Chapter 83

* Ryder *

“Where are we going?” She whispered the question as we were being driven through the quiet early morning New York streets by the two very stoic men up front.

“I have no idea. They didn’t say. Are you nervous?” She turned to look out the tinted window while keeping her hold on my arm, where she had hers wrapped around my elbow.

“Not really. Isn’t that strange?”

“I know what you mean. I was thinking the same thing earlier.” I don’t feel this at ease around men I hire myself and have known for years.

“Have you noticed, though, how quiet the street was when we left the apartment?”

“It’s early.”

“Yeah, but this is New York. There’s always someone outside, no matter how late or how early it is. I don’t think there was even a pigeon on the sidewalk.”

I’d noticed that, too, and didn’t say anything because I didn’t want to spook her, but I was pretty sure the two men up front had something to do with that. I wouldn’t be surprised because all of Lyon’s men seem to have some sort of tactical training. Besides, these two didn’t look like the type for small talk.

She rested her head on my shoulder, and we both went back to our own thoughts, no doubt both wondering where it was they were taking us. I had some ideas, but none of them made sense, so I gave up playing the guessing game. At first, I thought it might be to see Rachel or Elena’s mom, but neither of those two seemed plausible, and by the time they pulled onto the street with what looked like boarded-up abandoned warehouses, I was starting to doubt my blind faith in them.

When an old, rusted metal gate slid up, and they drove into the dark deserted underbelly, letting the door slide close behind us, I was sure that I’d made a very horrible mistake until one of them spoke. “We’re here; take your time; we’ll get you back without being seen once you’re done. You have to be on set in a couple of hours, right?”

Elena nodded wordlessly, looking just as spooked as I felt. “What is this place?”

“You’ll see. Jared and Travis are inside.” I relaxed at the mention of the two men we had met before, and so did she. I still wasn’t sure what the hell we were going to find, though, when they let us out of the vehicle, and we walked up the cement steps to the iron door that swung open as if someone had been waiting there for us.

The first thing I heard as Jared stepped back out of the way to let us pass was a song that I had been hearing a lot lately on social media. One of my fans had sent it to me a few days back, but I never really paid much attention since there was so much more going on at the time, but I’d heard enough to know that some enterprising person had written a whole song about our relationship basically calling Janie out for being little more than a stalker.

It was catchy, if nothing else, and seemed to have become some sort of anthem for her haters and detractors. I saw the surprise on Elena’s face as the words echoed off the walls as we followed Jared, which meant she hadn’t heard the little ditty before. “Oh my goodness, what is that song?” She looked as if she didn’t know if to laugh or not, and I just shrugged.

As we got closer to the door where we were being led, a loud screeching voice could be heard battling the music for volume as the person demanded the song be turned off.

We both came up short when we turned the corner and came face to face with Janie strapped to a chair, yelling her head off. I instinctively pushed Elena behind me as I kept her hand in mine. For the first few seconds, I didn’t know what to feel, but then she saw us, and the look on her face changed, and it wasn’t so hard after all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much hatred in a person’s eyes before.

“You bitch!” her entire focus was on Elena, which was odd since I was the one she’d been married to for five years.

“Why is she tied up like that? Untie her.” Elena turned to Travis, who looked like he was ready to kill someone. It was just like my girl to be that soft-hearted. Meanwhile, I’d come out of my stupor, and my first instinct was to take Janie’s head off.

“You sure?” Travis asked Elena, who nodded and moved around from behind me. “You make one wrong move. I’ll drop you.” He warned Janie as he loosened the rope around her arms and legs.

“I’m going to sue you bastards. Who do you think you are? And turn that stupid shit off.”

There was a very large screen that seemed to blend into the wall where a video of the song played on repeat it seemed because it had started over since we walked in. “No can do, orders.” Orders from who? I can’t see Lyon being that petty, but then again, who knows? She lunged towards the screen, and he moved her back with a finger on her chest and a look on his face which seemed to jar her.

She was a bit twitchy as well, and I understood why when she dug into her pocket and took something out, which she swallowed before turning back to us. “What do you have to say for yourself? Huh? Do you think my fans are going to let you get away with this? And what about you, what kind of woman are you? Don’t you have any dignity? He left you for me, remember? In front of the whole world. He chose me.”

She had a sickening grin on her face as she faced off with us, and I wondered what the hell she’d just taken. If this wasn’t my life, I’d swear it was a movie, a poorly written one but one nonetheless.

“Are you okay? What did you take?” Sometimes I wonder if she really is an angel. No one can be this damn forgiving and kind to the enemy. But Elena moved forward even though I tried to stop her, and it was like watching two factions of my life unfold.

One was sweet and nurturing, while the other had hate and death in her eyes. I wanted to get between the two of them, but Elena held me back with a hand as she stood facing a fuming Janie who seemed only to remember the others at the last minute and stopped her forward trajectory.

“Oh, get over yourself. There are no cameras here. Stop pretending to be this perfect little angel. No one’s buying it. You hate me, and you know it.”

“No, I don’t hate you. I feel sorry for you, actually. You did all this, and look at where you’ve ended up.” Okay, now I’m not sure if she’s such an angel because that was a low blow.

“It’s all your fault. You’re pathetic. I am his wife, something you never were. You were just a girlfriend, but he married me.” How did I never realize how much I actually detest this person? No wonder they had kept me drugged for so long. There’s no way I could’ve made it that long being around her without losing my mind or doing her bodily harm.

“Are you listening to yourself? How did Ryder become your husband? Do you even remember, or were you too high?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I think you bought into your own bullshit. You lied and schemed your way into his life, and it still didn’t work. You asked me if I had no dignity, but what about you? After everything you did and tried to do to me, he still came back to where he belongs, and you’re sitting here in this abandoned hovel looking a mess. What happened to that church you used to go to with the pedophile pastor? Didn’t they teach you anything about self-preservation in there? Or did they only teach you how to be subhuman like they are?”

There was no real inflection in Elena’s voice, but her words cut deep, I’m sure. She wasn’t showing any anger either, but I was somehow relieved that she wasn’t as unaffected as she seemed. I never imagined the two of them coming face to face like this, but now that it was happening, I was glad of it. Even though this was my doing and mine to take care of, I felt a sense of relief that she was getting the chance to say her piece as well.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you trying to say that he only married me because he was high?”

“You’ll have to ask yourself that. What kind of married life did you have with Ryder? Did he ever show you even an ounce of love? No, he didn’t because he never loved you the way he loves me. Didn’t you ever listen to any of my songs? I know you did because you can’t help stalking me like that song says. I told you all of it. I told the whole world.”

If I’d had any doubts before that all the music she made since we broke up was aimed at me, they were all gone now. “You have no idea what you stepped into. You saw something you liked and didn’t care who it belonged to, and like a spoilt little brat, you used daddy’s money, what little he had anyway, and the influence of your powerful friends to destroy something beautiful, but haven’t anyone ever told you that there are some things in life that you cannot attain because it’s just not for you?”

“Spare me your sanctimonious bullshit, okay. You don’t own him. If you did, it wouldn’t have been so easy to convince him. Why don’t you ask him about that? Why don’t you ask him why he came running to me?”

“Are you sure that’s how it happened? Or did you stalk him too the way you stalked me and then used the opportunity to fill his head with lies? I know all about the New Year’s Eve trip that you and the Hudsons planned with Rachel.”

Janie’s eyes widened at that as if she had no idea that Rachel had been found out, which made sense since she was in the hospital when that happened. “You… how do you know about that?”

“We know everything now, Janie,” I answered her, and she turned her attention to me for the first time since the two of them started brawling.

“I thought I would be angry when I saw you, but I don’t even have enough feeling in me for you for even that. I feel nothing, not even pity for the state that you’re in. I wouldn’t have chosen to see you ever again in my life, but now that we’re here, let me just say I hate you. If there were no laws, I would break your neck and feed you to wild dogs.”

The more I spoke, the more enraged I became. Sure, I knew I would have to talk to her at some point, but I didn’t expect this dark anger to fill me. But as I stood there watching and listening to her showing no remorse for the things she had done, all I felt was rage. This was as much her fault as it was mine, and though I carry most of the blame, had she not been in the picture and not been such a fucking leech, none of this would’ve happened.

“Why me? Why did you choose my life to fuck up? Why couldn’t you get help for your sick obsession before all of this happened?”

“How can you say that? You know how much I love you. I would never have done what she did. You wanted a child. You wanted to start a family; you said so yourself. Matt and all the elders decided that I was the perfect one for you, don’t you remember? You were there; you agreed.”

Is she really this dense? Even now, she refused to give up, to accept that this whole thing was nothing more than a farce built on lies and subterfuge. Has she been crazy all along, and I have just not seen it? There’s no other explanation for her being this obtuse even now.

“It was all lies, Janie. Are you so far gone that you’ve bought into your own lies and bullshit? I wanted a family with her, no one else. You and Matt and everyone else schemed and plotted not just against her but against me. I could’ve forgiven you even that, but I will never forgive you for the things you did to her after you tricked me into marriage.”

“What do you mean? Why would I need your forgiveness? Don’t stand here and pretend you were innocent in all this. You went along with everything and were happy to.” There was no point going around in circles with her on this. She’s going to believe what she wants to, no matter what, but I needed to make her see the truth once and for all for my own peace of mind and so that she would know that there was never going to be another chance for her or anyone else to interfere in my life with Elena.

“I might’ve felt sorry for you before, pity, because I knew what you wanted before this all happened, and I tried to let you down easy. But now, after all, that you have done, I feel nothing but hate for you and everyone that played a part in this.” She had the nerve to look surprised as if she’d expected a different outcome.

She looked around at the others with embarrassment and a slight sign of madness in her eyes, or it could be whatever she’d taken that made her look like that. “Why are you saying that? Why are you being so hateful to me? I am your wife….”

“I saw the interviews you did, the ones I was never supposed to hear about because you kept me drugged out of my mind every day for almost five years.” The look of surprise on her face was almost enough to satisfy me, almost. Things might’ve been different if she’d shown even an ounce of remorse.

“You used everything you knew about Elena and me, things I told you when I was drunk and high, only you removed her and put yourself in her place. Like the time you said that when we were younger, I told you that you were someone I could see myself marrying, but then you did something that hurt me, lies all lies, you fucking monster. That was our story, hers and mine; you were never the one I wanted.”

I was surprised to see that I felt sorry for her after all because my words seemed to make her eyes go dim as she fell back in the chair. The feeling didn’t last long, though, because, in a split second, she was back to spewing venom. And even though I was the one calling her out, all her hate seemed to be directed at Elena.

“I hate you, you stupid bitch. Why couldn’t you stay gone? Why couldn’t you find a life of your own? Why did you have to take mine? I’ll never let you off do you hear me? As soon as I get out of here, I’m gonna let the whole world know what a fake bitch you are. I’ll tell everyone, you’ll see, no one is going to side with you, you home wrecker.”

“Pitiful, pathetic. If you weren’t who you are, I would feel sorry for you.” Elena shook her head with a look of pity on her face.

“What do you mean by that?” Whatever drug she had taken was making Janie feel brave. She showed no signs of backing down, and it was obvious that in her head, at least, she had done no wrong. Elena, on the other hand, was way more composed than should be expected. Proving once again that no sane man in his right mind would choose the other one over her.

“I mean, if you weren’t such a disgusting specimen, I might have been able to conjure a molecule of empathy for you, but I don’t because you’re nothing more than disgusting filth. You claim to love him, and yet you do this? Instead of getting him help for his addiction, you used it against him for your own sick, selfish reasons, and for that, I will never forgive you. You see, Janie, you pathetic fool, that is not how you treat someone you love. And just in case you’re too dumb to know, you shouldn’t have to drug a man to keep him.”

Janie opened her mouth to make a retort, and for the first time, Elena showed her true feelings as she moved to stand in front of her, leaning over her in the chair as Janie leaned back, looking taken aback.

“Shut up, shut your ugly, stupid mouth, or I’ll close it for you. I thought you were a woman; I could at least respect you for going after what you wanted, even though the way you went about it was deplorable. But you’re nothing more than a whiny, entitled twit with nothing between your ears and nothing to offer the world but that plastic face your father bought with the last bit of money he made from his lackluster pathetic career.” Oh shit.