Chapter 3

My fractures still weren't fully healed. There was a bandage wrapped around my arm.

I tried my best, but I missed two notes during the accompaniment.

The second I finished, Sheila pounced. She pulled Julian aside, pointed at me across the room, and started to cry.

A minute later he came over, his face like a thundercloud.

"You know this piece backwards. How did you miss that many notes?"

"Were you doing it on purpose?"

"Is this how you repay my father for everything he's done for you? For my trust?"

The audience, the same people who had been clapping for me just minutes ago, started murmuring.

"The professor's right, you know. None of us caught it."

"So this 'world's number one violinist' title is a bit of a stretch, huh?"

Sheila pursed her lips and, in a voice just loud enough for me to hear, said: "Ada's mom used to work as the Veil family's housekeeper. They let her into the orchestra as a favor to Julian, you know…"

Heads nodded around her like the lights had just come on.

"Oh, that explains it. She got in through connections."

"A mother will do anything for her daughter."

"Honestly, you can see the bad intentions in her face."

My fingers tightened on my bow until my knuckles went white.

My mother had been a housekeeper.

But back then, if Mr. Veil hadn't seen my talent and insisted on keeping us, my mother would have been poached by royalty to run a manor. She had had better offers.

And when Mr. Veil got sick, when even Julian couldn't bring himself to risk donating a kidney to his own father, my mother walked into that operating room voluntarily. She was grateful that he had believed in me.

The night before her surgery, she had held my hand and made me promise:

[whatever happens, remember what the Veils have done for you.]

A surgical error left her in a vegetative state. She never woke up.

And now Sheila smiled brightly and added, "Ada's mom gave her body to Mr. Veil. That's how Ada ended up as first chair."

"Gave her body? What does that mean?"

Sheila giggled. "Oh, you know. The way women give their bodies."

A new wave of whispers swept through the room, this one with laughter under it.

I had let her insult me too many times. But my mother was another matter.

Rage I didn't know I had came out of my chest. I grabbed my violin and swung it at her.

"Shut your fucking mouth."

My arm gave out mid-swing. The violin never made contact. Julian caught it with a speed I hadn't expected.

The look on his face was the look you'd give a mortal enemy.

He closed the distance in two strides and slapped me across the face.

The whole room went silent. My eyes burned.

"My mother saved your father's life," I said, my voice scraping out of me. "And she's calling it whoring. How can you stand there and let her smear the woman who saved your family?"

Sheila clapped a hand to her mouth, the picture of innocence. "Ada, I said she donated her body! How can you twist my words like that?"

"I'm the professor's student. I would never, ever say anything bad about Mr. Veil."

"If you don't like me, just say so. You don't have to make things up."

Julian looked at me, my face still red from his hand, and his expression didn't soften an inch. If anything, it shifted into disgust.

"Did you hear her? She was stating a fact. You're so filthy you see filth in everything."

"I get it. You're petty. Yes, your mother saved my father. And yes, my father has supported you for years. Without us, you'd be exactly what your mother was: a housekeeper."

"And I've already agreed to marry you. Stop pushing."

Behind his back, Sheila let a small playful smile slip onto her face.

I looked at Julian, cold all the way through.

So this was what people sounded like when their hearts had changed.

If he had listened to a single word from anyone in that orchestra, he would have known what Sheila had really said.

He left me again.

They abandoned me on that wheelchair on the stage. The rehearsal ended, the musicians packed up and filed out, and nobody pushed me down off the platform.

Eventually Mr. Veil, Julian's father, noticed I hadn't come home and sent someone to find me.

The first thing I did once I could walk again was go to him.

"Mr. Veil, I want to call off the engagement."

Mr. Veil had always understood me. He had insisted Julian marry me because he respected the kind of person I was, and because of my music.

His face fell. He was quiet for a few seconds. Then he sighed.

"Will you think about it a little longer? For me?"

What I didn't know was that Julian had been at the door.

He caught me outside the study.

"Ada. What are you doing now? If you really wanted to end it, why bother telling my father? You know he'll just stop you."

"I know I've been distant the last few days. I'll fix it. But stop with the games."

I almost laughed. Games? I wasn't asking. I was informing.

He didn't give me the chance. He pulled a violin case from behind him and opened it.

My breath caught.

It was a Stradivarius. The Latin maker's label was visible through the f-hole.

"Be a good girl," he said. "Don't go after Sheila again, and everything you have stays yours. The engagement happens on schedule."

"After the engagement, I'll be the husband you deserve. I promise."

But Julian, I thought. It was already too late.

That night I went to see my mother in the hospital. I held her hand, still warm, still hers, even with the tubes, and I told her quietly:

"Mom. Even without the Veils, your daughter is going to prove she's the best violinist in the world. I'll earn enough to take care of you myself."

"Just the two of us. Like before. That's the best life there is."