I know I said I wouldn't post the second chapter anytime soon but...it was written and...I posted it. So yeah lol.
Hope you like it!
Chapter 2
“What the hell is that?”
Raina grinned, looking at her beautiful new bracelet with stars in her eyes. “Mom bought it for me. Isn’t it amazing?”
“Yeah,” I said in a choked voice, recognizing it for what it was. Tiffany & Co.
“I knew you’d like it,” my mother, Roxanne Travis said, planting a kiss on my younger sister’s cheek.
“What’s not to like?” Raina said, her radiant smile nothing like our father’s. Raina’s smile was anything but plastic, her hazel eyes shining with the happiness she was feeling. She was an open book and even though she got on my nerves, like any good sibling does, I loved her more than anything. Of the two of us, she was always the smart one, her nose was more often than not buried in a book and her grades were impressive to say the least.
“Did you get one too, Grace?”
I blinked, tuning into the conversation. “What?”
“A bracelet, dummy.” She waved her wrist in front of my face, the diamonds catching the light from the window.
“Um...”
“She wouldn’t wear that, honey.”
My eyes shifted to my mother as she gazed affectionately down at my sister, her hazel eyes a shade or two lighter than Raina’s, her honey blonde hair a more faded version of her daughter’s. Aside from the subtle differences, the two had similar features and colouring, their heart-shaped faces, slight figures, and upturned noses marked them clearly as related.
Me on the other hand...
I was tall, just over five ten with long wavy hair, bordering on curly that was such a dark shade of brown that it was nearly black. My eyes were the same colour as my father’s, that dark green colour of the ocean in winter. I lacked the delicate features of my mother and sister, my jaw was a bit more square, my cheeks more angular and my eyes spaced slightly further apart. My lips were plumper than my mother’s ensuring that I couldn’t get away with the ‘sweet’ look that my sister so effortlessly pulled off. My mother liked to describe me as ‘striking’ and I supposed it fit.
“Yeah, I don’t really do jewellery, Raine. You know that.”
She shrugged and stuck her tongue out at me. “I was hoping you’d give it to me.”
I gave a short laugh. “Not a chance, brat.”
She rolled her eyes but the corners of her mouth were tilted up, as if she were fighting a smile. “How am I a brat?”
“You’re younger, thus, you’re a brat.”
“I’m sixteen. I’m practically an adult.”
I shrugged. “Still a brat to me.”
“Whatever,” she said, giving in and grinning at me. “Can I go to Tammy’s?” Raina asked my mom who nodded immediately. Roxanne had never learned how to say ‘no’ to my sister but for some reason, Raina hadn’t turned into the brat I’d accused her of being. She was spoiled but she rarely asked for anything and she never took advantage of what was given to her.
“Later, Gray,” she said, placing a kiss on my mom’s cheek before floating out of the room, taking some of the light with her.
“How much was the bracelet?” I asked through gritted teeth, looking at the door my sister had just left through, unable to face my mother.
“Not much.”
“How. Much,” I ground out.
“It’s really none of your business, Grace.”
“Mom─”
“Enough!” she half shouted, her hazel eyes flashing with irritation and a hint of panic that made unease trip through me. “I’m not having this conversation with you again, Grace. I’m your mother. I’ll take care of you girls so just worry about your college applications, okay?” She stood up straighter, smoothing her hands over her flat stomach, making sure there were no wrinkles in her designer blouse. “I’m meeting up with some friends for dinner. Will you be okay?”
I nodded mutely as she leaned in to plant a kiss on my cheek. “I’ll see you later, sweetie.”
“Yeah,” I breathed, the air stirring as she brushed past me, her heels clicking against the marble floor before she walked through the doorway towards the garage.
My wide eyes took in my surroundings as the faint sound of the garage opening filtered through the foyer. Expensive pieces of art lined the walls, statues that cost a fortune and just looked like pieces of scrap were proudly displayed in front of the wide, sweeping staircase that led to the eight rooms upstairs. I shook my head hard, trying to clear it as dollar signs danced across my vision.
What was a girl to do when her family was in debt up to their ears and her mother was swimming in De Nile?
A whisper of an idea floated around in my head but I dismissed it before it had a chance to fully form.
Instead, I gritted my teeth and trudged up the stairs, preparing to do what I’d been doing for the past few months to pay whatever bills I could.
I slipped into my mom’s room, careful not to disturb any of the clothes she had draped over the furniture as I opened the bottom drawer of her dresser, the dresser that she kept her jewellery in, the jewellery that I’d been selling.
The funny thing was, she never even noticed. She had so much of it that she couldn’t possibly wear it all even if she tried.
So yeah, I didn’t feel too bad about pawning it.
I was just reaching for a particularly shiny ruby necklace near the back of the drawer when the doorbell rang, freaking me out enough to have me slamming the door shut and sprinting out of my mom’s room empty handed.
“I’ll get it!” I shouted even though no one was home.
I jerked open the door without bothering to look through the peephole but once I spotted the woman standing there, I regretted it.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said, turning her surgically enhanced nose up at me.
Yeah, no love lost between us. “Hey Diane. Long time no see.” Thank god. Diane was one of my mother’s ‘friends’ but really she was just a huge bitch who liked to rub her wealth in everyone’s faces because she could. And she was evil.
“Is your mom home?”
“She just left.” Probably smelled you coming.
“Oh drat, I wanted to talk to her about the party.”
“Oh yeah, I’m not going to that.”
She gave a dismissive wave of her hand and sent me a pitying look that set my teeth on edge. “Not that party. The one your mom is throwing here at the end of the month. Everyone in the club has to host one and it’s your mom’s turn. Could you give this to her when she gets home?” She handed me a thick envelope of papers. “They’re just a preliminary outline for the night. Let her know that the girls and I have a lot of ideas for this party. It’s going to be huge.”
Huge? Party? Here?
Dollar signs. Oh god, so many dollar signs.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll tell her you stopped by.”
“Oh and Gracie you really should─” I shut the door on her face, cutting her off before she could insult me.
I dropped the envelope on a table and raced to my room, breathing heavily as I tugged the box out from under my bed. I rifled through the bills there, reading the statements that I hadn’t been given permission to look at in the first place but someone had to. My mother just threw them out, not bothering to check out the contents first.
“Don’t panic,” I whispered, flipping through the bills, sorting them out by which ones were most urgent. I paused on the one for the remainder of my sister’s tuition to Bethesda Prep. Our classes were in separate buildings so we hadn’t seen each other often even when I’d been going to school and now that I wasn’t, it didn’t make a difference.
I ran my fingers over the statement, wincing at the huge number at the bottom, wondering why I even bothered. I’d given the remainder of my tuition to hers but it had barely made a dent.
“Screwed.”
Images of creditors invaded my thoughts and I winced, picturing my mother and how her friends would treat her if they knew how much trouble she was in, just how close to bankruptcy she was.
Those vultures would tear her apart, throw her to the wolves without a second glance.
Just like they had when Blake had cheated on her so publically.
At least back then, she’d had a fortune to fall back on.
Now...now all she had was me.
I could fix all of this.
I winced at the thought, not quite ready to pay the price yet.
With shaking fingers, I tugged my phone out of my pocket, leaning against the side of my bed as it rang in my ear.
“Took you long enough,” Syd said after two rings. “What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later. First, I need your advice.”
“All right,” she said easily.
“So I have this friend─”
“Is it me?”
“No.”
“But I’m your only friend.”
“No you’re not.”
“Well, I’m the only one that matters.”
I stayed silent for a second. “You done?”
“Yes. Please, go on.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled. “All right so I know this girl and she’s kind of stuck on a decision so I figured I’d run it by as many people as possible. The more the merrier, right? Har har.”
“Do you have a point?”
“Maybe?” I sighed. “All right, so she needs money. Lots of it and she has the means to get it but in order to get it she has to...hang out with someone she doesn’t like.”
“Oh no, hooking isn’t the answer.”
“Not that kind of hang out. More like...a business partner kind of? Anyway, this person she has to hang out with, he isn’t so great. He used to mean a lot to her but then he had this awful habit of never being there when she needed him, when he promised to be there and then slowly he just stopped promising until the only thing she got form him was an empty birthday card until even that stopped coming. So, do you think she should work with him in order to get the money?”
Syd was quiet for a moment and then, in a voice that lacked any of her usual sarcasm, she said, “Grace, why do you need money so badly?”
“Not me, a frien─”
“I’m not an idiot.”
“You sure?”
“Grace, just tell me. Maybe I can help.”
I let out a defeated sigh and dropped my head until it was resting on my knees. “I don’t want you involved in this, Syd.”
“You’re my best friend. Now tell me.”
So I did. I told her about my mom and about her bad habit of spending money she didn’t have to impress friends that weren’t really her friends and how we’d sunk into a hole so deep that we’d run out of options. All the jewellery in my mother’s room wouldn’t pay for the type of party that Diane wanted to throw and I still had to find a way to pay Raina’s school.
“That’s why you quit Bethesda? Money?”
“Yeah. I transferred the money that had been paid for my tuition over to Raina’s but it’s still not enough.” I squeezed my eyes shut and sighed. “What I need to do, is strike a deal with my dear old dad, agree to his little tour as long as the salary is...generous.”
“Or,” Sydney said, her tone laced with annoyance, “you could tell your mom that it’s time to grow up and take care of her children.”
I straightened, shaking my head. “She’s been through enough.”
“She’s being selfish.”
“You don’t get it, Syd. This life is the only one she knows. Before she was married, her filthy rich parents got her whatever she wanted and even though they disowned her, cutting off her inheritance when she married my dad, it didn’t matter because he’s equally loaded. She doesn’t even know the word, ‘budget’ never mind know how to follow one.” I shook my head and ran my free hand over my face. “After everything the press and my dad’s fans put her through, I want her to be happy and if impressing her stupid friends does that then I’ll just have to find a way to help her.”
“You shouldn’t have to take this on by yourself.”
I shrugged, pushing myself into a standing position, forcing my spine to straighten and my shoulders to square. “I won’t be by myself. I’ll be with my dear old dad. I liked him once, maybe I’ll like him again?”
“Yeah, you liked him until he broke your heart.” Her tone was soft but her words sent a sharp jab to my chest anyway.
“Well, then it won’t be open for business a second time around.”
“You say that now but─”
“Your faith in me is astounding, Syd. C’mon, trust me just a little bit. I’m the one who stood around, waiting for a father that never showed up and I’m too embarrassed to admit how many times I believed his promises before it clicked. But now, I’ve learned my lesson and my heart is one big piece of living breathing stone in my chest so there’s no way he could worm his slimy way into it. I’m doing this.”
“I know,” she said after a moment, her tone defeated. “You sure there’s no way to convince you not to?”
“Nope. None.”
“Stubborn.”
“That’s why you love me.”
“Yeah right,” she grumbled but I heard the smile in her voice. “So what’s the next step?”
“The next step is convincing my father to give me enough money to buy a small country. Should be easy right?”
“Don’t you think that’s a bit...steep?” Oscar said, glancing down at the number I’d written on the back of his business card. “I mean, you’ll only be doing a couple songs a night. It’s not like you’re the headlining act.”
I raised my eyebrows at him and shook my head. “Don’t even try to convince me that he’s not making a hundred times that amount on this tour. He can afford to pay me appropriately, can’t he?” I shot a glance at my dad whose eyes briefly narrowed before he gave a slow nod.
“I’ll agree to it but you have to be onstage for three songs a night and you have to play up our relationship for the press. Which means, any interviews I ask you to take part in, you’ll pretend to be charming and lovable.”
“Pretend? I am charming and lovable.”
Oscar and Blake exchanged doubtful glances.
“All right, I’ll pretend to be.” Crossing my arms over my chest I leaned back in my chair, the same chair in that fancy private room in that ritzy hotel my father had dragged me to two days before. Now, here I was selling my soul to the devil while sipping another foamy latte delivered by the same shaky server who’d nearly dropped my last one. “So, do we have a deal?”
My father grinned and I barely resisted the urge to wipe his face with a napkin, wanting to remove the plastic coating that he wore. God, he was so fake.
“We’ve got a deal,” Blake held out his hand for me to shake and without hesitation, I slipped my fingers into his, giving a tiny squeeze before letting go. But his grip tightened on mine, halting my movement. “But first, you need to audition.”
“I do?”
He chuckled and released me before standing. “Of course. We need to see what you’ve got before we officially sign you up.”
“What I’ve got?” I wheezed. “Do mad skills on the triangle count? Because damn, I am awesome at the triangle.”
Oscar frowned but it was the flash of doubt in my dad’s eyes that had me straightening my spine. “You signed up to sing, remember?”
I grinned and stood, giving an easy chuckle as I moved towards my father. “Of course. So when’s my audition?”
“Right now.”
“Now?” my confident facade slipped when I tripped on nothing, bumping into Oscar who was opening the door.
“What’s the matter?” Blake rested his hand on my arm, giving me a curious look. “You used to sing all the time.”
I tried not to wince at the memory. Yeah, I used to sing because it was the one thing that made him look at me, the one thing that managed to bring us together on the rare occasions that he was home.
But I hadn’t so much as hummed a tune in years.
“Yeah, sorry, just a little...nervous.”
“You’ll do great,” Blake said, winding his arm around my shoulders for a brief squeeze that left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Was I seriously going to sing for my father’s approval again?
Not approval, money.
Dollar signs. That’s right.
They led me through the lobby and onto the elevator which we rode in silence. Oscar kept glancing down at the business card with my fee written on it and wincing which made me smile.
Until we walked out of the elevator and into a room that looked like an auditorium. The steps sloped down towards a stage at the bottom. The chairs in the room were thankfully empty but on the stage, there was a band playing. They stopped when the metal door behind us clicked shut and they spotted the three of us standing there.
“Looks like we got the wrong room,” I mumbled, ready to turn towards the door but my father’s hands on my shoulders stopped me.
“Guys, this is my daughter, Grace. Play anything she asks you to, okay?” He leaned forward as I craned my neck to look him in the eye. “You’re up.”
Oh shit. This was my audition? Not only did I have to sing for my father but I had to sing for a group of random strangers who, judging by the little bit of their music I’d heard, were experts at their craft? Super.
With confidence I didn’t really feel, I stomped down the steps towards the stage, trying to ignore the way my heart was pumping and my stomach was churning.
“Don’t puke,” I muttered when I mounted the three steps to the stage.
“Pardon?”
I blinked at the guitar player standing just off to my left. He had long, light brown hair held back in a ponytail and his eyes were a warm shade of brown. He was probably in his mid-twenties with a long, lanky build. “Nothing,” I mumbled, shaking my head and stepping past him, intent on the mic.
“What do you want to sing?” the bass player asked and I had to do a double take. He looked exactly like the guitar player, right down to the plaid shirt and faded jeans. He grinned when he spotted my confused look. “Twins.”
“Oh.” I nodded and shrugged, stepping up to the microphone, not quite ready to get behind it yet. My eyes connected with the drummer’s and I frowned at the expression on his face. His lips were pressed into a tight line and he was looking at me with distaste, his dark brown eyes meeting mine squarely, almost defiantly and his strong jaw tilted upward just a bit.
Okay, so we weren’t going to be best friends.
Too bad, drummer boy.
“How do you guys feel about Abba?”
“Love em,” the guitar player said enthusiastically.
“Ugh,” the Bass player replied, rolling his eyes at his twin brother.
The drummer just shrugged and didn’t say anything, his lips tightening into a thinner line as he stared at me with poorly concealed hostility.
I tilted my head to the side and narrowed my eyes on him. “Think you can keep up, Drumline?”
A muscle in his cheek twitched and I think maybe he was grinding his teeth but I turned around before I could figure it out. What did it matter anyway? I wasn’t there to make friends, I was there to make money.
“All right,” I cleared my throat, letting out a long breath before putting my mouth close to the mic. “You guys know Money, Money, Money?”
A few grumbled yeses and then the keyboardist I hadn’t even noticed broke in with the first few chords.
My heart was pounding so hard that my eyeballs felt like they were rattling in my skull but I managed to come in at the right time.
I winced at the sound of my own voice. It was shaky and reed thin and barely in tune. I was destroying Abba and by the second line, I wanted to quit.
But for whatever reason, the band kept going and I got the feeling that they liked seeing me crash and burn.
I sucked in a deeper breath, trying to get used to the feeling of singing again after so long and by the time I reached the third line, my voice was a bit firmer and just a tad more in tune.
My eyes connected with my father’s and I saw the exact moment when he decided to back out of his offer, to leave me there in New York with bills to pay and no way to pay them.
“Stop,” I said, waving my hand at the band just after we finished the first chorus and they halted their playing. “Okay, so I’m not so great.” I shrugged, grinning up at my dad but it wasn’t him I needed to convince. It was Oscar. “Who cares?”
“I’m an artist, Grace,” Blake said, coming down the stairs to stop in front of the stage, his face tilted back so he could look me in the eye. “I only work with the best.”
“Not everything is about how well you can hold a tune, Dad,” I said, sidestepping the mic and moving to the front of the stage. “How many fans did you lose with all that crap about your cheating ways? How many soft hearted middle aged women tucked your album in a box never to look at it again?” I tapped my chin, pretending to think about it as I cast a glance at Oscar, seeing a glimmer of calculation in his eyes. Perfect.
“A few, right? How many of those women’s hearts would melt if they saw you singing with your daughter, your heart shining in your eyes? They won’t even hear my voice.” I hooked my legs over the edge of the stage and leaned closer to my father quieting my voice so that the others couldn’t hear. “Besides, I’ll pose for any pictures you want me to, stand in any interview and I will lie through my teeth about what a great father you were for all those years.” I leaned back with a smug smile on my face, spotting the look on Oscar’s face and I knew I’d won. “Anything else can be fixed with autotune.”
Blake and Oscar exchanged a look and when the manager gave a slight nod of his head I let out a quick laugh. “All right,” I said, sticking my hand out and focusing on my father once more. “Do we have a deal?”
Blake frowned, looking down at my hand with a hint of trepidation in his gaze. “Will you take voice lessons while we’re on the road?”
“Sure.”
“Will you actually try to improve?”
“Dad, it hurts me that you’d doubt my dedication to you.” I opened my eyes wide and blinked up at him, avoiding his actual question.
“What are you going to do with the money?”
My back stiffened but I kept my features relaxed even as I felt the tension radiating off the band behind me. Clearly, they’d heard my father’s words and now they knew without a doubt that I was just there for the money.
And what tipped them off?
“I was thinking of buying a castle.”
“A castle?” His forehead wrinkled in a frown as he gave me a perplexed look.
“Yup. I’m into medieval architecture. Sue me.”
“Are you serious?”
I nodded, giving him my most vacant look.
Suddenly he burst out laughing, tipping his head back as the deep sounds emerged from his chest. “You’re definitely my daughter.” He reached out and clapped his hand on my shoulder but I almost immediately shrugged out of his grip and hopped down from the stage.
“Yeah, no one ever doubted my legitimacy.” I tapped a finger next to my left eye. “The colour is really the exact same as yours.” Raina, on the other hand, looked nothing like my father and despite all my father’s infidelities, it was Roxanne’s reputation that took the hit.
“That they are.”
His eyes were lit with something close to affection as he leaned towards me, almost as if he were going to hug me but I danced out of the way, sending a grin and a wink in Oscar’s direction. “Save it for the cameras, Blake. Nice playing guys. Sorry you got suckered into listening to me,” I saluted the band, noticing that the keyboard guy had disappeared again. The one twin who liked Abba saluted back and the other one just gave me a small nod. The drummer’s hostility seemed to have multiplied and I wondered briefly if maybe he had something against disco.
Or me.
I shrugged and turned on my heel but Blake’s hand on my arm stopped me. “Be here tomorrow for rehearsal. We start at four.”
“No problem. Want me to bring my camera? Maybe you can post some pictures of us on your blog or something. I bet your fans would love it.”
“We’ll worry about publicity when the tour officially starts next week,” Oscar said.
I shrugged. “Whatever floats your boat. Just trying to be part of the team.” I grinned and with a big wave at the band, I spun and left, taking the steps two at a time until I was out of the auditorium with the door shut behind me.