Chapter 23

With a glance at my brothers, we all move as a unit towards the door to go back to the elevator. Christopher sees us walking past him but doesn't move to come my way. It hurts but I keep my face blank as I walk out of the door. Entering the lobby, I see Chelsea sitting in a chair as she types away on her phone. Why is she here? Walking past her, she sees us and gets up.

"Well, well, well. Look what we have here. It's the unwanted ex-wife. How does it feel to know that he wanted someone that was actually pretty?" Chelsea says as she walks towards us. My brothers tense and get ready to defend me as she walks closer. I see Megan come out of the side door and walk towards us with a hard expression.

"That's funny because I see no such woman here except my sister-in-law. The only thing is, she's married to my brother," I say as I act confused at her statement.

"Wow, you are dumb. How did Darius chose you to run his company? You will just run it into the ground like you do everything you touch," Chelsea says with a smirk. I would really like to beat that smirk off of her face but I can't... yet.

"On the contrary, I am not dumb. You said someone prettier than me which could only be Megan here," I tell her as I step towards her. The door to the banquet hall opens up again and Christopher walks out with Uncle Frank. They see us and my body language and rush over. "In the future, do not talk about my father like you are friends. If anything, my father thinks you are a joke from your actions Friday night." Glancing at Christopher who looks at me with a blank expression but I can see his longing in his eyes. "If I remember correctly, didn't you get banned from being apart of any business between my company and Mr. Lanes? It seems that your employer can't keep his word when he makes a decision."

Christopher steps forward and looks at Chelsea. "What are you doing here, Chelsea? I told you to stay at the office and handle things while I was gone."

Chelsea looks at Christopher like a lost puppy. "I thought you could use my help with taking notes today."

"Mr. Lane, I believe Miss Anderson is correct. Our last meeting that involved your assistant here ended in me informing you that she is not to be present going forward. Send her on her way or we will find another publisher that is more professional," Uncle Frank says in his business tone. "Your assistant here has no sense of professionalism and talks about the founder of this company like she is his close friend. Social etiquette must have been a lost cause for her in training and school."

Chelsea looks at Frank in offense and tries to say something before she is cut off by Christopher. "Go back to the office. If you come here again without our permission, I will personally pack up your desk myself and send you on your way."

Chelsea sends me a glare before she storms off to the front doors. Everett looks at me and taps his watch signaling that we needed to get going. I only have a little time to go see the artists that are here today so we needed to get up to the studio. We make our way to the elevator as Frank talks to Christopher in hushed tones.

Stepping into the elevator, Grayson scans his ID card and the elevator doors begin to shut. Before they fully close, my eyes meet Christopher's. The near silent pings is the only thing that lets us know that the elevator is moving as it lifts us up to the 19th floor where the studios are located.

The doors open and everyone turns to look at the elevator before smiling at me. I get a lot of hello's and other greetings. I will admit that I am going to miss working in here but I could always come down when I have the time. We walk down to studio D where our newest artist is working on a new song.

The door opens halfway before I hear a squeal and I am yanked through the door into the arms of Gianna. "Oh my gosh! I was hoping to get to see you before I left today. How are you?" she asks in one breath.

I chuckle at her excitement as I hug her back. "I'm good. Adjusting to everything pretty quickly. How is the song coming?" I ask her as we walk over to the sound board. The engineer for this studio, Raylan, starts to push the buttons to get the track ready.

"So, Nat. The big CEO now, huh?" Gianna asks me as we take a seat on the stools.

"Yes ma'am. It was hard to keep it a secret for so long especially when my brothers wouldn't let me go anywhere without any of them," I reply with an eye roll. Gianna laughs at this because she has meet all of my brothers so she knows what I am talking about.

"I can see that. One of them were always present when you would be out with us at stage locations," she says. "Now I wouldn't have noticed anything if they weren't always following you at a distance. I just thought they were keeping an eye on everything to make sure it was all done correctly."

The song starts to play so we go quiet as we listen to it. As I am listening, I am also figuring out what could be done to make it better. It's not much but Raylan normally asks my opinion on what could be added. He is still new to the company and started here about six months ago. Starting off as my apprentice, he always asks me for advice on his work and how to do better or improve.

Raylan looks at me as the song comes to an end. "Any suggestions, boss?'

"Add a crescendo of bass at the last two four counts of chorus two and have it hit in the instrumental up until the third verse. At the last four count of the instrumental, subito piano the bass for the third verse since the tone is light. When the last chorus starts, bring it back to the original volume for the rest of the song," I instruct as he starts to add in the parts I am talking about. "The backup vocals are a bit to loud and sometimes take over so knock them down a few notches."

Raylan works on what I instructed while Gianna watches on with intense concentration. "What is subito piano?" she asks as she watches Raylan work.

"It means that the dynamics suddenly soften to piano range. Some of Beethoven's symphonies have them in the dynamics which ended up to be a trademark of his compositions," I answer her as I watch Raylan finish up the adjustments. "Do the play back at the beginning of chorus two so we can hear the changes in comparison to the rest of the music."

The music starts to play as we all get into the music when the part I changed started to play. Gianna is nodding her head to the beat as she smiles at the outcome of her song. The song ends before they both turn to me with grins from ear to ear.

"This is why I tell everyone you're the best," Raylan tells me while getting the song onto the server we store our sessions on.

"No offense Raylan, but I do the same. I would have never thought of that," Gianna says looking at Raylan playfully. These two have been getting really close and I have witnessed some flirting here and there. Gianna suddenly turns to me with a sparkle of mischief in her eyes. "So, Natalia. I heard that you have an amazing voice?"

Oh no, who was it that told her? "No, I actually don't. Where did you hear a thing like that?" I ask her trying to not sound nervous.

Gianna pulls her phone out and pulls up a video on her phone. She taps the screen and I hear my voice singing 'I Hope' the night when I was forced to do karaoke. Gianna watches my face as Raylan looks at her phone in shock when he sees me on the screen. Looking at the phone, I see that it was filmed from the angle where our table was.

"Emily sent this to you, didn't she?" I ask as the video ends. The drink in the shot of the camera was the drink that Emily ordered that night and her hands were the ones missing from the table.

"That's not the point. Why are you not recording songs for yourself instead of for others?" she asks me in disbelief.

"Because I work better behind the scenes," I say trying to subtly hint at the hidden message. Thankfully she gets my point as she looks at me in understanding.

"I see, stage fright is common. Wait here a minute," she says before going through the door. Raylan asks me questions as we wait for her to come back. When she did come back, I was surprised that she had all of the artists that were working in the other studios with her. What is she doing? "Okay, guys. Everyone knows who Natalia is and have worked with her," Gianna says to which everyone nods their heads as they send me a smile. "Well, I just found out that she can sing but is not recording any music with her voice. She just told me that she has stage fright which we all had at the start of our careers. I was just thinking that a jam session would help her with that a little bit." I look at her with wide eyes as everyone agrees and takes a seat on the couches or leans against the walls. "Any suggestions?"

"How about you all sing 'This Is How We Roll' by Florida Georgia Line to start off with," Raylan suggests. He knows that I always would jam this song when we had downtime. Everyone nods as he pulls up the music for us to sing to.

"I want to hear that beautiful voice, ma'am. Don't make me go get Megan," Gianna says with a wink. I can't help but chuckle at her. Everett takes a seat beside me as everyone starts to sing. As the song progresses, everyone gets into the music including me. When the song is done, Raylan looks at us expectantly waiting on the next song.

"I think that Natalia needs to sing Lauren's song 'Georgia Peaches'," Gianna says as she glances over at Lauren Alaina sitting on the couch. Lauren nods with a smile and sends me a thumbs up.

The music begins as she stands up and pulls me out of my seat as well. She looks at me with encouragement and the fear of singing in front of everyone just disappears as I sing the song as we get into the music again. Near the end of the song, I see someone in the doorway. Uncle Frank and Christopher are standing there with smiles on their faces as they watch what is going on in the studio. The song comes to an end and unfortunately so does our jam session. Everyone hugs me as they clap and tell me that they like my voice. I have a good feeling that this will end up being a normal thing when I get to visit the studio.

Everett walks up to me and smiles. "We have a 4:30 conference call to let the last of the partners introduce themselves and then we can call it a day if you want," he tells me as he sends a glance towards the door.

"Sounds good. Let's get up to the office and get it out of the way. We can also go over what needs to be done tomorrow as well after the call," I tell him as we head to the door. Frank and Christopher are still out in the hall when they spot us before walking over to us.

"You had a hidden talent brat," Uncle Frank says as he looks at me playfully.

"More than you can say old timer," I reply. We look at each other before we laugh as he hugs me.

"Your voice is amazing like Gianna stated earlier. It would be something to think about doing if you want to," Uncle Frank states as he releases me.

"That would be something that I would have to think long and hard about. I would rather be behind the scenes instead of front and center," I tell him. I have thought about just recording a few songs for Tucker but not perform them on stage.

Christopher looks at me with pleading eyes. "Can we talk?"

I look at him with a smile so that Uncle Frank doesn't notice any tension. "Later. I have to get to a meeting and wanted to come check in on things before I started the conference call." He nods at my reply as Everett and I make our way to the elevator.

"Everything alright?" I hear Frank ask Christopher.

"I have no idea," Christopher's reply is laced with longing.

Getting to the office, we start the conference call that only lasts about twenty five minutes. I already knew everyone but this is a formality when ownership is transferred. Everett ends the call when everyone is finished and we go over the itinerary for tomorrow.

"That is all for now. Go make sure everything is locked at your desk and have a breather until we leave," I tell him as I close the folder we were looking at.

"Can Adam come sit in my office until we leave? He is already done for the day," Everett asks me.

"Well of course. Just try not to make it into a make out room like Jaxon and Megan tend to do," I tell him with a playful glare.

"Wouldn't dream of it," he says as he fake shivers.

He walks out as I pull up some important files to print out so I can read them later. My door shuts behind him before it opens up again a minute later. "Everett, what is it now?"

"I want to know what is wrong and why you have been ghosting me?" Christopher's voice invades my ears.

I look up to see him standing by my door as Everett slowly reaches in to close it. Christopher is looking at me with a mixture of hurt and anger.

"You don't have to pretend that you don't know what is wrong," I simply tell him as I keep my face blank.

"No, I honestly don't know. We were doing so good and then you just ghost me the past two days. What did I do?" he asks.

"Do you think that I'm stupid? After I helped you eliminate a problem, you had a fun night. I hope it was worth it," I tell him as I stand up.

"Fun night? What are you talking about?" he asks with his voice raising slightly.

"I saw it for myself, Christopher. I saw Chelsea get dropped off at the gate after we ran off her little spy. We all watched her walk straight into your home without even being stopped by the guards. I know that it wasn't a business visit because it was late at night," I tell him as my voice slightly rises with very word.

Christopher looks at me confused and on alert. "What do you mean Chelsea was at my house that night?"

I look at him and decide to have him confirm it himself. "Call your head guard from that night and ask him. Right now with your phone on speaker."

Christopher pulls his phone out and puts the call on speaker. The guard answered almost immediately. "Hello, Mr. Lane. What can I do for you?"

"I was just told that my assistant arrived at my home late Saturday night. Is this true?" Christopher asks as he looks at me in the eyes.

"Yes sir. She stated that she needed to talk to you about some business stuff and walked through to the house. She didn't come back out until it was early in the morning," the man says. "Did she not tell you she was there or was she not supposed to be?"

Christopher looks angrily at the phone before he replies. "No she wasn't. I didn't even know she was there. Next time, make sure to contact me to get her clearance to enter."

"Yes sir," the man says before Christopher hangs up.

"I honestly didn't know she was there. I fell asleep after you texted me and woke up with the house empty other than the cook. I am so sorry if you got the wrong impression," Christopher says as he walks over to me. He takes my hands in his as he looks me in the eyes. "I meant what I said when I told you that you are the only one for me."

"If what you are saying is true, then we have a problem," I tell him as I squeeze his hands. "She is sneaking into your house and staying the night. Where in the house? I don't know. We need to find out what she is doing."

"I can have some cameras set up for us to find out," Christopher says. He has cameras up around the house but they are mainly outside.

An idea appears in my head at his words. "I have a better idea. We can put you under out 'Protection Program'. This programs requires us to put up surveillance in your home and monitor it. This could also give us the reason to take her down. With her sneaking into your home, we can say that you felt unsafe and something felt off about the house." This plan will let us go ahead on stopping the vile woman once and for all.

Christopher looks at me before he kisses my forehead. "Let's get started then."