It was happening again.

Sabrina was staring in horror. Her mother was shrinking in front of her eyes. It was horrible to watch. She reached out to touch her, to stop it, to help.

To do anything.

She woke up just before her mother disappeared completely. It was always the same dream. Except sometimes, her father was there too. Both of them disappearing until they were little more than wisps of smoke with sad eyes.

Snap out of it!

She squashed down the tears that were making her eyes well up. She didn’t cry. Well, not until recently.

She knew she had to be practical. People passed on. Children lost their parents, and vice versa. It was a part of life. She was an adult now and there was no excuse for wallowing in this stuff.

Besides, she had work to do. Lots of work.

Damage control from that interview last night for starters.

She sighed and pushed herself out of bed. Nick was leaving on tour tomorrow. A twisted part of her knew she was going to miss him. When he wasn’t being a bastard, she’d never been so entertained in her life.

She had a lot of work to do to make sure everything was ready. She had a terrific tour manager who handled the accommodations and travel arrangements. But she still needed to make sure he was booked on the best TV shows and radio stations. And she had to make sure the PR team got his concert into the right newspapers and blogs.

It was important to her. She had to make sure her artists were well cared for, so they could focus on the music. That’s all that mattered.

Not that Nick deserved her help after what he had done.

But could she really say she was surprised? He was like a caged tiger and she'd poked him repeatedly with a stick. She’d dared to tell him his concerts sales were lagging. His ego was bruised. She should have expected some sort of retaliation, though she couldn’t have imagined it would get so personal.

It still hurt though. She'd thought he was beginning to respect her at least. Maybe even treat her as a friend.

Apparently not.

Last night she'd come home and just wanted to forget everything. Instead, she'd had a brief conversation with her father. His voice was barely above a whisper but it was the best ten minutes of her day.

He'd wanted to hear all about her job and what she was working on. She'd done her best to talk fast, before the pain got too bad and he had to get off the phone. He'd told her how proud he was of her success. He'd reminded her that her mother would have said 'Good. Now work harder.'

It was never enough for them. Not all the straight A’s, or the nights home studying instead of going on dates or to parties. Not the chores around the house.

They expected her to succeed.

They demanded it.

Her Aunt had taken the phone away from him and given Sabrina a curt goodnight before hanging up abruptly. She'd stared at the phone, wondering if this was the last time she'd speak to her father.

She always wondered that.

That’s why she saved all his voice messages, even backing them up to the cloud. She never knew if she’d be able to talk to him, one last time. At least she knew if she played the messages, she would be able to hear his voice.

Eventually, she'd just gorged herself on rocky road ice cream and crawled into bed wearing her mother's old nightgown. It still smelled like her, just the tiniest bit. But she hadn’t slept. She'd tossed and turned half the night, imagining the fall out from last night.

She stretched and went into the kitchen. It was 6 am. Time for coffee and then she could do some emailing before heading into the office.

Her phone was flashing. She had missed a call. Already.

It was from her boss.

Oh crap.

She ran to her laptop and refreshed her inbox.

She had one new email. Just one.

The subject read: Nick Falcon Upcoming Tour

It was from her boss. The BIG boss. The head of the entire A&R department. She took a deep breath and read it. It was beyond her wildest imaginings.

Dear God.

It was so much worse than she could have imagined.

Sabrina stared at her computer screen. Was this a joke? Did they really expect her to be 'hands on?' What did that even mean? 24/7??? It sounded like they wanted her to be at her clients beck and call for God's sake.

There was only one thing for certain. Nick Falcon was behind this. And there was no way she was letting him get away with it.