Page 101 of The Perfect Melody

I simply raise an eyebrow at her. “You call me a little girl, yet only one of us is having a tantrum.”

Regaining her composure with sheer force of will, Miranda adjusts her suit jacket as if drawing attention to her professional attire will make us all forget her outburst. “You are coming back to Nashville. Today.”

“No. Pine Grove is my home now.”

“This place is not your home. It is a mistake, and now it’s time for you to leave.”

“Trusting you to look out for me was a mistake. Coming here is the first thing I’ve done right in years. I’m not leaving.”

A sly smirk plays on her lips, and there’s a dangerous glint in her eyes. I’ve seen that look on my mother’s face before, right before she’s torn someone down to their foundation. My chest tightens, and I fight the urge to take a step back. Suddenly it doesn’t matter that I’ve stood up to Miranda properly for the first time in years. All the progress I’ve made means nothing in the face of that look, because I know what that look means. Whatever she says next is going to destroy me.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Cassie

Miranda takes a slow step closer,a predator sizing up her prey. When she reaches towards my face, I flinch, but she doesn’t hit me. Instead, she tucks my loose waves behind my ear in a pathetic farce of a caring gesture. My breaths come in shallow pants as I wait for her to pounce.

“I thought you might say that.” Her malicious glee melts into an expression of pure heartbreak. “I’ve been so worried about my daughter. I didn’t realise how bad things were until she ran away and abandoned her responsibilities. She’s had problems since she was a teenager, but I never expected anything like her recent behaviour. Shutting out the mother who’s always been by her side—it breaks my heart that she’s so lost.”

In the blink of an eye, she sheds her mask, a cold, reptilian look taking its place. “See? It will be so easy for me to make the world hate you. Who will support you after you’ve so heartlessly abandoned your mother? Who will work with someone so… unstable?”

Nausea rolls through my stomach in violent waves. I can’t believe she’d go this far. To use my depression diagnosis against me. The very diagnosis she tried to gaslight me into thinkingwas all in my head when, spoiler alert, that’s how mental health fucking works.

“What happened to you?” The woman before me is irredeemable. She has crossed every line imaginable. Miranda was never a warm mother, but even when she threatened to do exactly this, I never thought she would really go through with it.

A cruel smile plays on her lips. “This is what will happen if you don’t do as you’re told. I will ruin you before I let you walk away from me.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“I am yourmother,” she snaps. “I make the decisions, not you. Anthony, take her to the car.”

Ant steps forward, and my heart breaks. I can’t believe that after everything he just heard, he’s going to take Miranda’s side. He was like a big brother to me and now?—

“You’re forgetting something important,” he says.

“What’s that?”

Ant gives me his back, standing between me and the threat in the room, like he’s always done. Hope flutters to life in my chest. “I don’t work for you, Miranda.”

Her lips part and she stares at him, blue eyes wide with shock. “But I ordered you to come here.”

He shrugs. “I was always going to fly over and support Cassie. When you showed up demanding I come with you, I figured, why not? I’d let you think you were in charge and pay for my trip and keep an eye on you for Cassie all in one.”

“No, that’s?—”

“Also,” Liam interrupts, stepping up to Ant’s side. “Iknewyou would try something shady. You’ve been threatening Cassie, threatening to play the poor abandoned mother for years. Unfortunately for you, not only is the daughter you like to call stupid actually really fucking smart, but she’s also got smart friends.”

Uncertainty creeps into Miranda’s eyes as she looks between Liam and Ant. Still, she doubles down. “What are you trying to say? Everybody knows the two of you stayed friends afterCountry Hearts. If you speak up to defend her, you’ll only end up looking bad.”

“That’s what’s so great about this. I don’t need to say anything.Youhave said more than enough for everyone.” He holds up his phone, and Miranda’s face turns white as a sheet. “I started livestreaming as soon as we came down here.”

Oh. My. God. My eyes feel like they’re bugging out of my head as I gape at my best friend’s back.

“No. That’s not—you can’t—” Miranda splutters.

“I can and I did, you reprehensible cunt.”

I almost choke on my laughter. Miranda’s face is utterly priceless, and Liam’s mother is going to wash his mouth out with soap when she finds out he dropped a c-bomb. Although… considering everything Miranda has done, maybe she’ll make an exception just this once.