Wife by Day, Boss by Night

Natalie stood by the window clutching her phone, watching Brian's car pull away from the curb below.

"I need to compare that track by Madelyn with my own. Send me the mixdown of Madelyn's audio track as soon as possible," she spoke softly into her phone.

She knew this little episode wouldn't go without consequences.

Brian's attitude toward Madelyn showed he was thoroughly disappointed in her. If he stayed out of Madelyn's mess, things would have been a lot easier for Natalie.

She casually logged into her "Annika" Twitter account. After a moment's consideration, she fired off a tweet.

Once the tweet was live, she immediately played one of her original songs.

It was a melody she had scribbled down six months ago, a tune that had popped into her head during vocal practice. She recorded a demo of about a minute's length and uploaded it online, clearly marked with a copyright warning.

Madelyn's latest single sounded eerily familiar when she heard it last month.

It took her a moment to realize it clashed with her song.

Natalie worked on her track while her friend sent over Madelyn's. She overlaid the two audio tracks, listened twice, and adjusted their alignment.

On the next listen, she couldn't help but smirk.

Madelyn's song sounded like a backing track to her melody, matching it perfectly.

Her post had garnered nearly ten thousand comments within twenty minutes on Twitter. The notification sound chimed incessantly.

The following morning came too soon for Madelyn.

A persistent knocking on her door woke her.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she shoved aside the empty bottles and stumbled out of the bathtub.

"Madelyn! Are you in there? Open up, for heaven's sake!" It was her agent, Lily, calling from outside.

Bracing against a headache, Madelyn kicked her way through the clutter to the door.

Brian had someone drop her off at her rented apartment again, a cramped space hardly big enough for her shoe collection. He had a nerve.

1

Lily had been knocking for ten minutes when she finally heard the door unlocking. She yanked it open and blurted out, "Why's your phone off? You've got to see this!".

Madelyn offered Lily a smile as she said, "Why bother turning it on? It's not like I have any gigs lined up."

Seeing Madelyn in such a hungover state, Lily grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. "Wash your face. Wake up! We've got a real problem!"

With a roll of her eyes, Madelyn muttered, "What could go wrong?"Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g

Brian slapping her for Natalie felt like the sky was falling. Nothing could be worse than that.

Lily dragged Madelyn to the bathroom, grabbed the showerhead, and blasted her face with cold water.

"What the hell are you doing!" Madelyn screamed, instantly sobered by the icy deluge.

"Awake now? Good. We need to talk business!" Lily shouted over the noise.

Madelyn stared at Lily, who thrust her phone into her hands, saying, "Look at this! Do you see? Your new song's plagiarism scandal is trending

number one!"

As Madelyn's eyes darted over the screen, her face turned ashen. She looked up

at Lily, who was already pulling up Annika's Twitter profile.

The tweets from last night were clear

st

as day. At 10:50 PM, Annika tweeted, [Man, this industry is just too grimy. Can't a person just write and sing their tunes in peace?]

And then, at 12:30 AM, [I'm so tired. I'm sorry, everyone.]

The accompanying image was

Πρ

chilling, a view from a window ledge, seemingly with Annika perched on Sly with

the sill, with nothing but a dark abyss

below. It sent shivers down the spine of anyone who saw it.