Evelyn Jane pressed the buzzer just outside of the penthouse entrance.

“Who calls?” The voice of the Maestro crackled through it a moment later.

“You know damn well who it is,” she nearly snapped as she slammed down the talk button in reply. Who else would be visiting this late? Certainly not his wife, who she determined to be away and the reason for him to advance their weekly tryst from its usual time.

She heard him chuckle with a cavalier air and then cut the connection to the speaker.


She leaned against the door frame as it opened, with a glower pasted on her face to convey that it was a great inconvenience to be meeting him anytime outside their agreed-upon schedule. Shaun Piper looked her up and down appreciatively as he crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the refrigerator.

“Fine enough for you?” She gestured to herself.

“My, my miss Evie you really do know how to dress to impress,” he grinned.

She was wearing a dress made of slinky material, it was elegant and she’d bought it to wear at her father’s most recent publicity event. She thought red was her best color, much more intimidating and alluring than pink. She only rolled her eyes at his compliment. Shaun wasn’t nearly half as charming as he thought he was. He took her arm, pulled her close and gave her a kiss on the cheek in greeting to which she made a disgusted face at behind his back. It had become a sort of game with him–trying to be as unpleasant as possible without making him resort to threatening to expose their affair to all of Kashmire.


“Why did you have me dress up anyway? It’s not like I keep my clothes on for very long at these meetings of ours…” She mumbled darkly.

Shaun went to the wine rack and removed a bottle, also setting out two glasses to pour it into.

“Because, my dear, it’s time that we celebrated,” he answered, choosing to ignore her tone. She crossed her arms and her frown only deepened. He handed her a glass of red wine and clinked his against it, “To my new violin concerto.”

She took a seat on the sofa and took a drink. At least he offered her a way to make their collaborations more bearable. They had been collaborating for the past couple of years on his new violin concerto. Evelyn Jane was a talented player, and gave very helpful feedback on how it was played and how it sounded. She even suggested ways he could make it better, a crescendo here, a diminuendo there… it wouldn’t be nearly as good without her input and he knew it.

“You mean it’s done?” She asked, slightly surprised if that were the case. In her opinion, the piece hadn’t been completely refined. The sound was too convoluted near the start of it. Violin music shouldn’t start too complex, in her opinion, it had to begin simple and seduce the listener into staying to hear the remainder of it.

“Come see for yourself,” Shaun gestured above them and she followed him upstairs into the music study, a red-walled room that contained his precious violins and where her playing form had been put through every appraisal and critique to the point she didn’t feel anything but disdain when she picked up the instrument now.


There was a spread of sheet music on his desk and she shifted through it, seeing if she could spot any changes from the last time. Between hasty, handwritten bowings and scratched symbols for where the solo repeated she did notice some differences.

She slowly consumed more wine and studied the music notes and smirked, so he did take her advice after all and simplified the beginning. She’d committed most of the concerto to memory already because he had her play it for him for so many months on end. Shaun was a perfectionist, and she could once relate to that trait but ever since he turned the tables on her, flipping the balance of power—she just didn’t care for music anymore. She turned to face him and leaned against the desk, “Decent.”

As she suspected, he looked a bit annoyed, “Is that all you have to say? It’s the finest thing I have ever written.”

Evelyn Jane shrugged, secretly relishing in his annoyance, “If it’s so fine why haven’t you debuted it yet?”

“Impatient as always. I need you to play it again in it’s final form before I deem it ready for debut,” he nodded toward his violin, the common one, which was nice but not worth a fortune. She’d better get to it then. He took a seat and continued to drink wine.


She set down her glass, looked at the notes to the intro again and then picked up his violin and began to play.

She only got five notes in before he stopped her, “The fifth note starts with an up bow. Start again.”

Evelyn Jane inwardly grumbled, straightened her posture to appear unflustered and began once more.

“More vibrato,” Shaun cut her off after a moment, “Start again.” She glared at him and started over once more but made sure to rock her wrist back and forth as vigorously as possible to get the vibrato he demanded.

He did it a few more times—snapped harshly at her to use better fingering or play with more fortissimo and she allowed him without saying a word but wanted nothing more to smash his violin to the floor and leave. She may have not cared about music anymore but she still very much cared about her family’s reputation. Her noncompliance could potentially, ultimately lead to a public scandal. It had been ingrained into her from a young age that perception was everything to her family and ruining it would also ruin her.

“Start again,” Shaun repeated.

“What was wrong that time?” Evelyn Jane snapped, finally the frustration at starting over multiple times had bled into her voice.

“Nothing, but I want to hear the intro again. Don’t you think it’s nice and uncomplicated?”

If she cared about it, she would agree; the music was actually quite beautiful-sounding.

“It’s perfectly adequate,” she replied.

He frowned at her from his seat. He was foolish if he thought he was going to get any worthwhile praise from her.


She began the intro again, playing everything to his specifications that he had so far interrupted her about. Then finally she was able to play the rest of the solo. She hadn’t seen many changes in his sheet music for the remainder of the piece.

Evelyn Jane closed her eyes and focused on the notes that she had memorized. Anyone would mistake that for an expression of passion but in reality, she didn’t want to see his face anymore. She had always believed that regrets were a waste of time because one could never change the past, however, she deeply and truly regretted ever thinking that trying to seduce the maestro would give her an edge in the Battle of the Bands.

Her fingers flew down the neck of the violin to the bridge in the allegro, followed by a series of staccato notes.

Shaun had once told her that she could be ‘of use’ to him. She’d thought that always meant he could use his power to force her to stay in an affair but as she played more and collaborated with him, she realized that he was trying to mold her into his protégé. Her talent for playing the violin was her true use to him.

Her eyes snapped open and she stopped playing unceremoniously.

“Who exactly will be debuting this piece?”

Shaun seemed struck with surprise for a moment and then grinned, “You of course. Why do you think I had you play it so extensively?”

“To stroke your ego,” Evelyn Jane replied and put the violin under her chin once more. She began to play again but improvised a bit which caused Shaun to fall back into his own glare. Evelyn Jane smiled for the first time that night, just imagining, “Isn’t it a bit risky entrusting your precious concerto to someone who wishes for nothing but your absolute ruin?”


Shaun gave her a hard look that shut down her wishful fantasy, “No, because you won’t do anything of the sort.”

Evelyn Jane’s smile faded and she put the violin back on the stand and turned away from him. If she did ruin the world debut of his new music, he would make her pay dearly. They both knew it. She suddenly felt him against her back, his breath close–on the shell of her ear and his hand gripping her upper arm rather forcefully.

“Don’t hate me, Evie. I’m turning you into a world class violinist. You will be the only one to know how to play my concerto, and you will play it correctly." She didn’t say anything. He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him, "You will, won’t you?”

She nodded numbly, struck with fear by the menacing look in his eyes. He gave her a quick, possessive, kiss and released his hold on her chin. She turned away from him in disgust but her skin crawled as his fingers laced through a loose piece of her hair with the affectation of tenderness.

“If you play it perfectly, my dear Miss Evie, which I know you can, I will give you what you’ve been after all these years.”

For a moment her hopes rose so high that she might have floated off the ground. Would he halt all his threats to expose their affair and let her leave in peace?

“I’ll let you have your hand at the Simvarious I violin.”

Her hope deflated like a popped balloon, feeling like a fool to have had any at all. While the prestigious Simvarious I violin in his collection was a legendary instrument, not even the promised spectacular sound it would produce was enough to satisfy her. Freedom was the only prize worth having now.