Page 100 of Total Obsession

"What do you mean?"

"Money and influence only go so far, Zoey," he said. "I merely created the opportunities for you. You were always the one that had to rise up to take them." He smiled at me. "And you always did."

"Don't look at me like that," I said, wiping tears away from my eyes. "Like you're proud of me."

"But, I am proud of you."

"I don't want you to be anything towards me," I said, raising my voice. "You meddled with my life for years! All this time I thought it was because I had talent. I thought I'd become a model because I was pretty. I thought I got picked up for the television series because people saw that I was talented. Same thing with the movie deal. And now I'm finding out that all this time it was you causing that, it wasn't me! How am I supposed to feel?"

"Proud of yourself," he said, taking a sip of his own coffee. He leaned forward and put the cup on the table. He fixed me with those green eyes, and I couldn't look away. "Zoey," he said. "What does an agent do?"

"What?"

"What does an agent do? Think about the question."

I shrugged my shoulders. "I dunno. Look for opportunities for their clients. Get them auditions."

"What else?"

I threw my hands up. "I dunno. Lock them out of their own homes?" I said sarcastically, thinking of the last thing that Sarah did.

"I'm glad to see your sense of humor hasn't left us, but what else?"

"Work with networks and call executives," I finally said after chewing on my lower lip.

"Exactly," he replied, his gaze super intense. "That's all I was doing."

"It's different," I said.

"How?"

"Because I never said you could! I never said that I wanted any of that from you! The intention was different. You just lurked in the shadows, writing things down about me in your little black book! Who even knows what you promised these people? And now I'm all wrapped up in it. It's fucked up, Axe. Please tell me that you see that?"

"I know," he said. "And, you're right. It was fucked up."

"Why did you do all of it anyways?"

"Revenge."

I froze. Did he just say revenge?

The silence stretched on between us until finally, I couldn't take it any longer.

"What do you possibly mean by that?"

He relaxed back in his chair again. "I was angry at you for what you did to me when we were kids."

"I don't get it," I said. "You were mad at me, so you decided to give me a life of fame and fortune?"

"Not exactly," he replied.

I made a movement with my hand indicating he needed to elaborate and quickly.

"My plan was to give you fame and fortune and then to take it all away."

My heart was beating so fast. All of the horrible things that I thought might be true were turning out to be true, and my mind was reeling.

"So you were the one that posted that video?" I asked quietly, not wanting to hear the answer.

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