Chapter 84

* Ryder *

I should’ve seen it coming, but even I didn’t think she was this stupid. Janie flew up from the chair in a rage and went after Elena, talons bared and teeth gnashing like something out of the wild. And before I or either Jared or Travis could reach them, Elena swung and knocked her down with a punch to the face. The screeching was almost unbearable in the empty room as it bounced off the walls like an echo.

Elena, my little angel who I believe has never hurt a fly, stood over her and pulled her hair back hard with her hand raised, ready to wail on her again, but then she suddenly stopped and jumped away from Janie as if she’d been prodded by something. Unfair as it was, I was about to let Janie have it for whatever it was she had done to hurt her, but then Elena spoke, and it was the horror in her voice that had me stepping forward to take a closer look.

“What the hell? What happened to your face?” I almost laughed at Elena’s question, thinking she was being facetious since she was the one that had just decked her in the mouth, but that was before I got a good look myself.

Maybe it was the way Janie’s hair fell away from her face in the fracas that revealed it, or it could be the shitty lighting in the abandoned warehouse; whatever it was, her face was fully revealed to us now, and it was a sight. The sides of her cheeks had long red gouges that I at first mistook for the acne she usually works so hard to hide, but which, on closer inspection, turned out to be some sort of scratches, maybe from a wild animal.

Elena looked immediately contrite, but that didn’t last long because Janie jumped to her feet, spitting fire and out for blood. This time I was able to get between them and move her back none too gently with a hand on her chest. Even that little insignificant touch felt dirty.

“Don’t even think about it. If that’s the worse you get out of this, you’ll be lucky; you had it coming. Why did you do all this? Huh? To what end? I get that Matt and the others deceived you the same way they did me, but you aren’t innocent; you were right there with them since the very beginning.”

“Either you went looking for them, or they went looking for you, but either way, you were not an innocent participant they just picked up off the streets. You’re complicit, do you understand? From beginning to end, your hands are dirty.” I didn’t know that I was going to say this much to her when we met, but the words just kept coming.

“You knew that Rachel was lying; in fact, you helped them plan the whole thing, didn’t you? Are you too evil or too dumb to realize what you’ve done? I never, not once, did I give you the impression that I wanted to be with you. We fucked once a million years ago when Elena and I were on one of our breaks. That was it.”

“I told you then that there could never be anything more between us, and when I went back to her, I didn’t even remember your name. Fucking Matt and your piece of shit father convinced me when I was at my lowest that I had to marry you because of some religious bullshit because I supposedly took your virginity which we both know is a fucking lie.”

I saw what little light was left in her eyes disappear. “Oh, you didn’t think I would figure that one out, did you? You fucked Matt long before you even met me, that’s what he held over you to keep you in line, and the whole lot of you used me like some fucking blind sheep that you could lead around by the nose.”

I hadn’t meant to reveal these things, not even to Elena, but I was too far gone to pull back. Her lack of remorse, her very defiance, and the fact that she thought she had the right to go after Elena after everything she had done to her was just feeding my anger more and more.

“If I had known about your sick obsession with me or that you would someday destroy my life, I wouldn’t even have spit on you back then. Get this through your head; I never loved you, not even a little bit. Even when I was drugged out of my mind, she was all I could think about, and if you were honest with yourself, you’d admit that I was never any kind of husband to you.”

“Now you can go out there and tell the world whatever version of the story you want to sell, but you and I and everyone here know the truth; you were no wife of mine.”

“Okay, Ryder, that’s enough!” Elena pulled me back and away from her when I got too close. As if afraid that I would hit her, which I was very tempted to do.

It didn’t take Janie long to regroup; again, the drugs gave her a false sense of safety and clouded her judgment. I know how that works, so I was not surprised that she thought she still had a fighting chance in hell that she could come out of this unscathed.

“So, you two think you’re just going to walk off into the sunset and live happily ever after? Think again. I’ll never let her have any peace, not as long as I’m alive.” She pointed at Elena and jeered. Those were some good drugs she’d taken because she didn’t seem to care that she was outnumbered and pretty much hated by everyone in the room at the time.

She went on a rant this time that was mostly unintelligible, but most of it seemed to be about her hate for Elena and how the world was going to know what a bitch she was. My name was mentioned a time or two, and from what I gathered from her ramblings, it was as if she’d seen me only as some sort of object to be owned by her.

It was not her fault that she had fallen in love with me; it was not her fault that Elena didn’t know how to keep a man. It was not her fault that I had chosen her. I was a liar and a cheat; she was going to sue me for half of what I owned because it was rightfully hers, and best of all, she was going to have me arrested for tricking her into signing the divorce papers.

No one else spoke as she rambled on and on, but I could feel Elena growing stiff beside me as we listened. When Janie finally ran out of breath, she stopped pacing back and forth and turned a look of venom our way and with the ugly red marks that were now on full display and the spittle at the corners of her mouth, her matted hair that had been tangled in the melee, and her eyes wild from whatever drug was coursing through her system she looked deranged.

“By the time I’m finished telling my story….”

“Which story would that be?” The voice seemed to come from the walls, startling the hell out of me as we all looked around, well, except for Jared and Travis, who looked bored as hell as they held up the wall, arms folded, with a disinterested air about them and dark scowls on their faces. I think Lyon trains his squad to do that because I’ve seen that same look at least once or twice on each of them back in L.A.

“You mean this one?” The voice came again, followed by a few seconds of silence before it was broken again. Everything Janie had said since we arrived came through the speakers loud and clear.

“Who is that?” Elena asked Travis, but I think I already knew.

“The nieces,” I answered her in a whisper, not sure why. I took her hand and waited for the other shoe to drop. Of all the things I could’ve imagined, all the places I surmised they could be taking us, this hadn’t even made it on the list.

While Janie stopped her ranting in stunned silence, the video that had been playing in the background was replaced with another scene, this one of Janie lying in a hospital bed bragging to someone off-camera about the things she had done over the years, some of them criminal.

It was pathetic and deranged and very obvious that she was either high or crazy at the time. She bragged about how she’d clasped hands with the Hudsons to drive Elena insane over the years, about the times they’d driven by her home to spy on her, the lies they’d told to make the public hate her.

She implicated not just Mary but her daughters as well, adding things I hadn’t been aware of, things that, if revealed, could make life very difficult for the sisters now that the mother was gone. She brought down everyone involved, including my mother, who had been swindled into believing that she was doing what was best for me.

She mentioned the doctor who had supplied them with the drugs Rachel had been feeding Elena and the fact that he was part of some sick pedophile ring in the church and things that made me want to throw up because I was once associated with these people and had no idea of the filth they were hiding.

The person in the room seemed to egg her on to say things that no sane or rational person would share, and that’s when Janie started spilling the truth about our relationship. She broke down as she recited the story about how I had spurned her even on our wedding night.

She spoke of the lengths she’d taken to get me to want her, the ways she’d tried to practically become Elena so that I would look at her the same way. She’d changed her hair, the way she dressed, and had even gotten some tattoos to match hers, but nothing she did ever seemed to work. No matter how many drugs she gave me, I always seemed to know that it was her and would reject her.

She moved on to blaming her accomplices and exposing some more dark things that I hadn’t known myself. It was hard to hear and realize just how stupid I was to trust Matt and Scott, how Matt had used the church against me all for money. How her dad had all but sold her with her approval for the sole purpose of taking over my life.

I was nothing in these people’s eyes; it was obvious. Just a body with money and fame that they could feed on like the parasites they were. The most sickening part, though, was when she giggled about the trafficking thing, which she only hinted at but with a maniacal look on her face. To her, the plight of those young girls and boys was little more than fodder she could use to blackmail Mary and the others if the need ever arose.

Apparently, as she was laid up in the hospital, she had already started to suspect that her cohorts were ready to leave her in the dust. No one was happy with the fact that she hadn’t done what she was supposed to, which from reading between the lines, I took to mean her taking over my life completely.

It was almost like watching a horror movie as she wailed about either Noel or Nicole being next in line to be my keeper. I was barely human in these people’s eyes, I guess. Just something to be passed around for their own gains.

I’d long come to terms with the fact that this girl never truly loved me, but this was sick. I’m sure she never expected anyone else to hear this, and from the looks of it, she didn’t hold anything back.

No one in the room spoke, and even Janie looked like she had sobered up in the ten minutes since it all began. She looked at me as if asking for help, but there was nothing I could do, even if I was so inclined. “This will all be released the second you open your mouth; you’re free to choose the time. What do you say?” She sounded like a kid, but her words were those of someone older.

“You little bitch, who are you? Show your face. This is one of your people, isn’t it? Or one of them.” She glared at Travis and Jared while struggling to fight back tears before dropping to the floor in defeat as if all the life had been sucked out of her.

I’m human, so I felt a pang of pity for her as the realization of all that she had lost hit me. I’d left her with nothing, not even enough to buy a loaf of bread. I was sure that her father would be of no help to her since she had failed at her mission and she had no friends except the Hudsons that I knew of, and I’ve always known they didn’t even like her.

I don’t want to be that guy. The kind of man who thinks only of his public image, and I know from experience that the fans would be with me one moment and against me the next, and as much as I hate her guts and could give a fuck what anyone was going to say or think of her situation ever got out, it was obvious that the girl had problems.

She’d only gotten her modeling career up and running because of her association with me and with some help from Mary, no doubt, but what was to become of her now? Even if what happened today, along with the footage from the hospital, never came to light, her reputation was already damaged beyond repair.

I have no doubt that once the dust settles and Elena and I make our reunion public, things will only get worse for her. Last night’s online session had more than proved that. It’s funny. I didn’t give a damn about her when we were married, but now, seeing her in this state, I felt a small hint of guilt because she hadn’t done this alone.

No matter what she or anyone else had done, there was no denying that I, too, had played a part. That I was the one who had gone along with it all and that without me, none of this would be happening. I wasn’t about to show her any compassion now, though, not only because it might give her the wrong idea, but I don’t think my girl would appreciate it given the circumstances.

“Well?” The voice came through the speakers again, making Janie jump.

“I want out of here.” Janie gave me a look of hate but had the good sense to keep her mouth shut. She started to leave, but Jared stopped her and turned to the screen.

“Are we done here?” How he could remain so unaffected after everything that had gone on here is a mystery.

“Yes, take her back to her childhood home. Janie, feel free to make use of the house for as long as you need; you can only stay there on one condition, though, your parents are never to step foot on the property again.”

“You’re giving me the house?” That seemed to sober her up some, and I was a bit confused at the largesse. Mengele, as her father calls her, never struck me as the giving type.

“Yes, as long as you realize that the people you grew up with, the people you shunned and bullied in the town you grew up in, are still going to be your neighbors.” Damn, that’s cold.