Page 100 of The Perfect Ruin

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You thought he was sweet and perfect and innocent. But he wasn’t. No one is fucking perfect, Ivy, and you should have known better. Hell, Dr. Maxwell was just as bad as Lola, that’s why they were perfect for each other. All that damn arguing and fighting they did. It was no wonder they were miserable with each other. And trust me, he knew about your parents and how that situation was covered up. Lola had foolishly taken the five hundred thousand dollars she’d given the detective from their joint account and Corey noticed, and she most likely explained. But like Lola, he decided it wasn’t relevant, that it was smart of Lola to bury it the way she did.

If I were you, I’d fucking hate him too.

You did everything and more, Ivy. You destroyed a friendship of hers at your own will. Shit, I can’t believe you pushed Keke off a cliff. I know you did it, and I won’t lie, I was proud of you. You were willing to go to great lengths to get close to Lola and eventually work to steal her husband, and I admired that. It was more than I would have done, but still!

Lola had gone on and on, swearing Keke was pushed, and as she did, I had to stifle my laughter because I knew. I just knew it was you. Good thing those cameras weren’t on during camp, huh?

You knew what you wanted and you went after it, and from that moment forward, I figured maybe I’d done the right thing—that maybe you could still be useful to me, despite the affair you were ready to spur.

Who do you think suggested that you stay in Lola’s cabin during camp? Who do you think suggested she invite you over more often because it seemed like you had her best interests in mind and would make a good friend?

I raved about how wonderful a girl I thought you were, and Lola liked to think everything I said was her idea, so she fed into it. Yes, Lola may have despised me, but she still listened whenever I spoke, mainly because after I’d signed those contracts, I made it my mission to not speak to her on a personal level again. At least not until you showed up.

Lola loved taking in broken girls, and she could see the brokenness in you. She wanted to rub her money in your face, the same way she wanted to rub it in everyone else’s. She wanted you to need her, brag about her and her wealth, because no one else really needed or bragged about her much.

Why do you think she kept Keke around for so long? Keke was a needy little bitch, with an even needier daughter. Keke loved to post on social media when she hung out with Lola to make her other friends jealous. That worked for Lola. It made her feel important—like some goddess.

You were envious of Lola’s life, and rightly so. She’d built herself up and acted like this empowered, perfect woman after her miscarriage, while you struggled for everything you had. She lived the good life while for years you cried yourself to sleep every night after your parents’ death.

It wasn’t fair, was it? How she continued being a selfish, entitled bitch while you wept? How she went to exotic countries and soaked in new cultures while you were abused?

It wasn’t fair. She always got what she wanted, while everyone she touched with her greediness suffered.

You deserved more.

I deserved more.

Unfortunately, only one of us could come out on top, and for what I did to you, I do apologize. But, I mean, you silly girl! You fell for that idiotic husband of hers. You fell for his stupid charm like a fool, thought you’d run off into the sunset with him, take his money with you, and live a new, wonderful life. I couldn’t have that happen. It would have thwarted my plan.

I liked you because you weren’t that materialistic at first, but then you got hooked on the finer things, had a little taste of luxury and a stroke of rich dick, and thought you were invincible. I thought you were smarter than that.

What I did needed to be done, though, so this demise would have happened regardless. It had taken me years. I couldn’t let it all just go down the drain.

I had to pin the blame on someone, and who looked more like the perfect suspect than the girl whose parents tragically died because of Lola Maxwell? They would investigate, you know? After such a tragedy. Two rich people dead. A huge scandal that would be talked about for weeks—months.

There were witnesses who could testify against you too. Faith and Arabel. Keke. Me.

We were all suspicious of you, and we loved Lola like a sister, right? You were weird and came out of nowhere, and we didn’t like you. That was your own fault. You needed to enhance your people skills. I should have worked on that with you, but it’s fine. The weirder you seemed to the others, the better it was going to work out for me in the end.


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