“Tell him you’re sick.”

I carefully gathered the pieces of my grandfather’s violin and placed them back into the velvet case.

Then I stood.

Mom frowned.

“Where are you going?”

“To perform.”

Vanessa’s smile vanished.

“With what?”

I looked at her.

And for the first time that evening, I smiled.

“With the violin you don’t know about.”

Two years earlier, I had won an international chamber competition in Vienna.

Afterward, Eleanor Hayes, a billionaire arts patron and chairwoman of the orchestra foundation, had offered me private sponsorship.

For major performances, her foundation allowed me to use a 1718 Stradivarius.

Its estimated value was nearly nine million dollars.

And that evening, it was already secured backstage.

Vanessa’s face changed.

Only for a second.

Then she recovered.

“Whatever,” she said. “You still don’t have the dress.”

I walked past her.

“You can keep it.”

Her smile returned instantly.

She thought she had won.

She had no idea she had just exchanged my dress for something far more valuable.

Her own future.

PART 2

The Stradivarius was already waiting beneath the bright lights of the secured instrument room when I arrived.

Maestro Cole took one look at my expression.

“What happened?”

“My violin was destroyed.”

His face tightened.

“Accident?”

“No.”

That single word changed the atmosphere.