Free Rocked Part 5: A New Adult Rockstar Romance (Billionaire's Obsession) by Bella Love-Wins, Bella Wild Page B

things had gone south.”
    Besides my initial adrenaline-filled reaction the night Kevin was assaulted, I had not really thought much about it once we found out he was okay. Even now, I could not wrap my mind around how different things would be if he had been seriously hurt or worse, if the woman had taken his life.
    Kevin continued. “I don’t want you to look back and resent me someday for wasting some of your most precious years, chasing after you to help reach the goals I set for you. Honestly, they were my dreams, and like any father…I wanted only the best for you. Maybe I was focused on my own selfish image of how your success should play out.”
    I did not expect any of this. My chest tightened like a vice with all the emotion coursing through me. All of a sudden it was hard to remember why I had been so angry at him in the first place.
    “I want to show you something,” he said. He picked up a large brown envelope on the small table between us, and he pulled a stack of papers from it. “This is our second contract, the one you signed when you were twenty-two. It’s a five-year contract, so only one year is left.”
    I took the contract from his hand and glossed over it. A rush of memories came rising to the surface as I glanced over my sketchy signature. I had been so young…so much had changed since the first contract. My band had been replaced, I had recorded numerous albums, produced many music videos, performed in front of millions of fans, made hundreds of TV and radio appearances, and done countless media interviews. I had been on magazines and my face had been splashed all over the internet with pictures from photo shoots and the paparazzi. I had done a lot. Now, anything was possible.
    It had been a wild ride, to say the least.
    This was our second contract. Thinking back to when we first started out, I had no idea I could attain this level of achievement. I had figured on it being something of a vanity career. The kind of thing kids with parents in the industry did when they got bored. Mom or Dad would pay for their music to be professionally produced, even a music video or two, and they could call it a dream realized and move on to the next thing. When I had signed the first contract, I was still looking to party. To travel, hang with my buddies, and get some attention. If Kevin had not cut them from the band one by one, I would probably still be spending way too much time drinking, experimenting with every drug we could get our hands on, womanizing, brawling, and getting into a world of trouble.
    The difference for me was I had always enjoyed being on stage. Singing and entertaining people made me feel useful, constructive, alive. Seeing fans so energized from my performances became just as important to me as delivering the music to them. My career was my foundation. And I had no doubt that without it, I would have no purpose.
    Kevin took the contract from me. “Here’s what I’m proposing.”
    I looked on in disbelief as he held it on one end and ripped it down the middle.
    “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time, Lorne. You know why? A piece of paper should not dictate how family should be to each other. What I’m proposing is I’m not going to change much. I’m going to keep pushing you if you want me to continue as your manager. I will try to hear you out on the creative side, but I can’t promise you I’ll bend every time. The other option is…we can cut ties professionally, with no court battle, no issue of money, no hard feelings…we just go back to being Lorne and Pops.”
    Lorne and Pops. I had not called him that for almost ten years. The name brought back only the fondest of memories of them pampering me like a treasured grandchild before my parents passed, and of all the time he and Lady spent helping me through their loss. Even through those dark days, he was Pops, and would find time in his crazy schedule to sit silently at the foot of my bed with Lady, almost every