Read Perfect Harmony for Free Online Page B

almost impossible for them to take it off.  It’s such a breath of fresh
air to meet someone so young and innocent - someone who does nothing to hide
their emotions.  So reckless and unrestrained...
    It reminds me of how I’d once been so similar, so young and
poor and single-mindedly driven to succeed.  Before I was betrayed.
    Suddenly, I hear a woman’s soft dulcet tones trickle into my
ear.  It is almost a whisper, but I can hear every note so clearly.
    Hush little baby, don’t say a word.  Mommas gonna buy you
a mocking bird...
    It’s Melody.  Her voice is so smooth and beautiful.
    I lean away and look at her.
    She squirms and fiddles with the hemline of her dress. 
“Sorry.”
    “Don’t be.  You’re voice, Melody.  It’s incredible.  You
should be proud - no one on my label can sing even half as well as you.”
    “It’s nothing.  Just something that comes natural.”
    Her face lights up with a smile.
    “Where did you learn to sing like that?”
    “Nowhere, really.  It doesn’t matter.”  She tries to pull
away from me, but I grasp her wrist.  Her smile is gone.
    The ballroom fills with the sound of the orchestra beginning
the Tango.  In the corner of my eye, I catch guests moving into the dance
floor.
    “I’d like to know, Melody.  Please.  Only the best could
have taught you to sing so well.  You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
    “Duncan Callaghan,” she says in a quiet voice.
    Duncan Callaghan.  It is impossible.  How could the
man who taught her to sing be that bastard?  He’s my bitterest rival, for God’s
sake.  As CEO of Magnum Records, he has tried time and time again to execute a
hostile takeover of Harmony Records, solely to further his grip on the North
American market.  He’s stolen talent from me, leaked information to investors,
and poisoned the minds of critics.  He would stoop to any level to see me
destroyed.
    My eyes narrow.
    “Why the hell did that bastard teach you to sing?” I spit
out.  “Were you on his label?”
    “No, no,” says Melody.  “Nothing like that.”
    “Then what?”
    “I knew him from high school, that’s all.  He taught me when
we were teenagers.”
    It’s certainly possible that they went to school together. 
Duncan is maybe a few years older than Melody, and he did used to teach people
to sing before he entered the business.  It all makes perfect sense.
    So why the hell do I find this story so hard to believe?
    Callaghan.  I would put nothing past him.  He didn’t even
make his billions like I have, through hard work and wits.  No, his was a mere
gift from his father, Raymond Callaghan.  Daddy had no trouble syphoning off a
chunk of his media empire to give to his little boy.
    It makes me sick thinking about it.
    And it wouldn’t be beneath him to slip a beautiful woman
into my midst to fuck with me.
    But Melody wouldn’t have answered with his name if that were
true.  He would know it would anger me and make me suspicious.
    Unless that is his plan all along.
    I look at Melody’s face.  Doe eyed and innocent, she squirms
under my gaze.
    I must be going insane to be this paranoid and suspicious of
a girl like her.  I am overacting.  Nothing more.
    “I guess,” I say calmly, “even the roughest diamond cutter
can make the most exquisite gem.”  I curl a stray lock of hair behind her ear. 
“Especially when the material is so beautiful to begin with.”
    She smiles and reverts her gaze to the floor.
    I’ve embarrassed her.  I never should have drawn attention to
her tutorage by some hack from Magnum Records, when she’s at a ball sponsored
by the far more prestigious Harmony Records.
    I smile down at her and change the subject.
    “I’ve had enough of this ball,” I say.  “Let’s leave.”
    “What?  We can’t leave.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because.  We only just got here.  And there’s still a bunch
of people that want to talk to you, over there on the dance floor.”
    “Irrelevant.  They