Page 115 of Perfect Composition

Austyn explains to us both how the social media photo brought out all of Paige’s deep-seated insecurities, ones she never acknowledged she had. That it uncovered buried emotions Paige has been working with a doctor at the hospital to sort out. “She knows I love her. I even warned her there would be talkafter the Grammys. Why would a simple photo of me and Erzulie at the Grammys do that?” I ask incredulously, rubbing my fingers over the ink at my neck, a tattoo I’d got for Paige. Not that she knows.

Carys slaps me upside the head. “Beckett, you ass. Did you even see it?”

“I asked Austyn to look it up when Paige called…” But my daughter shakes her head.

“I found the caption because it was everywhere but couldn’t pinpoint what photo it was,” she admits. “You were tagged with Erzulie in too many by then to determine which one was the one that set Mama off.”

“Then I couldn’t find it after we flew back to New York. It was like they were all wiped, crazy as that sounds.” I anxiously demand, “Carys?”

“It was the same damn photo you had me take down last fall. The one of you carrying Kylie out of the hotel when both of you are half-dressed because she’s completely annihilated.”

A dawning horror fills me. “I thought you threatened StellaNova with a damn lawsuit if they posted those photos!”

“I did! This wasn’t StellaNova. And by the time I could find that out, the pictures were already taken down,” she yells.

I take a step back and back right into Austyn. The look she exchanges with Carys frankly causes fear to skate along my spine. “Is there a chance I can fix this?” I can barely push the words out.

Austyn’s cherished face scrunches up. “I don’t know, but Mama deserves two things.”

I’m afraid the ache that’s spreading may eclipse everything else, including her. But still, I ask, “What are those?”

“A damn apology and for you to shower. Christ, Dad. You reek to high heaven. I might have to bathe after that hug.” Austyn waves her hand in front of her nose in disgust.

Carys bursts into laughter even as I grab Austyn against my chest and hold her tighter. “Deal with it,” I murmur against the top of her clean-smelling hair.

Her arms snake around my waist. She squeezes back tightly. “Gladly.”

After long moments, we break apart. “Now, what are you going to do about Mama?”

Staring down into what Paige deemed was my most perfect composition, I announce, “I’ve been trying to explain, but now it’s time to fight harder.”

“And if she wants you to let her go?” Austyn asks me carefully.

I don’t respond because there’s no way in hell. I’m not losing the woman I’ve loved forever, not without one of us actually dying.

“Sue them. Sue the fuck out of them,” I bark at Ward.

“Becks, it’s been weeks. Besides, it was a picture they dug up on a slow…” Ward tries to placate me.

I whirl away from the windows and fling my phone on his desk. “Code ten, fifteen, twenty-seven.”

He unlocks it and reads the text I had up on my screen. “Holy hell. Beckett, man. I don’t know what to say.”

I slam my fist down against the corner of his desk. “Tell me you’re going to go after that twunt for every damn dollar she’s made off of me and donate it to some charity—preferably one Paige would approve of.”

“Not for nothing, but you were there, Beckett,” Ward reminds me.

“It happened months ago! Not weeks ago! Not when the only woman my heart’s ever longed for was moving across the country to be with me!”

“Is that how you feel about Mama? Really?”

“Austyn. Honey.” I hold out my arm.

“She was devastated,” Austyn tells Ward.

His eyes close in regret. “I appreciate that. But this might not work, Austyn. Just because your father said it wasn’t so, the court of public opinion holds a lot of sway.”

My daughter pulls back. “But it’s not true.”