Total pages in book: 196
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 180438 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 902(@200wpm)___ 722(@250wpm)___ 601(@300wpm)
“Lions,” Mancini said with a bit of awe, and it was then I heard my daughter speak for the first time.
“Not just lions, Uncle Hank.”
“If they’re not just lions, what da…what are they, Mengele?”
“Daddy, have you ever heard of Tsavo?” Mancini choked on the sip of water he’d just taken from the expensive bottle of crap he’s so fond of, but I didn’t have time to question her further because, on the screen, pandemonium broke out as the lions made their way along the deck to the crowd of people all dressed in their formal best and started attacking.
It happened fast, just a flash of movement, and then there was blood, guts, and screams of terror as I sat rooted to my seat, trying to make sense of what the hell I was looking at. “What the fuck did I raise?”
Chapter 77
*Elena*
Dinner was amazing, but everything that came after, not so much. Ryder had gone above and beyond to make me forget our unwanted audience, and it worked to some extent. After a time, I really did forget that they were even there. We didn’t pretend to be two old friends playing catch-up, but neither did we go crazy with the PDA.
It turned out to be just the perfect end to a crappy day, and by the time we left the restaurant, I was beyond happy that we’d got our first outing since getting back together out of the way. We were mobbed by fans on the way out, none of whom had been there when we arrived, so it was obvious that something had been posted about us on social media to get all of them there.
Now, in the past, something like this would’ve soured Ryder’s mood. It was always a toss-up what kind of response he’d have to being bombarded like this out of left field, and I felt myself tense up. Old habits die hard, I guess.
As if guessing my thoughts, he wrapped his arm around me, pulling me closer to his side, which only made those cameras click harder. He didn’t scowl once and seemed genuinely relaxed and not like he was posing for effect or anything. His reaction made me let my own guard down, and it pretty much ended the evening on a good note.
I’ve always loved interacting with my fans and had missed it during the years I was playing hide-and-go-seek with the public, but this bunch was nice and respectful, not too pushy given the circumstances. Their questions were respectful and not too over the top.
We walked away about fifteen minutes later after security got us out of there, and it was in the back of the car on the way back that Sydney called. She’d seen the picture I’d posted earlier, and apparently, there had been lots of comments on the entertainment news, and she was pissed. I’m unsure if she was more upset that Ryder and I were back together or that I hadn’t told her first.
I didn’t get to find out, though, because she hung up on me, and then I found out that her response was just the tip of the iceberg. I’d been so caught up in the positive feedback that I’d completely overlooked and forgotten the haters. Or maybe in the back of my mind, I’d convinced myself that Rachel was the one behind all the negativity, but since she was out of commission, there was no way this was coming from her.
“Let me see it.” Ryder, who had been watching my face as I read the screen, took the phone from me and read the comment that had caught my notice. Then, as though the poster had been waiting for us to have eyes on it, all hell broke loose.
The comments about my weight gain came up, and there were some very unflattering and very obviously doctored images uploaded that pretty much compared me to a whale, followed by knocks against my mental health. Ryder was getting more and more heated by the second, and I just wanted to crawl into a hole and die.
And then, just when I was about to swear off social media again, something miraculous happened. Someone uploaded paragraphs of text, all precise and to the point, outlining the entirety of our breakup and the things that had gone on behind the scenes.
No one else posted anything for a good half an hour, as I imagined they were all reading along with Ryder and me. “What the hell? How does this person know so much?”
“I think that might be the nieces.”
“But that’s not their screen name.”
“It reads like them.” He seemed pretty certain, but I was still left wondering, even so, how they would know the ins and outs of our relationship. It was revealed through those posts that Rachel had worked with the Hudsons to get me out of the country so that Janie could make her move on Ryder. It was also revealed that this whole thing had started way back when, long before I knew anything was going on, even after the fact.