Page 179 of The Song We Lost

I took it immediately. “Rachel.”

Her exhausted sigh crackled through the speaker. “Thank god.”

“What the fuck is happening?”

I watched Bailey move toward the kitchen island before bracing both hands against it, her shoulders trembling.

“They announced her as the opening performance at the awards show without my approval,” Rachel said flatly. “I tried stopping it. I’ve been fighting with the label for three straight days.”

Rage crawled hot beneath my skin.

“They cornered her publicly,” I said.

“Yes.”

I looked over at Bailey again. She looked furious, destroyed and so fragile. All at the same time.

Rachel exhaled heavily. “She said no too many times and now they’re using public pressure. They are going through her contract with a fine tooth comb, Luke. They are using everything they have to get her back to performing, sponsors, production costs. The percentage of the album Bailey wrote and sang on. The other artists attached to the project. They know she won’t want collateral damage.”

Of course they did. Because Bailey spent her entire life protecting everyone around her.

I lowered my voice. “She’s barely holding herself together.”

“I know.” Something in Rachel’s tone shifted then. It was almost hesitant and that scared me, because Rachel didn’t hesitate. “There’s more.”

I felt my stomach tighten immediately. “What?”

“We have been working to untangle you from that parasite that calls himself a manager.”

My eyes were still on Bailey, she was pacing in the kitchen ringing out her hands.

“I tracked down Kacey.” I sucked in a breath, but Rachel continued, “She admitted Dave gave her access to your room.”

My whole body locked up,“What?”

“He told her where you’d be. Told her when photographers would show up. Told her what to say afterward.”

I stopped breathing. Rachel’s voice sharpened. “Kacey swears nothing happened between the two of you. And from what Dave told her, nothing happened with any of the other girls he threw your way.. Dave wanted pictures, he wanted an angle… a story to sell.”

Bailey turned slowly toward me, like she could sense what was going on inside me.

I knew that I would never betray her, even after she left, even with the divorce… Iknew. But with the drugs… part of me feared.

“Nothing happened?" I asked quietly.

Rachel laughed bitterly. “No. They were all plants. Most of them weren’t random at all. Dave fed locations to photographers constantly.”

I dragged a hand over my face, nausea twisting through me. But Rachel wasn’t done;

The pills, alcohol, the women, leaving me in jail, refusing rehab… the press. It was all orchestrated. I still made choices. Still destroyed everything. But suddenly pieces clicked together in ways that made me feel physically sick.

“How long have you known?” I asked.

“I suspected,” Rachel admitted. “But Kacey finally confirmed it this morning.”

Bailey was beside me and by the look on her face I could tell she heard what Rachel had said. Tears streamed silently down her face now. She looked like every wound had been ripped back open all at once.

Rachel spoke carefully. “Luke… you need to decide how you want to proceed. If this gets out publicly it becomes a war. I am not saying this to dissuade you, because I have your back. But this will be much more than just going after Dave and his company…”