This was exactly what Raven had been afraid of, she realized. This was why she'd come to Bankton in the first place. To escape exactly this kind of exposure, this invasion of privacy.
And Annabelle, in her relentless optimism, in her determination to involve Raven in the community, had helped make it happen.
As Raven packed up her guitar to leave, moving quickly like she couldn't wait to get away from all of them, Annabelle understood something painful and clear: Raven had built those walls for a reason.
And now she was building them right back up, higher than before.
A reminder of why she'd left fame in the first place.
And it was Annabelle’s fault.
Chapter Fourteen
Raven sat cross-legged on her bed, laptop balanced on her knees, staring at the screen like it might bite her.
She should have known better than to look.
Shealwaysknew better than to look.
But here she was, at three in the afternoon on a Wednesday, scrolling through comment after comment, each one a tiny paper cut to whatever was left of her ego.
Raven spotted in rural village: has she gone into hiding?
Krimson Kisses star looking rough these days
Anyone else think she's aged like milk? Alissa dodged a bullet tbh
She's 35 and washed up. What did she think was going to happen?
Failed solo career before it even started lmao
That last one made her laugh, which was probably not the healthiest response. Failed before it started. That was one way to put it. The more accurate way would be "hasn't even attemptedbecause she can't write a single fucking song anymore," but that didn't have quite the same ring to it.
She kept scrolling, hating herself a little more with each swipe.
There were the think pieces about Alissa's wedding, speculation about why Raven had "really" left the band (drugs, obviously, or maybe a mental breakdown, or maybe she'd been kicked out and the label was covering it up). There were threads analyzing her every Instagram post from the past year, looking for "signs" that she was struggling.
And underneath it all, like a Greek chorus of doom, the same refrain over and over:washed up, has-been, past it, finished.
Thirty-five years old, and already written off.
Her phone buzzed. A text from Claire:Stop reading the comments.
Raven ignored it and kept scrolling.
She found the articles about the photo Nina had taken. The one that had blown up her carefully constructed anonymity and turned Bankton into a target for every bored journalist with a deadline to meet.
Most of them were benign enough.Raven Teaching Village Childrenwith a few paragraphs of bland speculation about her "new direction" and "return to her roots."
But the comments. God, the comments.
She looks miserable
Publicity stunt. She probably tipped them off herself
Teaching kids? Is this community service for something?
I heard she's in rehab. That's why she's hiding in the middle of nowhere
