Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Getting back to work felt like the only way I could breathe again. After everything with Shay.. therapy, anxiety meds, panic attacks in the middle of Target, I needed to feel like myself. I had to remember who the hell I was.
Claudia Rayne. Grammy-winning, chart-topping artist. Not some fragile shell people tiptoed around.
But being back in the studio was harder than I thought. I was prepping for my first live show in almost five months, and I decided to debut A Million Years Ago—a song I wrote that gutted me every time I sang it.
I was sitting at the baby grand, eyes closed, headphones on, feeling the weight of every note.
"I wish I could live a little more, Look up to the sky, not just the floor..."
The moment I finished, the engineer nodded. Jae gave me a thumbs up from the other side of the glass.
I smiled, and for the first time in a while it touch my eyes.
---
Back at home, Savanni was sprawled out on the living room rug, coloring princesses. She looked up when I walked in.
“Mommy! You did the sad song today?”
I laughed gently, slipping off my boots. “Yeah, baby. The sad one.”
She beamed and went back to her crayons like she didn’t just heal a piece of me.
I walked past her to the kitchen to grab some water, glancing at my phone. And that’s when I saw it.
Latto. Aka Alyssa. Aka Gio’s ex.
Posted up with a throwback picture of her and Gio. Arms all around each other, faces close. The caption?
> "Always had a soft spot for this one 💕"
No date. No context. No disclaimer that it was old.
I froze.
The blogs had already picked it up. Comments pouring in.
> "Gio and Latto back together???"
> "This after Claudia just posted she back in the studio... wow."
I tried calling Gio. Straight to voicemail. She was still in Miami, finishing a modeling shoot.
I texted her.
Claudia: You got something you wanna tell me?
Nothing.
That familiar ache rose in my chest—the fear. The insecurity. The feeling that no matter how safe someone made me feel, they could still turn around and humiliate me.
I pulled up my voice memos. Opened my piano app.
And I started singing.
"I need more space and security Distance like the deepest sea..."
