Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 66099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 330(@200wpm)___ 264(@250wpm)___ 220(@300wpm)
Sitting on the cold marble floor with my head resting against the porcelain, I tried to think of what I could do to get me out of this. There has to be a way out.
But even as I thought it, the whole thing seemed so hopeless. Like I had finally ran out of steam. For a brief moment I thought about just giving up. I had enough money socked away that I could start over somewhere else. But it wasn’t enough, never enough.
My mind shied away from such defeatist thoughts. I’ve never let them in before, why start now? There’s no way that it has all been for nothing. I can’t go back to being the outcast, the outsider.
Not after I’d climbed my way to the top. Not after I’d gone from nothing, from the nobody whose mother had slept her way to riches and a life in this town, to the girl who ruled them all.
I crawled on my hands and knees to my phone that was still in my purse on the bed. And never felt more alone than when I scrolled through my contacts. These weren’t friends. They were conquests and the saps I’d bullied all through high school to keep them in line.
Again I felt myself weakening, but right on the heels of that feeling came my resolve. The thing that has kept me going strong and wouldn’t allow me to give into fear or any other pedantic emotion.
So what? Had I not been this way would they ever have given me a chance? My mind went swiftly to Jace and the time we spent together. He’d been kind to me in the beginning. He’d treated me better than anyone else ever had.
With him I’d gotten just a glimpse of what my life could be and it was everything I wanted. And imagine, he was still just a teenage boy, so what would it be like when he became a man and came into his full power?
I knew what he stood to gain, that one day this town would be his. And at first that was all I wanted from him. But how was I to know that he would be the only person, man woman or child, to pierce the shield I kept around my heart?
I never should’ve fallen in love with him. Never should’ve let my heart get involved. But he was so perfect in every way it was hard not to. Though I was never fully able to trust in it.
All the while in the back of my mind there was always the thought that some day it would end and I’d be left out in the cold again. And wasn’t I right? Hadn’t he left me?
I felt the weight of that envelope and what it contained again. Was this the reason why? Because of Track? I looked once more at the evidence he’d thrown into my lap and felt the bile rise up in my stomach again as I crumbled to the floor.
If he knows, then Jace knows. Does that mean there’s no hope of us getting back together? That she’d won? I jumped to my feet with new purpose, a new resolve. No matter what, she cannot win. Even if I have to lose Jace, I won’t lose to her.
I scrolled back through my contacts again and brushed my thumb across the number before calling. This time it has to work. He’s twisted enough to still want to try.
The smile on my face would soon make its way to my heart, I have no doubt. I just need her gone…that is all. I won’t ever be happy again unless she’s gone.
* * *
TRACK
* * *
I have had one hell of a night. After dealing with Jace and Sian at the hospital and that twit in the parking lot, I’d taken Valerie home with me after packing up her stuff, and got a surprise that makes today’s little errand all the more important.
I’d known that Mandy would show up at the hospital after intercepting the call that Liz made to her. I know her well enough to know that that would be her next move.
If she’d had time to think up a plausible disguise she would’ve headed inside I’m sure, to get as close as possible so she could see her enemy at her weakest. Her obsession was that strong and that’s going to be her downfall.
Shit was coming down to the wire and though I hadn’t really planned to deal with her dumb ass just yet, not until after our trip at least, there was no harm in showing a part of my hand at this point in the game.
I’m fighting against the damn clock and Jace. I have to stay one step ahead of him at all times, while dealing with my sister’s issue and keeping the government off my ass.