Chapter 32

*Janie*

I braced myself and waited for the volley of insults that always followed after the hellos were out of the way. I felt the energy coming off her, the smell of sulfur, and knew where she'd been.

This could get very ugly if I'm not careful. It had been some time since I'd had a meet with Mom to have her cast, and with Ryder in the wind, most of her efforts had been on keeping him under some semblance of control even from a distance, although we had no idea if it was working or not.

"So, what are we going to do about this mess you've gotten us into?" How did I know she would blame me once again for her own screwups? It's not my fault that people were now ostracizing and canceling her family because of her actions and theirs. "Didn't you hear me? I asked you a question."

I wanted to yell back at her that it wasn't my fault she was known as the woman who pimped her daughters out for clout and wealth. Ever since that post was made, it's been open season on the whole Hudson clan, something I would've enjoyed immensely if the same person wasn't after me as well.

In the last few days, my business had come under attack, and things I'd once thought were long forgotten were now front and center on everyone's minds because of this vindictive person who'd spent the last few days attacking me and everyone I knew in this town.

I was hoping Mary would have the solution to this mess, but here she was, asking me for help. "I'm not sure what you want me to do." She got close to my face, and I leaned back to avoid her fetid breath and the overabundance of perfume she'd drowned herself in to hide that old lady smell that permeated her whole person.

I'm not sure who she thinks she's fooling as if all the Botox and plastic surgery could hide the fact that she was an aging relic. Her eyes were even darker than usual today, which meant I had to tread carefully, or she could easily go off the rails, and that would be the end of me.

Not for the first time, I wished my dad had found another way in as I looked away from her intimidating glare. I'm almost certain he didn't know what he was getting us into, but Mom and my aunts back in her home country had said that she was the one to go to, that she would be the one most open to our plans as long as the price was right.

But no one could've known the depths she would go to or the darkness that lived inside her that she'd kept so well hidden from the rest of the world. So, instead of a greedy old woman whose only interest was in where her next dollar was going to come from, we were in bed with a viperous snake with three heads. And, of course, once again, I was the one stuck with her since my family was on the other side of the country, enjoying the fruits of my labor without putting in any of the work.

I guess Mom and Dad thought they'd done their job by helping me get Ryder to the altar, and now I was expected to pay them off for the rest of my life. Something I never minded, not in the beginning, anyway. But that was before I knew the hell that my life would become before I knew that just because I tricked someone into marrying me, that didn't mean that he would one day come to love me.

"You're going to get the focus back on that little bitch and off of my family and me. We're losing business and contacts left and right. Our show is now in jeopardy, and the empire I spent my life's blood building is about to be destroyed because you were too stupid to handle one sickly beaner."

"Here!" She grabbed an envelope from her bag and slapped it down on the counter in front of me. "It's all in there. Get to work on it by tonight."

"What is it?" I picked up the envelope and turned it over in my hand.

"You know very well that stress is the worst thing for Elena; I want you to keep the pressure on. Once you release this, everyone's attention will be diverted, and it'll give me some time to come up with something long-term. Don't disappoint me again."

She turned and left before I could say anything, not that I would have. Why isn't she asking her daughters to help this time around? It's as if they're all going to leave me standing on my own to save their own skin.

The things that were leaked about them weren't very nice either, but at least they weren't the ones who the whole world was laughing at because their husband had been missing and the lies they'd told to hide the fact that they didn't know where he was had been exposed.

I opened the envelope and read the slip of paper before burning it as instructed at the bottom. I guess Mary wasn't taking any chances since all the evidence pointed to all of us being hacked. Her instructions weren't anything new, just the same old same old with a different story.

We'd figured out, or I had, that stress makes Elena relapse both mentally and physically, which causes her to have to take more medication, which in turn causes her to pack on the pounds like a fat kid at a pie-eating contest, and pretty fast too. This is my favorite thing to do to her because I hate the fact that she's still so pretty.

I hate even more the comparisons people make between the two of us, with me always coming up lacking. I'd barely had any work done, thankfully, but Noel and Nicole, along with their whole family, were getting the worst of it when it came to that because they'd rearranged their whole faces and bodies to the point that no one remembered what they'd looked like originally, so I don't really care.

But all anyone could talk about on the internet is how women who had cut their bodies to change their looks were fat-shaming a woman who never had any surgery done to enhance her beauty and, worst, was fat only because of the medication she was forced to take to stay alive.

It irked me to no end that, once again, the world was on her side. It hadn't always been this way. There was a time when things were going very well when the fans had accepted me, but it wasn't long before I realized that that was just some very good PR work going on behind the scenes and that most of the fans who were giving me well wishes were nothing more than bots that Mary and the others had bought to build my reputation.

It hadn't taken long, though, for the tide to change, especially after that idiot got sick, something I still to this day think she'd done just to get under my skin. Just like that, things had changed, and everyone was on her side once again, and then the accusations started.

Suddenly Ryder and I were the bad guys, and people were throwing dirt on me. What made it worse was that there were no paid bots, real or AI. These were real people who identified and sympathized with her.

That I could've probably dealt with as Mary herself had told me that it would die down soon and I'd be everyone's favorite again, and I believed her because even though my dad had never made it big, my aunt had and I'd learned from her experiences that the people in this town changed like the wind.

But the thing that bothered me more than anything else in this world, other than the fact that my husband was still in love with her, was the fact that she never responded. No matter what I do, she just goes about her merry way as if to tell the world that she's better than me, and I hate that.

I hate that she always comes across as more mature, kinder, sweeter, America's sweetheart, while I was being spurned as the other woman, the one who'd broken their precious stupid relationship. So, until the day I die, I will make the world believe that I was the love of Ryder's life no matter what it takes because I have to win. I must win at all costs.

But each time I make any progress in that direction, something like this happens. It's very annoying to have to jump back into the fray so soon when I'd only just caught a break when whoever this person was had gone after the whole Hudson family. The internet had weeks of fodder to play within just a matter of days.

I still don't know how the little bitch that called me knew so much, but I was growing more and more afraid about how much more she knew. For now, people were trying to figure out if the photo of the security guard and I was real, but I'm sure they'd figure it out soon. I was relieved when the attack changed course, and she went after the Hudsons instead, but how long will that last, and what secrets will she reveal next?

I went to pour myself a glass of wine, and my phone rang. It was Scott's ringtone, and I got excited. "Did you find him?"

"Yes, he should be home sometime today."

"Really? Where has he been? Did he go to see her in the hospital?" Although it had been weeks since she left the hospital, it still bothers me no end that he might've been at her bedside looking after her. Something about that thought makes me madder than hell and just a little bit scared.

"Stop worrying about that; things are looking up for us; there's a big deal in the works worth lots of money. We do have a bit of an issue, though, he's sober and clean, so we're going to have to come up with some other way to keep him in check."

"Why? I don't understand. Why can't we just go back to doing things the way we've always done?"

"I'll tell you when I get there. But it's big."

At least that was something, and he was coming home. I wasn't as upset as I was before the call, and now what Mary was asking me to do didn't seem as much of a bother as it did. It was just another smear campaign anyway, something that was bound to get under that troll's skin.

Whether or not what she wanted me to post under Ryder's name was true or not wouldn't matter. One of the things everyone was asking was why Ryder wasn't saying anything about what was going on between Elena and me online, so this should do the job, as well as make her feel like shit.

I went through my camera roll and found the perfect photo from a couple of years back. Just a bit of manipulation in Photoshop, and I was set to go. I had to think of the perfect caption to go with the doctored image and came up with the ideal one. I'm sure the picture of Ryder and I on a yacht where it looked like we were lazing in the sun together with a caption that read "Spending quality time with my perfect wife" would do the job.

No one but me had to know that the picture wasn't real or that on that day when I did try to lie next to him, he'd pushed me away and ordered me not to touch him. As long as Elena Gianni and her stupid fans believed what I wanted them to, that would be enough to satisfy me.

I was about to upload to Ryder's account by signing into it on my phone, something he didn't know I could do since he had no idea I'd stolen his password, when my phone dinged with an incoming message. I felt almost sick to my stomach when no email address or number showed up again. I almost ignored it, but the sick feeling in my gut told me that that was the wrong move, and I was right.

"If you post anything about her today, it will not end well for you. There are things you do not want the world to know. If you think we're playing, wait for the call from your dad." That was the cryptic message that sent an icy finger traveling down my spine before it disappeared.

My phone rang in my hand almost immediately, and I jumped a foot high, spooked out of my mind. The peace and excitement I'd felt after Scott's call was gone now, and in its place was a sick, growing fear. I saw that it was Dad calling, and that scared me even more.

"Dad? What happened?" My voice and hands shook.

"The bank called in the mortgage. We're out of extensions; you need to get that money. Where is he?" His words came fast and furious.

"I don't know." He rambled on with his threats, but my mind had gone blank. Who is this person that has this kind of power? They have to be using some kind of voice distortion device because I could've sworn that it was a young girl who'd called me that first time.

"Dad, I don't understand. I thought we'd already taken care of that. I already gave you money to take care of it."

"I used that money for something else. Your mother and I have to eat, you know. I thought you'd be able to get me more before the payment was due. Your mother and I didn't go through all this trouble so we could end up on the street."

All my excitement was long gone by the time he hung up. Why was everything unraveling? Why wasn't anything going the way I'd planned? I did a few more lines of coke to take the edge off, and then I heard Ryder coming in downstairs and felt some of my angst leave me. He's home; he's here with me; he's not with her. No matter what else was going on, at least I'd won for today. Ryder had come back to me; that must mean something.