared.
That’s what I felt now as my mind tried to convince me that the same little girl who was just on that video was the one responsible for all this. It shouldn’t be, right? Not outside a Hollywood studio, at any rate. But I can’t help but feel that I’m on the right track. But reconciling the soft, almost angelic tone of her voice with what I now know she was responsible for is hard to do.
Could she have orchestrated their deaths? But how? It’s easier to believe that their nefarious dealings had caught up with them, and for my own peace of mind, I’m going to tell myself that that is exactly what happened.
***
*Mengelini*
Lily, Nia, and I headed toward our private spot at a leisurely pace. There was no need to hurry since Daddy and the uncles were far away. Mommy and the aunts thought we were just here to do research, to ask questions, which we would, after. But first, the good doctor needed a taste of his own medicine.
“Uh-oh, he’s already screaming. I think he saw the snakes.”
“We’d better hurry then because he’d be no use to us if they get to him first.”
“You forget Lily, only one in that bunch is actually poisonous.”
“Yes, but he doesn’t know that, and the way he’s carrying on, he might die of a heart attack before we get there.”
I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, not really caring one way or the other. Sure, we wanted to question him. He’s one of the leading experts in mental health studies, but I’m sure we could find someone more reputable for our research. “If he dies, he dies, so long as he loses his mind first.”
I hate people who use their power to subdue others that are weaker than them, and the fact that the good doctor had sold his services to bring harm to someone who needed him puts him high on my list. Daddy would be proud of me if he wasn’t so stuck on my age because I was doing something straight out of the Colton Lyon playbook.