The next morning, Liam found himself alone in the studio.
He hadn't slept. The Everline folder remained unopened, like a curse waiting to be triggered. Every time he reached for it, something in his gut pulled back.
So instead, he turned to the shelf behind the mixing board. Dust-covered USB drives, old notebooks, and a stack of CDs long forgotten. He recognized one — a faded disc labeled in messy, teenage scrawl: "Liam – Demo #00."
He slid it into the console, hit play.
The speakers crackled. Then: His voice. Younger. Nervous. Unrefined.
A rap about cafeteria cliques, bad grades, and a dream no one took seriously. The beat was off. The bars were rough. But there was something honest about it. Something pure.
He listened to the whole thing. Every awkward rhyme. Every misstep. By the end, he wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
"I made this in my bedroom," he whispered to himself. "No label. No pressure. Just… me."
The door creaked. Nova leaned in, saw the screen. "Whoa. Throwback?"
Liam nodded slowly. "I needed to remember where I started."
She sat beside him. "So… do you still want to be that guy?"
He shook his head. "No. I want to be more. But I don't want to forget him either."
They sat in silence, the last track looping. In the distortion and juvenile lyrics, there was something sacred.
Liam stood and walked over to the Everline folder. This time, he didn't reach to open it. Instead, he picked it up, walked to the back of the studio, and shoved it into the trash.
Ace walked in just in time to see it.
Liam turned to him. "I'm building this empire my way."
Ace smiled. "That's what I wanted to hear."
The End of Chapter 13