He couldn’t talk about it with anyone — not even Roman.

Trevor had yet to discuss the events that had transpired on the roof with Emelia. She had been giving him the cold shoulder for several days now. He had ultimately decided that it was probably best to give her some space and allow herself to process the blow of a confession he’d given her.

He couldn’t eat, sleep or function without her by his side. His passion and enthusiasm for their relationship was stronger than ever. He wished he could turn back the hands of time and make better choices.

Trevor was prepared to grovel at her feet if that’s what it took for him to get her back, or at least get her to talk to him. He was willing to take baby steps. She had been staying in Chloe’s room ever since his confession. He missed her terribly and tossed and turned at night. His reached for her in the middle of the night and always came up empty. The void in his heart grew bigger each day. He had to fight to win her back, no matter the cost.

He got up on the morning of their second to last city. The tour was winding down, and summer was coming to a sudden end. Trevor couldn’t believe how fast the tour had sped past; how much had happened. If only he still had Emelia by his side, he would be in a perfect place in his life. He didn’t want to end the tour without her next to him. He stared at his reflection in the mirror. His eyes were dull, his hair dishevelled. He threw a t-shirt over his head and stared at the tattoos across his arms that he had acquired over the years.

It was true that he might fit the stereotypical appearance of a rock star, but today when he woke up, he just didn’t feel that foundation in his soul. It was fitting, because there was something missing, a part of him that he desperately needed to get back.

He left his hotel room and walked to the elevator. Chloe’s room was on a lower floor than his penthouse suite. Trevor’s goal was to be able to catch Emelia before she left the room for the day.

His heart pounded as he took cautious steps down the hallway towards Chloe’s room. He stopped in front of the little white circular plaque that read ‘Room 411.’ He took a deep breath and hesitated briefly before rapping his knuckles against the heavy hotel room door.

A few seconds later, Chloe opened the door. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said ‘NYC’ with a picture of an apple underneath it. She gave him a neutral glance as if she didn’t want to play favorites. He respected her unbiased demeanor.

“Hi Trevor,” she said politely.

“Hey Chloe,” he responded with slight trepidation. “Is Emelia around?”

“I’m here,” Emelia answered for herself. She approached him with a stony expression and her hands buried in her back pockets.

Chloe glanced uncomfortably between them. “I uh...was just leaving.” It was clear that she was nowhere near ready to leave but wanted to give them privacy to talk.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Trevor turned back to face Emelia. “I miss you. There’s a lot I want to say to you.”

Emelia gave a weak shrug. “Well, now’s your chance.”

“Please Emelia.” His voice sounded a lot like begging. “I tried to stop what I knew was going to happen. I would never hurt your family. Never.”

Emelia’s features softened, but she remained unapproachable. “I know.”

“Can we work on things?” Trevor’s voice was a glimmer of hope.

Emelia’s face contorted with a mixture of emotions. “I don’t know.”

His heart skipped.

“I need time, Trevor. Time to process, to see if I can forgive. My brother is dead. He’s never coming back, and Campbell has to live with the memory of that night for the rest of his life.” She covered her mouth with a hand.

Her pain was gutting him. 

He deserved it.

No matter how many times he silently apologized to God, to himself, to whomever he thought needed to hear it; he still deserved this pain.

“Goodbye, Trevor.”

Emelia closed the door, leaving him in the dust of her denial.

He left, heading down to the lobby to catch up with his driver. It was time to head to the arena for tonight’s show, and his bandmates had already left. He made a short detour to grab a six-pack, then sat stiffly in the back as they sped down the road. Inside, things seemed to be in working order. He cared, but he didn’t. He felt deflated, yet his mind never stopped trying to figure out how to make things right with Em.

His phone rang. Burt. Almost immediately, another call came in. And then another. Heading to the dressing room, Trevor ignored the other calls.

“Hey, Burt. What’s up?”

“You canceled your show for tonight without telling me?”

Trevor frowned. “What are you talking about? No one canceled the show.”

“Check your Facebook and Instagram pages. According to your official sources, you guys canceled.”

“I’ll call you back.” Trevor ended the call and pulled up the band’s social media. Sure enough, their authorized sites had cancellation notices for tonight’s performance, with thousands of comments from ticketholders.

“What the fuck?”

Roman raced down the hall, his voice preceding him into Trevor’s room. “What the fuck is this, Trevor? It says we’re canceled.”

Trevor threw up his hands. “I don’t know.”

“It’s a mass confusion out there. Our fans think we ditched them!”

His first thought was Emelia. She was their social media manager. She wouldn’t sabotage them like this, would she? Christ, he had to find out.

“You have access to all our pages. Start posting that there was a mistake. Get the word out. If you have to, take the pages down for now.”

Roman shook his head. “I can’t! No one can. It’s like our pages have been hacked or something.”

“Fuck!” He had to get to Emelia, see what she’d done and make her fix it.

He didn’t think that was something she would do. She wasn’t that hateful or spiteful. She was extremely angry with him though, and he couldn’t put it past her to want to seek revenge for what had happened to her brothers all those years ago. Even still, it just didn’t add up.

“I need to go find Emelia,” Trevor grumbled. He had to confront her about this; he had to know if it was her or not. His instincts were kicking into overdrive. “I’ll be back before the show.”

“Trevor, you can’t leave! We go on in less than two hours.”

Ignoring his friend, Trevor hastily rushed away, determination surging through his bones. Catching his driver, he gave instructions to head back to the hotel. Frustrated at waiting for the elevator, he finally took the stairs two at a time until he’d reached the sixth floor.

He pounded on the door to Chloe’s hotel room. “Chloe. Let me in. I need to speak to Emelia.”

When he was met with silence, he dialed Em’s cell. He’d already tried three times on the way over here. Nothing. A weird panic unfurled in him. Was she not answering because she was guilty or had something happened to her? If he let them, all sorts of ideas would run loose in his mind, but he had to stay focused. He had to find her.

He knocked again. Nothing. Was it possible they were ignoring him? Jesus, was Chloe involved in this, too. Was either of the women really capable of revenge? Nearly bursting with anger and worry, Trevor made his way back to the lobby. He rushed toward the front door, almost running over Chloe as she walked in. She grabbed his arm to steady herself, her eyes huge with surprise.

“Trevor!” She gasped.

“Where is Emelia?” He growled.

“She doesn’t want you to know,” Chloe said. Her huge green eyes looked sad.

Trevor’s heart plummeted. “This is serious. I need to talk to her. Have you seen social media today?”

“I haven’t been online since this morning, remarkably. There was to much other stuff going on.” She tilted her head, her lips going firm. “So you really caused Kyle’s accident, huh?”

His nostrils flared. He really didn’t have time for this. “Not on purpose. Never on purpose. I was trying to stop the hazing.”

“Right.” Chloe adjusted her purse strap. “Campbell said he swerved to miss a deer. A deer. In the city limits of Chicago.”

“Yeah.”

“Cops told Emelia it was probably a stress reaction. Since he had no idea at the time what caused him to skid out of control, his brain just made something up. You know what else the investigator said?”

Trevor breathed hard. “What’s that?”

She cocked her head and gave a steady glance. “That if the car had gone the other way, Kyle and Campbell would have hit one of the oil tanks across the street, caused an explosion and killed them both. I guess if you need to find some good in this it’s that what you did saved Campbell Greene.”

He was going to pretend she hadn’t told him that. He didn’t have time to ponder it right now. “Where’d she go, Chloe?”

“To Chicago.”

“Why?”

Chloe looked apologetic. “I just rode an Uber with her to the airport. She doesn’t want to be here anymore. She doesn’t want to be with you.”

Trevor wanted to smash something. Regret was so deep. So strong. “Did she post all over social media that we canceled our show tonight? Was she trying to screw us over?”

Chloe made a disbelieving face. “No way! I was with her all morning, Trevor. We worked on stuff for a client. We didn’t touch Infinity Prism pages yet. I’m going to do that, actually now that I’m back.”

Trevor pondered this. If she wasn’t behind this scheduling problem, then who was? He didn’t want to accuse her falsely, to make things worse between them.

“So...she wasn’t going for revenge?” He eyed her with hope.

Chloe fervently shook her head. “Think about what you’re saying. This is Emelia, for crying out loud. Do you really think she’d do that to you?”

Trevor felt a gut-stabbing pang of guilt. How could he really assume that Emelia had been behind such a terrible scheme? He owed her more than one apology now.

His phone started to ring. It was Roman. Probably to scream at him to get his ass back to the venue for the show. Trevor glanced down at himself. He was still in regular clothes. In no way ready to perform. For all he knew, only half the stadium would fill because the ticket holders thought they were canceled.

He answered on the third ring. “Yeah, I’m coming.”

“One of our fans caught a security guard outside and asked if we knew our pages had been hacked. Someone hacked us from Singapore.”

It wasn’t Emelia. He felt like he took the first real breath in hours. Composing himself, Trevor hurried outside. “We need to post—”

“Already done. Check your phone. Thank God this fan knows what she’s doing. I’ve got her parked right here, letting her do her thing. Hopefully, the damage won’t be too severe.”

Trevor slipped into his car, told the driver to hurry to the venue. He tried to clear his mind. He had to clear his mind. But all he could think about was Emelia heading to Chicago. Alone. It took everything inside him not to speed to the airport and catch the next flight there.

The show must go on, and Trevor was going to make sure that happened, come hell or high water. Even if he felt like he was drowning.