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CHAPTERSEVEN
Isaac
Floodlights swampthe concert hall as the opening bars of Aurelia’s latest single,Clandestine, vibrate against the walls. Screams and shouts of “Aurelia, Aurelia” compete with the music, until the object of the crowd’s obsession appears on a raised platform at the back of the stage. The music stops, allowing only for the squeals and cheers of adolescents and their secretly appreciative parents to be heard. Then the bass crashes in and Aurelia’s dancers go nuts.
Fortunately, half the security team and a bunch of agency personnel are guarding the event, so I don’t reprimand myself too harshly for being unable to drag my eyes away from the glittering star as she descends the neon stairway to the main stage, belting out a catchy, powerful song I am now more than familiar with. I was impressed with the way she commanded the stage and the performances during rehearsals, but seeing Aurelia now, center stage, holding thousands of pairs of eyes, strutting with the kind of confidence I’d expect from a president, not a nineteen-year-old girl, I am stunned.
The stage is awash with throbbing lights and sweeping imagery, creating a kaleidoscopic, fantastical vision. As Aurelia flashes through, her voice bending, swaying, elongating, she becomes otherworldly. A completely different person to the one I’ve been slowly, quietly, contentedly getting to know. I am now a hundred percent certain of my idea for Connor’s proposal to Tawny. It’s going to frighten the living shit out of him but there will be absolutely no better way to make a splash of a proposal. And knowing Aurelia a little more, I think she’ll be as excited about this as I am.
* * *
I’m waitingoutside Aurelia’s dressing room when the door opens and Sherry, the assistant Aurelia shares with her stepfather, appears.
“She wants to see you inside.” Sherry says this with an eyeroll and I immediately like her a little less. I spin and step through the door she’s holding open. Aurelia is standing at the back of the room, next to her dressing table, looking a lot smaller than she did on stage just thirty minutes ago. I wait for the door to close and it’s just me and her.
“Is everything ok?”
From several feet away, I can see movement in her throat as she swallows hard. Then her eyes flick to a sheet of paper lying on the dresser. When her eyes flick back to mine, they’re coated in unshed tears. It takes me two strides before I’m inches away from her. I want to take in more of her face but my professional curiosity has become instinctive, and I look down at the note. It’s an intricate collage of letters glued together to form words, sentences. Not many, but enough.
Congratulations, my angel
You’re on my territory now
Think of me when you blow out your candle before bed
And enjoy these nights, because they won’t last
“It was in my bag, the one I packed in my hotel room,” Aurelia says, her voice as meek as a child’s, in stark contrast to the exhilarating range and power she just demonstrated on stage.
“Who’s had the bag in their possession since you left it?”
“It was loaded into the trunk of one of the cars by Franklin, my father’s security. I assume he took it from my room. But then I didn’t see it again. I got out of the car and was ushered straight here, to the concert hall.”
I can feel the familiar, impeccably restrained urgency building my chest. “I’ll speak to him now—"
She puts a hand on my arm. “Whoever it is has been inside my hotel room.”
Her fearful eyes stop me in my tracks. “What makes you think that?”
“They know I burn a candle every night.”
“Isn’t that prohibited in hotel rooms?”
“They turn a blind eye to certain people, and even if they didn’t, I’d do it anyway. I do it for my grandma, it helps me to feel as though she’s with me. That’s what freaks me out. I burn a candle every night for my grandma, and only two other people know this: Ana and Billy. And they wouldn’t tell anyone or do anything like this.”
“Have you spoken to them?”
She shakes her head. “I’ve been banned from contacting them for a while.”
“What? Why? By who?”
“By Mom and Chuck. It was after Ana convinced me to go out in Miami in disguise, but it didn’t work and I got mobbed. It was just before I started rehearsals here.”
“I didn’t know about that.”
“It was all over the media.”
“I don’t tend to believe much of what is reported in the media.”
