Chapter 2: The Night He Stopped Writing
Chloe climbed the stage steps without hesitating.
The room had gone completely still.
Victor hadn't moved.
His gold ring caught the light as his fingers tightened around the sheet music — the sheet music she said she didn't need.
Nora pressed her hand to her mouth.
She wanted to run forward.
She couldn't move.
Chloe adjusted the bench height.
Quietly.
Correctly.
Then she sat down, placed her hands in her lap, and looked out at the room.
"Whenever you're ready, Mr.
Blackwood," she said.
Someone near the back laughed nervously.
Victor's assistant Marcus leaned in and whispered something.
Victor shook his head once, sharp.
"Go ahead," Victor said.
His voice was still smooth.
But his jaw had tightened.
Chloe placed her hands on the keys.
The first note rang out — and Nora felt her knees weaken.
It was Elias.
Every phrase, every pause, every turn of melody.
Five years and she still heard him in it.
By the third measure, no one in the room was speaking.
By the sixth, a woman near the front was crying and didn't seem to know why.
Victor's face had gone very still.
Not calm.
Still.
The way a man looks when something he buried is climbing back up.
Then Chloe stopped.
Right before the final movement.
She turned and looked directly at Victor.
"This is where my father stopped writing," she said quietly.
"The night you took everything from him."
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What Chloe said next made Victor's assistant drop his folder.
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