Chapter Fifteen #2
I move through the bar like I’m underwater, the applause from my performance melting into static. The crowd claps, some call my name, but I don’t react. My pulse pounds too loudly, drowning everything out except the sight of the three men locked in a heated exchange up ahead.
Chase, Dax, and someone else.
Someone shadowed until he turns, and the light catches his face.
My heart stops.
My stomach twists so violently I nearly collapse.
I know that face.
I’ve seen him in interviews.
Online articles.
Music industry headlines.
“Lyric,” the man says with a smile that makes my skin crawl. He extends his hand as if this were a business meeting, not a betrayal.
“I’m Chase Covington Sr., President of Ego Star Productions. You have quite the voice.”
My gaze drops to his hand like it’s made of poison.
“No!” I growl like a woman possessed. The word escapes before I can stop it, my body trembling, panic clawing at my throat.
No, no, no.
“No? I haven’t even said anything yet.” He chuckles, oozing charm like I’m just another contract waiting to be signed.
Folding my arms across my chest, I scowl at him. “I’m not signing with you. I am not a singer. That’s not who I am.”
He tilts his head, amused. “I think my executive vice president would disagree.”
My blood runs cold.
I look at Chase.
My Chase.
He won’t meet my eyes.
And in that second, everything shatters.
The truth detonates inside me, and the blast leaves me hollow.
“You think you can change her mind, son?”
Son.
The word rips through me while my knees nearly buckle.
Chase’s face, my anchor these past four months, morphs into something unfamiliar.
My stomach churns, my chest caves in, and I stumble back, shaking my head, my heart splintering into a million sharp pieces.
“You,” I whisper, my voice so hoarse I barely recognize it.
“You’re Chase Covington Jr.? You lied to me! You lied about everything.”
He steps forward. “Lyri, please—”
“Don’t you dare. Don’t you fucking dare!
” I shove him, my hands trembling with fury and betrayal.
“You told me you worked for a detective agency. That Soren guy, was that a lie too? Was any of it real? Or was I just your pet project, your fucking assignment for Daddy’s company?
” My tone is more than a little accusatory.
“Soren’s real,” Chase says, his voice cracking as he steps toward me. “He’s a PI. He did work for someone I know. I borrowed his name, just like I borrowed Dax’s last name to keep mine hidden. I didn’t want you to see me as him… as a Covington. I wanted you to see me as me.”
I snort out a laugh, rolling my eyes. “And you thought the best way to do that was to lie to my face for four straight months?”
He slumps his shoulders, his eyes drooping with defeat. “I didn’t want to lose you!”
“You never had me!” The words explode from my throat, soaked in heartbreak.
Chase looks like I’ve punched him. Like the wind’s been knocked from his lungs. He reaches out in desperation. “Lyri, please—”
“Don’t touch me.” I slap his hand away like it burns. “You used me. You wanted me to sing tonight so your father could hear me. So you could reel me in and present me like a goddamn trophy.”
He shakes his head furiously. “No. God, no. It was never about that. It was never about the label. It was you. I fell for you. I fucking love you, Starlight.”
I scoff, my chest heaving. My eyes blur with tears I refuse to let fall.
Not here.
Not in front of him.
“You love me? You don’t even know me. You watched me fall for you, knowing I would never want this. You manipulated everything.”
“I didn’t mean to. Lyri, I swear, I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t plan for us. I thought I could keep the truth from you until the right time—”
“There is no right time to tell someone you’ve been l-lying to them.” My voice breaks. My whole body breaks. I shove him again and again, until Rory tries to pull me back.
People are staring.
The room spins, my ears ring, and the pain in my chest is unbearable. “I’m so fucking stupid,” I whisper to no one.
Chase’s face falls, his entire demeanor screams of guilt, or is that wrecked? I can’t tell. And I don’t care. “Lyri, don’t do this. Please. I’m begging you. Don’t walk away from me. Don’t let this be the end.”
But it already is.
I turn to his asshole father. “You can take your production company and shove it. And as for you—” I look Chase dead in the eyes. “You’re not my Hallmark hero. You’re a lie. A fraud. A fucking fantasy.”
He grabs my elbow as I turn, but I spin back and slap him hard across the face. The sound is deafening, my hand throbbing with the force of the slap.
He freezes, stunned. Tears glistening in his eyes.
“Don’t you ever come near me again!”
“Lyri,” he rasps, his tone defeated. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I love you.”
I stare into his broken gaze. My voice is a whisper, “Beetlejuice.”
He flinches as if I slapped him again.
He knows what that word means.
Our safe word.
Our end.
We’re over.
I rip myself free and storm toward the door. Rory’s hand slides into mine, grounding me as I internally fall apart. My chest feels caved in, my ribs splintered under the weight of grief. Outside, the air bites at my skin, but I don’t feel it.
I feel nothing.
We slide into the first cab that pulls up. I don’t speak. I can’t.
Through the rear window, I see Chase standing in the doorway, staring after me like he’s just lost the only thing that ever mattered.
And maybe he has.
But so have I.
Rory leans in, wrapping her arm around me for the comfort I so desperately need. “I’m so sorry, Lyri.”
And I finally let myself go. I crumble into her arms. My tears come fast, hard, in an uncontrollable flood. My sobs are shaking my entire body. “He s-said he l-loved me,” I choke out as the cab pulls away from the bar.
From him.
From everything we could have ever been.
I feel like my soul has been split in two.
Goodbye, Hallmark.
This is more like a straight-to-DVD disaster movie.