CHAPTER 4 

Three weeks later, Ethan was still not officially part of the band.

Then their guitarist broke his wrist.

The next concert was sold out.

Sixty thousand people were waiting.

Victor gave Ethan one instruction.

“Don’t embarrass us.”

Ethan swallowed.

“I’m not sure that’s helpful.”

Victor smiled.

“It wasn’t meant to be.”

Backstage, Daniel found Ethan alone.

“Scared?”

“Terrified.”

“Good.”

“Good?”

“Fear means you understand what’s happening.”

Daniel placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Just remember one thing.”

“What?”

“Don’t play for them.”

Ethan frowned.

“Then who do I play for?”

“Yourself.”

The lights went down.

Sixty thousand people screamed.

Ethan walked onto the stage.

For several seconds, he couldn’t breathe.

Then he saw Maya near the side of the stage.

She held up one hand.

A silent reminder.

You can do this.

The first chord rang out.

The crowd exploded.

Ethan played.

At first, his hands shook.

Then the music took over.

He stopped thinking.

He simply became the song.

When he finished the final solo, the stadium went silent for one impossible second.

Then sixty thousand people erupted.

Daniel watched from behind him.

He was smiling.

But there were tears in his eyes.

Because Ethan had just played the same way his father had played twenty-five years earlier.

Wild.

Beautiful.

Fearless.

By midnight, videos of Ethan were everywhere.

By morning, his name was trending across America.

The boy who arrived in Nashville with seventeen dollars had become famous overnight.

But Ethan didn’t know that fame had already begun taking something from him.