Page 146 of Fame and Obsession

“God, I knew you were stupid, but come on, Phoebe. Does this look like I’m here for a fucking makeover?” Shoving the fisted knife in front of her, she glares at me, her eyes vacant—as if the Tanna I’ve come to somewhat know no longer exists.

If she ever did.

“You tell me, Tanna. You’re the one holding a knife,” I slowly start to back up while keeping her talking.

“Your little website trick was cute,” she offers with a smirk. “You must think I’m some kind of moron to not have known what you were doing, huh?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, don’t give me that!” she screeches, waving the knife in the air. “I knew that page was a setup. I was playing you both. You don’t think I’ve watched everything you’ve done since you barged up that staircase and ruined everything?”

I know what she’s saying. I just don’t want to believe it. Tanna. His friend. His trusted bandmate. She’s his tormentor.

This will destroy Julian.

“I’m a hacker too, bitch!” She pounds her fist into her chest. “How the fuck do you think I got so close to him in the first place? I knew everything about him before he signed off the first fucking night.”

She keeps spewing words I can’t comprehend. What the hell is she talking about, “when he signed off”?

“I waited. I gained his trust so I could take my revenge.” She screams louder.

Somebody has to have heard her by now.

“Tanna…”

“Do you know how many months I had to practice to play guitar like him? My fingers bled every fucking day! Every fucking day! But I kept on, and I learned like a master.”

“What are you saying?”

“Jesus Christ!” She charges toward me, her eyes wild with fire, and her conscience a distant memory. “Do I have to spell it out for you? I made him famous! It wasn’t until I joined the band that they were handed a recording contract on a silver platter. I made him. He was mine to ruin for murdering my brother!”

“Oh God…” As she rants, I eye my cell phone sitting on the table beside me. I glance back, and her eyes soften as a blank and confused look washes over her.

She’s quiet for a moment—almost like herself. Then she winces, and it’s like I’m not even in the room.

If I don’t make it out of this apartment alive, there needs to be evidence as to what happened. As she starts ranting again, I enable the voice recorder app on my phone and shift to the right to block it from her view.

“It would’ve been perfect. Julian’s car has slotted wheels, easy access to douse the front brake pads with a quart of oil. He didn’t even get in the car for hours, which would’ve given the oil time to soak in. It would’ve been perfect,” she repeats, with a forlorn look. “He’d go for a drive, and the first time he hit the brakes, they’d fail. He’d never know what hit him. The pedal would still have the same pressure, but he’d just spin around with only the rear brakes to save him. The way he drives, it’d never be enough. He’d spin out of control and either fall into a ravine or get slammed by another car. Either way, he’d die.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” I breathe.

“Am I? Then why didn’t I go through with it back then?” She stomps her foot and yanks on her purple hair. “I’ll tell you why… Because at the last minute, I couldn’t do it.”

I don’t ask. I know she’ll tell me anyway.

“You want to know why? Because that asshole made me fall in love with him, that’s why. Months of hacking, months of teaching myself to play the guitar, months of writing fucking letters he looked at like he wanted to spit on were worthless because he made me love him.”

“And I—”

“And you… You had to walk up there with your slutty dress and stupid”—she grabs her head as if in pain—“ignorant accent and fuck everything up. You took what was mine!”

“You killed Vivian.”

“That’s right, and don’t act like you give a rat’s ass either. We both know that bitch got what she deserved. The biggest mistake I ever made was bringing her into this.”

“What?” Her confession has my head spinning.

She has the nerve to look smug. “Who the fuck do you think was feeding all the shit to Blogosphere Daily and Access Live? All it took was me promising to be a bug in Julian’s ear in her favor, and she folded. I think the gut stabs were a brilliant touch, don’t you?”

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