The Crystal 2 by Jones M (reading cloud ebooks .txt) 📕

"Oh, please. You only believed me when that woman mentioned Medusa or something."

"Melinda," Liam corrected.

Wait, what?

"Whatever. I realized that my word means nothing to every one of you unless there is evidence. I don't want to talk to you guys, especially about this."

"Emery--"

"I haven't forgotten what you had told me last week." Emery cut her cousin off. "You said you didn't care about me anymore and you told me time and time again to stop making false claims. What you want to know is what you already call false claims. I will just keep to myself until I carry out my plan, and then you won't hear from me ever again."

Emery turned towards the direction of the bunk beds, leaving me wondering what she meant by carrying out her plan.

"Liam, what happened?" I asked him. The rest also joined in on the conversation as we all stared at him. He remained quiet.

"Liam?" I prodded.

"What have we done?" he whispered, but it was loud enough for all of us to hear.

"What?" I questioned in confusion. Liam remained quiet for a while before turning to face me.

"You have to break up with Bianca," he said.

"WHAT?" I boomed out in surprise and anger.

"No. You need to break up with her."

"Liam, why are you saying this?" Ethan asked in confusion.

Liam's eyes seemed to be welling up in tears. I was starting to freak out because I had never seen him like that.

"Aren't you listening?" he asked with a look that said what he was speaking should have been obvious.

It wasn't.

"Emery was innocent all along! It wasn't her who tried to kill me with a car, and it wasn't her who was posting all those awful things about us on Twitter."

"Liam, that's crazy. Are you even sure?" Logan questioned.

"Of course I'm sure!" he shouted. "I was there when Emery tortured the truth out of that woman you've just seen on TV."

"EMERY DID WHAT?" Logan roared in shock.

"It doesn't matter! That woman was going to try to murder her again anyway! Guys, Emery is innocent, and we might as well have ruined her life."

"What if it is false--"

"Seriously?" he asked, cutting Logan off. "I knew it wasn't a coverup because Charlotte mentioned Melinda. Emery doesn't even know who Melinda is! Guys, don't you know how serious this is?"

There was a moment of silence as everyone digested the words Liam told us.

"I know you guys don't want to accept what I'm telling you. I will go and get a statement from our accounts. Maybe then you will believe me," Liam said as he turned to walk away from us. He then took out his phone as he made a call.

At the moment, the rest of us were shocked. I hated to think that Liam was telling the truth, but I couldn't ignore it. I had accepted that Tom had truly hacked into Emery's Twitter account and our bank accounts. As a result, I kept wondering why Bianca lied that Tom was innocent.

Was she truly a criminal?

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One week later

Emery's P.O.V

A week had passed. I was excited because the tour would end in two weeks time. The boys were given a five-day break, but unfortunately, we all had to hang around the tour bus. 

There was to be an album signing and TV appearances for the boys during the week. Bianca had returned on the previous day, and she was pissed as hell. I smirked knowingly at her, loving how we were playing our game of cat and mouse.

I was also happy that the police had confirmed some of the accounts the hacker sent money to. I was surprised they even mentioned the two men who had tried to rape me. It was also a good thing no time was wasted in arresting the men.

What was sad was that Bianca had not been mentioned, but I had a feeling it wouldn't take long before she was arrested.

I knew it, and Bianca knew it too. 

That was why she was getting desperate. She had been livid all week since she had no one to give her money except for her stupid boyfriend. Unfortunately for her, ever since I overheard Liam's outburst on the previous week, everyone had been growing highly suspicious about Zane's girlfriend.

Took them long enough.

I was glad that the bitch currently had no way of getting cash and that she would soon go to prison.

On other things, Liam knew that I was innocent. I had no idea of how to feel about that. I mean, I was glad that he was on my side, but I was angry that he didn't believe me when I said that the blonde woman was sent by Bianca to try to kill me. It was only the mention of his past girlfriend that had him believing me. He could keep trying to talk to me like in the past week but I was not going to budge.

The others, well, they were unsure about Bianca. They were still unsure about me. It didn't matter because I was still pissed with them. I wanted nothing more than to leave the tour. Also, I wanted to see the look on Bianca's face when she would be arrested.

"Bianca, you have a beautiful voice," I overheard Zane telling his girlfriend while I was finishing up with what I had been typing for the past weeks. I turned to face the couple, noticing that they were smiling at each other. I had no idea why Zane had said those words, but I got my answer when Bianca started singing.

She was horrible. Her voice seemed like a mixture of a growling dog and nails being scratched on a board.

Then an idea came to mind. It was obvious that Zane loved her. She was a beautiful singer to him, but I knew other people would have different opinions.

Maybe I could have a little fun with Bianca.

A smirk formed on my lips as I faced the bitch.

"Zane is right, Bianca," I said, making the couple tense. "You might as well be a musician if you want. I mean, I am jealous right now."

"Emery--" Zane warned, thinking that I was being sarcastic. Honestly, I was, but I made it look the opposite.

"I'm telling the truth!" I said with a smile. "Or do you think that she doesn't sing well?" I asked with a sad frown aimed at Zane.

Zane looked at me with widened eyes before looking at Bianca. Bianca gave me a weird look, not believing my words. I had a feeling that Zane would confirm what I said.

"You are a wonderful singer," he lied through his teeth with a smile. I smirked.

Things were going according to plan.

"In fact, she could try to be a musician just like you guys at the American Idol!" I said, and Zane tensed.

Zane and his bandmates were to appear on the American Idol on that day as performing stars. The show was in its second season, and it had garnered high ratings. Many people were interested in it, and I was certain that there would be an audience to watch Bianca make a fool of herself.

"Yes!" Bianca yelled while nodding her head in agreement.

"Simon Cowell will be there. He will love her, Zane!" I said with a sugary sweet voice while I tried not to laugh at Bianca. She was eating up my words. 

Well, not my words, but Zane's fake excited reaction. I couldn't believe he lied to his own girlfriend!

"I am so excited! I can't wait to perform. Zane, darling, will you help me prepare for tonight?"

"Sure!" Zane continued to lie. Bianca led Zane past us. Zane gave me a glare, and I smiled at him as he followed Bianca.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked later as he approached me. I continued giving him my sarcastic smile.

"I'm giving your girlfriend a little push to pursue her career as a musician."

"You need to stop this! The both of us know that she can't sing that well."

"Correction, Zane," I said with a smirk. "You need to stop this. She believes you, not me. So you could also decide to break her heart right now without giving her a chance of ever becoming a musician."

Zane glared at me as he passed me, bumping his shoulder into mine. I narrowed my eyebrows at him. I wanted to hit him, but I knew I would be satisfied when Bianca made a mess of herself. So I told myself to be calm before resuming my focus on my laptop.

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Hours later, I got a confirmation that Bianca was going to audition live on the American Idol. 

The bitch was going to perform.

I had been on YouTube for most of the day, watching how the auditions went down. There were both good and bad singers, some even showing a bit of rudeness on stage. The judges were serious, and Simon Cowell...

I knew he was the boys' main manager and also a guest judge on the show for the week because another got sick or something. He was the exact opposite and also somehow met my expectations.

I had watched his videos on the X Factor and other shows. He was brutally honest. That made me love him more. Nothing good like seeing someone's dreams being crushed on TV.

Does that make me a sadist?

Anyway, the boys' manager was... wow. He never lied to anyone, not even those who could sing. And the reactions he got from those who couldn't sing... wow.

I watched the videos on YouTube. There were some yelling and a lot of bleeped cussing. There was also another video of a girl who was a P!nk impersonator. I think it was on another show because Simon had not been a judge on that episode. She wanted to get away from the 'P!nk', but then... I had no idea of what happened.

I mean, she was really good.

Then there was the drama that followed afterward with her and her dad.

Wow.

It made me laugh, and it made me feel bad for the girl. But then I recalled Nicole Scherzinger saying 'No, baby, no!'

After seeing other bad performances, I hoped and prayed to the universe that Bianca's would be the most embarrassing.

My prayers were answered when I learned that Simon Cowell would be one of the judges. I could not wait to see how Bianca would react when she would be told she was awful at singing. Knowing her, she could throw a fit.

So it was later in the evening. The boys, Selena and I were in one of the private rooms that were backstage. Bianca had gone somewhere in the building to practice for her audition.

Zane had been glaring at me ever since Bianca agreed to perform on the American Idol. I glared back at him. Sure, I gave Bianca the idea to perform, but it was not me who actually lured her to the mess it would soon become.

"Hey, guys!" Erick spoke as he and his brother entered the room. I tensed at their unexpected presence.

"Erick! Justin! Fancy seeing you here," Liam greeted the two sons of Elizabeth.

"Oh, we heard that Bianca was going to perform, so we came here to support her."

"That's nice of you," I said with sarcasm, making everyone tense.

"What is she doing here?" Justin mumbled loud enough for me to hear.

"Have you forgotten about the erwiches so soon, Justin?" I asked.

"Emery..." Ethan trailed off.

I raised my hands up in surrender. "Don't worry. I won't cause any more trouble."

The door to the room suddenly opened. A brawny guy with blonde hair and an earpiece spoke to us.

"Bianca is on. After her audition, the show will end with you guys," he motioned to the members of the Ordinary Brothers. "You should be ready in about ten minutes. Come on!"

The guys quickly left the room, and the rest of us followed. We came to stand in an open area that was behind the wall-hidden stage. A large flat-screen TV was hung above us, giving us a visual of what was happening.

"We have to go prepare for the live performance," Logan told Erick. They hugged before he and the rest of the