Chapter 38
Needing to make sure that no one saw her, Kristen kept her face pressed against the window as her gaze darted to the right and then to the left before she looked straight ahead to make sure that Garrett’s truck was still gone.
Once she was assured that she was alone, Kristen slowly nodded as she stepped back, careful of the large golden retriever that decided to pass out by the couch, and headed for the stairs as she hugged the package that she picked up from the printers against her chest and-
Found herself throwing another nervous glance towards her front door.
When nothing happened, she slowly turned around and walked backward towards the stairs, her paranoid gaze never leaving the front door as she moved.
Once she reached the stairs, she released a shaky breath, nodding again for some reason, and quickly turned around and made her way up the stairs only to pause halfway there and glance over her shoulder at the front door.
She-
Really needed to move her ass, Kristen reminded herself as she forced herself to head upstairs.
A minute later, she was double-checking that her door was locked before she made her way to her bed, and once she made sure that she was alone, she placed the box down on her bed and quickly made her way to her closet, where she grabbed a white apparel box, some silver wrapping paper, tape, scissors, and blue ribbon.
Once she had everything that she needed, Kristen quickly made her way back to her bed, opened the box the printers gave her and pulled out the manuscript that she had bound this morning and quickly placed it in the white box before she could talk herself out of this.
She made quick work of wrapping it and added the ribbon before she found herself nodding again for some reason and heading for the door with Blanket by her side.
Five minutes later, she was making her way into Garrett’s bedroom and-
This wasn’t going to end well.
But since she already knew that, Kristen looked for somewhere to hide the box, somewhere that he wouldn’t be able to find it unless she told him where to look. She should just leave it on his bed and let him read it, but...
She needed time to mentally prepare herself for what was to come.
Right now, everything in her world was perfect.
She was finally able to write again, faster than ever, and according to Amber, her preorder sales were higher than they’d ever been before.
Her readers were happy. Her dog acknowledged her existence, she’d figured out what color she wanted to paint her living room, and she had the old Garrett back in her life and he loved her.
There was no doubt in her mind that he loved her more than anything and she knew that he would love this baby, too. She just...
She couldn’t stop thinking about the last time that she gave him good news, which was why she’d planned on sending him a text from the safety of her hotel room, letting him know where to find the box so that she wouldn’t have to worry about seeing his face when he found out that he was going to be a father.
It was the coward’s way out, and honestly, she was okay with that.
With that, she found herself debating between hiding it under his bed or...
Definitely behind his bureau, Kristen decided as she quickly made her way across the large bedroom and shoved the gift-wrapped box behind his bureau, making sure that it was out of sight before she stepped back and-
Had the shit scared out of her when her phone began ringing.
Taking a steadying breath, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket, saw who it was and quickly answered, knowing that it would only end badly for her if she didn’t.
“I’m on my way,” Kristen said, sending the bureau one last glance before she reluctantly made her way back to the door.
“And yet, I don’t believe you,” Amber said as Kristen quickly made her way downstairs, noted that Blanket was already passed out on his bed by Garrett’s desk and made her way outside, making sure to lock the door behind her.
“I’m in my car breaking speed limits even as we speak,” Kristen said as she quickly made her way back to her house.
“Is Garrett coming?” Amber asked as Kristen let herself back into her house and grabbed her backpack.
“Not this time. He has a meeting out of town with a new client,” Kristen said, pulling the backpack on her over her shoulder before she grabbed her bag and quickly made her way back out the door.
“If you don’t leave soon, you’ll hit traffic and miss the meet and greet tonight,” Amber drawled.
“Which is why it’s a good thing that I’m already on my way,” Kristen said, lying her ass off as she quickly made her way to her car.
“Uh-huh,” Amber murmured, clearly not believing her for some reason.
“I am,” Kristen said, quickly placing her bags in the back before she climbed into the driver’s side.
“And the meet and greet?” Amber asked as Kristen glanced down at her watch only to bite back a curse when she saw how late it was.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Kristen said, moving to pull her seatbelt on when Amber’s next words stopped her.
“You might want to check your reviews before you leave.”
“What are you talking about?” Kristen asked, only to curse when she realized that her phone just died.
Again.
Every time she brought her phone in to get fixed, they told her that there was nothing wrong with it, but just in case, they’d replaced her battery twice and reset it back to factory settings, which always seemed to work for about a week until it started happening again.
She was going to replace her phone when she got back, Kristen decided as she sat there, staring at her phone as she replayed Amber’s last words through her head and. ..
“Damn it,” Kristen said, sighing as she climbed back out of the car, grabbed her backpack and headed inside.
She never read her reviews, which was something that Amber knew, so if she was telling her to read them, then something was wrong. Wondering if she was getting hit with bot reviews again, Kristen pulled her laptop out of her bag and dropped down on the couch.
She opened her laptop, typed in her password, and after a slight hesitation, she connected it to the Wi-Fi and-
“What the hell?”
-felt her stomach drop when email after email suddenly appeared, each one angrier than the last and all of them making sure that she knew just how much they hated her.
She forced herself to click on the first email only to frown as she quickly read through it before she clicked on the next one and then the next one, until she got the general idea and quickly made her way online.
She started checking every book retailer that sold her books to find that her book review average was now 1.
5 with five thousand new one-star reviews, each one of them saying the same thing that the emails did, except the reviews warned readers not to read her books.
Trying not to panic, Kristen quickly made her way to Facebook only to find out that her password didn’t work. It took ten minutes, but she finally managed to change her password and gain access to her account.
Once she was there, she quickly read through the posts and-
Who the hell was Nix Cruise? Kristen found herself wondering as she saw post after post of people accusing her of bullying her. After a quick search, she found Nix Cruise’s profile page only to feel her stomach drop when she saw it.
To The Readers of K.L. Haven,
I’ve rewritten this at least a dozen times.
It doesn’t matter how I say it, I already know what some of you will do.
You’ll defend her. You’ll make excuses for her. You’ll call me jealous, bitter, a wannabe author trying to attach myself to her name.
Because you love the person that K.L. Haven pretends to be.
But I’m done being quiet.
I’m done letting K.L. Haven play the victim while she ruins people’s lives.
K.L. Haven is not who you think she is.
She never was.
You’ve been lied to
She’s not sweet. She’s not kind and she sure as hell doesn’t love her readers.
She’s cruel and heartless and I had the misfortune of finding out the hard way a few years ago when she went out of her way to destroy my career.
After years of struggling, I finally published my first book only to have K.L. Haven destroy everything. I was a brand new author, had never met her before, but for some reason that I still don’t understand to this day, she decided that I was a problem.
Imagine having one of your favorite authors going out of her way to destroy your dreams?
She had my book removed and my account banned, all while I was torn apart by her readers.
And do you know the worst part?
She didn’t have to lift a finger.
All she did was point.
She weaponized her readers and sent them after me.
If you want proof that she’s done this before just look at her Historia Series.
Look at what she did to Garrett, her childhood best friend and the only person in the world who loved her. She humiliated him in every way possible and didn’t bat an eye while she did it. She destroyed him, publicly humiliated him for years, until he finally had enough.
A little over a year ago, Garrett and I found each other and realized just how far K.L. Haven was willing to go to destroy people and we made a decision.
She wasn’t going to do this to anyone else.
And if you’re still thinking, this can’t be true. Not her. I love her books. She’s my unicorn author…
I know that feeling.
You can tell yourself that this is just typical book world drama and pretend that it isn’t happening, but I’m done letting her push me and everyone else around.
This ends now.
And if you’re curious about what she put me through, you can read about it in my book, the one where I let everyone know exactly who K.L. Haven really is. You can find the link below.
And to K.L. Haven, I’m not going anywhere.
-Nix Cruise
With a trembling hand, Kristen took a deep breath as she clicked on the link.