The Song No One Was Supposed to Know
Chapter 01 - The Song No One Was Supposed to Know
The charity gala glittered beneath a glass roof, all crystal lights, expensive gowns, and polite applause. Adrian Cole had paid for the evening, but he barely listened to the speeches. At thirty-eight, he had learned how to smile while feeling nothing.
Then a little girl in a burgundy velvet dress sat at the grand piano.
Her name was Emma Reed. She was ten, small for her age, with a storm of blond curls and the serious eyes of someone carrying a secret. Beside her sat her mother, Maya, a music teacher Adrian had not seen in nearly a decade.
For one impossible second, the crowded ballroom disappeared.
Maya’s hand froze above the keys when she recognized him. Adrian started toward her, but Emma began to play. The first notes were soft and uncertain. Then the melody opened like a locked door.
It was “Stay Until Morning,” a song Adrian had written for Maya when they were young, married in secret, and certain love could defeat his powerful family. No recording had ever been made. No sheet music had ever been published. Only Adrian and Maya knew the complete melody, and they had once played it to their infant daughter.
Emma glanced toward him as she played. Her eyes were the same gray-blue as his. The resemblance struck him so hard that the wineglass slipped from his hand and shattered on the marble floor.
Guests turned. Whispers spread. Behind Adrian, his parents, Richard and Diane Cole, went pale.
Maya leaned closer to Emma. “Keep breathing, sweetheart.”
Emma nodded, but her fingers began to tremble. She missed a note, pressed a hand to her chest, and tried to continue. Adrian saw fear flash across Maya’s face.
He reached the piano just as Emma swayed.
The music stopped.
Maya caught her daughter before she hit the keys, but Emma’s body went limp in her arms. The room erupted. Someone called 911. Adrian dropped to his knees beside them, ignoring the cameras and the stunned guests.
“Emma, can you hear me?” Maya cried.
The girl’s eyelids fluttered. She looked at Adrian as if she knew him, then whispered, “Mom said you loved this song.”
A paramedic pushed Adrian back as the stretcher arrived. Maya climbed into the ambulance without looking at him.
On the piano bench, Adrian found a silver locket tangled in the sheet music. It had opened during the fall.
Inside was a photograph of Adrian, Maya, and a newborn baby.
May you like
On the back, in Maya’s handwriting, were five words:
“Before they tore us apart.”
