**Oliva POV
Lights beamed at me in every direction. The echo of silence took over the auditorium. I was alone on stage with nothing but a concert grand piano. The audience was lost in the shadows behind the glare of the lights. They were silent, but I knew they were there.
My fingers ran across the keys, the notes drawing from the piano and echoing around the auditorium. My foot moved back and forth across the pedals, making all the right exaggerations to the notes. Five years of secret heartache flowed through my fingers.
While I played, nothing else mattered. Just me and the music and how it felt in my bones. I took a deep breath in, savoring the crescendo before the inevitable decline into the outro. I slammed the pedal to draw out the final notes and then I let the music fade once again into silence.
The audience exploded with cheers and clapping. My heart hammered with bittersweet excitement, and I smiled, standing up and stepping to the edge of the stage. Roses and bou
