Page 149 of On The Edge
“I take it, it's not good news.” Adam walks in through the connecting doors between our rooms. He looks haggard, dark circles under his eyes. The spark that’s usually pushing us along on a tour is gone, his already-sharp jawline a little sharper with how he’s clenching his teeth in frustration.
“We can’t cancel Cardiff. We have to wait to get her until the tour's over,” I explain softly, running a hand down my face. I know they’re not going to be happy about it—fuck, I’m furious about it. But legally, we can’t.
“This is such bullshit,” he sneers.
“I know.”
“She’s in that shit town, thinking we abandoned her.”
“I know.”
He paces angrily in front of me. “She thinks we don’t want her anymore.”
My jaw clenches. “I know.”
“Reis,she thinks we don’t love her anymore.”
“I fucking know, okay!” I explode, my hands pulling at my hair. “What the hell do you want me to do, Adam? We can’t leave! If we leave, the label could drop us. We could lose everything, and while I don’t really give a shit unless she’s with us, she wouldn’t want that! You know that. She wouldn’t want us to throw a grenade on our lives.”
“I can’t… I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”
“We can’t. Not yet. I’m going to keep watching her socials, I want you and Markus to call her business partner. Let’s get everyone around her and get intel. Then…then, the moment we’re finished here, we go directly to her.”
Adam flops back on my bed dramatically. “I don’t fucking like this.”
“Neither do I.”
“I’ll make some calls.” Adam stands up and walks out as I sigh frustratedly.
It’s going to be a long fucking week.
FORTY-FOUR
THREE DAYS LATER…
“No,come on, I just need to know if she’s okay,” I plead with Hannah, her business partner over the phone.
“I don’t know how she is! I haven’t talked to her since your management said she was exclusively working with you and not to contact her anymore.”
Fucking Louis. I pinch the bridge of my nose and exhale.
“She still owns part of the company,” I reason with Hannah, but she just scoffs.
“I received documentation the day after that email from your management that relinquished her shares ofThe Social Buzz. It’s officially all mine. She was a hell of a coworker though. I just haven’t heard from her and when I tried emailing her, everything was returned.”
“What? She didn’t…” My words trail as it all clicks. “He really did this,” I whisper.
“What?” Hannah asks but I ignore her.
“Would you please just go to her apartment and check on her? We don’t know where she is and we’re worried.” I’m notabove paying this woman if it means I have peace of mind that Melody’s okay.
Hannah sighs heavily on the other end, like I’m asking her to fly across the country for a favor versus checking in on a supposed friend.
“Fine,” Hannah relents. “I’ll go check on her. But if she’s not in her apartment, I’m not going to search for her.”
“Fine.” I grind my teeth and clench my jaw. What a fucking bitch. She hangs up the phone quickly and I shake my head.
This is the kind of person that Mel surrounded herself with when we were gone? Has she ever had anyone who was there for her no matter what?
