Done to Death Read Online Free PDF

now be all over the Internet − and not for the first time.
    â€˜They were going to arrest her,’ Richard said. ‘And then she started talking about killing herself.’
    â€˜Can you get her out of there? Get her to say the right things and bring her to the country house. Call Doctor Ebert and see if he can do something.’
    â€˜Already done,’ he said. ‘What do you think about getting her into rehab?’
    â€˜If she’d sign in that would be great.’
    â€˜I’ll see what I can do. Maybe if she thinks they’re going to hospitalize her, she’ll agree just to stay out of the nut ward … or jail. They threw some charges at her − interfering with an officer, resisting arrest … And Mom …’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜She’s cutting again. All over her upper arms, and I think on her legs. Like high up, I saw it in the emergency room. It’s a mess. The psychiatrist in the emergency room asked me about it.’
    â€˜Shit!’ At times like this Lenore could have killed her daughter. ‘Why does she have to do this?’
    â€˜You really want to know?’
    â€˜Yeah, I’m a horrible mother … I get that. I didn’t validate her enough. Somehow, this is all my fault. Richard, you know I love you.’
    â€˜I do. I’ll take care of this, Mom. So what’s the afternoon show?’
    â€˜Transgender chefs. We’re making coq au vin.’
    â€˜Awesome.’
    â€˜Don’t mock your mother.’
    â€˜Wouldn’t dream of it. Pays the bills. And just for the record, Mom … you did OK. In fact, I think you’re amazing. And Rachel is not your fault. It’s more her than you. OK, the doctor’s coming back, and Dr Ebert is trying to call. Do your show; I’ve got this.’
    â€˜Love you, son.’
    â€˜I know.’ And he hung up.
    Lenore let out a slow breath. ‘Should have stopped at one.’ But God, those two pregnancies had given Lenore Says its all-time highest ratings. She’d done reality TV before it existed, taking her audience step-by-step through the process of in-vitro fertilization. Up front and frank about the selection of the sperm donor, without revealing who it was − great TV. It was bold and flew in the face of every convention. She’d played it to the hilt − the successful talk show hostess who’d not made marriage work. Her audience could relate. They felt her pain as a woman unlucky in love who desperately wanted to know the joys and fulfillment of motherhood. She’d kept nothing back … well, almost nothing. She wasn’t Ellen, after all, or even Rosie after she came out. Her love life was no one’s business. And frankly, considering the wasteland of her romantic efforts, there wasn’t much to speak about. Lenore didn’t ‘do’ relationships, so why risk the L word? Instead, she’d dated the Hollywood hunks in her twenties and thirties, half of them gay. They’d provide mutual beards for the week or the month. Or A-list actor John Gregory, for a few years. Hell, she and John had even considered a marriage of convenience. She thought about Jodi and the other young women who orbited LPP. Young and vibrant, so many of them openly gay. They’d chat about their girlfriends in one breath and the nutritive value of quinoa in the next.
    A rap at the door.
    â€˜Lenore.’ Justin in the doorway. Like all of her assistants young, handsome, perfectly groomed. This one with skin the color of caramel, close-cropped black hair and amber eyes. ‘Fifteen minutes till make-up. Do you need anything?’
    â€˜No,’ she said. She caught something in his expression; he was trying to read her. He’d probably been on the Internet and knew about the latest crisis with Rachel.
    â€˜Is everything OK?’ he asked.
    She suspected he’d eavesdropped on her conversation with Richard.