Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Security reaches me first, one standing in front of me, one standing behind me, and they start moving me toward the elevator.
“Scarlett!” Someone screams. “Can we have five minutes to hear your side of the story?”
“Scarlett. Can I have an autograph?”
“Scarlett. Is your biker friend with you?”
“Is it true you’re using drugs?”
“Is it true you’re giving up music to become a biker’s Old Lady?”
I close my eyes and let security lead me inside the elevator. Once we’re in and it’s closed, one of them pulls out their phone and calls Susan. I feel a little relief that she’s still here and hasn’t decided to give me the flick yet. But my relief is short lived when I think about the explosion I’m going to walk into. She’s going to lose her mind. I put my hands over my stomach, take a deep breath, and wait for the doors to open.
When it does, Susan is already waiting, her eyes piercing right through mine. She stares at me for so long I wonder if she’s about to explode and tear this hotel to shreds with her rage. Security steps out, and I step out beside them. Avoiding looking at her a second longer. “Thank you,” she says to the two men who escorted me in. “Your help is very much appreciated. I’ll take it from here.”
The two men nod, and step back into the elevator.
And then I’m alone with her.
I raise my head to look at her again, but she’s already walking toward my room. I don’t argue. I follow her. We move down the hall until we reach my suite, and then we step inside. The moment the door is closed, Susan turns, and I brace for what’s about to come. “What were you thinking?”
Her voice is calm.
Far too calm.
I don’t like it.
“I wasn’t,” I tell her, and that’s the truth. I wasn’t really thinking, if I was, I probably wouldn’t have done it.
But I was angry. She invaded my privacy, and then proceeded to try and control my life. Country music star or not, she doesn’t have that right.
“You’re right,” she says. “You weren’t.”
“You went through my phone, and then tried to take it. You are trying to control a life I already have very little control over. I lost it.”
She stares at me, for so long, I wonder if she’s gone somewhere else in her own head, but then she takes a deep breath, and starts ... crying.
It takes me off guard. Completely. Susan doesn’t cry. She yells. She controls. She demands. She holds her own. She does not cry.
But she’s crying.
Standing in front of me. Tears rolling down her cheeks. Crying. Just sobbing. My heart breaks right away, and I step forward, placing a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Susan. I shouldn’t have done that. I know I’ve left a huge mess for you to clean up.”
“I don’t care about the mess anymore,” she says, her voice breaking between sobs. “I don’t care a single bit. The media is going to and was always going to, find a way to attack you eventually. I thought I could control it, I thought I could keep you out of that, but I can’t. Nobody can. All I’ve done is waste all my energy trying to fight a losing battle.”
“No,” I say softly. “No, of course you haven’t. Susan, you’re a fantastic manager.”
She snorts, and then starts crying again. “You nearly lost your life because I didn’t believe in you. You are running off the rails because I’m holding you so tightly. If I had just eased up and let you go and see your friend, you could have done is discreetly and nobody would have ever known, instead I tried to control it and created a storm.”
I blink.
Wow.
I honestly don’t have anything to say.
“You’re a person, Scarlett. And I’ve been treating you more like a damned machine I can operate how I see fit, that isn’t fair and now this has happened. I should have eased my control a long time ago.”
“It’s not entirely on you,” I tell her. “What I did, it was bratty. It was rebellion. I shouldn’t have behaved like that. But, Susan, you’re right, I feel smothered. I’m not a stupid girl, I use my brain, but I got to the point where I was becoming desperate to escape this world I felt trapped in. I felt like music was no longer a passion, but a job, I felt like I had no say so in my own life. I understand I’m a public figure now, that people see and hear everything I do, but I am still just a person, and damn, sometimes I want time out.”
“I thought I was protecting you from Treyton, I went over the top because I failed you last time. I’m sorry, Scarlett.”