Chapter 2

The internet exploded.

"Cassidy Vance & Cal Rivers an item?"

"Nashville' s Power Producer Moves On to New Protégé!"

"What happened to Liam O' Connell?"

I stared at my phone, the screen a cruel mirror of my public humiliation. Eight years. Eight years we' d been together, a secret I kept to protect her carefully crafted image as a single, untouchable industry titan. And she announces her new relationship in a single, devastating Instagram post.

My phone blew up with calls and texts. Shane. My sister. Friends from back home.

"Liam, what the hell is going on?"

"Are you okay?"

"Don' t listen to the gossip, man."

I couldn' t answer any of them. What would I say? That the woman I' d built my life around had just replaced me with a younger, more marketable model and broadcast it to the world?

I' d watched Cal' s rise for months. Cassidy had assured me he was just business. "He' s a kid, Liam. A good investment. You' re the artist. You' re my guy."

Lies. All of it.

A cold fury began to burn through the shock. I wasn' t going to take this lying down. I opened Twitter, my fingers hovering over the keys. It was time to tell my side of the story. Time to tell the world about our eight years.

Before I could type a word, my phone rang.

Cassidy.

I answered, my heart pounding with a mix of rage and a pathetic, lingering hope.

"Don' t even think about it," she said. Her voice was ice. No apology. No explanation. Just a command.

"Don' t think about what, Cass? Telling the truth?"

"Cal is my priority now, Liam. He' s a multi-million dollar investment for the label. I can' t have you creating a scandal that jeopardizes his launch."

"A scandal? You' re the one who posted that picture!"

"That was a strategic move. It creates buzz. What you' re thinking of doing is just messy. It' s emotional."

She said the word "emotional" like it was a disease.

We knew each other too well. She knew I was about to go public. I knew she would do anything to stop me.

"It' s business, Liam. You of all people should understand that."

"I understand that you lied to me. You' re in Aspen with him right now."

"Details don' t matter. What matters is that you keep your mouth shut. For your own good."

In the past, she would have at least pretended to care. She would have soothed my ego, told me I was the only one who mattered. Now, she didn' t even bother. The mask was off.

"If you say one word about us," she continued, her voice dropping to a deadly whisper, "I will destroy you. I will call every station, every promoter, every blogger in this town and I will personally see to it that you never work in Nashville again. I made you, Liam. Don' t forget I can un-make you just as easily."

To prove her point, I tried to open my Instagram app.

"Account Temporarily Frozen. We' ve detected a security breach. Please contact your label administrator."

She' d already done it. She was showing me a taste of her power.

Shane called again, his voice apoplectic. "She froze your accounts! That witch! We' re calling a lawyer, we' re going to the press!"

"No, Shane," I said, my voice flat. I knew it was useless. She held all the cards. "Don' t do anything. I' ll handle it."

I hung up. I couldn' t stay in this apartment, in this city. Every street corner held a memory of her.

I needed to go home. Back to the old farmhouse in rural Tennessee. The place where I wrote my first songs, long before Nashville and its vipers got their hooks in me.

I called Shane back. "Pick me up. We' re getting out of town for a few days."

He was there in twenty minutes. I threw a bag in the back of his pickup and we drove out of the city, leaving the neon glow behind.

The silence in the truck was heavy. After an hour, Shane cleared his throat.

"Liam... there' s something I have to tell you. About the farmhouse."

I turned to look at him. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

"What about it?"

"You remember that eminent domain notice? For the new highway?"

I nodded. "Cassidy handled it. She said she had her lawyers take care of it, protect the property."

Shane wouldn' t look at me. He just stared at the dark road ahead.

"She lied, Liam."

My stomach dropped.

"She took the state' s first offer. A lowball payout. She signed the papers six months ago. She never told you."

He finally glanced at me, his eyes full of pity.

"The house is gone, kid. They demolished it two months ago."