Find a quiet spot, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🌙
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The next morning, in the back seat of a Dodge pickup parked on Ninth Avenue in Nashville, Taylor sang for Julian.
She chose a bright love song, a few unfinished lines about someone becoming somebody, finding what he was searching for, and somehow being led back to her door.
The melody was warm and openly hopeful.
Julian closed his eyes and let her clear voice fill the cabin.
When she finished, Taylor hesitated.
“Boss, about you and Miss Faith…”
Her way of addressing him had changed.
That morning, the news had been everywhere, all but declaring that Julian and Faith Hill had been intimate in an underground parking garage.
Julian opened his eyes and looked at the clear sky beyond the window.
“Nothing happened between your teacher and me.
The news is false.”
That was what Faith had asked him to say.
She would deny it too.
She did not want Taylor getting distracted.
In one sense, Faith really was a good teacher.
“Then what about hitting the reporters?” Taylor asked.
“They followed me and Faith, filmed my private life without permission, and I had been drinking.
Things turned physical.
It was a misunderstanding.”
“I would not have guessed you could beat up two grown men that badly.”
“I work out,” Julian said without shame.
There was no other clean way to explain the body he had inherited.
He had not even used his full strength.
At this point, he could probably take ten men if they came one at a time.
“Also, when you have time, sign up for Twitter,” Julian said.
“Company requirement.
You need to post updates every day, even if it is only a short note, a link to a photo, or something about music.
Web or SMS is fine, but you have to be visible.”
“I know the site.
It is like a tiny blog, right?
Fine.
I will do it.”
Taylor leaned back and took out her phone.
A moment later, she lowered it, looking as if she had seen a ghost.
“What is wrong?” Julian noticed her expression in the rearview mirror.
‘Had she seen his photos?’
Her nervousness gave him an opening.
“Taylor, have you ever had a boyfriend?”
She shook her head.
“Going out to dinner does not count as a boyfriend, right?
If nothing else happened?”
“How many guys did you go to dinner with?”
Taylor started counting on her fingers, then gave up.
“Maybe a dozen.”
“You are going to be a singer,” Julian said.
“That means you are becoming a public figure.
You have to protect your image.
From now on, no going out alone with random men, and no dating.”
No dating made commercial sense, at least.
But not going out alone with men felt strict even to Taylor.
“What about you, boss?”
“I can do what I want.”
“Why?”
“Because I create a lot of news.
You would only be one part of it.
Your fans would not believe everything they see about me.
But if the person in the headline is some other man, they might.”
“Like the news about you and Miss Faith?” Taylor asked.
There was something unusual about her new boss’s thinking.
He did not sound like the businessmen she had imagined.
He almost seemed to enjoy the chaos.
“It is marketing,” Julian said, partly trying to convince himself.
His name was everywhere online now.
He had never expected to go viral this way.
That morning, several pharmaceutical companies had reached him through different channels, asking whether he would endorse certain products, including the most famous little blue one.
From now on, gossip photographers would hunt him.
They would pay absurd money for his location.
He could not change that reality.
Better to accept it, and maybe use the attention to keep himself in the public eye.
“Why market yourself like that?” Taylor asked.
“To make more money.
For example, if I attend your press conference, reporters will swarm the room.
You get more exposure.”
“Oh,” Taylor said, finally understanding.
“That is a strange way to do it.”
Her new boss was not only smart.
He really did seem to be tilting resources toward her.
For Taylor, still unknown and hungry for a stage, that was almost unimaginable.
“Boss,” she said softly.
“What?”
“What else do you want to hear?
I can sing it for you.”
At that moment, the truck door opened.
Faith climbed in, wrapped from head to toe.
“The equity-transfer documents are signed,” she said, dropping the folder onto the center console.
“Those people could not wait to get out.”
“Of course,” she added while fastening her seat belt.
“You tied them to a ship without telling them whether it was headed for glory or the bottom.”
Faith had no way of knowing Taylor’s future potential, so she still lacked confidence in the new record company.
“We will win,” Julian said.
“Listen to her voice.
She sounds as if the Muse herself decided to sing country music.
The future is on our side.”
He started the truck and drove toward the airport.
Their luggage had already been packed.
They were heading straight out.
The trip had two purposes: a public launch for the company’s new music label, and Julian’s formal assumption of operational control.
Several days had passed since the take-private agreement, but William had not sent Julian a single cheerful report from headquarters.
That probably meant things were not going well.
Outside Nashville International Airport, Saul and his assistant were waiting at the agreed spot.
“You wanted Faith’s autograph, didn’t you?” Julian said, gesturing behind him.
“I brought the person.”
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Ready for more?
I hope this chapter drew you further into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.