Mia's POV
"Stop the audition. This girl is blacklisted."
Victor Kane's voice cuts through my song like a knife. The judges immediately look nervous, shuffling papers, avoiding my eyes.
But I don't stop singing.
Adrian told me not to stop, no matter what. So I keep going, my voice growing stronger with each word, even as Victor's face turns red with anger.
But watch me rise, watch me soarI'm not who I was before—
"I SAID STOP!" Victor lunges toward me, reaching for my microphone.
The door slams open again.
This time, it IS Adrian.
He moves so fast I barely see it. One second Victor is grabbing for my mic. The next, Adrian has Victor's wrist locked in an iron grip, twisting it at an angle that makes Victor gasp in pain.
"Don't. Touch. Her." Adrian's voice is ice and death.
The entire room freezes. Even I stop singing now, my heart hammering.
Victor tries to jerk his hand free, but Adrian's grip is unbreakable. "Do you know who I am?" Victor sputters. "I'll destroy you—"
"You're Victor Kane. Senior VP at Stellar Entertainment. You're also under investigation by three separate women for harassment." Adrian's gray eyes are flat, emotionless. "And if you don't take your hand off what's mine, you'll be under investigation for assault too."
"Yours?" Victor's eyes go wide. "She's nobody—"
"She's mine," Adrian repeats, and something about the way he says it makes my skin burn. "And if you ever come near her again, I'll make sure every dirty secret you have ends up on the news. Starting with the offshore accounts you use to pay off your victims."
Victor's face goes from red to white. "You're bluffing—"
"Try me." Adrian releases his wrist with a shove that sends Victor stumbling backward. Then Adrian turns to the three judges, who look ready to faint. "Continue the audition."
"But Mr. Kane said—" one judge starts.
"I don't care what Kane said. This is still an audition, isn't it? Let her finish." Adrian crosses his arms, waiting.
The judges look at each other. Look at Victor, who's cradling his wrist and breathing hard. Look at Adrian, who stands like a king in their cheap audition room.
Money wins. It always does.
"Please continue, Ms. Chen," the head judge says quietly.
I look at Adrian. He gives me the tiniest nod.
I sing the last verse, and this time, I sing it directly to him. To the man who came back from death like me. Who had visions of my dying. Who promised to save me.
When the final note fades, silence fills the room like water.
Then Adrian speaks: "You're too good for this place."
The judges blink in confusion. Victor looks like he might have a heart attack.
Adrian walks toward me, and everyone else might as well not exist. "Come work for me instead. Apex Entertainment. I'll give you everything you need to become a star."
He pulls out a business card—black with silver lettering. The Apex Entertainment logo gleams like a promise.
I take it with shaking fingers. "You're offering me a contract? Just like that?"
"I don't waste time on mediocrity. You're exceptional. I want exceptional." His eyes burn into mine. "I'll send a car for you tomorrow morning. Eight AM. We'll discuss terms."
"But she's BLACKLISTED!" Victor shouts, finding his voice again. "I'll make sure no label in this country—"
"Your blacklist means nothing to me." Adrian doesn't even look at him. "I'm Adrian Steele. I don't follow industry politics. I make them."
He turns to leave, then pauses at the door. "Oh, and Victor? Consider this your official notice. If you come after Mia Chen, you come after me. And I promise you—I'm much more dangerous than you are."
The door closes behind him with a soft click.
For five seconds, nobody moves. Nobody breathes.
Then chaos erupts. The judges start arguing in hushed whispers. Victor is on his phone, screaming at someone.
And I stand there, holding Adrian Steele's business card like it's made of gold.
I won. I actually won.
I walk out of the audition room on shaking legs. The waiting room is still full of hopeful singers. And right in the front, face twisted with rage and disbelief, is Sophia.
She stands up so fast her chair falls over. "What did you do?"
"I sang," I say simply.
"That's impossible. You were supposed to fail. Your voice was supposed to be ruined. Victor was supposed to—" She cuts herself off, realizing she's said too much.
But everyone in the waiting room heard her. They're all staring now, putting pieces together. Whispers start spreading like wildfire.
Sophia's face goes pale. "I didn't mean—"
"You meant exactly that." I step closer, and for the first time in two lifetimes, I'm not scared of her. "You tried to poison me, Sophia. You tried to sabotage my audition so you could steal my spot. Just like you've been stealing from me for years."
"You're crazy—"
"Am I?" I pull out my phone and press play.
Her own voice fills the waiting room, tinny but clear from my phone's speaker: "What if she knows? What if she figured out what we've been doing?"
Then Ethan's voice: "She's too stupid to figure it out. She's always been too trusting."
I recorded them in the alley. One click while they were too busy talking to notice.
Sophia's face crumbles. "Where did you—how did you—"
"It doesn't matter how." I put my phone away. "What matters is that I know everything now. Every song you stole. Every opportunity you sabotaged. Every lie you told. And I'm done being your victim."
Tears start streaming down Sophia's face, but they're not sad tears. They're angry. Desperate. "You think you've won? You think Adrian Steele actually cares about you? He's using you, just like everyone else in this industry. You're nothing, Mia. You've always been nothing."
Her words are meant to hurt me. In my first life, they would have destroyed me.
But I've already died once. Her words are just air.
"Maybe I was nothing," I say softly. "But I'm not anymore."
I walk past her toward the exit. The other singers part like water, staring at me with a mix of fear and respect.
Outside, the summer air hits my face. I look down at Adrian's card, running my thumb over the raised lettering.
Tomorrow morning. Eight AM. My new life begins.
My phone buzzes. Unknown number. My heart skips—is it Adrian?
But the message makes my blood turn to ice:
"Congratulations on your audition. But you made a mistake trusting Adrian Steele. He's not who you think he is. He didn't come back to save you. He came back to USE you. And when he's done, he'll destroy you worse than Sophia ever could. Meet me at Riverside Park tonight at 10 PM if you want the truth about why you both really came back from death. Come alone, or you'll never get another chance. -The REAL Phoenix"
My hands start shaking so hard I almost drop the phone.
The real Phoenix?
But Adrian said HE was the Phoenix. He said he sent those messages.
So who is this?
And if Adrian lied about being the Phoenix... what else did he lie about?
I look up at the Seoul Star Entertainment building, suddenly feeling like the ground is disappearing beneath my feet all over again.
Behind me, the door opens. I turn, expecting Sophia.
But it's Ethan. And he's holding something in his hand that makes my stomach drop.
A knife.
"We need to talk, Mia," he says quietly, stepping toward me. "And this time, you're going to listen."