Page 134 of Ruthless Prince
I spent the next forty minutes scrolling through thousands of comments on innumerable websites. Almost everyone online seemed to believe my mother and Jamie were guilty of murder already, despite the lack of clear evidence. There were Reddit threads calling for impeachment and ridiculous Facebook posts screaming for the reinstatement of the death penalty in D.C. just for mymother.
Biting my lip with annoyance, I decided to try a different tactic. Instead of using general search terms like Quinn Rhoades scandal’, I narrowed my search to ‘Quinn Rhoadesinnocent’.
Something caught my eye right away—a forum titled ‘Free Quinn’. The name was a bit stupid, considering my mother was still technically the president and hadn’t been imprisoned for anything, but it was immediately clear that the site served the purpose of sharing information and theories that would exonerate my mother andJamie.
Judging by the information I found on the homepage, the forum was an offshoot of a wildly popular web sleuthing forum whose members had recently solved a series of murders in Oregon when the police and FBI had all but given up on capturing the killer. That was a positive sign. Hopefully, some of those savvy sleuths had hopped over to the new forum aswell.
Heart racing with anticipation, I scanned the top five comment thread titles before letting out a long, defeated sigh. They looked about as useful to me as nipples on abull.
I know for a FACT that President Rhoades is innocent. I know because she was riding my dick all night long when Rutherford was killed. Haha JK, you’re all a bunch of fucking freaks!GTFO
Is it just me who thinks Jamie Torrance is super hot??? If he’s convicted, I volunteer to be his cellmate #jamieisadaddyxoxo
Everyone else is jumping the gun. There’s no evidence Quinn Rhoades paid off Colgate. I mean, she could have, but they haven’t actually proved where the money came fromyet…
Guys, look, I really don’t think Quinn Rhoades did anything wrong, but I didn’t vote for her. None of us did. So can we just agree she should be kicked out of office until all this bullshit is sorted?? #notmypresident
President Quinn Rhoades is 100% innocent. I know what the ‘information’ she had on Rutherford was. He was a SATAN WORSHIPPER who was going to tear this country apart unless Quinn revealed his evil ways. Bless you Quinn! Don’t let the Satanists stopyou!
Despite my disappointmentat the quality of the forum, I clicked into the main discussion section and scrolled through the posts. When I didn’t find anything interesting or useful, I made a post of my own. The site prompted me to set up an account with a username and password, so I used a random combination of letters and numbers to form the name ‘JS81’.
Once that was done, I created a newpost.
Heyeveryone,
I know a lot of you are treating this forum as a joke, but I sincerely believe Quinn Rhoades and Jamie Torrance are innocent. I think someone is setting them up. I don’t expect anyone on here to have the answers to everything, but if there’s someone out there who knows anything at all that could prove they weren’t involved with Rutherford’s death, then I’d really appreciate them letting me know. Seriously, anything at all. Even if you just have a tiny bit of info that doesn’t seem like it would be relevant, tell me anyway. It might behelpful.
Thanks.
It was a long shot, but I had to try. Otherwise I couldn’t claim I’d done everything within my power to help my mother out of the quagmire she was currently flounderingin.
Over the next half an hour, I got several bullshit responses. Two from the Satan lady, three from someone calling me a fucking moron, and four from someone who seemed to be on a drug binge judging by the indecipherable quality of theircomments.
At the forty minute mark, I got a private message from the forum administrator, a user namedFreeQuinn.
I know who youare.
The hair on the back of my neck instantly stood up. I tapped out a reply.Who areyou?
They replied instantly.A friend of the Rhoadesfamily.
I swallowed thickly as goosebumps peppered my arms. The fact that they’d referred to themselves as a friend made me suspicious immediately. If they were really a friend, why wouldn’t they give me theirname?
I jumped up and went over to the window, suddenly afraid that this was part of another elaborate test orchestrated by Logan. Perhaps he knew all along that the iPhone didn’t break. Perhaps he left it there on the floor for the maid to clean, knowing I’d pick it upinstead.
Heart thudding, I pulled the curtains back and peeked out toward the garage. Logan was still messing around with Mal and Adam, and I could see his phone sitting on a nearby garden bench. He wasn’t usingit.
Then again, he could have a second phone on him. I couldn’t besure.
Another message suddenly came through from FreeQuinn.Sorry if I freaked you out. I’ve just been hoping and praying you would join the forum. Or someone like you, atleast.
This person definitely wasn’t Logan. I could see his hands right now, and there was no way he’d sent me that message from a secret secondphone.
Pulse racing with a mixture of trepidation and excitement, I went back to the bed and satdown.
Who do you think I am?Iasked.
FreeQuinn: Willow Rhoades. Am Iright?
