“I was trying to protect everything,” I sob. “The music, my dream, you. But it all got screwed up, and it seems I’ve made it worse.”
“No,” she says, firm now. “You were surviving. In a situation no one should ever be in. This monster used your talent and then held a metaphorical knife to your throat to keep you quiet.”
There’s a shuffle on the other end of the line, followed by the sound of a keyboard clicking.
“Mom, you don’t have to—”
“I absolutely do. Your cheating ex and a pack of legal sharks think they can corner my baby? They have another thing coming.”
“Mom, really. My agent will take care of it. I already called her, and I’m waiting to hear back later this morning. She said she’d have some answers for me.”
My mom sighs into the phone, but the typing on her keyboard stops. I smile at the idea of my mom taking on all of this on her own. Linda Lockwood really is a force to be reckoned with.
“You will let me know the minute you hear something?”
My smile grows wider. “Of course I will, Mom.” Then, another punch of guilt hits my stomach. “There’s actually something else I’d like to talk to you about.”
She clears her throat, and I hear the click of the mouse. “Should I get a nightcap?”
“Not unless you want to,” I reassure her. “It’s more on a personal level.”
I hear her blowing air like she’s about to dive in and swim a full medley. “I’m ready. You can tell me anything.”
Heat floods through my chest at my mom’s words, and I keep myself from hugging the phone for fear of hanging up on my mom twice in less than twenty-four hours.
“I’m gay,” I pause to think, then add, “well, maybe bi.”
Her breath catches. “Oh, sweetie. That’s wonderful!”
My eyes go so wide, I’m surprised they don’t pop out of my skull. “What?”
I swear I can see her waving a hand at my reaction and leaning her elbows on her knees like she’s about to give me a real talking to.
“Love is love, Vi. And if it weren’t for your daddy ruining me for anyone else on the planet, I’d have found myself a nice woman that could please me—”
“MOM!”
She chuckles, and I look around the room to make sure nobody else heard the words that just left her mouth.
“Oh, don’t be a prude, Vi. I’m just saying, women know what women want. And Lord knows they don’t need a map to find the sweet spot.”
“Oh God,” I groan, covering my face with my hands. It’s like watching a horror movie with one eye closed, knowing you’ll still see the bad stuff, but feeling safer that only half of your vision has to endure what’s coming.
“Either way.” She exhales. “So, tell me again why you’re in Milan? If you’re not there to watch Theo win the Olympic games…”
“I’m here to sing the National Anthem at the closing ceremony.” There’s a smile in my voice as the words come out. It may not be the first time I’m saying it, but when you tell your mom the biggest news of your life, it’s like hearing it yourself for the first time.
My mom screams. Actually screams into the phone, and her hands start clapping.
THUD.
“Shit,” she curses in the midst of muffled sounds. “Dropped my phone.”
I laugh, and we spend the next few minutes discussing the ins and outs of what I actually do from day to day. I tell her about Skye and how we met at the bar, which led to the biggest, “Lord bless that child for taking care of my girl. You could have been scooped up by one of those traffickers.”
The rest of the conversation is a lot less colorful, but by the time we’re ready to hang up, I feel like she’s herself again.
Then it hits me.
