7.
Because I had won the Gold Medal and had
recently started showing my face in public, I
was having my moment online.
A famous director, Mr. Jones, called me
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personally and invited me to play a cameo
role as a violinist in his new movie.
My teacher said it was a great opportunity, so
I took it.
I didn’t want to go.
She pleaded with me.
“Tori, you can’t hide forever.
That incident was years ago. No one
remembers it.
Look, when you showed your face when you
won the Gold Medal, no one recognized you,
right?”
She’d trained me for over a decade and
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always considered me her star pupil.
She wanted me to shine.
I hesitated for a day, but I went.
I didn’t expect Jake to be there.
When I spotted him, he was lounging on a
director’s chair, soaking up the sun.
The guy who’d once been blacklisted was
now back on top of the world in Hollywood.
As if sensing my gaze, he turned his head and
glanced at me.
It was a casual, fleeting glance, his face
expressionless.
It was like we were strangers.
The real thing that caught my attention,
though, wasn’t him.
It was the girl sitting next to him, the one he’d
been with at the airport.
She’d taken off her mask now.
I recognized her.
It was Darcy, my dad’s daughter.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen
Darcy.
Her face flashed into my mind, like a needle
stabbing my brain.