What were you thinking?

You would think that being able to read minds would be a great skill to have. You would think that if you couldn't do it. If you could do it you would realize that it's a horrible thing to live with.

Janine had been able to read minds her entire life. Because of her gift she quickly understood that most people were truly awful. It wasn't just the big horrific things that she heard people thinking, things like murder or rape or theft, it was the myriad of small petty things. The constant judging and ranking of everyone around them. The difference between the thought in their head and the things that they said. She had only met a small handful of people whose inside and outside voices matched. Those were the really kind ones, or the really mean ones. Only people on the extreme edges ever matched.

The really mean ones she steered clear of, like most people do. The really kind ones she was attracted to the strongest. Because they were there easiest to manipulate.

Janine was also a truly awful person.

She liked to believe it was because she had spent her life hearing what the world really thought. That would make it very hard for anyone to maintain their optimism. It really was awful to constantly hear what the world really thought about everything, but especially what they really thought of you. But she suspected she would have been a truly awful person anyway and her gift just exacerbated the situation. The truth was she was good at being bad. And she really enjoyed it. She thought, well actually she knew, that most people would be the same if they had her talents.

Janine had used her gifts in a variety of ways but when it came down to it she was a con artist. She usually made her living as a psychic medium. The fact that she was a real psychic made being a fake medium very easy. People thought about what they wanted you to tell them. They held the names of the dead in their minds. They told you what answers they wanted to hear. Yes, Uncle George is happy. Yes he wants you to feel no guilt at all over cheating Cousin Susie out of her inheritance, she was a nasty piece of work anyway. No he will not tell you where the hidden cash is, he hid it for a reason after all. Death did not make Uncle George any more helpful.

She could drag a willing client along for months or even years. They got to be dependent on her. Asking her for advice on everything. Sometimes the spirits were right, sometimes they were wrong. But they always knew the exact right things to say to keep the money rolling in. Janine was highly sought after. She had quite the reputation. The Amazing Randi had even tried to debunk her. He wouldn't admit that she was the real deal but he did have to admit that he couldn't figure out how she was faking people out. She had been very impressed with the levels he went to to trip her up. He had planted false information on the web that would have come up if she was doing pre-research on her clients. The problem was that lies stood out like a bright light in a mind, with the truth hiding right behind it. All she had to do was move his curtain to the side and see his truth. After the fourth or fifth time she did it she saw the smallest kernel of belief in his head. Then he convinced himself that it was all a trick that he just hadn't figure out how to do. She had smiled at him then and said, "It's not."

After that her reputation just kept growing. She was a "proven psychic medium" now. She was no phony. Her client list kept growing. She had assistants who handled her schedule. Since she had to see everyone in person and couldn't do things via the phone or the internet like some others in her line of work people sometimes waited a year for an appointment. They flew in from all over the world to see her. She was making a lot of money. A lot of money.

But she was incredibly bored. There had to be more she could do with her talents than just this. Though it was profitable it was so time consuming. And it wasn't like she could train someone else to handle the day to day operations while she just supervised. Though there had been many people who had come to her to learn her ways. Other con artists who recognized talent and wanted a piece of the pie. They always left disappointed. And pissed off. How dare she not share the wealth.

She had been thinking of new things to do when Candice walked in to her meeting room. Candice was a new client. She was there to find out if her dead husband had been cheating on her. She was pretty sure he had been. There was a lot of evidence that showed he was. Really she knew he had been. But he was dead now and she wanted to think good things about him. Well not about him so much as about herself. People didn't understand how much being cheated on changed the way you thought about yourself. She had always had a really strong sense of self worth and finding out he had been cheating on her had destroyed that. She had suddenly felt worthless. It was devastating. But maybe she was wrong. She hoped she was wrong. She was going to find out for sure.

All of that hit Janine in an almost solid wall of thought when Candice walked in to the room. The other thing that hit Janine was Candice's net worth. Her husband was a wealthy man but that was nothing compared to what Candice herself already owned. Janine's entire business empire wouldn't cover the tax bill on Candice's estate in one year. Suddenly Janine was a lot less bored. Her mind started spinning with the idea of becoming Candice's personal medium. Living like royalty. All of that money backed with all of that insecurity? It was a ripe juicy plum just waiting to be picked.

"He loved you, but he was intimidated by you."

Candice hadn't even sat down yet when Janine hit her with that. Candice's hand flew up to her throat, "What?"

"I'm sorry. That just came in to my head as you walked in, how rude of me. I'm Janine St. Clair, how may I help you?"

"No, that's what I am here for. I wanted to see if you could speak to my husband, my late husband, but of course you know that, you're a medium why would I ask you to speak to my husband if he were still alive. I'm sorry, I'm just flustered. Is he here right now? Are you already talking to him? How did you know to contact him?"

"He is here. He is with you. He can't bear to leave you while you are feeling so..."

"Insecure. It's okay, you can say it. He always said he hated how insecure I was. How needy."

"He's sorry about saying that. He didn't want you to feel badly, he wanted you to understand how you did not need to ever feel that way."

Janine spent the next hour soothing Candice's fragile ego. The whole time picking her way around her thoughts. Selecting bits of information to use for a follow up. There was a lot of good stuff about her mother in there. No wonder Candice was so needy. What a cold woman she had had for a mother. Where was her father? Oh yes, so much there as well. This was going to be easy.

And it was. Within a few months Candice had moved Janine on to her Malibu compound. The guest house Janine was living in was nicer than her own place a few miles inland. She also had an apartment in the luxury tower Candice stayed in when she traveled to New York for business. She couldn't bear being too far away from Janine for too long. Janine officially retired. She was fine being a pampered employee of Candice. A spoiled lap dog, as her butler thought of her. She had barked at him and he had gone three shades of pale.

After six months Janine started to expand her influence. Candice no longer just counted on her for soothing her ego but brought her to business meetings. She took only Janine's advice on who to work with. Who to invest in. Who to trust. Candice was completely dependent on her advice. That's when Janine started to play with her. She set up an offshore account and started to siphon money from Candice's accounts. Passwords were childsplay. She also started to accumulate blackmail material. Give Janine an ultra wealthy individual and Janine would find you their dirty secrets. Tax evasion, affairs, illegal business dealings. There was always something, and Candice was no exception. Janine collected her information.

Once she had everything she wanted from Candice she set up her killing blow. She arranged for Candice to invite the women her late husband had been sleeping with to tea. All six of them. Candice had suspected he had been sleeping with one other woman, but never this many. And never would have guessed that he would have chosen people in their social circle. But he had. Janine had found them through the year. Remembering him fondly when they would run in to Candice someplace. None of them realized that they were not to the only one as well so this was going to be fun on a lot of levels. Getting them all in one room had taken a lot of manipulating and planning. Planting ideas for fundraisers and charitable events that they all would be able to work on. Bringing all of their expertise with them. These were accomplished women. Business owners, CEOs, CFOs, leaders of boards. So much success in one room. So much to ruin.

They sat down to tea and started planning. Janine put her hand to her head and closed her eyes. Candice noticed right away, "Are you okay?"

"Yes..." Janine whispered and looked around the room at all of the faces, "Yes, I just..." Then she did her best trying to hide what she was feeling expression. "I just think I should get some fresh air. I..."

The women around the table began to get nervous. They all knew what she was, but had assumed that if Robert had been going to talk to Janine about them he would have done it much earlier. They had all heard the story of Candice and Janine's first meeting after all. They figured they were in the clear. Then the shift started to happen. The women around the table noticed that the other women around the table were just as nervous as they were.

Janine swooned again. Then she could no longer hold back her shocked expression. "I just...All of you?" She said with disgust dripping from every word. "He won't shut up. I'm sorry. He just won't shut up." She looked toward the CFO of the largest Talent Agency on the West Coast, "In your office? Really?" Then she shook her head, "You really let him do that? While your kids were home?" At this the small pretty blonde next to her covered her mouth in shock and horror.

Candice was started to figure out what was happening. The pain and horror was spreading across her face. The realization that her husband HAD been unfaithful to her after all. And not with one woman, but with all of these women. And they had all thought they were something special. They had trusted him just as much as she had. It was devastating.

Janine thought about her hidden assets and the ruin she was going to leave here for someone else to clean up. She thought about her next adventure. She had bought a beach house in the Cayman Islands to go with her stolen funds. She was thinking she might start a new religion. That seemed like fun. She really was a horrible person. As she was planning her escape Candice was making her way toward her. She grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Robert? Are you listening? I can't believe I trusted you. I never should have trusted you!" Candice cried in Janine's face, trying to reach her dead husband.

Janine shrugged her off, "You're right. You never should have."