Every Song He Stole Was Mine novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Her Father's Other House

The headline did not stop the tickets.

By the night of the show it had sold the hall out twice over, and a line of people stood in the rain around the block.

I stood in the wings with my guitar and the pick in my pocket.

Jude was beside me in a dark suit.

"Anyone who wants to leave can leave," I said. "I'll sing to whoever stays."

"Nobody's leaving."

He was right.

Across the street, the arena's doors opened for Dax's opening night at the same hour as ours.

Tilda counted the house from the sound board and gave me a thumbs-up.

"Eight hundred and forty," she whispered over the headset. "Standing room too. They're all here."

I walked out.

The light was warm and the room was dark, and the noise of eight hundred people filled my chest.

I sat on the stool and put my hands on the guitar.

"My name is Joanna Ellery," I said. "Most of you saw me in a ballroom three weeks ago. I'm not an easy woman to watch fall apart, so I'm sorry about that."

A few people laughed, softly.

"These are the songs I wrote. I want to play them the way I wrote them."

I played the whole album in order.

Every song was mine, and every one of them sounded different without Dax's voice on top, plainer, lonelier, stranger.

A woman in the third row cried through the entire second verse of Paper Sparrow.

By the time I reached the bridge, my voice was steady.

← Chapter 11 · All chapters · Chapter 13 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend