Page 49 of Falls From Grace
“I’m…” she paused. What was she even doing with her life? “I’m recording some music, Mom.”
Predictably, the phone went dead silent.
“Music,” her mother spoke the word in the same tone she’d say dog shit.
“Yes, mom, music,” she said firmly. “I’m in Nashville with Savannah Grace, recording, and-”
“Savannah Grace?” her mom said. “Oh my goodness! How’s she doing?”
“Uh… …what?”
“How is she doing? That dreadful man, I don’t know how he could do such a thing. And her baby was so young,” she tutted.
“Mom? How… do you know this stuff?”
“Unfortunately, everyone knows this ‘stuff’, Brynn. I don’t live under a rock.”
“I thought you always said reading celebrity gossip was for idiots and troglodytes.”
“It’s not celebrity gossip,” her mom sounded offended. “It’s Savannah Grace. She’s a supreme talent. I can care about art and artists without being a troglodyte, thank you very much.”
Brynn pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it for a moment.
“I didn’t realize you liked country music,” she said, unsure what had happened to her mother and who this woman was.
“Well then, there’s a lot you don’t know about me,” her mother huffed.
“I’m singing with her,” Brynn said, uncertain of where the ground was anymore. “I’m on the album.”
Her mother was silent for a long time.
“Well,” she said, “that is rather surprising. Then again, you always did have a lovely voice, I suppose.”
Brynn jumped to her feet.
“What are you talking about?”
“You had voice lessons, remember?” her mother replied. “That odious man. He wanted to put you on stages, take you on as some kind of protégé. He practically begged us. It was really quite improper.”
“Mom,” Brynn gripped the phone so tightly her fingers went white. “You told me Mr Abram didn’t want me as a student. You told me that he said I wasn’t talented.”
“I did no such thing,” her mother denied.
“You absolutely did. You made me think I sucked at singing.”
Her mother was silent.
“You were so excited about it,” she said after a long moment had passed. “Too excited. The lessons, the practice, the talk about shows and rehearsals, it was eating into the time you needed for serious things, like study. You were getting sidetracked from your path.”
“You don’t get to decide what my path is!” Brynn exploded. “I get to decide that, mom, me. You crushed me. You made me think I was no good at the one thing that actually might be special about me.”
“Brynn-”
“Mom, when I dropped out of med school, it was because I tried to kill myself.” The words were out before she could stop them. Her mother sucked in a shocked breath. “Then I drank myself into a stupor every day for a year. Because I thought the only path that was possible was the one you’d picked for me.”
“Brynn, darling, no, oh my god. You always wanted to be a doctor-”
“I never did. You just wouldn’t accept anything else and I wanted-” she was crying now, clutching the phone and sobbing. “I just wanted you to love me.”
