“Okay,” she says in a pragmatic way that lets me know she’s pivoting to a new plan. “Are you at your parents’ house?”
“Not exactly.”
“Where are you?”
“At Axel’s house.”
“What?” she exclaims. “You drove all night with him, and now you’re staying at his house?”
“Technically, it’s his parents’ house, but yes, I’m staying with Axel.”
“What’s going on here, London?”
I take in another breath. “Axel and I are together.”
“What?” she screeches.
My eardrum buzzes from the noise. I hold the phone slightly away from my ear, wincing.
“Have you lost your mind?”
I grunt out a brittle laugh. “I’m starting to think so.”
Her voice is rolled in a hissy disbelief. “Does he know who you are?”
“No, but I ran into his little sister, Cassie, at the hospital. We were good friends growing up. She recognized me.”
“I’m sure that went over well,” she says sarcastically.
“She’s going to give me some time to tell Axel the truth … about everything. I’m going to do it after we perform at the benefit.”
“No,” she snaps. “You can’t do that. Your identity must remain anonymous—that’s a condition of your contract. No one—and especially not Axel—must ever know that you’re Jovie Chord.”
“Really,” I smirk. “Maybe you should take your own advice.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You told Bianca that I’m Jovie.”
“That’s different. I had to tell her, so she’d let you into Axel’s house.”
“Well, I don’t trust Bianca, and you shouldn’t either. Have you forgotten the part where she threatened to tell Axel the truth about me?”
“She was just mouthing off. Bianca knows better than to cross me.”
A chill runs down my spine. I’m no dummy. This is Harmony’s way of giving me a veiled threat. “Look, as it turns out, I was wrong about Axel. He’s not the heartless playboy I made him out to be.” Emotion clogs my throat. “He’s a great guy who cares about people.”
“You’re in love with him,” Harmony says in dismay. “How could you be so irresponsible? I thought you were a professional.”
My eyes go moist. “I made a terrible mistake, and it’s coming back to bite me. All that stuff I wrote—I was wrong.”
“No, you weren’t wrong about Axel,” she counters.
I frown. “What do you mean?”
“The reason why I’ve been trying to get in touch with you was to tell you that Rachel finally called me back.”
My breath catches. “Really? What did she say?”
