Page 86 of Echoes of a Silent Song
Blair couldn’t believe it.She’d spent the whole car ride back to school trying to wrap her mind around it, and she still couldn’t.
Vic Nelson—her teacher, her mentor, her friend—had at the very least stolen an idea from Iris.And at the very worst, he may have been responsible for her death.Despite that text he’d sent insisting he wasn’t.
It was unbelievable ...but it explained a few things that hadn’t added up.Why Vic had never mentioned his connection to Whitehall to her.Why he’d always been in such a dark mood while composing.
“This just confirms it for me.”Callum broke into her thoughts as he put his car in park in the school lot.“I believed all along that Iris didn’t die by suicide.”
Blair unbuckled her seat belt.“From someone who doesn’t know as much about this topic as you do, how did you know?”
“She was still writing music,” Callum said as they climbed from the car.“Regardless of the text, the fact that she was still composing meant she was still living.Still fighting against whatever demons she had.She hadn’t lost that battle yet.”
Pain flashed across his face, and Blair slipped her hand into his as they walked into the building.“Do you want to talk about Rayne?You don’t have to, but if you want to, I’m here.”
“Not too much to tell.”The door gave its familiar beep-click as Callum unlocked it with his badge.“Just your fairly typical tragic love story, I guess.”
Blair gave him a compassionate smile as he held the door for her.“I’d love to hear it anyway.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched.“I don’t talk about her much because it’s still painful.And I’m hesitant to tell you because I don’t want you to think I’m still hung up on her.I loved her very much, and that will never stop being true, but that doesn’t mean my heart still belongs to her.”
Blair squeezed his hand.“I know a person isn’t limited to just one love in life, but selfishly, I’m glad you said that.”
“Good.”Callum squeezed back as they turned the corner toward the choir room.“We met in Boston at a gig.She was the featured soloist in a performance I conducted.”His lips curved in a bittersweet smile.“I always thought love at first sight was total crap until I met her.”
Blair unlocked the choir room door.“I’ll take your word for it.”
“She was a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice, and by some miracle she fell for me as fast as I fell for her,” he said.“But she had bipolar disorder, so there were a lot of ups and downs.And when she felt better, she always went off her medication.”
They entered the choir office, where he settled into his chair and she perched on the edge of his desk.“I always used to watch her take it, just to make sure she did.”He pinched the bridge of his nose, his face awash in painful memories.“But then the pandemic hit.We were locked down.And one of Rayne’s roommates had received a kidney transplant, so she had to be super careful.And that meant we didn’t see each other in person for months.”
His eyes shone, and Blair gripped his hand.“That sounds so hard.”
“She insisted she was still taking her meds, and maybe she was.I don’t know.But without singing, without me, without exploring the city and trying new restaurants, without going to Sox and Celtics games, without any of the other things that brought her life, she went downhill.”Hebreathed a shuddery sigh.“The number of cases would go down, and that’d give us some hope that maybe we could get back together, but then they’d spike again and we’d lock down ...”
“It was an awful time to be a musician.”Blair squeezed his hand.“To be ahuman.”
A tear snaked from the corner of his eye, and he gave his face a rough swipe.“To make a long story short, everything fell apart.The choir disbanded, Rayne and I started fighting ...We called off the wedding because of COVID restrictions, and with no hope and no end in sight, it was the perfect storm for her.Rayne’s disease prevented her from seeing that the storm, bad as it was, would eventually end.”
“I’m sorry, Callum.”Her heart broke for him, and she pulled him into her arms, longing to take even a fraction of his pain away.“I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.”He wrapped his arms around her, his voice tight.“Me too.”
The door to the choir room opened, and they jumped apart.Blair glanced through the office window, but to her relief, it wasn’t a student.It wasn’t even another teacher.
It was Vic Nelson’s wife.
“Marilee.”Blair hurried into the choir room and wrapped the older woman in an embrace.“Oh my goodness.Feels like it’s been ages.”
“It’s good to see you, Blair.”Marilee’s sweater still held the distinctive floral smell of her perfume.Even after all these years, at least one thing had remained the same.
“Have you met Callum?”Blair asked as they parted.
Marilee shook her graying head.“Not formally, no.”
Callum emerged from the office, and Blair made the introductions, then turned another smile on Marilee.“What brings you here?”
The older woman’s hands trembled, and her gaze darted around the choir room like a nervous bird.In fact, her whole demeanor seemed off.Uneasy.Guarded.
“Marilee?”Blair sought her gaze.“Are you okay?”
