Chapter 12: The Forged Page

Piper came to the guest house at dusk, alone, without her mother and without the tears.

Margo and Gideon had gone to the club on Fifth to see the stage.

I was by myself in the kitchen when the knock came, two quick raps I had known since she was ten.

I opened the door.

She stood on the step in jeans and a grey sweatshirt with her hair pulled back, and she looked like a different person.

Older, and tired, and very calm.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

"No."

"Then I'll say it here." She held up a manila folder. "I brought something I think you should read."

"Is it another release form?"

"Something better." She almost smiled. "It's the proof."

I took the folder because I wanted to see what she was holding.

I wished afterward that I had not.

Inside were six stapled pages and a cover sheet from a music publishing house.

The title was Assignment of Copyright and Publishing Rights.

The date at the top was three years ago in April.

It listed every song in my notebook, one by one, down to the unfinished ones.

At the bottom of the last page were two signatures.

The first was Brandon's, in the blue ink he used for contracts.

The second was mine.

It was my name, and it was very good.

The loops were right, and the slant, and even the small dot I put over the i when I'm in a hurry.

I had never seen it before.

I stood on my own doorstep and read my own signature, and I felt the world shift.

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