Natalie exhaled now as she determined the place to go subsequent, in direction of the amusement finish of the fairgrounds or to the stage the place some native musicians can be taking part in. It had been a very long time since she’d allowed that reminiscence to enter her thoughts, and she or he often didn’t let it linger, however for some motive right now, she virtually felt like she was capable of spend some time with it.

She might nonetheless keep in mind that feeling of the distant slipping out of her hand, dropping to the wooden flooring, the batteries falling out and rolling throughout the boards, as she watched Amelia attempt to go away her own residence, reporters shoving microphones in her face, all of them scrambling to get their questions out.

Amelia had regarded like she was going to maintain going and get into her automotive however she stopped all of a sudden, and one of many reporters shouted over the remainder.

“Do you wish to touch upon the rumors that you just’re secretly homosexual and in a full-blown relationship with Natalie Spencer?”

Natalie might see Amelia’s jaw clench, and she or he waited for Amelia to say one thing, however one other reporter jumped in.

“Your husband has been caught dishonest earlier than. Is that this marriage only a publicity stunt? Stored collectively for the sake of your careers?”

Amelia gripped the door deal with and yanked it open, giving her some house earlier than she mentioned the phrases that Natalie would always remember. “I really like my husband. There by no means has been or ever will likely be anybody else. Not to mention a girl.”

After which Amelia escaped into the entrance seat of her automotive, shutting the door on the surge of reporters closing in on her, all shouting her title.

Natalie was crying earlier than she even realized it, silent tears streaking down her face because the TV anchor moved on to the subsequent scandal. She had no concept how lengthy she’d stayed on the sofa, in a daze, utterly blindsided by the truth that folks have been speculating that they have been collectively and concurrently realizing that it didn’t matter. They weren’t collectively in any respect apparently. The final seven months had meant nothing to Amelia.

If solely that had been the top of Natalie’s issues.

Extra photographs emerged. Natalie nonetheless had no concept who had hidden exterior her dwelling, ready for Amelia to go away her place in the course of the night time, Natalie giving her one final kiss within the doorway earlier than reluctantly parting methods like they did most nights.

It was arduous to disclaim these photographs.

However Amelia did.

And whereas Amelia and Mason have been rebuilding their picture, staging dates and romantic getaways, they have been additionally erasing Natalie’s profession, telling anybody who would pay attention that Natalie had seduced the youthful Amelia, feeding that angle to the press to run with.

Natalie had been twenty-five and Amelia twenty-one. Natalie thought that argument was ridiculous, each as a result of Amelia had been the one to begin their affair and since they have been each adults, capable of make their very own choices, whether or not they have been proper or flawed.

Natalie by no means gave an interview. By no means gave her facet of the story. She had nothing to say. She wasn’t going to out Amelia who had confided in her that she by no means ought to have married Mason, that her supervisor inspired her, telling her that their careers would profit from it. AndNatalie was fairly positive that she was the one particular person on the planet who knew that Amelia was homosexual.

In some way she wasn’t bitter. She most likely ought to have gone to remedy in some unspecified time in the future over time, however she by no means did. Though she had written numerous songs that will need to have helped her course of every part, greater than she might have realized. It was simply second nature to her to pour her coronary heart out into her lyrics.

Natalie’s footsteps slowed, somebody bumping into her shoulder, apologizing as they walked previous. The faint melody drew her in, her ft carrying her towards the stage, and it took her a number of seconds to register what she was really listening to.

The melody was slower, with an acoustic guitar taking part in the intro quite than a dobro, however when the younger girl began to sing the acquainted lyrics, Natalie couldn’t stroll away.

As a substitute, she was weaving her manner by means of the group till she was on the fringe of the entrance row, her eyes locked on the gorgeous blond-haired girl whose voice was so uncooked, so filled with emotion, that Natalie might need assumed that this girl had written these lyrics.

Besides they have been hers.

This was the track that had made Natalie well-known, and she or he couldn’t keep in mind the final time she’d heard it on the radio, by no means thoughts seeing somebody cowl it.

Natalie stood transfixed, tears coming to her eyes as a quiet came to visit the group. They have been as mesmerized as she was, and so they gave this girl their full consideration as her fingers slid seamlessly throughout the frets, her voice much more highly effective as she sang the final refrain.

Natalie misplaced herself in that second. It was virtually like she was having an out-of-body expertise. It was a implausible efficiency, however she couldn’t merely stand there and recognize it as a lover of nation music. It was her track, the one she’d written when she was sitting on her mattress when she was sixteen, when she realized that she appreciated her finest buddy a bit of an excessive amount of.

The lyrics didn’t lay any of that out, and nobody would ever have guessed that was what Natalie had been considering on the time, however she knew, and by no means within the a whole bunch of occasions that she’d carried out that track did it deliver her again to that second when she’d jotted down these lyrics because it did now.

Natalie felt her lips sliding right into a smile as she clapped together with everybody else, a number of whistles reducing by means of the night time air from the group behind her. The lady on stage nodded, silently thanking the group, a smile on her face, and for a cut up second, Natalie felt like she was trying straight at her, like she knew who Natalie was, as a result of there was an depth in her gaze, however the second was gone.

“Thanks!” The lady took a bow and acknowledged the viewers for a number of extra seconds earlier than strolling off stage.

Natalie exhaled as the group dispersed, virtually lightheaded from the array of feelings that she’d simply had, going all the best way again to reliving that night time that Amelia broke her coronary heart, however that was a distant reminiscence now, her thoughts nonetheless in disbelief that she’d simply witnessed somebody performing her track.

And never simply anybody. That girl had expertise.

Natalie needed to discover out who she was.

Supply: www.seynovel.com