Chapter 31

*Elena*

"Are you shitting me? Is this real?" I kept looking back and forth from my phone screen to Sydney, who was sitting next to me on my bed, digging into a tub of ice cream like the world was coming to an end. She had the biggest smile on her face that had been there since she walked in half an hour ago.

"It's the real girlfriend. I'd like to find this MengeLiNi person and give them a reward; they came prepared. I hear Mary and her demon spawn are catching their ass trying to do damage control, but I don't see how they're going to come back from this."

"But how does this person know all of this?"

"I don't know, but the receipts don't lie. Maybe it's someone close to them; who knows? They screw over friend and foe alike, and they must've pissed off someone by not paying them or any one of the other underhanded things they're known for, but people were always too scared to say out loud. Whatever it is, whoever it is, I am here for it."

I wasn't sure how to feel about any of this. I'd taken some time away from the internet these past few days since the last uproar because the last thing I needed was stress. I'd all but locked myself away in my room when I wasn't hiding out in the studio, scribbling furiously in my journal.

I don't know what I expected when I wrote that song that I was sure Ryder would get the meaning of if he listened, maybe one last goodbye, not that we ever had the first, but something. There hasn't been a peep out of him, but Janie and her cohorts have not been silent.

I doubt they deciphered the code; in fact, I'm sure of it and that their last attack stemmed from sheer jealousy of the mere fact that I was still alive, whichever. But I'd meant it when I said I was done, all the way done. It's not like I owe him a goodbye anyway or a warning that I was ready to move on.

I don't owe it to him, but we'd made vows to each other, though not binding in a court of law or anywhere except between the two of us, but they meant something to me. I'd meant every word when I said them. That's why his betrayal had been such a heavy hard blow. Because I thought back then that he'd felt the same. I was sure of it.

I always thought I knew his heart, that I knew what he would not put me through, even with all of his shitty behavior. There were things we shared in the deepest part of the night, just the two of us, alone, things that were meant to be forever.

That song was basically letting him know that I was now ready to give up on my end of the bargain. It took longer than it should have, seeing as how he'd gone on with his life a long time ago. But that's not how I do things. For me to truly go on and heal, I first had to let go of the woven dreams we'd shared.

Unlike him, who had just blasted his way out of our relationship in the most hurtful way possible, I had to take my time and not force myself to move on before I was truly ready. So much had happened since his wedding, my illnesses, my mental breakdowns, not to mention the worst heartache known to man, that I hadn't had time to really focus on anything else other than mending.

Now I was at that point in the game where I felt at least eighty percent ready to let him go. There was no point in holding onto the past anyway, he was gone, and I'm no homewrecker. But there's still this small part of me that thinks he's coming home.

I guess being in love with him the way I was wasn't something to easily get over. This hurts my heart even more because the fact and the way he moved on just prove that he'd never loved me the way I loved him, and that hurts even more than the betrayal in some ways.

I found, too, once I let myself open up that wound again, that part of my problem was that I still felt that sense of responsibility to him that I did when we were together. I'd promised to always be there for him and that I would never desert him, especially when he was at his lowest.

The fact that he'd looked horrible in the weeks and months after our split has haunted me in ways that I hadn't realized. And though he was no longer my problem to deal with, that part of me, the part that had given my whole heart to him and what I thought we would be, was still tied up in his joys and his sorrows.

The song was kind of me putting all of that down and walking away, never to look back. It was freeing, liberating, and long overdue. So, even though the song had climbed the charts and still was, I needed time to mourn again, this time for the last time.

I guess I needed him to accept and let me go because even though he'd moved on, there was still a lot of unfinished business between us, and that, more than anything, was holding me hostage to a past that could never be revisited.

In all honesty, I find that it's not that easy to move on even with the hurt and the pain that I still suffer and that I've come to realize is the price of a love lost. That searing pain may never disappear completely; I may always see his face in my dreams even as my life go on. But I have to find a way to move on and live with my new normal.

I'd come to all these conclusions in the last few days of seclusion. For the first time, the fact that I had said my last goodbye had given me the space I needed to mourn to put it all behind me and move on. Now I was ready to live again, to find love again, even though I knew that nothing would ever come close to the fiery passion I once felt for him.

Feeling like I'd exerted the best I had to offer in my dead relationship didn't exactly give me much hope for what my future held, but hiding myself away, licking my wounds into eternity was not the answer. So even though there was a little part of me that hated the idea of moving on with anyone other than him, the bigger part of me knew and accepted that it was time.

I'd even written some new lyrics that heralded the new me, something to give to the fans who'd supported me throughout it all. My way of letting them know that I was ready to move on and that they didn't need to worry about me anymore the way I knew they had been for the past five long years.

So, my time in solitude was not wasted. I hadn't spent my days curled up in bed in the fetal position with tears and heartache as my only sustenance; that was progress, wasn't it?

I'd finally come up for air only to find the house empty. I knew my aunt and uncle were going to be gone for a while, but Rachel was supposed to be home. She was probably having a girl's night out since I'd been such horrible company these last couple of days, so who could blame her?

I'd barely made it downstairs to make myself a cup of tea when Sydney called to say she would be at the gate in ten minutes, and now here we are. "Who do you think…. you didn't have anything to do with this, did you?"

"I wish. Do you really think if I'd had that kind of information, that I'd have sat on it this long? No way."

I looked back at the screen, this time focusing on the comments below each post. I never thought that I would see this. There was so much that I'd had to swallow because I knew the reach and influence of that family in this town. I'll never forget what happened the last time I crossed the mother and what it had cost me.

It's something I've never made mention of but had believed with all my heart all the same. I never thought it was a coincidence that after she'd overheard me cautioning Ryder about the church that we were all members of, my life had gone to hell.

I'd all but forgotten that little faux pas since she'd become overly friendly after that day, even going so far as to offer her managerial services. I guess she thought that since she'd done such a good job promoting her own offspring, I would jump at the chance, but even then, I could scent the snake in her and shied away from even having a conversation about it.

But then things started going sideways, and more often than not, her spawn was part of the mess; even though they went to great lengths to appear innocent after the fact, some of the things they did were blatantly obvious. But not once did I think that Mary had a hand in any of it or that she was, in fact, the one pulling the strings behind the scene.

At first, it had seemed too farfetched. Mary Hudson is a woman in her seventies; who would expect her to meddle in the lives of people more than half her age? Sure, she had a reputation for being ambitious and greedy, but so did half the people in this town.

It was only after I'd stopped grieving and had started putting the pieces together in my head that I revisited all of my dealings with her and her offspring and saw the signs. By then, it was too late, though, way too late.

I wasn't kidding last time when I told Sydney that Janie's actions were those of a Skinwalker, though thankfully, she thought it was a joke. That's not something I want to be said out loud, not something I want to be associated with my name, or I'd end up back in the psych ward again.

But the more I thought about it on my own, alone in bed at night, the more I saw and felt that there was something dark and disturbing about the woman who had destroyed what happiness I had in life. Once I got over asking myself why and how things had gone down the way they had, I started seeing things that I'd overlooked because I had trusted Ryder.

There were whispers here and there, and I knew that Ryder had fooled around with her and the Hudson girls, or so it was rumored during the times we were on break from each other. But I never expected this level of black hat behavior, which I probably should've because she's not the first to use outside interference to get what she wanted.

I just never saw Mary's hand in the whole thing, and truth be known, I'm still not too clear on the particulars or which part she did play, but I know she had a hand in my demise. Now she was being dragged for all the world to see. The thing that was freaking me out, though, was the fact that this person seemed to be doing all this in defense of me.

I wonder how long before they claim that either I was the one behind it or that I'd hired someone to do it. Had I had these kinds of resources, I wouldn't have waited five years to do it. Then again, had I known half of the things that had been posted, I probably wouldn't have done anything with that knowledge because it would've taken me down a path I have no interest in treading.

I want no part in that kind of evil and never will. I strongly believe in letting things take their normal course and in treating others the way I wish to be treated. Does that mean that I don't harbor thoughts of revenge every once in a while? Of course not. But I have better control than that; at least, I hope I do.

I'd made up my mind after my last health scare that I was going to live for myself and not get sucked into that hell again. I was back to steering clear of social media, and that's why I didn't know that this was going on, but I'm sure the phone will be ringing soon with reporters wanting a rebuttal or my take on what was going on.

The posts left a lot to unpack, from the madam allegations to the hints of more to come that would expose Mary's part in my relationship being torn apart and some other sinister stuff involving her, Janie, and all who were involved in tearing Ryder and me apart.

I read that last one with much interest because I, too, wanted to see if there was any basis for my suspicions. And to think that someone else was doing the exposing and I had nothing to do with it made this whole thing all the sweeter.

Sydney's phone made a weird sound in my hand, and I looked over at her as she stuffed another heaping spoon of ice cream past her lips. "What was that?" She held her hand out for the phone.

"It's my new alert for whenever this MengeLiNi makes a new post. Let's see what they've got."

She scrolled through her phone and then held it up for me to read.

"To all Elena Gianni fans, you are not helping her but adding to her stress when you take part in these hate campaigns against the enemy. Maybe you should read the lyrics of her songs which are pretty much a blueprint for how she wishes everyone to be treated."

"If you love her and want to support her, buy her music, her perfume, and support the clothing line she's about to collab on. Be part of the solution, not the problem. "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without a fight." Sun Tzu. Figure out what that means and stop making her ill. They're using you to destroy her because their evil knows no bounds. The stress will kill her."

Who is this person, and why do they care so much? How can they know me this well? "Wait a minute, how do they know about the clothing line? We haven't gone public with that yet."

Just then, my own phone dinged with an incoming message. The number didn't look familiar, but the first line made me curious. "Go dark for the next few days; no social media. We've got you." I showed Sydney the text, and she seemed overly pleased while I freaked out internally. This was like something out of a spy movie.