Chapter 1

The bass vibrated through the floor, right into Sarah Miller' s teeth.

She hated these things, industry after-parties.

Too loud, too many people, too much fake.

But Alex, her stepson, had practically begged.

"Just for an hour, Sarah. It' s a big night for the band."

Alex Thorne, twenty-something rock prodigy, Michael' s son.

Her son, in all the ways that mattered.

So here she was, a Grammy-winning producer who preferred the quiet of a studio, nursing a club soda in a crush of bodies.

Suddenly, a spotlight, metaphorical but just as blinding, found her.

Jessi Vance, Alex' s current girlfriend, a pop confection barely out of her teens, was bearing down on her.

Camera phones, like a swarm of fireflies, instantly turned their way. Jessi knew how to make an entrance, and a scene.

"There you are," Jessi' s voice, surprisingly sharp for her sugary image, cut through the noise.

She grabbed Alex' s arm, pulling him slightly off balance.

"Everyone, look! This is what I have to deal with!"

Sarah blinked. What was happening?

Jessi' s eyes, wide and suddenly teary, fixed on Sarah.

"This woman, Sarah Miller, she' s been trying to get close to Alex for months! Trying to sabotage our relationship!"

A gasp went through the nearby crowd. Phones were definitely recording now.

Sarah felt a flush creep up her neck. This was insane.

Get close to Alex? I practically raised him.

That was the thought, unspoken, lodged in her throat. The truth was, Alex was family. And his father, Michael Thorne, tech billionaire, was her husband. A secret she guarded fiercely.

Jessi wasn't done. She stepped closer, her face a mask of practiced outrage.

"She thinks because she' s some 'legendary' producer, she can just move in on younger guys!"

A shove.

Jessi' s small hand connected with Sarah' s shoulder, hard enough to make her stumble back a step.

The crowd gasped again. The live streams would be eating this up.

Sarah just stared, speechless for a moment.

The humiliation was a cold wave. This girl, this child, was doing this publicly.

And Alex looked horrified, frozen between them.