He freezes, arms stiff around my body.
‘And I’m not surprised,’ I breathe. ‘But how could she do this to me? How could she release this story and not think about how it will affect me? Do I mean that little to her? Is she that desperate for money?’ There are thousands of questions in my head that I know Luc can’t answer. But Luc is the only one here.
‘What are you going to do?’ Luc asks. ‘About Mauve.’
I shake my head. ‘I don’t know. Usually I just cut people off when I find out they’ve done stuff like this b–but, she’s my mum.’ I listen to the soft sounds of him breathing. ‘I think I’ll talk to Mimi about what we should do when I get back.’
‘You know it would never be me, right?’ Luc asks. ‘You know I would never do something like that to you?’
I shake my head. ‘I have a really hard time trusting people,’ I whisper. ‘Actually maybe I have a hard time trusting myself in trusting people. I’ve had so many friends and people I thought I could trust over the years do something like this to me that it makes me think I pick the wrong people to trust. I’m really sorry I jumped to conclusions, Luc.’
‘It’s okay, Sie. I get it. I do.’ He pauses. ‘I can’t imagine how hard it is. Especially finding out it was your mum.’
Another tear slips over my waterline. I don’t know what else I can do with Mauve. Maybe she needs the same treatment that everyone else had.
‘About what you said…’ I start. ‘About our arrangement.’
‘We can talk about it tomorrow,’ Luc reassures, kissing my head.
‘It’s okay,’ I croak, clearing my throat. ‘I…’ I trial off, the fizzy feeling in my tummy trying to stop my brain from allowing my mouth to frame the words. ‘I agree with you.’ It comes out in a splutter, all the words blurring into one while I try not to cut myself off.
‘You… what?’
‘I agree with you.’ There’s more conviction this time, saying the words aloud giving me the confidence that thisiswhat I want. Not just what I feel like I should want.
‘I’ll rephrase. On what?’ Luc presses.
I sigh. He’s not letting me get out of this easily. ‘I don’t want this to end either.’ The words clear every cloud from my head. It feels so good to finally admit it to myself. That maybe I do want to change the way I live.
Luc laughs. ‘I know you don’t.’ He squeezes me into his chest. ‘I don’t know why you fight yourself so much.’
We stay like that, swaying in the shadows, for all the moments we can.
Has anyone seen Sienna’s mum’s posts on X?
Yeah, man, they’re wild
Why is she doubling down that she wasn’t the one to leak that story about Sienna’s voice?
Yeah, I mean no one accused her of it and everyone kinda knew that’s what was happening with Sienna after the Song Salon etc
Sienna’s PR team must be going mad
CHAPTER 24
YOURS, SIE
TRACK 5 | YOUR EMAIL DIDN’T FIND ME WELL
A love letter for someone really, really special. Even though we didn’t speak for so many years.
Luc has come over basicallyevery day since we got home from Tuscany five weeks ago. We’ve been to LET’S PAR-TEE to play mini golf – which I won, of course. We’ve been to the cinema, without walking a red carpet first, and back to the theatre to do it right this time. We even took a cooking class. We were supposed to go to an arcade, but my voice was feeling particularly sore after rehearsing the show fully, rather than just the choreography, so he took me for a spa day instead. I took him to Tulip House during the day for a meal, where the portions are slightly more normal-sized, but still exclusive, when we wanted a bit more privacy. I’ve practically stopped checking the news, stopped caring whether the press and social media are still following our relationship.
But most of the time, we’re not leaving the house. We curl up on the sofa, we write music that I can’t yet sing, but which another artist might enjoy for one of their albums. We watch films and read our books. I read Luc’s screenplay cover to cover in three hours without so much as looking up. I alreadyhave ideas of music which could be the back of some of those scenes, if he’d let me.
And I’ve not seen or spoken to Mauve once. Especially after her posts on X.
But tonight, we had to get all dressed up for the launch party for the second single of the album. And then we can curl back up on the sofa tomorrow.
