The Crystal 2 - Jones M (ebook reader macos .txt) 📗

deal with it," Erick said. "That problem will be fixed within minutes."

"Okay. Let's go do it," I said. Erick nodded before the both of us left the room.

Liam's P.O.V

"Guys!" I whisper-shouted at my bandmates once Emery and Erick had left the room. They turned to face me just as I was heading out of the room, motioning with my head for them to follow me. 

Once we were at a safe distance away from a sleeping Bianca, I said: "I have just received a message about our bank accounts."

On the previous week, I had told the guys that I would get statements of our accounts as proof that Bianca was a thief. The bank had prepared the statement, and they had sent it to me via e-mail.

"Liam, what are you talking about?" Zane inquired in confusion.

"Zane, your girlfriend is a thief, and I can prove it."

I went to walk further into the hallways, but Zane stopped me by grabbing my shoulder.

"Liam, that's insane! How could you think that Bianca is a thief?"

I sighed.

"Zane, just come and see the statement for yourself," I urged him.

"What if it's rigged? What if Emery--"

"Emery had nothing to do with it!" I snapped, cutting off whatever Zane wanted to say.

"How do you know?" he shouted back.

"I just do! Dude, I know you love Bianca, but we have been wrong about her. Your girlfriend is a thieving, murderous bitch, and it is about time you come to terms with it."

"Liam, Emery must have lied to you," Harry joined in. "Don't listen to her. You know that she wants to kill us--"

"Shut up, Harry!" I cut him off. "Bianca has been lying to us! She has been acting sweet when she is actually awful! She has been stealing from us; she tried to murder Emery and she placed her in jail for something she didn't do! Do you realize how serious this is?"

"Of course I do," Zane spoke, "but I won't stand here and hear you speak ill of my girlfriend." With that, he walked away from me, Harry following suit.

I growled in exasperation. 

"The hell?" Ethan exclaimed, mirroring my expression. 

"Zane! Harry!" Logan called out, but the two did not acknowledge him. They were still walking away from us.

"So..." Ethan trailed off, causing me to turn my attention to him.  "Can we see the bank statements?"

***********************************************************************************************

"What the fuck?" Logan exclaimed in shock. 

We were in the main study room of the castle where we usually convened with Erick. We had used the computer to open my e-mail and to check our bank statements. 

I knew Emery was right, but what met my view confirmed it and had me feeling awful. Bianca had indeed stolen money from us, and it was a lot.

"She's been stealing ten thousand euros from our accounts?" Ethan exclaimed in shock.

"From every one of us!" Logan stated in disbelief. "She must have been earning fifty grand a month."

"And they still haven't made the connection that Bianca did this?" Ethan exclaimed at the irony, and I nodded in agreement.

"Liam, we believe you," Ethan stated while Logan nodded in agreement. "Emery could not have done this. The losses had started months before she joined our tour."

I sighed as I felt anger course through my veins. I still couldn't believe Bianca was a thief.

"What are we going to do about Bianca?" Logan asked. "I want the police to take her to jail before she can take another dose at stealing our cash."

"She can't," I said. "Bianca needed Tom to make the deductions remember?"

Logan smirked at that.

"What do you think she will do?" Ethan asked with wide eyes.

"She can't steal from us, so she has to depend on someone in our group for money."

"Zane," we all made the connection at the same time.

"He's going to feel awful when he finds out about this. How do we get rid of Bianca?" Ethan asked.

"She's out of the tour, remember?" I said.

"Not true. Zane phoned Simon earlier to let Bianca stay. After a lot of convincing, Simon allowed it," Logan informed us.

"WHAT?" Ethan and I exclaimed in disbelief.

"You mean she's stuck with us for the rest of the tour?" Ethan asked in shock.

"No," Logan corrected. "It will only be for tomorrow. Apparently, she has people to visit, and so we wouldn't see her for the rest of the tour."

The rest of us sighed in relief.

"Guys, we need to find the evidence Emery has against Bianca," Logan stated. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, trying to make the connection. It was then that I recalled Emery telling us she had proof against Bianca.

"I have a feeling it's on her laptop," Ethan stated. "She's been on it ever since our tour started."

About two minutes later, the three of us had found Emery's laptop in the Queen's study room; she had hidden in it a desk. We took it and went back to the main study room to switch it on. It had been easy to log on, and I was surprised she had not placed a password on her device.

It took us a couple of minutes to find the video.

"Hey guys, what are you doing?" I heard Erick ask as he entered the room. We ignored him as I pressed play on the video.

"What?" I heard Emery ask. I took a short time to scan Emery's surroundings. She was on the tour bus with Bianca. The way that the camera was positioned did not hide their faces, and so it was impossible to mistake their identities. 

From what I was seeing, Bianca looked angry. 

"Stop playing stupid! You know exactly what I'm talking about," Bianca said as she walked towards Emery, leaving some space between them.

"I did warn him, you know," Emery said. "But he thought I was joking. Well, too bad for him. He's off the list and you are next."

Bianca looked furious.

"I can't believe you got him arrested!" she yelled in anger. I watched Emery's form shrug. 

What was Bianca yelling about? Who had Emery gotten arrested?

"And that makes you angry because..."

"You and I both know why I'm angry!" Bianca shouted. "I paid that guy a thousand dollars every month to make sure he did his job. I mean, it had been so easy to just hack into your account and pretend you were insulting the Ordinary Brothers and their fans. I thought he was a genius with computers! I also thought he would know how to deal with people hacking his own computer!"

"WHAT?" all of us shouted in the room. It was then apparent who Bianca was talking about.

Freaking Tom Acker.

It was a good thing he was in jail. 

"Do you know how many times I had to borrow money from Zane?" Bianca continued, still looking furious.

" What, you don't have your own money? Bitch too broke to do her own dirty work?" Emery questioned.

Bianca snorted.

"You must be stupid. Of course, I don't have my own money! Whatever Zane would give me was not enough, and so I had Tom hack into his bank account."

"WHAT?" the guys and I exclaimed again in shock at the same time as Emery did. 

"Guys, what are you doing?" Selena asked. I turned to face her, noticing that she was with Justin. The rest of us motioned for the both of them to come to us. They quickly did with questioning gazes.

"Lucky for me, my rich boyfriend is too stupid to even check his bank account," Bianca said with a smirk. "In fact, it made things easy for me. I could stop borrowing from him, and I wouldn't look like a gold-digger."

"What the fuck?" Emery commented. "You hacked into Zane's bank account?"

"She hacked into Zane's bank account?" Selena stated in disbelief as she and Justin moved closer to see the video.

"And he never checks the balance! Whenever he buys something, he just swipes his credit card and leaves," Bianca added with a smirk.

"I can't believe you! He's your boyfriend!"

"No, bitch," Bianca said, "he's my bank account."

Emery looked just as shocked as the rest of us were in the room.

"Since we are alone, I'd rather we clear the air." Bianca continued. "Wonder why I hated you from the first moment I saw you?" 

There was a pause that lasted a second.

"I knew you had feelings for Zane. I also knew he was confused about his feelings for you. His mother had even confessed that he was in love with you when the two of you were in high school! I couldn't have that, and so I had to get rid of you to keep him."

I heard Emery exclaim in the video just as I wondered about what Bianca had said. I wasn't surprised about Zane having a crush on Emery. What surprised me was that Emery could reciprocate those feelings. Since when?

I mean, I knew I would have found out about that.

My mind wandered over the possibilities of how that could happen. The only time they could have looked like a couple was when they kissed on a dare... Oh.

"You were right about everything," Bianca resumed talking. "I sent a hitman to kill you. Too bad you lived. I wanted Zane and his friends to hate you. Guess what I did."

Emery had been right about someone trying to kill her when we were in the hotel in London. The rest of us believed it was an erwich attack, not listening to her when she said Bianca was involved. 

I felt awful as I kept watching the video.

"You posted that tweet about the boys, but then I already knew that."

Bianca had been insulting my band by using Emery's twitter account.

"Yes, but that was not enough. I wanted you completely gone and completely hated. I didn't want the boys to rekindle any relationship they had with you. That's why I sent my hitman to dress like you on that same day. I even gave her your phone before sending her to hit Liam with a car."

I had heard the confession from Charlotte. Hearing Bianca confirm it made it complete and unchangeable facts. It was getting hard to keep watching the video after the truths I had learned, but something told me I needed to do it.

I mean, what else did Bianca do without me knowing?

"YOU BITCH!" Emery yelled at Bianca. Bianca just smirked.

"Now, they're all wrapped around my finger. You have no one, Emery, and I have your friends who will listen to everything I say."

Bianca laughed. I felt chills run down my spine as I wondered why I trusted her. It had been one thing to hear the truth from Emery. It was one thing to also acknowledge it and come to accept it. It was, however, another thing to hear the truth come from Bianca.

I wanted to collapse on the ground from what I was witnessing. 

"They think you are an awful person. And don't think that TV interview changed anything. The boys and your own cousin believe you arrested an innocent person for making it look like he hacked your account."

I wanted to puke, feeling disgusted with Bianca, but feeling more disgusted with myself. The truth about Tom Acker was right on my face. Even Emery had exposed him on an interview! I had allowed Bianca, a person I thought I could trust, to twist the truth and make me see her own things.

I felt so ashamed. 

"But he did it!"

"Exactly!" Bianca deadpanned. "I'm even as surprised as you are! Those people who were once your friends are idiots. They are making this all too easy for me!" 

I felt more ashamed and furious with myself. However, Bianca was right about the guys and me being idiots. I wished I had seen through her disguise.

Emery's eyes looked glossy for a moment, and I could tell she wanted to cry. Seeing that crushed me.

"What about the other thing?" Emery interrupted my thoughts.

"What other thing?" Bianca asked, confused.

"Those guys. The ones who you sent to--" 

"You're wondering about that little thing?" Bianca asked. 

What were she and Emery talking about?

"It was a little something to think about before you would come to the hotel and be arrested for shit you clearly didn't do. Besides, from what I heard, you defended yourself before they got any further."

An expression of rage took over Emery's face before she