Total pages in book: 19
Estimated words: 19570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 78(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 19570 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 98(@200wpm)___ 78(@250wpm)___ 65(@300wpm)
I nod once. Tap my foot. Whisper, “And one… two… three… four…”
Her notes slice the air. The audience quiets. They begin taking their seats as we run through the piece. It’s not the show yet—just the warm-up—but you’d never know it by the way she plays.
For several minutes, I match Adeline note for note, until she no longer needs me to. Until all I can do is follow from the background.
When we finish, I step away from the mic and let her take the stage alone.
She straightens her shoulders, and with a confident inhale, begins her solo.
In the middle of her set, I scan the room. And there he is. Ryder. Standing at the back.
Our eyes lock. My heart stumbles.
But I don’t miss a beat.
We strike the final note. The room goes still.
Then—an eruption of applause.
Adeline throws her arms around me. “Thank you so much, Miss Jane. I can’t wait until you hear the rest…”
“Anything for you,” I whisper, squinting at the crowd.
Ryder is gone.
End of Episode 6
Dissonant Notes
EPISODE 7
Ryder
Several days later…
I’m poring over coordinates for handling Rush Banks—lining up every possible angle, all while half-heartedly playing a solo game of chess. Anything to keep my brain occupied. Anything to keep from remembering the smell of her shampoo when she leaned in to say goodbye. The way her voice cracked when she said my name for the last time. The way I didn’t stop her.
Fuck…
I’ve always been good at separating things—emotions, people, pain. Filing them into mental drawers I never open twice.
But Autumn is everywhere now. Lingering in the taste of my coffee, in the quiet aftermath of my shower, in the way I reach for her without realizing I’m doing it. She’s bled into my routines like a watermark—proof of something I can’t erase.
I shove the chessboard hard enough to send the pieces flying, black and white scattering across the floor like the wreckage of a strategy that no longer works.
As I’m watching the pieces lie, I hear the soft rhythm of footsteps outside my door.
“Come in, Adeline.”
“Okay.” She steps into my office with a smile.
“How was the mothers and daughters recital the other day?” I ask her.
“It was very good,” she says. “I told you that when you picked me up.”
“I just thought about it again… Were there any special guests?”
“No…” She shrugs. “Unless you count bassist Ashley Conniver. Some people had never heard of her, but I knew who she was.”
“Anyone else?”
“Nope.” She sets her music on the stand and positions her bow.
I wait for her to crack under my glare, but she doesn’t.
She has my genes for sure…
When she finishes playing her piece—perfect as always—she takes a bow.
“Thank you for listening,” she says. “Did you like it?”
“I did,” I say. “I liked it almost as much as the piece you played onstage with Miss Jane the other night.”
Her face pales and she sucks in a gasp.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I think you ran her away.” She narrows her eyes. “I think you did something, and so…”
“I need you to apologize for lying to me.”
“I’m not sorry.”
“Adeline…”
“I. Am. Not. Sorry.” She heaves. “You couldn’t let me have one friend. Just one.”
“Miss Jane was an employee.” I can’t let both of us lean into fucking emotions. “She was paid to hang around you.”
“I don’t think she ‘quit’ at all.” She narrows her eyes, looking more defiant than she’s ever been with me. “I think she ‘left’ you, and I’m just collateral.”
I open my mouth to argue, to shut it down before the words sink in, but they already have. They’re buried beneath my ribs now, heavy and real.
“Your vocabulary has improved quite a bit since you started the new school.”
“Too bad my relationship with you hasn’t.” Her words cut like ice. “It’s bad enough I don’t have family and you won’t tell me why—no matter how many times I ask—but… you took away the only friend I ever had. I’m not sorry for anything I said, and I don’t forgive you.”
Her voice shatters something I’ve been holding together since the recital. I can still see Autumn’s hands on the violin. Her bow in sync with Adeline’s. Like they belonged in this world.
My world…
The door slams shut, but it’s her words that linger—unyielding, sharp, and impossible to forget.
I can’t tell her about her family… because I still haven’t accepted it myself.
End of Episode 7
What Could’ve Been
EPISODE 8
Ryder
Several Years Ago
The Night I Lost My Family…
The second kitchen sits at the lowest level of the estate—cold-tiled, underlit, and quieter than the main one upstairs. It’s where late-night snacks turn into strategy meetings, where pasta shells stack high and secrets settle deeper.
My entire family is sitting around a dinner table while my mom walks around serving her signature pasta. My father is laughing with my two older brothers, playfully admonishing them for “being on time instead of early. You know how I feel about time, boys.”