"What did you just say?"
"That IBC was going to mess with the rules."
"No, not that. He came to you? He, Tim Carter, came to you, Andrew King, his bitter rival, to ask you to be on Celebrity Jungle to what?"
"To try to keep IBC from interfering."
"He," she said again, pointedly, "asked you," she made another pause for emphasis, "to protect me?" She made another pause. "Am I getting this right?"
"Yes. I know this shows he cares about you, but it also shows he wants to manipulate you. Apparently, that's more important than whatever he feels about me and I was the only one he could reach out to."
"I'll straighten things out with Carter, don’t you worry," she said. "But do you really think you protected me? How did you stop them interfering?"
He hung his head.
"Exactly," she said. "All you did was cost me the last challenge."
"I'm sorry," he said. "I was afraid for you. You kept pushing your limits. You could have gotten hurt."
"You trust me as little as Carter," she said bitterly. "You two are so much alike, it's not even funny."
"Vy!"
She looked away from him. At that moment, she couldn't stand the sight of Andrew King.
"You were risking your life. And for what? For a prize that meant nothing to you. I'm not going to apologize for being scared for you. You acted like a child who has no clue she can get hurt. You're not unbreakable!"
"I'm not," she said. "You and Carter proved that on the stage of the Summer Festival. You both made sure I got broken. And about the Jungle, you're wrong about that, too. I never cared about the prize. It wasn't a matter of pride. It's just how I am. When I take on something, I don't hold back. I give it all I have. It doesn't matter if it's a stupid Jungle challenge, or if it's the song my mentor asked me to sing to perfection."
"You did," he said. "You sang it perfectly."
She shook her head. "You can't understand. I lost both of you that night. Carter broke my heart because he lied, and you… you've played with me for too long. You know what I sang to you that night. "
He watched her with his enthralling black eyes for a long time, but she could feel the distance growing between them. She shook her head and turned to leave, but he took her hand.
He looked up at her while he spoke.
"When we came from the Jungle, I saw you with your boyfriend, and I walked away. After the Summer Festival, Christine called. I thought I could fix something unfixable. I have it on a good source that I'm very stubborn."
"It doesn't matter," she said, and pulled her hand away slowly, but firmly. "I can't play this game any more."
"It's not a game to me." He ran his thumb over the base of his ring finger. "I'm divorced. I've been divorced for a long time, but I didn't know how to deal with it. "
"Do you understand how hard it is to accept this after seeing you with your family?"
He paraphrased the song Carter had written for her.
"I come bearing more scars than you can see. I wish I could be new for you, but I'm not. I have more of a past than the family you saw. But I'm yours."
Andrew
She shook her head. Her sad smile made his heart bleed before she even spoke.
"No, you're not. You have a marriage to fix. A family you need to keep together."
"It's not that," he said. "Yes, my family is part of the reason I stepped away, but not the only…"
He couldn't. He couldn't tell her. Not even Christine knew the details. That had been the only secret he ever kept from her.
Christine had guessed enough. When he finally broke his bonds with IBC, he had cut himself from everyone for months. When he showed up at her door, the only admission he made was that while they'd been dating, there had been someone else. He never said Lilah's name and she never asked. He never told her how the studio held him trapped since he was a child, stunted his artistic growth. She'd been his friend since they were fifteen. She'd been his girlfriend since they were eighteen. They had married at twenty and they had Diane the same year.
How could he tell Vy in this crowded airport things he hadn't told Christine in nearly twenty years?
"Don't bother," she said. "It's not like I have to know why you keep reaching into my chest and crushing my heart once in a blue moon."
"Because I can't stay away from you," he said, wrenching the words out. "I try and I fail. Every fucking time."
"I'll make it easy," she said. "I'll stay the fuck away from you."
"Vy! Wait."
"I've done nothing but wait. Carter was right. I should have given that boy a chance. You're not real. You don't want to become real for me. You'll always be the vampire from your song."
"Stop believing everything Carter tells you," he said in desperation. "He is playing you."
"Of course he is. But at least he plays to win. He told me from the start. It's just a game but winning is sweet."
"It's not a game, my Queen," he whispered watching her leave.
Chapter 13
Vy
STAYING AWAY FROM ANDREW turned out to be easier than she thought. Between classes, studio time with TC and gigs, she barely managed to carve time for a movie night with Alice in their apartment. She didn't talk about Carter, and Alice didn't mention King. Whether she had guessed something after that Summer Festival duet, or because she didn't want to mix things up at Sing, it didn't matter. She was better off not hearing more "Andrew is amazing" stories.
Unlike her parents, who didn't miss the chance to talk about him every bloody time they met. They seemed happy to visit her in Salona, which helped her avoid looking for reasons not to visit home more often. Especially when they always mentioned that Andrew had attended various events they organized. She tried to book shows around those dates anyway, and no one needed any other reason for her not to show up.
Her life seemed to have find a balance until she got a text from Carter in the middle of one of her classes. He never texted her during the day. Not even to share something he thought should interest her. He respected her day time in Salona. He still sent her late night texts to arrange studio time and teased her about not doing anyone if she texted back promptly.
"Come to the studio tonight."
She replied immediately "When?"
His own prompt reply worried her. "When you finish classes. Time not important. I'll be here."
That didn't sound ominous at all. She was already making her way out of the class while she texted him back.
"R u ok?"
The lack of reply made her speed all the way to Orsino.
#
Carter's personal issues surprised her, but nowhere near as much as learning from Alice that she was the cause.
All the questions buzzing in her mind kept her awake. She went to her car and drove to the south coast, thinking about the current mess in her life.
Her decision to go on Sing the year before meant that she had cut herself from her friends.
Even so, Alice had always been there. As a voice on the phone when she was lonely. As someone who tagged along on the rare occasions when she went shoe shopping. Alice had helped her choose her stage attire because she had fashion in her blood. Alice had been there even when they were an ocean apart.
Then why had she stepped further and further away from her?
She disapproved of Alice attending those annoying social events, but they never talked about it. Alice never brought it up. She found out that Alice had attended some gala from a comment in a glossy magazine she happened to read wondering if it was one of her mother's or Leonie's benefits.
When Alice had mentioned Christian Sinclair, Vy had been happy for her friend to get some romance in her life. And there it was. Before Christian, the only romance in Alice's life were Carter's songs
She had been too busy becoming a star to pay attention to her friend. Redeeming herself to Carter for losing Sing. Burying her unresolved feelings for Andrew.
Andrew.
&nb
sp; Damn him. He understood Alice in a few months better than she could after years.
She drove through the night, deep in her thoughts. She was in Viaverde without realizing how time had passed. She parked her car near the beach in time to see the sunrise sitting on the cold sand.
Andrew
He had ascribed Alice's behavior around Carter to a harmless crush. He should have guessed it couldn't be something as simple as that. Alice was more of an adult than most middle-aged people he knew, she'd have a better handle on an overgrown crush.
"You're asking to be let go from this position?" he asked.
"It would be the smart thing to do. I already did what you brought me here for. Your contestants learned to show the right things to the camera. Starting with round three, the network always moves away from backstory, and they focus more for how the contestants act inside the House. They'll do fine."
He refused to lose anyone else because of Carter. That egotistic son of a bitch could learn to play nice for once. He should learn to be a grown up and suck it up. After years of sleeping with his fans, it was a miracle this was the first child he had with a woman he didn't care about. Maybe it was petty, or maybe it was just his stubborn nature again, but he didn't want to lose Alice's help.
The next few days, Carter seemed to calm down, but Alice became more and more pale and withdrawn. They were having one of their weekly sessions at the studio, when Alice played so badly that even her usually clueless band mates started to notice something was wrong.
"It's enough for tonight, guys," he said. "Same time next week."
He went up to his office and as soon as he sat down, he heard a soft knock on his half open door. Alice peered round the door.
"Do you have a minute?" she asked in a scratchy whisper.
Her skin had become almost transparent. She'd never had an outdoorsy complexion, but he could see guilt eating her from the inside.
"Sure. Come in."
She sat demurely on the visitor's chair in front of his desk. He poured her a glass of water and Alice took it with a grateful smile.
"I need a favor," she said, and took in a small breath. "I'm organizing a fund raising event for the Children's Hospital. Actually, I wish I were organizing it. The Foundation assigned me the role of getting celebrities to attend because apparently being on Sing I have access to A-list celebrities."
"Of course I'll attend if you need me, Alice. And not just because you got saddled with the celebrity wrangling task because you work with me at Sing."
"I didn't mean it like that," she said, and he was happy to notice that his tone had worked.
The girl caught the nuance of his voice better than anyone in the world. She relaxed a tiny fraction.
"But hold on to that guilt, because I might need your help a little more than that."
He stood back in his seat, curious to find out what more could she ask on top of the five hours of his time and the sizable donation that went without saying at such events.
"There will be a bachelorette auction, and it would mean a lot to me if you bid for me. Christian is one of the organizers, and I need to keep him in reserve if any of the bachelorettes isn't in too much demand."
"Who is Christian?" he asked.
She blushed deeply.
"Oh. Umm, nevermind. Can you forget I mentioned him?"
"Absolutely not. Who is this Christian and why was I supposed to already know about him."
She sighed. "Because we've been sort of dating for a while. We didn't announce anything officially, but we're sort of a couple."
"This must be new generation speak. What is 'sort of a couple'?"
"It's… nothing… we're… it's complicated."
He knew exactly who Christian Sinclair was. Since he met Alice, he had become attuned to news about Maison Pellerin, and he caught sight of her in photos of various charity events in which she represented her grandmother's fashion empire. He'd seen the younger of the Sinclair boys show up in photos next to her. Christian looked a lot like his older brother, the famously ruthless billionaire Basil Sinclair.
Ah, the small world of the very rich. Basil Sinclair had married Alba Richmond-Orsay and Christian Sinclair was dating Alice Lewis.
"I take it your young man would rather bid on you."
"He is not 'my young man', granddad," Alice said. "And no, I don't want him to bid on me anyway, because the so-called date is a mini-public event in itself and I want to keep things quiet about Christian."
"Why?" he asked, intrigued. "Are you two planning to take over the world?"
"Just the country," she said with an unexpected grin. "If I tell you the long and boring story, do you promise to show up and bid appropriately for a date with me?"
"Appropriately?"
The smile faded from her pale lips. "I'm worried… Maybe I'm being paranoid but I have this sinking feeling that Carter is preparing something."
That made more sense than he was willing to admit. Carter had been a bit too nice around Alice lately.
"Okay. Promised. Now, the story. As long and boring as you want to make it."
She looked so frail. Almost brittle. She seemed to age from week to week.
"Christian is going into politics. He will run for office soon and if the press gets a hold of our relationship, I'll be dragged into it. I don't do well in front of the cameras. I nearly got a panic attack when I rehearsed Tyler's song on stage."
"Sorry," he said.
"No, Andrew, I really didn't mean-"
"I know, kid," he said soothingly. She was only twenty, like Vy, but he had treated her like she was his own age. "You're so good at being an adult, I forget you're not."
"It's nothing to do with age," she said. "It's like fear of heights. I'm afraid of being in public. You can guess how serious it is if even my grandmother isn't pushing me more into the spotlight."
"Your grandmother is a fierce lady," he said.
He had met Clara Pellerin a few years back and she had chilled him to the bone. An artist's spirit trapped in the body of a cold-hearted bitch.
Chapter 14
Vy
SHE TRIED TO REMAIN CIVIL TO ALICE, and hold back the judgmental anger about what she did to Carter. Pitying Carter felt like pitying a man-eating shark or a hurricane. Being nice to Carter was like trying to pet a porcupine.
Alice hadn't mentioned movie night but the bowl of popcorn appeared as soon as she sat down on the living room couch and started browsing for a film.
"Are you more in the mood for an action thriller or should we go for a classic?" she asked.
"Like Star Wars?" Alice asked.
"Enough Star Wars already. I found myself quoting the stupid thing."
Alice laughed. "These are not the droids you are looking for," she said and moved her hand in an Obi-Wan gesture. "What are you in the mood for?"
"Tomb Raider?"
"Please, no," Alice said immediately. "Let me see," she said and took the remote.
Alice's parents were archeologists, and she usually couldn't sit through Tomb Raider or Mummy movies without pointing out all the archeology mistakes on the screen.
"Don't you miss going on sites with your parents?"
Her friends shrugged. "Meah. You must be the only person I know who had fun living in a tent in a mosquito ridden jungle. There," she said. "Dirty Dancing."
"You're just being mean now," she said, and snatched the remote back. "A movie about dancing," she muttered scrolling through the list. "Phantom of the Opera?"
"Why do we even bother?" Alice said sighing. "You know we're going to watch the Big Lebowski again."
"Oh, that's a good idea," she said, and jumped into the favorites section.
"Vy, I need to ask you a favor."
"Okay," she said looking at the screen. "What do you need?"
"I know you hate these things, but I really need this thing to go well so…"
She turned her head to look at Alice. Her friend wasn't prone to stuttering and she never
had trouble finding the right words.
"What 'these things' I hate?"
"Fancy parties. One of Adeline's foundations is organizing an event to raise money to fund research into rare heart conditions."
"Okaaaay," she said, not happy about it, but she knew that day would come soon enough. Her mother had hinted once or thrice when they had lunch. "I could sing at a fancy event. When is it?"
"Umm, it's next week but… Actually, the favor wasn't about singing."
"For fuck's sake, don't tell me I have to dance!"
Alice turned the laughter into an unconvincing cough.
"You might think dancing was an ok option," Alice said more soberly. "I got the enviable role of organizing a bachelorette auction."
"Alice!"
"I need you there. All I have are a few supermodels and socialites. I need someone like you."
Her friend seemed embarrassed to ask, and as much as she hated it, she knew she should get more involved in charity work. Her mother had been doing it for years, and although she had never asked, Vy knew it would be a big deal for her if she attended.
But a bachelorette auction? What a completely stupid idea! And then it struck her. Alice had said she only had supermodels and socialites. Then what the hell was she there for? She rounded on outraged on Alice who was sipping at a glass of white wine.
"What do you mean someone like me? Ugly and lacking social graces?"
Alice burst out laughing, and wine snorted through her nose. She took the glass out of Alice's hand and patted her on the back while she coughed and sputtered.
"Proper famous, I mean," Alice said when she was able to talk. "Not someone who is famous for being famous."
"What would I have to do?" she asked, defeated.
"Nothing really," Alice said. "Not much," she amended. "You have to wear a dress. I know your measurements and I can get you a dress from the atelier. All you have to do is get your hair and makeup done. But we can do that in like two hours. I'll give you my standing appointment at Didier."
Light Dream (Love in Illyria Book 2) Page 11