Side Chick Era... Over

Loving Mom 176

Chapter 176

The murmurs in the audience swelled like a rising tide.

“Wow. I didn’t expect Kelly to be that good on the violin.”

“She’s better than the private tutor I hired for my kid.”

“My friend’s a top-tier professional violinist, and even she’s not at Kelly’s level.”

“No wonder Carter treats her like a queen. One song from her, and all my stress just melted away.”

Over at the judges’ table, a rare consensus appeared: 99.9.

Not quite a perfect 100-because of Theo. (1

Kelly’s solo performance had deserved full marks, no question. But this was a duet. And next to her brilliance, Theo’s playing came off a bit plain. The 0.1-point deduction wasn’t a knock on him-just a quiet nod acknowledging his role.

Even so, that score launched Kelly and Theo straight into first place.

Kelly was satisfied. Her technique, her delivery-everything had gone exactly as she envisioned.

bow and stepped off the stage. Her lips curved into

goes up, no one’s even going

if struck by sudden inspiration, he whipped out his phone and started a

wait. I’ll make sure the whole world sees you crash and

Nate predicted, even after the stage lights dimmed, the

up again and Sharon and Matty were standing

caught up in the magic of Kelly’s

the room, her expression dark. The audience

distracted,

it hit

Sharon, grabbing all

“Shameless,” Wendy muttered.

Xavier remained silent, eyes fixed

violin music

sound barely registered. The

slowly, something

noise faded-gently, almost without notice-until

1/2