I don’t wait for a reply. I put my phone away and ignore Paige’s knowing gaze in the elevator mirror.
“More strategizing?” Paige asks, knowing I’m refusing to look at her.
I keep my eyes forward, watching the floor numbers descend. “Something like that.”
The truth is, I don’t entirely know yet. But Violet will be there, and for the first time since the concert, there won’t be any silence between us. It will be filled with her, and me, and whatever comes next.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Violet
The missed call notification from my mom glows on my screen like an accusation. She will be even angrier now.
I hung up on her the last time we spoke.
She deserves the truth now. The whole, ugly, complicated truth.
It’s eleven at night back home. I dial her number, my fingers trembling.
It rings once before she picks up. No greeting on her end, just a tense silence.
“Mom.”
“Violet.” Her voice is a flat line of aggravation. “You hung up on me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Theo showed up.” I adjust on the couch in the sitting room, trying not to wake Cassie, who’s passed out in my bed. It’s five in the morning here in Milan, and Cassie would bite my head off if I woke her before sunrise.
“He’s gone now,” I tell her.
“Your boyfriend shouldn’t interrupt a conversation with your mother.”
“Ex-boyfriend.” I correct, waiting to hear her reaction.
She clicks her tongue. “You mean to tell me there’s more to the lies you’ve been piling on me?”
“No. God, no, Mom. It’s just all part of the same big mess.” I take a shuddering breath, squeezing my eyes shut. “Let me explain. Please. Just let me get it all out.”
A beat of silence. Then, a quick but hesitant, “Go on.”
I start with the wound that felt most fresh for both of us. “Theo and I aren’t together. And before you interrupt like I know you want to, it’s not because we decided we’re better as friends or the timing is off or anything stupid.” My brain isn’t ready to hit my mom with this news, but I can’t hold back any longer from her. Not only is it ruining her dreams of me marrying Theo, but it’s also going to hurt her relationship with one of our family members. Her sister’s daughter, to boot. “Theo cheated on me, Mom.”
Her sharp inhale cuts through the phone, but she remains silent like I ask.
“And he cheated on me with Leah.”
“He what?” The volume of her shriek has me pulling the phone a few inches from my ear.
“For months. That’s why I had to end it. I walked into the house after my last show at Madison Square Garden.” My voice trails off, realizing I haven’t dug into that part of my betrayal yet. “Anyway, Theo and Leah were naked on the couch. I confronted him after Leah left the house, and he blamed me for his cheating.”
She doesn’t say anything, so I plunge into the deep end before she has a chance to come up for air.
“Solace is me. I didn’t create her. The label did, legally, but the voice, the songs, that’s all me. They built a whole fake identity. A brand they could own completely. They said it was for privacy, but that wasn’t the case. It was for control. If they find me, they’d bury Violet Lockwood so deep no one would ever find her.”
I tell her about the conglomerate, the threats, the endless phone calls. Twenty minutes are spent going over the same speech I’d given Skye the night before. Honestly, it’s easier to tell this time because I feel like the largest weight has already been lifted when I placed my truth on Skye’s reliable shoulders.
“I’m so sorry, Mom,” I whisper, tears flowing freely now. “I wanted to tell you every single day. I hated lying to you. I hated the distance, but I didn’t knowhow to keep you safe from the world I’d gotten myself into. The fewer people that knew, the better.”
“Safe?” Her voice breaks. “Violet, I’m your mom. It’s my job to worry about yoursafety. Not the other way around.” Her voice is as soft now as it was when I’d fallen on the kindergarten blacktop and scraped my knee. “You carried this monstrous secret to protect everyone.”
