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’ll deal with my marriage situation later, but right now, I need to stay alive. I didn’t know where I was when I looked around, but it didn’t matter; as long as I found a place to lay low for a day or so, I’d be able to get myself out of here and somewhere safe.
I felt a cold shiver run down my spine at the thought of what would happen to me if they found me. Not just Mary either, but the people she dealt with. The reason I’d been so meticulous about keeping notes and such was that I knew those men and women would pay anything to keep their little secret hidden.
I’d planned on using that information later down the road once I had everything in place, but now that was out the window. I would like to roll into a ball and wallow in self-pity because everything had gone to shit, but there was no time. After what I just saw, the recordings from earlier being broadcasted all over the news, I knew I had to get as far away from here as possible.
Calling my dad wouldn’t help. He’s the first place they’d look, and he’s probably having his own problems as well now that I’d spilled the beans. I didn’t care; all I cared about was getting out of there and somehow making my way back to Ryder.
The divorce can’t be real because I don’t remember signing any papers even though the signature had clearly been mine. I’ll just tell the judge that I’d been tricked. I no longer care what the public thinks, even though I felt tears gathered in my eyes when I thought of the way they were sure to turn on me now.
Everything that we’d worked so hard to hide was now fodder for the masses. It was all that bitch Mary’s fault. She was the one who kept up the smear campaign against that Elena bitch. It was her idea to keep going after her in the hopes of making her crazy while that deceitful bitch Rachel had kept feeding her drugs to help her along in that direction.
It was a good plan in the beginning, especially once the magic woman assured us that it would work and I’d have her out of me and Ryder’s life forever, and I’d be his wife. I didn’t care about anything else back then and didn’t stop to think of what could happen if things went south.
My only interest was and always will be Ryder and me being together. Every little girl has dreams; why is it so bad that I wanted mine to be fulfilled and went to any lengths to do it? Why did she deserve him and not me? Why does everyone like her so much?
My heart hurt at the realization that after everything I’d done, I was still only second best in everyone’s eyes. It’s humiliating to accept and know that even with all the well-laid plans, I still ended up like this.
The bots we’d bought to continuously attack her online had been doing a good job for years. The people we’d incited against her had bought our story that her public persona was a lie and that, behind the scenes, she was a monstrous bitch. They were our best line of defense because they were always the first ones to attack whenever something good happened to her.
Mary and I had worked on that idea together. I’d only become interested in her and her daughters’ campaign when it looked like Ryder would never give me the attention, he gave to her when they were together. His indifference made me so angry that I would make up shit about her and post it online, anonymously, of course.
The more he hated me, the more I blamed her, and the vicious cycle never seemed to end. I found solace in the love and adoration of his fans who sided with me when I forgot that it was really the bots pushing that narrative, of course.
In my head, I’d made myself believe that they were actually human beings who loved me and liked seeing us together. On the days that his hatred of me got too bad behind closed doors, I’d appease myself with the knowledge that I was part of the Hollywood in-crowd now, and nothing could change that.
It was thanks to Mary, of course; my association with her family was something I knew I could fall back on. I knew that whenever I was seen with either Noel or Nicole or both, that my status would go up even further in everyone’s eyes, and for years it had worked like that in my favor.
While I was shining and receiving all the praise, that bitch was hiding in the dark, licking her wounds, and I loved it. The more pain we caused her, the better I felt, and no matter how bleak my relationship was with Ryder when we were alone, and the cameras were off, I could still revel in the fact that I had him and she didn’t.