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’d wanted that so much for myself, had dreamt of it for as long as I could remember, but now I know that it’s over. Even if, by some miracle, that picture is a lie, there was no denying that things between Ryder and I would never be what I longed for.
I have no doubt that that MengeLiNi person would tell Ryder all my secrets since she seems to know them, and I’d be lucky if he didn’t embarrass me in front of the whole world. I’d already admitted with my own mouth to what I had done, and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t think of a way out of it.
There was no way to talk my way out of it, no way to pretend it was some sort of skit; it had been too real. Plus, the fact that my own father was ignoring me, that alone told me all I needed to know. If there was a chance that I could come back from this, Dad wouldn’t have ghosted me. He’d have stuck around to get whatever he could, as he’s been doing for the past five years.
I didn’t get where I am by sitting in a corner sulking and feeling sorry for myself and I’m not about to start now. It will never be said that I gave up without a fight and though I hadn’t expected things to turn out this way, I have more than enough strength left in me to fight for what’s mine.
I’ll have my PR team do damage control as soon as the dust settles, it’s what they’re paid to do. I got a pit in my stomach when I remembered that it was Ryder’s money that paid for all that and a cold finger ran down my spine.
I shook it off and concentrated on the road telling myself to handle things one step at a time. It was in the dark of night after hours of pondering my options that I came up with a plan once the anger and hurt were under control.
I forgot everything else, even the fear of being hunted down by Mary’s clientele and the fans turning against me. I knew there was only one way to appease the pain in my heart, and that was by erasing Elena Gianni once and for all.
I should’ve done it long ago, but like a cat who likes playing with its food, I was having too much fun making her suffer. I knew that no matter what she said or tried to portray to the public that it was eating her up inside each time she saw Ryder and me together, or any time she heard our names mentioned together.
No one knew better than me just how much those two really felt for each other. Once the dust had settled after our wedding day, it was made perfectly clear that even with all the lies I’d told, and even as angry as he’d gotten, none of that had worked to kill the love he had for her.
That is why I’d done my best and tried my hardest to make her hate him instead because it was clear to me, even from the very beginning, that given half a chance, he’d have run back to her. Even high and drunk, he still slipped up sometimes and called others by her name.
I’d lost count of how many nights he’d awakened in a cold sweat calling out for her, and that was before we started sleeping in separate rooms. For the first few months, we’d shared the same bed, but never once did he touch me, which was confusing in the beginning, because we’d fucked before on more than one of their breaks.
But after the wedding, it was as if I had the plague. He wouldn’t even touch my hand. The only time Ryder ever got within two feet of me after our wedding was when we were out in public, and that was only because his people warned him that it was best for his image if we put on a united front.
I always suspected he only went along with it for her sake as well, in a roundabout way. If people started asking questions about the division between us and the fact that my husband so obviously disliked me, they might start asking questions. There had already been tons of speculation about the haste with which we’d gotten hitched, so that wouldn’t have been so much of a stretch.
But it had taken me this long to realize that even as angry as he was at her because of the lies, he was still trying to protect her. He didn’t want anyone else to go digging and find out what he thought was the truth; that she had cheated on him and killed his child.