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  That girl was scary when it came to reading people and influencing them without their knowledge. That was not a skill well developed in happy people from healthy environments.

  He saw that it cost her not to shout at him about Vy. He could see it in every dark glance she threw him when she wasn't controlling herself. Yes, Alice knew that he had hurt her friend. He should count himself lucky that he had earned her a place in her heart and that saved him from becoming the target of her well meaning and very effective manipulation techniques.

  With David and Alice having scheduled practices back to back, he had cobbled together a few chunks of three of four days to be with Diane in America every month.

  Christine and Diane waited for him when he arrived. His daughter seemed to have grown even taller in the twenty days he hadn't seen her.

  "You're getting stronger," he said pretending he couldn't breathe when she tightened the hug.

  "I'm working out," she said, and tried to squeeze him even harder.

  "I believe you," he said, ruffling her hair.

  He smiled at Christine over the top of their daughter's head. Her eyes were smiling, but he could detect a certain stiffness in her posture. She walked over to them and stood on her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek.

  "You're not giving up on the beard then?" she asked, patting her lips.

  "Sorry, did it sting you?"

  "A little. It looks good on you."

  He mouthed so that Diane wouldn't hear "Didier."

  Diane let go of him, and she took his left hand, leading him through the airport while Christine walked on his right side.

  "Are you ok?" he asked.

  She darted a look at him, and he got the "I'll tell you later" code.

  "Can I go into that bookstore?" Diane asked. "Just for a minute. I need to check if they have something."

  He let go of her hand and nodded. "Sure, honey."

  "Did you tell her anything?" he asked when Diane was out of earshot.

  Christine shook her head. "I can't get her hopes up for something that might not work. I will always love you, Andrew, but maybe it's not the sort of love you need."

  "I love you, too. I want my life to make sense again. For months I've been-"

  He stopped when Diane came back, with a long face.

  "They didn't have it," she said with a sigh, and shuffled her feet toward the carpark.

  He sat in the passenger seat and buckled the seatbelt. In the car he saw a pair of men's sunglasses. He wondered if they belonged to that cop he met the last time he visited, but he didn't feel entitled to ask. He also noticed with sadness the lack of even a spark of jealousy.

  They gathered around the dinner table in their large kitchen. He had visited their home during his tour months before, but now that reconciliation was an option, he felt awkward to be there.

  "You are not going to guess where we have tickets," Diane said as she was setting the plates.

  "Universal Studios?"

  "Even if that wasn't all the way in California," she said, "that's always there and we can visit them any time."

  "Where then?"

  "Mom was actually the bomb! She managed to get us 3 tickets to RoH on tomorrow!"

  "To what?" he asked.

  "Rhythm of Heaven," she elaborated, then went on less patiently. "It's a worldwide chain. Come on, you played it in Illyria with Wanderlust like a hundred times."

  "Exscuuuse me," he said. "I'm not used to the abbreviations you young people use."

  "Yeah, sure, whatever." She waved her hand. "I didn't get to the good part. It's the last night Vy sings there! Can you believe that?! She's been in America for weeks, and she's been in RoH in a dozen cities, and the last one is here! And we have tickets!"

  That couldn't be happening. He hadn't even known she'd been gone. He'd been too wrapped up in the Sing season to notice the lack of new Vy stories from Sebastian and Bryce whenever he managed to oversee Vanilla Velvet recordings. He had believed that Alice had gently nudged away from the subject.

  "But you saw her at Dusk," he said. "Do you really want to see her sing in another nightclub?"

  Diane's jaw dropped and Christine gave him an odd look. He hadn't hesitated to do whatever Diane wanted since before the divorce was final.

  "Yeah," she said. "Of course I do. She has new songs and, while I still hate Carter, the things he writes for her are sooooo good… I thought Roadtrip and Light Dream were good, but the new songs…"

  He hadn't heard the new songs. He had slammed the radio shut whenever her songs came on. He hadn't even turned on the TV since the Summer Festival.

  "All right," he said raising his hands in mock surrender. "We're going."

  Diane gave him a thumbs up, and went back to her food, but Christine was watching him carefully. If they made it work, he would have to tell her about Vy. Not that anything had happened with Vy. Not what he had wanted.

  Chapter 9

  Vy

  SHE LOOKED AT HER PHONE for the hundredth time. She talked to all her friends and family every day, but Carter hadn't called even once since she left.

  Their last conversation had been weird. She hadn't confronted him about the illness and he hadn't needled her about Andrew. They were going to start work on her new album when she got back. He accepted that she went to the University in October. She promised she would always put the music first.

  Weird.

  No arguments. No tricks from him. No name calling from her.

  She reached for the phone and found his number. She stopped before calling. What could she tell him? That she missed him? She didn't. That she was hurt because he had lied to her?

  She opened her social media and checked her tags as usual, and the location of her last RoH concert. She gaped when she saw the name Diane King.

  "About to see the best Illyrian export. Vy Cesara rocks! #goddess"

  The memory of storming past the girl after yelling at Carter made her heart shrink. Her second thought was that Andrew might be with her. He couldn't be. Alice said they were still in auditions the day before.

  She tagged the girl. "My favorite fan gets to choose a song tonight."

  She still did the request bit in the second part of the show, but she always finished with Dark Dream and Light Dream. It was going to be a bit awkward to sing them in front of Diane, and probably her mother, since she used Andrew to fuel the passion in both songs, but she was a professional.

  "FYI America, the best Illyrian export are ricotta pancakes. I'm a close second. #pancakes"

  The stage was brightly lit, so she didn't get to see the audience. She wondered briefly where Diane sat, but she put it out of her mind, and started her set. She had come a long way from her clumsy first time solo at Dusk, but the adrenaline level was still high.

  "Ladies and gentlemen, you enjoyed Illyrian music, now it's the part of the show where we go international. I'll ask you for songs you'd like me to sing, and when I get at least five songs I can actually do, we'll take a break while we set up the negatives."

  She jumped off the stage as she had practiced that afternoon, and started her usual routine of going to people with the microphone. When she had a dozen songs to choose from, she looked for Diane.

  "Now as promised, to my favorite fan. Diane, where are you?"

  She saw the girl's hand waving from across the room. She wiggled between tables, waiters and patrons until she got to her table. She saw a beautiful woman with bright red lips and a vague family resemblance next to Diane. All she got from the cursory look was the spark of grey eyes and a pair of luscious red lips.

  Her own eyes nearly popped out of her head when she saw Andrew King's profile on the other side of the table. She collected herself and jerked her head to Diane.

  The stars sparkling in her eyes and the sheer happiness on her face, dimmed the shock of seeing Andrew. He probably wasn't there anyway. She thought she saw him all the time.

  "Anything you want, kid," she said. "Nothing from
back home though," she added as the girl opened her mouth to speak.

  The girl looked at the microphone Vy held toward her.

  "I have a ton of songs, but tonight is too awesome so… 'Feeling good'."

  Her eyebrows shot up, but she smiled. "Not what I expected from a rock chick like you. Are you sure? No one here said any Deep Purple, Metallica or Led Zeppelin."

  Diane shook her head.

  "The Ramones?" Vy tried. "The Stones? The Beatles? The Who? The Clash? The Cure?"

  Diane was shaking her head and giggling at her apparent begging for old school British rock. Vy bowed her head in agreement, and stepped back toward the stage.

  "All right everyone," she said into the microphone. "Give us about ten – fifteen minutes to get things set up, and I'll karaoke my way through the weird songs you guys picked."

  She turned off the mic and rushed backstage to prepare. After this show, she had to call Carter and thank him. If it weren't for the insane amount of songs he made her practice, she wouldn't be able to do this part of her shows which she absolutely adored.

  Whoever that guy was at their table, it probably wasn't Andrew. She brushed off the thought.

  If she could hold on to that belief, she was going to survive the next hour without embarrassing herself on stage.

  Andrew

  She had gotten spectacularly better since the nights he had stalked her at Dusk. The glamour look was a million miles away from the night she shined with him in Viaverde, but he liked it. More than liked it. He schooled his features into the same mask he always wore when Vy was around or someone talked about her. It probably wouldn't fool Christine.

  When Vy called Diane's name in the mic, he shifted his position so that she couldn't see his face. The hair at the nape of his neck stood up when she approached. He didn't want to see her from so close. He tried to ignore she was there. He felt he could breathe again when she walked away.

  "I'm glad you're feeling good tonight," he said when Diane sat back down.

  "I couldn't think of a song called feeling amazing," the girl said. "You're enjoying tonight, too, right?" she asked looking from him to her mother and back.

  "You were right," Christine said, looking at Diane. "When you said she will be a star. She was good at Sing, but she is amazing now. What do you think, Andrew?"

  "Carter is doing a very good job with her," he said.

  "Still hate him," Diane said, "but he kind of is."

  "What would you have done if she was on your team?" Christine asked.

  "I would have honed her voice to perfection," he said. "And I would have helped her sing what she liked." He shook his head and took a long sip of his scotch. "She wouldn't be the entertainer she is. Wouldn't be here."

  "We should ask her to join us after her show," Christine said.

  He jerked his head to stop her, but it was far too late. Diane had already gotten excited about it.

  "That would be so awesome! Do you think she would? She answered my post, so maybe she would answer if I DM her."

  "If you what?" he asked, but Diane ignored him in favor of her cell phone.

  "Or you can go backstage," she told him, not looking up from the screen.

  "This isn't Illyria," he said. "These people have no clue who I am."

  "That won't matter," Christine said. "You know your way around clubs. They won't even bother to ask anything if you walk as if you're supposed to be there."

  He glared at his ex-wife. Why was she taking her side?

  "Don't tell me you're a fan now," he said.

  "Why not?" Christine said. "That girl is incredible."

  "Why are you being so weird?" Diane asked. "I thought you liked her, too."

  "I like her, just… this was supposed to be our family time."

  "We're always going to be a family," Diane said, coming over to hug him. "But Vy is only here once."

  Any other protests he might have had were drowned by the music. Vy went through the songs she had chosen for the public with enthusiasm and humor when she messed up.

  "My shows always end with my two favorite songs. It's late into the night, and you will appreciate them. Dark Dream, by Wanderlust and Light Dream, by Tim Carter."

  He wished he was a smoker so he'd have an excuse to go out. Those songs were going to mess him up. Diane took out her phone and started typing while the first notes of Dark Dream bounced off the walls. As it had happened on the stage of the Summer Festival with her old band, when she went into his vampire song, the crowd grew silent. They even hesitated to applaud at the end.

  Vy took a deep bow, and he thought she swayed a little, as if that song had drained her. Was it a stage trick she learned from Carter?

  Light Dream raised the audience on their feet, and they even started humming the uplifting chorus. She looked like she was walking on clouds when she left the stage.

  "Well? Are you going?" Diane asked.

  "Didn't you DM her?" he asked, unwilling to leave the table.

  "She hasn't answered."

  "Give her a chance," Christine said. "She just walked off stage two minutes ago."

  "But what if she leaves without checking her phone? What if her battery died and she won't wait around to charge it? What if-"

  He stood up. "I'm going, I'm going."

  When he turned his back to the table he saw Vy across the room. She had already changed out of the sparkly top and she was wearing one of her customary loose and ripped t-shirts. He saw the surprise on her face replaced by a warm smile. He stood there, watching her approach, trying to get his emotions under tight control.

  "It was you!" she said when she got close. "I wasn't sure. Hi, Diane," she said looking past him to his daughter.

  "Hi," Diane said. "This is my mom."

  His ex-wife extended her hand. "Christine," she said when Vy shook it. "Have a seat. I hope we're not holding you from anything."

  He held a chair for Vy between himself and Diane, and he sat down, drawing his own chair closer to Christine's.

  "You are the most excellent excuse I could have hoped for. My tour manager keeps trying to introduce me to the concept of afterparties."

  "What's wrong with that?" Diane asked curiously. "I bet afterparties are a lot of fun."

  "They are not the kind of afterparties I'm used to," Vy said. "Back home, after I finish a set at the club I have to be in the studio."

  "But that's like… midnight, isn't it?"

  "Yup," Vy said. "I must have found it odd at some point, but I've been doing it for so long, it's normal."

  The waiter showed up and Vy asked for the biggest, most sugary coffee they had on the menu. Something not even Diane would drink if she were allowed to drink coffee.

  "So, you'd rather be alone at the studio, than have fun with people?" Diane asked.

  "I'm never alone at the studio. I'd swear Carter lives there if it weren't for the fact that whenever I fall asleep on the mixing table, he's always gone when the cleaning staff wakes me up."

  Diane tilted her head to the side and gave her a disbelieving look. "You sleep in the studio?"

  "I try to get home," Vy said defensively. "Sometimes I just close my eyes for a moment and next thing I know… it's morning. That month in the jungle was the most sleep I got in ages."

  "In the jungle?" Diane asked.

  Vy put her hand over her heart and looked at him with exaggerated shock. "You didn't tell my biggest fan that I'm on the next season of Celebrity Jungle?"

  "How would Andrew know?" Christine asked, her tone vaguely amused.

  "Ooooh," Vy said slowly. Her voice went comically up, as if she was feeling guilty for revealing a secret. "I'm guessing that part was supposed to be a secret?"

  "I was there for the last week," he said. "Special guest," he added before Diane could ask him about what challenges he had gone through.

  "Did you win?" Diane asked Vy immediately.

  Her shoulder slumped. "No," she said.

  The girl seeme
d shocked.

  "But you'd be unbeatable. Who else was there? Spiderman? Chuck Norris?"

  Vy burst out laughing. "I wish! For the first week they woke me up like three times a night to shoo spiders or because they were all out of their tents panicking over sounds made by nocturnal animals."

  He could imagine that all too well.

  "You're not afraid of spiders, I take it," Christine said.

  Vy gave a modest shrug. "It's not my merit," she said. "I'm wired that way."

  "A lot of it was your merit, he said. "I saw you catching a snake with your bare hands and it wasn't even part of a trial. Spoilers," he added, looking at Diane.

  "Really?" Diane asked Vy. "Why would you do that?"

  Vy looked down at her hands, and fiddled with the napkins.

  "We hadn't had any food challenges in a week. I thought we could eat it."

  Diane giggled. "You wanted to eat a snake?"

  "Well… yeah," Vy said and looked at him. "I mean come on, the food in the Sing House is de-freaking-licious."

  He nodded. "But you let the snake go."

  "It didn't look like there was much to it. I think it was just a baby snake."

  "Who won if not you?"

  "I'm contractually forbidden to say," she said. "She raised her coffee. Here's to the last contract I sign without my lawyer!"

  "Who is your lawyer?" Christine asked.

  "My father," Vy said. "I made him go over every scrap of paper I signed, and the contracts for this tour before signing them. I don't want to be surprised by any more last minute changes."

  Her voice had grown noticeably colder. He wished he could have done that all those years ago. He wondered in passing how much she told Paul about their incident in the jungle. He would find out the next time they met. Not that Paul was prone to sharing, but if he asked directly, he might get an answer.

  Chapter 10

  Vy

  IF IT WEREN'T FOR KING'S PRESENCE, she would have thoroughly enjoyed the post-show drinks with Diane and Christine. It was a little like an evening with Alice and Helen.