Material Girl Read Online Free

straight, and once I go see Morty, he’ll confirm it.”
     
     
    “Dylan, your spending is out of control!” Morty yelled from across his desk as he glanced down at her figures.
    “Ewwww, you don’t have to yell.” She drew back. “I’m sitting right here.”
    “I mean, how many times do I have to tell you? You cannot continue to blow money like this. I mean, look.” He held up a piece of paper and placed it in her face. “One thousand dollars at Sephora, six thousand at Splash, twenty-five hundred at Intermix—”
    Dylan cut him off. “They were having a fifty percent off sale on gloves.”
    “Twelve thousand at Target!” Morty screamed.
    “Ummmmmm, I needed new towels.” Dylan looked at him as if nothing was wrong.
    “This is ridiculous, Dylan. You have to stop, and I’m sorry to say that if you don’t, you’ll be broke in less than a year.”
    “Now you’re just exaggerating.” Dylan smiled and waved him off.
    She knew that she had financial problems, but they couldn’t be as bad as Morty was making it out to be. Then again, Dylan never read any of the letters she got from the collection agencies or credit card companies. When the mail came, she simply threw it on top of the fridge and forgot about it.
    “Okay . . . keep thinking it’s a joke,” Morty cautioned. “Keep living in this li’l make-believe fantasy world of yours if you want to. I’ve done all I can do. Now it’s up to you.”
     
     
    Dylan had gone from having one of the best days of her life to the worst in a matter of hours. After getting her asshole torn out by Morty, now she had to deal with even more unexpected news—but this news was far worse than learning she was almost penniless. Fifteen minutes had gone by, and Dylan hadn’t moved an inch. She stood at her kitchen counter, holding her cordless phone in a daze. The one new message left on her voice mail had caught her completely off guard. She hadn’t heard from her mother in close to a year, and liked it—no, loved it that way. Candice Channing/ Monroe /Van der Woodson/ Moretti/Briatore, a.k.a. Candy, was a lot of things, but a mother, confidant, and friend she was not.
    From as far back as Dylan could remember, she’d been raising herself. All of her life, she’d viewed her relationship with Candy as if she were the mother and Candy was the child. Instead of spending quality time with Dylan, Candy enjoyed picking up men, drinking vodka, scheming, and dishing out insults, mostly to Dylan. Candy was never satisfied with anything in her life. She was always on the search for more. Whether it was a new man, a new car, or purse; whatever Candy wanted, Candy got.
    She didn’t care if she had to lie, cheat or steal; nothing or no one, including Dylan, was gonna get in her way. Like her daughter, Candy was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Her mother was screen siren and classically trained singer Dahl Channing. Candy referred to her as Mommie Dearest, due to her emotional and physical abuse. Her mother was cold-hearted, and when she died, she left Candy with nothing. Candy was only eighteen. With only her stunning good looks and a voice like velvet to carry her through, she married young in hopes of keeping the lifestyle she was accustomed to.
    Her husband’s name was Bill. They’d met and married after dating only a month. To Bill, Candy was the sexiest woman on earth. If he could, he would have kept her bottled up in a glass jar for only his eyes to see, but Candy had other plans. While Bill worked hard at his family’s very profitable and well-known brewery company, Candy shopped frivolously and pursued a singing career.
    At first Bill didn’t mind her pursuit of fame, the constant smoking and heavy drinking, but when Candy became pregnant with Dylan, his feelings quickly changed.
    “No married woman with child should be hanging out into the wee hours of the morning, singing for a bunch of drunken fools,” he said. In Bill’s mind, a mother’s place