Oblivion Series Book 3: Unpredicted
著者
Lumi Daoi
閲覧数
57.4K
チャプター
34
Melody’s world is her daughter, not backstage chaos or wild guitar solos. She’s sworn off heartbreak, but fate has its own playlist. When Jay, the rockstar who lives for his music, meets Melody and her little girl, everything changes. The spotlight fades, and a softer rhythm takes over—one filled with laughter, late-night talks, and second chances that feel too good to be true. But fame is loud, and love needs quiet to grow. As whispers rise and the spotlight turns sharp, they’ll have to fight for the melody they’ve found together. Because sometimes, the most beautiful songs aren’t written—they just happen.
Chapter 1: The Opening Note
MELODY
I thought my life had changed the day I found out I was pregnant at sixteen. My parents were beyond disappointed in me. I was the hardworking teen with her head supposedly screwed on straight, the girl who had plans, who was going places.
I’d mapped out my future—graduating high school, college next, the kind of steady life that would’ve made them proud.
But fate didn’t care about plans. Fate laughed at them. And fate was wearing a wicked grin the night I decided, for once in my carefully controlled teenage life, to break my own rules and go to Bobby Tate’s summer bash.
I should have stayed home. I should have kept pretending that I didn’t notice him, that I didn’t daydream about the boy every other girl in school wanted and every guy secretly envied. Carson Michaels.
He wasn’t supposed to know my name. He wasn’t supposed to lean against the locker beside mine, smirk at me like he’d been waiting for this moment, and ask, “Hey, Melody, got any plans this weekend?”
The world should’ve stopped right there. But it didn’t.
That single question, his brown eyes raking over me like I was worth more than my quiet corners and my good grades, lit a fuse I didn’t even realize existed inside me. Against every alarm bell in my head, against the tremor in my knees and the voice that whispered run, I said yes.
One yes led to another. Yes to his hand sliding against my hip, yes to his lips ghosting over my neck, yes to Bobby’s house packed with music, liquor, and smoke. Yes to the way he pulled me into the shadows and whispered like I was already his.
The night spun too fast, alcohol blurring my judgment, lust smothering my fear. The next thing I knew, my dress was wrinkled, my lipstick smeared, my heart stolen, and my future rewritten in one reckless, irreversible decision.
I’d never planned on being the girl with the secret. The girl with the whispered rumors following her through the hallways. The girl standing in front of a mirror weeks later with trembling hands clutching a pregnancy test.
Carson Michaels gave me one night. That night gave me everything and nothing all at once.
It gave me Poppy.
My daughter.
My world.
The reason I’ve been fighting every day since.
And it left me with scars I’ve never stopped hiding.
Fast forward five years, and here I was. Twenty-one, a single mom, living paycheck to paycheck and doing my best to raise my daughter in a world that had never once gone easy on me. Life wasn’t what I’d planned, but it was ours, and I held onto that.
The nights of regret over what happened in high school had dulled with time, but they still whispered in the back of my mind. Carson Michaels had denied that Poppy was his from the moment I told him. Even when the DNA proved it, he still called me a liar.
He made sure everyone else believed his version of the story too. And in the end, he walked away untouched while I was left with the fallout, labeled the school slut, disowned by my parents, and forced to grow up overnight.
But I didn’t regret her. Never her.
Poppy was the best thing I’d ever done. My reason for breathing. My light in every bit of the dark.
We had our little routines: dress-up afternoons, baking cookies, and blasting our favorite Oblivion songs like we were the stars of our own show. My world might have felt small, but with her laughter in it, it was enough.
The bell over the diner door jingled. I balanced a coffeepot on one hand and waved without looking. “Be right with you, sugar.”
When I finally made it to the new table, notepad in hand, I rattled off automatically, “What can I get you?”
“Coffee. Double cheeseburger with dirty fries. Millionaire shake. And wings.”
I scribbled it down without really looking up, but when I did, my heart stuttered. Blake Johnson. Oblivion’s drummer. Sitting right here at Fran’s like it was just any other greasy spoon.
He leaned back, tapping his phone until it buzzed one too many times, and he switched it off with a curse. I bit back a laugh, turning in my order slip before I could get caught staring.
By the time his food was ready, I’d convinced myself to play it cool. I set the plates down, gave him my usual waitress smile, and left him to it.
It wasn’t until later, when Poppy skipped in after school and spotted him, that everything unraveled.
“Mama!” she squealed, tugging on my apron. “Mama, that’s Blake! From Oblivion!”
I nearly tripped over my own feet. “Sweet girl, hush—”
But Blake was already smiling. He crouched down to her level, his grin softening. “Well, someone knows who I am. What’s your name, sweetheart?”
“Poppy,” she said proudly.
“That’s a pretty name for a pretty girl. You like our music?”
She nodded so fast I worried her head might fly off. “Jay’s my favorite. He sings the best!”
Blake’s laugh shook the whole booth. He shot me a wink, then turned back to my daughter. “And you didn’t even mix me up with my brother—that’s a first.” He winked at me. “You want to come to a show sometime? Come backstage and meet the whole band?”
Poppy gasped. “Mama, please!”
Blake scribbled his number onto a napkin and handed it to me like it was nothing. “Think about it. No pressure.”
He left soon after, sliding bills onto the table without waiting for change.
I stared at that napkin for the rest of my shift. By the time we walked home, Poppy humming her favorite chorus under her breath, it was still burning a hole in my pocket.
When she finally drifted off to sleep that night, I sat at the table with my phone in one hand and the napkin in the other. My pulse raced. My head screamed not to.
But I did anyway.
Melody
Hey Blake, this is Melody from the diner. Just checking if you were serious about that offer. If not, no worries. If so… maybe.
I hit send before I could lose my nerve.
And just like that, the fuse I’d buried five years ago was lit again.
