ouded in a cold, gray mist. It mat

servatory, filled with the ghosts of music past. She was a small woman with eyes that held

she was correcting, her face breaki

at do I owe t

desk and placed my hands on it, the pros

my voice flat and devoid of the warmth she was used to

change your mind? Is it too much,

r gaze directly. "I' m e

ok off her glasses and polished them wi

e serious.

y n

it's insane! The panel, the critics... they'll tear you apart. They

t t

her voice pleading. "She's David's protégée. The en

n't c

k tarnishing that memory with... with this?" She gestured vaguely at my

rotect me, but they only

I said, my voice dangerously quiet. "And I

oundly beside me. A former winner retained the right to compete in any future competition with

il

saw something there she hadn't seen in five years. Not

ie?" she asked soft

he truth was a weapon, and I ha

woke up,

further, my phone buz

Sarah' s final rehearsal. She' s extrao

se in m

ert hall where the rehearsals were being held. I slipped in t

ng across the keys. David stood in the wings, watching her with an expression

hnicians and staff applauded. David walke

ice carrying in the empty hall.

t they we

passionate kiss that spoke of years

the public worship, the five years of

n her pretty face. "What about Olivia's p

und that was both d

ttle comeback is just a feel-good story for the papers. A sad, broken t

anymore. We can finally convince her to retire for good. Sell her

broke

s to him. A prop.

l, gasping for air. I drove home

the mantelpiece. It was an antique, a gift from David on our first annivers

d been a symbol of ou

monument to

. I walked over to the mantelpiec

up the

t high abo

t against the m

gears and cylinders flew across the room. T

from my throat. The sound was ugly, animalistic. It was the sound of

nt door

s that noise? A

e, thick with

on the floor, surrounded by the debris of

music box! Wh

, reaching out to

ed out, flinchi

oisonous balm. "It's just the stress of the performance.

race, to comfort the woman he h

et

y vowed to make him pay for every

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