Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 43 of 78

The label wanted a statement. Kylie's mother handled those calls. But this call was different. Kylie set the phone down and looked at the four terms they'd drafted together. One song. They keep it. They pick the timing. Fifty-fifty. Arianna had helped write all four. Then Kylie had called her mother and handed the whole fight over. She'd asked Arianna what she wanted, but never who should carry it into the room. She found Arianna upstairs in the recording room, the warm-toned guitar across her lap. Arianna picked a slow line, her low voice under it. She stopped when Kylie leaned in the doorway. "Your mom needs a statement," Arianna said. "I heard the phone." "She's negotiating the whole deal," Kylie said. "Every word to the label goes through her. I set it up that way." She sat on the floor near Arianna's feet. "I asked you what the terms should be. But I've been letting them make you a stranger in your own fight. My mom talks. I approve. You wait." Arianna set the guitar down. "You promised we'd choose together." "I know." Kylie's chest hurt. "Terms aren't the same as the choice. I kept the choice for me." Arianna didn't soften it. "So change it." Kylie pulled out her phone and dialed her mother on speaker, right there on the floor. "Mom. The statement. Don't write it and read it to me later." She looked at Arianna. "Arianna's on the call from now on. Every label conversation. She speaks for her half." Her mother went quiet. "You want a nineteen-year-old on a label negotiation." "I want my partner in the room," Kylie said. "It's her song too. Half of it is hers. She decides her half, not me speaking for her." "Then put her on," her mother said. Kylie held the phone toward Arianna. Arianna took it. Her hand shook a little. "Hi. The statement should say we're releasing one song, on our own terms, and that's the whole plan. No future promises." She glanced at Kylie. "And I want to read every draft before it goes out. Both of us." "Understood," Kylie's mother said. "I'll send the first draft to both of you in an hour." The call ended. Arianna handed the phone back. For a moment neither of them spoke. Kylie reached into her jacket and set a small box on the floor between them. Inside, a gold ring with a deep red stone. "I bought this last week," she said. "I was going to plan the perfect moment. Pick the day, the words, everything. Alone." She slid the box toward Arianna without opening it further. "I'm not going to plan it. When you want to talk about it, you start." Arianna looked at the ring, then closed the box gently and held it. "Okay," she said. "When I'm ready." For the first time, Kylie had given her the choice and the timing both. The box stayed in Arianna's hands.