Broken Strings

Four

"What exactly was the rumour Trace spread?  There was a lot of media on it but quotes were less clear," Cierra said from the screen. Her brows were furrowed.  "Even my interns had a hard time distinguishing what Trace said and what the media fabricated."

That sounded like every interaction Brock had ever had with the media.  He muttered, "For part of the time that Trace and Bailey were dating, his younger brother was crashing on our couch. Dane had just moved to L.A. to pursue a career in filmmaking. Without consulting anyone in the band or our management team, Trace went to the media with a rumour stating that Bailey had cheated on him with Dane while she was pregnant with Trace's kid. And that she'd terminated the pregnancy so that she could be with Dane instead."

Brock heard a few hitched breaths from David and Julio – as if they'd known some of the story but hadn't remembered the finer, horrifying details of it.

"All of it was lies but Jeremiah, Grayson, and I didn't know that," Brock continued. "Trace fed it to us the way he fed it to everyone else – like it was the truth. It had the desired effect because our band began doing really well and suddenly Chasing Mayflies was in shambles.

"A few weeks later, Bailey went on a talk show and aired out the truth, which included her saying that not only had she'd never had sex with Trace, she was still a virgin. The media went wild but this time they were praising Chasing Mayflies and Bailey's strength while shit really hit the fan for us. I learned the truth from the pages of a magazine. Trace didn't even have the dignity to tell us that he'd lied. It was the last straw and that's what caused the end of our band. I walked away and never looked back."

Brock forced himself to look at each of the label owners right in the eye. Made sure that they were able to read the sincerity in his gaze, even as he felt bile rise in his throat. He hated thinking about those days – the way that he'd stood by Trace, comforting him as his friend feigned heartbreak and grief.

A lie and a performance. And a damned good one at that. Trace should have been an actor instead of a musician.

David asked, "How much contact do you and Trace Strickland have with each other now?"

"None unless you count what's done through lawyers or our agents, when necessary."

The room suddenly felt very small, like the walls were closing in. Brock wished that he could go back to those days and undo everything he'd ever done, all of the things that he'd said to defend Trace. Over and over and over he'd defended his friend.

Trace had never deserved that defence. Not one word.

"That is a lot to unpack in a very short period of time," Julio said. "Thank you for your honesty, Brock."

Brock offered him a weak smile. "Anytime."

"Cierra, can you and your team begin preparing a strategic communications plan to reply to any negative press we may get about Brock?" David asked the woman on the screen. "We'll need to determine how to go about defuncting these rumours, but I'd like to consult our legal department, and your legal representation, Brock, before we make any statements."

"I can get you in contact with my people," Brock said as Cierra affirmed her involvement.

"Fantastic."

"How much contact have you had with Bailey since the scandal?" Julio questioned.

Another no-thought question "Absolutely none. As you can imagine, there was bad blood between us and then Chasing Mayflies split. Never really had a reason to reach out to any of them since Mae Lafferty went into pop music and Kyra Ward's album flopped. I've stayed clear of Bailey except for when our paths cross at award shows and other functions though I've followed her enough to know that she's doing well as a soloist."

Cierra stifled a laugh by trying to disguise it as a cough. Even Julio and David were staring at Brock with amusement. It was to the point where he felt as if they were all part of some grand inside joke that he was looking in on.

"Yes," Julio said. "Bailey is doing well. In fact, she's our best-selling artist at the moment."

For a moment, Brock thought that he had misheard. Because he was fairly certain that Julio had told him that Bailey Grant was an artist at Eclipse Records and that just seemed impossible under the circumstances.

He'd never looked to see who'd she'd signed with after going solo. He'd mistakenly assumed that she'd stayed with Spectrum Entertainment after her band had split because that's what had happened with him. Tallahassee broke up and then Frontier had resigned him as a soloist. There had never been a period where Brock hadn't known who he was making music with.

"Oh," Brock said stupidly. He couldn't think of anything else to say because he didn't think that his life could get much worse.

There was not a doubt in his mind that Bailey Grant hated him. He'd been friends with the traitor that had slandered her across the media. He'd let his former friend do it too, standing by as Trace set up meetings with paparazzi and trashy magazine columnists and convinced everyone that she'd cheated on him. Brock hadn't done anything until it had gotten much too far out of hand that he'd been unable to stand by any longer.

Now it felt like some kind of cosmic joke. Like the universe was getting back at him for all of the times he'd been a terrible person.

"She is also someone we wanted to talk to you about," Julio continued.

"Why?" Brock asked warily, looking between them all again.

"Well, Bailey knows what it's like to rebrand and jumpstart a new career. We thought it would it would be good for the two of you to connect."

Cierra rolled her eyes. "Actually, what Julio isn't saying is that we want you to record a single with her. Bailey is working on her second album with us which is due to be out by the end of the year. We want you to be featured as a way to show that you're now part of our label and are working with our best artists."

They wanted him to sing a duet with Bailey Grant.

Shit.

This wasn't happening. Some cruel god must have just decided to royally fuck up his life these past weeks. Nothing else could explain how his life kept going from bad to worse.

"We'll release the duet as a single prior to her album's release," David interjected. "Around that same time, we're hoping to have you release an album as well. We know that you started working on new music with Frontier and we bought the rights to the unreleased songs you've been preparing. They'll go on your album but we'll need to bring in some more of our writers to get more material for you."

Brock cleared his throat. "That all sounds great from my end but have you talked to Bailey about any of this? Does she know that you want the two of us to record something together? Because I could see how that would be a problem for her."

"No, she doesn't know," Cierra said bluntly. "Since we didn't realize the whole extent of the history between the two of you, we've held off discussing matters with her. But I've got a call set up with her later this week to discuss her album's progress. I'll bring it up with her then."

"I just don't want to force her into doing something that she's uncomfortable with," Brock murmured. "She and I didn't really interact much when she was dating Trace but I didn't exactly stick up for her when he started spewing lies."

"We'll get her insight and then bring you back into the discussion. It would be good for your image if she's amenable to recording something with you. Bailey is the golden girl of country music right now as well as a gifted songwriter who would be an asset on your album. If you can get her on your side, then your chances of success will increase."

Be that as it may, Brock didn't want to bring Bailey down with him if the public decided that he wasn't worth supporting.

Maybe he and Bailey could bond over hating Trace Strickland together.

"Okay," he said with a sigh. "If Bailey is willing then I'm game to collaborate with her."

"Good," David replied, taking a moment to shuffle the papers in front of him. "Now let's get down and into the nitty-gritty of this conversation. Let's figure out where your career is headed musically, Mr. Mason."