Life had settled into a peaceful routine. Paste on a smile for the crowds, sing and dance, pretend everything was fine.

Then mourn when I was alone, cleaning the stage makeup off my face.

A knock sounded at the door.

One of the other actresses – the Louisa in our production of The Sound of Music – poked her head in the door. "Are you okay?"

I kept my head turned away slightly, rubbing away the tears. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"You were crying. What happened?"

A lot she didn't know about. "I'm fine."

She crossed the room to my table. "You're a great actress, Ariel. But you're a horrible liar."

"I'm sorry. It's just… my friend. Who went missing and died."

"You miss her?"

"You have no idea. It's kind of been a crazy year for me."

"Well, with you becoming famous, I can imagine."

Some videos of me in Phantom of the Opera had gone viral on youtube. Within weeks, I had become the latest internet sensation. "That, my friend going missing, that guy attacking me at the audition, and, to cap it off, I lost my singing teacher." And I met my brother for the first time, but that's another story.

"I'm… sorry. Did they ever catch the guy who attacked you?"

I pushed the chair back and let my hair down out of its bun. It hung down long, flowing down my back. "Not really. But I'm not worried about him coming back."

"Why not?"

"It's… complicated. Now, excuse me, sorry, my ride is waiting for me."

I pulled on my jacket and headed out.

As I walked down the hall to the doorway, I began to hum "Till I Hear You Sing" from Love Never Dies. I saw the original production in London while I was there once, with Ramin Karimloo and Sierra Boggess. It was one of the best nights of my life.

Say what you like about the show's story – I'll probably even agree with you – but it has beautiful music.

My friend Edward was waiting out front with the car he borrows from his parents. He's still saving up for a car of his own.

Just to make it clear, Edward and I... we're friends. Great friends. That's all. Sure, we sang romantic duets and pretended to kissed each other onstage when he was playing the Phantom opposite me in that production of POTO I mentioned. There's a bunch of people online who ship us, citing our "incredible chemistry" and our obvious liking for each other. Those people desperately need a life. Neither of us have any real romantic interest in each other. Edward has... had interest elsewhere, and I'm too busy for any at all.

We drove in silence for a few minutes.

"Mind if I turn on some music?" asked Edward.

I nodded.

He pulled a CD, still wrapped in plastic, from under the seat. The soundtrack for Love Never Dies.

I ripped off the plastic and put it in the CD player.

We sang along with our favorites, doing duets on "Look with Your Heart" and "Once Upon Another Time".

"Listening to you never gets old," said Edward during "Dear Old Friend". "Your voice is like magic."

I blushed "Thanks."

"So how'd you learn to do that? Because I've talked to all of your old music teachers - I was looking for a new teacher and I talked to all your old ones - but I still can't figure out how you did it. You didn't develop it gradually, it just appeared that night onstage."

I'd never told him my secret. It was probably time.

We pulled up in front of my house. My parents weren't home yet – they were spending the evening out.

"Edward... I need you to stay here for a minute."

He obeyed without a word.

I ran upstairs and dug out from my closet a dress I never thought I'd wear again out of my closet. Red, like blood. Much too tight on me without a corset – I could hardly breathe – but for the moment that didn't matter. I would only have it on for a few minutes.

I walked out to the car again.

"Wow," said Edward. "Where did you get that? And what does that have to do with my question?"

"Truth is, Edward," I said. "I didn't learn it from them. I… learned it from someone else."

The world around me suddenly started to spin.

"Uh oh," I said.

"What does uh oh mean?"

"That you're about to find out without my telling you. I'm sorry."

My surroundings suddenly went black.

I felt myself falling. My head hit something and I passed out.