Page 80 of Everyone Is Lying to You

“You did,” I told him. “But I’ve taken care of it.”

For years Olivia had been counseling me about how to pivot, how to make the best of every new situation to maximize my audience and income. When I had a skin cancer scare a couple of years back, we got sponsorship from three different sunscreensand gained a million followers for my #CancerJourney. Never mind that the tumor was benign. We kept it going for a year until the engagement dwindled. When I couldn’t get pregnant recently, I told Olivia I could just make myself seem pregnant with AI and then generate an AI baby. She thought I was joking. I wasn’t.

I planned to use my leverage with Marsden over what happened in that barn with Grayson to get him to give me everything willingly, to sign the hotel over to me. To grant me an easy divorce. To just walk away. Olivia agreed, but she told me to be patient, to tread carefully, to let her work behind the scenes. I knew she was trying to decrease the damage and maximize the upside for both of us, for both Rebecca and me. But I also knew her instincts were good, and I trusted her, at least as much as I trusted anyone.

But Marsden became obsessed with the idea of getting rid of Rebecca too. Couldn’t stop talking about it. I didn’t protest too much.

What did I care? Rebecca Sommers never did a damn thing to help me, just smiled and looked away when I showed up at her house as a child bride. She could have befriended me, taken me under her wing, helped me, but she was too busy building her brand. I’d deal with Marsden afterward. I planted the box of strange pictures of me in the Sommerses’ house, just to make sure the police knew what a weirdo stalker Gray really was. I wanted them to think Rebecca did what she did because she was jealous and outraged. I’ll admit I had fun taking them. While I was there, I did everything I could to access Rebecca’s Cloud storage, where I assumed she had kept the video of Marsden and Grayson fighting in the garage, but someone (I’d later learn itwas Lizzie) was in the house and I didn’t have enough time. I’d have to deal with it once Rebecca was dead.

I arranged the dinner in the desert, so I’d have a reason to take everyone’s phones. I figured either Lizzie or Katie knew where to find Rebecca and had been in contact with her. I used the same little spyware I had been using to watch my husband. In fact, I loaded it onto everyone’s phones, all the influencers who came to the dinner. It would serve me well in the future to know what deals everyone was brokering. No one suspected that I’d even touched their devices. They just handed them over like children following a teacher’s orders. I had the location of Rebecca’s new phone within minutes. Katie had been texting her nonstop about Alice’s ear.

I also threw the dinner so everyone would know exactly where I was when my husband kidnapped Rebecca Sommers in case something went wrong. I had thought of everything.

I knew Marsden would fuck up the plan to get rid of Rebecca. He always did. God gave him every physical advantage but forgot to give him any intelligence. He was denser than a big old oak tree.

But it was all to Rebecca’s credit that she fought back so hard. And Lizzie’s and Olivia’s that they went out to save her. Olivia called me afterward. She always did. “You’ll have to say the gun was Marsden’s. It’s unlicensed. They’ll never trace it,” she said.

“Of course,” I agreed. We moved forward from there.

Sometimes I feel like she lives in my brain. I trusted her to do what she thought was best.

“You’re getting exactly what you wanted and what you needed,” Olivia had said. “It’s your time to shine.”

Of course I agreed. She gave me the gift I’d been desperatefor. She got rid of my husband. And then I gave her access to all the data I scraped from every major influencer in America. We are the perfect team.

Life is good. Finally. My sisters and I now have control of the hotel. But if I ever want to run it myself…Well, I have a plan for that too. I stare longingly at Alice. It would have been nice to make the girls mine. They’re delicious. But I’m thinking about adopting. Olivia tells me there’s a huge hole right now in the adoption influencing market, just waiting to be filled.

I still want to take down Dr. Carmichael for all the grotesque things he’s inflicted on the women here. I discussed it with Olivia and she agreed. Told me to plant the seed with Lizzie. She promised to help it grow.

I have everything I ever wanted. A big life. A big career. Peace and freedom. My fantasies have become my reality.

I saunter over to Lizzie and Rebecca as they chatter away to each other on the dance floor of the wedding.

Stacy walks up to the three of us with her wide lens DSLR camera.

“Exquisite shots. Get closer together.” Stacy tilts Lizzie’s head to get the perfect angle between Rebecca and me. She brushes a dead leaf off my shoulder.

“Now look at one another and laugh like you’re all in on some hilarious joke,” she directs us. “Yeah, that’s perfect, that’s the perfect shot.”

#Blessed.

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