“…Yes, I’m with her right now.
I’ll bring her over personally in a bit.” Footsteps, then a knock, and Jonathan stepped through the door.
He froze the instant he saw her.
“You’re…
Eliana?”
His voice wavered with genuine uncertainty.
Understandable.
She’d dropped weight fast, and with the mask on, the effect was almost unrecognizable, striking in a way that stopped him cold.
Even Chloe might not have placed her, seeing this.
Eliana turned toward him and gave a tired nod.
“It’s me,” she said.
“Let’s go.”
Jonathan nodded blankly, his pulse still racing.
She’d always been beautiful.
This was something else entirely.
Before, her beauty had been soft.
Gentle.
This this had teeth.
A beat too late, he grabbed a long coat off the rack and draped it over her shoulders.
He guided her out to the production van, where a makeup artist was waiting to finish up her nails and settle on final accessories and heels.
The van pulled away, heading toward the Voice of Heaven studio.
At the same time, another van was making the same trip.
Vivian, in that one.
While directing her makeup artist toward a fragile, tragic-beauty look, she called Nathaniel.
“Nathaniel, it’s me.” Vivian’s voice came out sweet, warm.
“The first live broadcast’s today, you have to come.
I saved you a seat.”
“Yes, they’re only accommodating me because of you.
I know that.”
“I know how much you’ve done for me, Nathaniel.
I’ll make you proud today.”
She hung up, then sent a follow-up text.
Nathaniel’s confirmed for today.
Get the follow-up material set up.
Confirmed, came the reply.
Vivian smiled, satisfied.
…
The Voice of Heaven studio, Ashford City.
Eliana and the other contestants waited backstage.
A ripple of noise moved through the room, and Eliana looked up to see Vivian arriving with her assistant.
Every contestant in the room had been personally promoted by their respective labels, and every label had made sure their talent knew: don’t cross Vivian Blake.
So the room rose to greet her, almost in unison.
“Ms.
Blake!”
“Vivian!”
“Hi, Vivi!”
Eliana, wrapped in her long coat, hung back at the edge of the room, watching it all unfold with quiet detachment.
She’d spent enough years in this industry to know exactly how these dynamics worked.
Vivian had Cole Group behind her, one of the biggest names in Ashford City and Nathaniel Cole personally, on top of that.
Naturally, everyone gave her room.
Eliana simply had no interest in performing the greeting ritual.
She said nothing, just quietly slipped out to avoid the whole scene.
Vivian returned every greeting warmly, then let her gaze drift toward the direction Eliana had just walked off in.
Something flickered behind her eyes.
She’d studied every file on the other eleven contestants.
This one “Serena” was the only unknown.
Foster Entertainment had kept her identity locked down tight.
Even leveraging the Cole name hadn’t pried anything loose.
Staff had told her flatly that this particular contestant was Jonathan Foster’s personal project, information restricted entirely to him, even most of Foster’s own staff had no access to it.
Vivian glanced after the retreating figure, drew a blank, and dismissed it.
Someone unfamiliar.
Arrogant, though, the way she’d carried herself.
Some pet project of Jonathan’s, maybe.
It didn’t matter either way.
Nathaniel’s actual wife had learned to stay in her lane, some no-name understudy of Jonathan’s certainly would too.
With that thought, Vivian put it out of her mind entirely.
Elsewhere, Eliana was inspecting the stage setup.
Voice of Heaven ran twelve contestants and three celebrity judges across five rounds, one week apart.
Each episode aired live first, then got cut down into highlight packages for streaming afterward designed to catch both audiences.
Tonight’s broadcast covered introductions and team selection.
The twelve contestants would split into three teams, one per judge.
Vivian was one judge.
The other two were established names in the industry.
Eliana walked the stage carefully, taking it all in.
She’d missed the in-person rehearsals entirely, too weak at the time to attend; she’d only caught the broad strokes remotely, coordinating everything else by phone and email.
Rumors had circulated that “Serena” was being a diva, skipping rehearsals out of arrogance until Jonathan quietly resolved it internally with a redacted medical file.
Apparently, something serious had happened to her ten days ago.
Even now, up close, faint bruising was still visible through her foundation.
A real injury, then.
Not diva behavior at all.
Eliana caught a few curious, searching glances from the crew, but ignored them, focused on scanning the stage.
After a while, a stir rippled through the room, and she glanced up on instinct.
Nathaniel.
“Wow, it’s actually him!
President Cole!”
“Didn’t he supposedly never show up to things like this?”
“Seriously, look who the judge is.”
“Obviously here for Vivian.”
“Has to be.
Cole Group’s got entertainment holdings, sure, but their real business is tech.
Look at this lineup, who else here would drag Nathaniel Cole out in person?”
“So the rumors about the two of them really are true?”
“Ninety percent, easily.”
“Wait, doesn’t he have a wife?”
“Come on, this is normal for men at that level.
And Vivian’s practically on her deathbed I’d bet the wife’s just looking the other way at this point.
Honestly?
Vivian’s got more spine than she does.
That woman’s got zero backbone.
Probably just doesn’t want to lose the Cole money.”
“Right?
If my boyfriend so much as looked at another woman I’d have his stuff on the curb before he got home.
Let alone something like this.
A pampered wife who’s never had to fend for herself this is what happens.”
“Can we not do this right now?” Jonathan cut in sharply, walking over with a hard look on his face.
“You know we don’t discuss things like this out loud.”
The gossiping cluster shrank back immediately.
Jonathan crossed to Eliana, a flicker of concern in his eyes.
With this many people around, he couldn’t say anything directly, so he just gave her a look instead.
She smiled and gave a small shake of her head.
She’d already made peace with walking away from Nathaniel entirely.
None of this frightened her anymore.
“I’ve got someone waiting to run through the details with you again.
Right this way,” Jonathan said.
She nodded and followed him backstage.
Meanwhile, Vivian had already found her way to Nathaniel’s side.
“Nathaniel!” she called out warmly.
“Mm.” He acknowledged her, glancing past her toward Jonathan, who was escorting a woman in a long coat backstage.
All Nathaniel caught was her back.
Vivian followed his gaze and smiled.
“That’s Serena.”
“The mystery contestant I mentioned.
I have a theory, she’s Jonathan’s kept woman, honestly.”
Nathaniel raised an eyebrow, glancing at her.
Vivian elaborated.
“She skipped a rehearsal a while back, and people made a whole thing about her being a diva.
Jonathan ended up submitting her medical file internally to shut it down.
Apparently she had some kind of accident ten days ago and physically couldn’t get out of bed.”
“I didn’t think anything of it before.
But I just got some very interesting information.”
Vivian smiled, mysterious and pleased with herself.
“That accident ten days ago?
It was a miscarriage.”