AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The label owns the rights to all your songs. Your back catalog, anything you wrote while you were with the band and anything you write while you’re under contract—which is another five years—and they will fight to keep those rights. They will take every last penny you have fighting to keep those rights. So, anything you currently have or anything you write for the next five years will belong to them. How can you move to another label if you can’t play anything? I mean, you could record other people’s songs, but the label is well aware of how Tanner feels about that, so we know that won’t be an option." She stared at me, with what looked like pleasure dancing through her cold eyes. "You’re backed into a corner, Grayson.” Hazel walked toward me, stepping uncomfortably close, obviously trying to prove a point about who was in control here and it wasn’t me.
“You can quit by all means, but then the whole band is in breech and you and you alone will be responsible for your brothers and sister losing their dream. Is that what you want? Are those two people in there really worth everyone losing, Grayson? Can you really live with that guilt?”
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut and my body physically recoiled, forcing me to bend over, bracing my hands on my thighs.
“Grayson—”
I told you to stop fucking calling me that. My name is Gray.
Addi reached out to me, looking forlorn. “Gray, I’m so sorry, I didn’t—”
I held up my hand. “Don’t you dare, Addison.”
“Now, now, Grayson. I apologize—Gray, don’t be silly. You’re making a fuss about nothing. This is easy to fix. I just need you to get Ivy and Ethan to leave. Send them home. Back to the UK. They will not attend any other concerts with you. They will not visit or surprise you for the rest of the tour. There will be no secret visits home to see them. There are to be no more photos of you all together. Tell them it’s not safe after Tanner was spiked… that you want to protect them by sending them home. I need you to put some space between you and them for a while until I can deal with this mess in the press.”
“For a while? So, you mean this is temporary? I can bring them back once you’ve sorted this out?” I hated how needy I sounded, but I couldn’t imagine a world where they weren’t by my side.
“No. This mess isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and if I do sort it, I don’t want it becoming an issue again because you’ve been seen with them.”
“I’m sorry, what?"I spluttered. "Thismess,as you call it, is my marriage and you’re telling me that I can’t have them in my life?”
“Whether we can call it ‘a marriage’ is debatable. I doubt it’s legally binding. I’m looking into it and even if it is, we can have it annulled. Claim you were drunk, or they were blackmailing you. I mean, we can even say you married the woman, and the man was just there as an overly enthusiastic guest. We can’t deny the photos, but we can manage them.”
“Manage them?” I yelled, staring back at my suite, hoping Ivy and Gray couldn’t hear this shit. “Manage them? What the actual fuck? How dare you walk in here and suggest I want to annul my marriage or think you have any right to tell me I have to.”
She tutted at my outburst and the pinch of her lips grew tighter as she stared at me. “Gray, I don’t care about your personal life, but I do care about what the stories do to your image. People want you to be available, they want to feel like they have a chance with you. It’s why they buy your albums and pay what you charge for concert tickets. The label is clear, do as you’re told, or they will end your career. Not just yours, Gray, but they'll go after the whole band. I’ll ask you again, is that what you want? To end all of your careers for some selfish, kinky sex?”
My skin burned, the itch tearing through my body, and I had to press my hand to my mouth to silence the rage that threatened to escape my lips.
“And when you’ve got rid of your little groupies, you can remove the wedding ring and the heap of metal around your neck. I don’t want the press to be able to trace you back to them in any way. You can give them to me for safe keeping, so you’re not tempted to wear them.”
“Addi? This can’t be serious,” I cried. “I’m not a fucking naughty kid. You can’t just confiscate my belongings. What the hell is going on?”
“I told you, Gray, it’s out of my hands,” she said quietly, placing her hand on my arm.
“Fucking bitch,” I fired at Hazel, tearing my arm from Addi’s touch, storming down the hall, before slamming back into my suite, holding my breath to calm my anger, before I lied to the two people I’d just promised my heart to.
Chapter 22
Ethan
“Ofcourse,helied,princess. He married us. It’s leaked all over the news the next day and suddenly a threat to Tanner that happened over a week ago makes it too dangerous to have us stay. Plus, we’re being shipped home on a private plane. Either he’s ashamed of what we did, or someone is telling him we’re an embarrassment.”
I hated hearing the sob that escaped Ivy’s lips. “He wanted this as much as us. I can’t believe he’d throw us away like this. Whether it was his idea or not, he went along with it. He let us go. Even though he promised us we were the most important thing, he let us go. Again.”
I pushed my fingers into her thick curls and pulled her forehead to mine. “Whatever happens, Ivy, I’ve got you. I love you.” She turned her hand over to take mine, but the tattoo on her wrist slipped into view. His promise to us inked there to haunt and mock us for a lifetime. Tears spilled down her face as I wrapped my arms around her, furious that I was picking up the pieces again.
The last three weeks had been hell. Although Gray wanted to protect us from the madness, all he’d done was expose us to it and then leave us to fend off the wolves on our own. It started with headlines about our ‘fake’ marriage. We’d gotten him drunk, he didn’t know what was happening, it wasn’t a real marriage, it was a publicity stunt. The papers were full of theories about whether we were both sleeping with him or if he was really gay and Ivy was a fake story to throw the press off the trail. They turned up at the house, followed our cars, accosted our friends and family, and still, we didn’t hear a word from him.
I texted. I called. I even fucking begged over voicemail messages. But nothing. I listened while Ivy sobbed and I stayed quiet because I knew reacting to the stories would make them worse, while my heart broke.
The last straw happened when Ivy and I were curled up silently watching TV and the entertainment news came on. The news reporter was outside a premiere of a film. Apparently, the Cosmic Gods had written the soundtrack, and they were all there in their finest. We watched them being interviewed and then she reached Gray, who had his arms wrapped around a blond Barbie-looking woman. “So, Gray, the rumors of you getting married aren’t true?”
“Fuck no. I was drunk and definitely didn’t get married.” His lips said the words, but his face was blank and his eyes empty. It didn’t stop his fake admission stabbing me in my already fragile heart.
“We’re so glad to hear you’re back on the market again.”
“He’s not,” the blond Barbie screeched, planting a kiss on his cheek. “We’re engaged. Gray wanted to keep it quiet, but I can’t wait to tell the world.”
