Kylie Cantrall's Arc

Chapter 75 of 78

The meeting was set for the label's mansion. Kylie stood at her front window and watched the car take Arianna away. She had trained her wife well. But training ended at the door. Inside that room, Kylie would be blind. If the executives twisted Arianna's words, she wouldn't know until the papers were signed. She picked up her phone and made a plan she could control. She called Arianna before the car reached the gate. "Keep me on the line," Kylie said. "In your pocket. Don't hang up. I'll hear the whole room." "They'll take my phone at the door," Arianna said. Kylie's stomach dropped. She was right. Big meetings collected phones in a bowl. "Then I can't hear you," Kylie said. "And if they lie about what you agreed to, I can't stop it." Arianna was quiet for a moment. The car engine hummed behind her voice. "You don't need to hear it," she said. "You need to trust that I'll walk out with nothing signed." Kylie held the phone tight. This was the thing she couldn't fix from home. She had built her whole life on being in the room. Now the room was closed to her. "Ask them one thing," Kylie said. "Before you say a word about the deal. Ask them to write down what they're offering, on paper, and let you take it home to me." "Why?" "Because words in a room disappear. Paper doesn't. If it's written, they can't twist it later." Kylie's voice steadied. "You don't sign anything today. You bring the paper back. We read it together." Arianna repeated it slowly. "I take the paper. I sign nothing." "That's the whole meeting," Kylie said. "Everything else is noise." The car reached the mansion. Kylie heard the fountain through the phone, water hitting stone. Then Arianna's footsteps on wide steps. A door opened. A man's voice, smooth and warm, welcomed her in. "Phones in the bowl, please." "I'll keep mine," Arianna said. Her voice was low and flat. "I'm not signing today. I'm here to listen and take your offer home." A pause. Kylie pressed the phone to her ear and heard nothing but her own breath. Then the man laughed, softer now, off balance. "Of course. Whatever you're comfortable with." The line stayed open. Kylie sat on the floor by the window and listened. She heard the slide of paper. She heard Arianna say "one song" three times. She heard her say no. She never heard the click of a pen. An hour later the car came back. Arianna walked in and set a single sheet on the piano. "They wrote it all down," she said. "I signed nothing." Kylie read the page. The offer was smaller than she feared, and every word sat plain on paper. She had spent her life needing to be in the room. Today she stayed home, and Arianna held the line without her.