Chapter 20: Turn It Up

I stood in the wings with Gideon and watched Piper sing my song.

She sang it well.

She had practiced it for eighteen months, in my chair, with my notebook.

The crowd gave her a warm round of applause at the end, and she bowed, and the band began the second song.

On the second chorus the sound cut out.

The guitars stopped, then the keys, then the mic in her hand went dead, and she looked toward the board with her smile still on.

Out of the big speakers over the audience came a woman's voice.

"You came. Good. I knew you would."

Piper's smile stayed exactly where it was.

It was a very clear recording.

"After my second song I'm going to ask you up. I'm going to say you've been through something terrible and I'm not angry."

A murmur went through the hall.

"And if I walk out?" said my own voice, steady and small.

"Then at ten tomorrow my folder goes to the district attorney, and Brandon can explain his handwriting from a cell."

Piper took a step toward the wings.

A stagehand with a headset, a big man I had never met, folded his arms and did not move.

"I'd put anyone in prison," said Piper's voice, from every speaker at once. "It's a very useful thing to be able to do."

In the front row a man in a grey suit pulled out his phone.

He was the A&R man from the label, and he began to type.

"I stood in a lavender dress and watched five hundred people clap for you, and I thought, I'll have this."

Keep reading free with an account. Start Her Husband's Favorite Guest from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.