Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Ella hurried Stevie into her childhood bedroom and shut the door behind them. Stevie looked meek and bug-eyed, as though she’d been caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to. Ella’s heart felt like a drum. “Stevie? Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Stevie sat at the edge of Ella’s childhood bed, winced, then let out a strange and musical laugh. “It’s not like I planned any of this,” she said. “You’re the ones who invited him. I was happy never to see him again.” But as she said it, Ella could see the cracks in her words.
Ella sat beside her old and dear friend, her head throbbing with all the time that had gone by. “He doesn’t know about Joni.”
“Of course he doesn’t,” Stevie said. “He left town without telling me what was going on. I had to find out about his baby and his engagement through the gossip channels. We hung out almost daily and said we loved each other. And just like that, we abandoned each other.” She snapped her fingers, her eyes glinting.
“It made me question my own heart. Maybe I didn’t understand love.
Maybe I still don’t. But when I saw him in the crowd today, I felt something I haven’t felt since I was twenty years old.
And Ella, it’s terrifying.” A sob escaped her throat.
Ella wrapped her arms around Stevie.
“The irony is that Joni really wants to know who her father is,” Stevie offered.
“Her husband insisted that I spill the beans. But I didn’t want Joni to see the life I hadn’t allowed her to have.
I didn’t want her to know that we’d been poor, so poor, and we never needed to be.
I could have called Grayson and said, ‘Hey, you have another baby in California!’ and he would have given us everything we needed.
But I was too proud. I’m still too proud. ”
Ella’s head swam with everything Stevie endured.
While Ella and Will’s band had soared into mid-level fame, Stevie had struggled, raised a baby by herself, and sold health insurance.
At forty-five, she was done floundering.
She was claiming her power. It must have felt particularly insulting to have Grayson waltz back into her life with his mega-bucks and his claims about “saving the planet.”
Ella cursed herself for ever inviting Stevie to the Copperfield House. She cursed Will for ever inviting Grayson into their home.
“It’s a terrible fate,” Stevie said finally, laughing. “I should have known better than to ever get back on stage again. It opens my heart to too much trauma.”
“No,” Ella insisted. “You were born to sing.”
After that, she told Stevie, “We’re going to find a way through this. Tell me what you want.”
“I think I want to stay up here for a little while,” Stevie confessed, lying down on Ella’s bed and adjusting her head against the pillow. “Life feels too heavy right now.”
They remained quiet for a moment, listening as Christmas carols sung by Aurora swelled up from the residency side of the Copperfield House. Stevie’s eyes glinted with tears, but she wore a soft smile. Ella touched her hand.
“I’ll be downstairs,” she said, sensing that Stevie needed a few minutes alone. “Text me or come find me whenever you need something. I’m happy to bring you supplies. Christmas cookies. Bottles of wine. Anything to get you through this.”
Stevie thanked her. “I just want to listen to the music,” she confessed.
* * *
When Ella left her childhood bedroom, she heard the fluttering of footsteps on the stairs as though someone was running away from her. Curious, she raced after them, but didn’t catch whoever it was before they disappeared into the growing crowd in the living room.
Downstairs, Ella found Alana, Julia, and her mother in a little circle, discussing how well the party was going and how brilliant the hors d’oeuvres were.
Well, Alana and Julia were saying that, gushing with compliments, while their mother beamed and insisted that everything was “okay, but it probably could have been better.”
“No, Mom,” Alana asserted. “Everything is perfect.”
“Ella!” Julia hugged her. “You were marvelous. And Stevie’s such a raw talent.”
“I genuinely can’t believe she didn’t make it big,” Alana said. “I guess I was already in France when you guys were playing music in the city? I would have loved to see her perform in her twenties.”
“She finished when she was twenty, actually,” Ella said sadly.
Greta’s eyes were shadowy. “But she’s found her way back to it. Like me with writing. And my family.” She touched Alana’s cheek and smiled.
As they spoke, something out of the corner of Ella’s eye tugged her around.
Laura stood in the corner with Danny, whispering furiously, the liquid of her ginger ale shaking dangerously.
Danny wore an expression that Ella couldn’t read.
What was going on? But before Ella could guess, Laura and Danny disappeared through the crowd and into the residency.
They had the air of people on a mission.
Ella guessed it had something to do with their cousins.
She couldn’t imagine what would happen next.