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)
It was even better when I woke up this morning to feel him moving inside me once more as I laid on my side with him behind me. We were both still half asleep, which added to the sheer bliss of the moment as our bodies moved together in perfect symmetry.
Now he was in the shower while I was supposed to be getting more rest as he’d ordered before rolling away from me, but the phone rang, jarring me out of my peaceful half-slumber. Hearing Sydney’s voice reminded me of all that had happened and all that I had yet to tell her.
She sounded excited, something I hadn’t heard in a very long time. “Did you break another record?” I tried to recall which part of the world she was supposed to be on her tour but drew a blank. Sydney’s tours are astronomical world events, kind of like Ryder’s used to be back before life took a turn for us.
“Forget that. I’m talking about what’s going on back in L.A. I know you’re in New York shooting, so I figured you might not have seen or heard anything.” Plus, she knows that I stay away from social media and anything to do with entertainment news, or at least I used to.
Thinking of that reminded me of Rachel and the things Ryder told me about her. That’s something else I dread telling Sydney about as well. “What’s going on in L.A.?”
“I knew that witch wouldn’t have told you about this. Are you sitting down? You better sit down.”
“I’m sitting; I’m sitting.” I was wide awake now because of the urgency in her voice. “Janie has lost her damn mind on national television.”
“What?” Does Ryder know? He didn’t mention anything about that.
“What do you mean? What’s going on?”
“Beats me, but she has been spilling her guts about everything. She’s made some pretty ugly accusations against Mary Hudson and her daughters; I think she even threw her own father under the bus, and get this, she admitted that she tricked Ryder into marrying her.”
When you said that in the beginning, I didn’t believe you, but after hearing this, I think you might have been right.” Char had told me about the dark magic at play, but I couldn’t believe that Janie would admit to doing such a thing in public. What the hell was going on?
Sydney’s right. Even though my mind hadn’t gone to such nefarious deeds back when Ryder left me for her, I suspected that something had happened to make him make that choice. His explanation two weeks ago, along with Char’s, had gone a long way to assuring me that I was right, but this sounded like something else entirely.
The Janie I knew would rather die than admit that truth. I wanted to grab my tablet to take a look, but Ryder would be out of the shower soon. “And get this, because of the things she said. Mary is now under investigation. Not only her but Scott, Matt, and that whole sham of a church they’ve been running.”
“Oh, by the way, Ryder divorced her as soon as he found out about what she’d done. At least, I’m guessing that’s how it went down. No one has seen him, and the Saunders people are keeping him under tight wrap. I almost feel sorry for him after hearing this shit. Oh my goodness, this is wild, and it just keeps getting better and better.”
“She said that Ryder divorced her?”
“No, someone else broke that one. She was too busy fighting for her existence in front of the cameras. You know I’m not a mean person, but I have to say that seeing her like that made my damn decade. Not to mention what happened to her face.”
“What happened to her face?”
“She’s got some kind of scarring from whatever she had that sent her to the hospital. Whatever, who cares? I guess you’ll probably be hearing from Ryder soon. Given all that’s come to light, I guess it’s okay if you forgive him, but don’t make it too easy on him; he was still a jerk.”
I heard the water turn off in the shower and started to sweat.
Now would be a perfect time to tell her that we were back together, but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to do it. This is something I should tell her face to face because there were going to be a lot of questions. But it sounded like she was giving me her blessing, so that should maybe ease the blow. Still, I wanted to wait until she was back home or at least until I made the trip out to see her on tour like I’d planned to.
I did test the waters a little bit, though, just to be on the safe side. “Are you saying you wouldn’t mind if Ryder and I got back together?” She sighed long and hard on the other end of the phone. “Babe, I was there. I saw you, how broken you were. I know what he meant to you, and as much as he pissed me off sometimes, I know how much you loved him. I guess it’s like you always say, the heart wants what it wants, right?”