Chapter 33 Tieran
In my life, I’ve read countless slander articles about myself, been cheated on and humiliated in front of the world, had broken bones that took months to heal, but none of that hurt as badly as Jade shattering my heart into a million pieces.
For two days, all I’ve been doing is picking up my phone to plead with her to tell me what changed, but my feeble pride stopped me.
Instead, I threw the device to the other side of the room—not before taking one long look at the photo of her I had saved as my background, though.
I still couldn’t bring myself to change the image of her in that red dress the night of the gala, no matter how much it tortured me.
She had been on the opposite end of the ballroom, the chandelier crystals reflecting light against the planes of her cheekbones like starlight dancing across her face.
How could she stop loving me so easily when there was no force on Earth capable of getting me to stop?
Two nights now, sleep has evaded me, because every time I close my eyes, I’m haunted by the look of nothingness in hers.
The scent of her skin, sweet vanilla and bourbon, still clings to my pillows.
It’s a sick sort of torture—wanting to bury my head and breathe her in despite it making me feel like I’m being split in two.
The only thing I want to do today is wallow in self-pity and cuddle with Pebble, but duty has me walking through the staff doors at Knightsbridge, sunglasses still perched on my nose to hide my red-rimmed eyes.
Playing a match right now isn’t ideal, and I would be lying if I said I’m not worried about being capable of it right now.
Will Jade even be here, or is she already in a first-class seat, flying five thousand miles away from me with my heart in her hands? What will happen to the team when she leaves?
It’s not your problem.
The mental reminder is a slap in the face that wakes me up enough to hear the frantic whispers coming from around the corner. I slow my movements, straining my ear to listen in.
“You said you weren’t going to do that,” the voice hisses.
No one replies until the same voice speaks again, and I deduce that whoever is speaking is on the phone.
“You’re lying. It’s all over the news.”
I chance a look around the corner and spot a panicked Harry pacing back and forth, face red, his free hand pulling at his hair.
“What you made me do was wrong.” His face is verging on purple now. “They’re good people. They don’t deserve this.”
Harry does figure eights throughout the open hallway. “I’ll have to live with my part in this, but you took it too far, Mr. Chapman.”
I rear back. I don’t think I’ve ever so much as seen Lawrence say a single word to Harry. Why would they be on the phone right now?
Whatever is said on the other end of the line exacerbates Harry’s anxiety before he pulls his mobile away from his ear and pockets the phone, conversation clearly over.
“Harry?” I say, stepping out from my hiding spot so I can check on my friend.
He leaps out of his skin and pales to a ghastly shade of white when he sees me. “Mr. Sto-one” he stutters, clearly on edge.
“You alright, mate?” Harry’s always been a skittish lad, but right now, his eyes are wild, resembling a cornered animal looking for a way to escape. “You seem upset.”
“I—” He looks around me before deflating and finally meeting my eyes. “I’m sorry, Mr. Stone.”
“Tieran. We’re friends, Harry. You should call me by my first name.”
He looks like he wants to discard the invitation to reject formalities. “I haven’t been a friend to you.” When I give him a puzzled look, he continues, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have done it. I shouldn’t have believed the promises he made.”
“What are you talking about, Harry?” Something toxic sinks low in my gut and starts to fester.
“I’ve been watching you…and Ms. McKallen.” My heart constricts so painfully at the sound of her surname, I almost don’t register his meaning.
“What do you mean, you’ve been watching us?” I have to be sure, have to know exactly what he’s talking about and if it could possibly tie back to Jade’s untimely breakup two nights ago.
“Mr. Chapman has had me watching Ms. McKallen in the hopes he could find something on her to get her sacked. I—” He pauses.
“Keep going.” My voice fills with a strange sense of calm as I urge him to continue.
“I thought I sensed something between the two of you, at that first match when she called you into her office, and I told Chapman.” My heart is in my throat.
“He promised me a promotion if I watched her and found something he could use against her. Every time I’ve seen you together, he’s known about it.
” My fist clenches around my bag, and the movement doesn’t go unnoticed as Harry blanches further.
“I’m so sorry. I know it was wrong. He promised me no one was going to get hurt, but—” He breaks off his sentence, looking everywhere but at me.
“But what, Harry?” My thoughts scatter, voice going frantic, because if he’s implying what I think, then someone did get hurt. If it wasn’t me, then it must be Jade, and the thought of her in pain makes me ready to fight. “But what?” I shout, causing him to jump in place.
At that moment, Myles rushes into the hall, eyes worried and hair standing on end, as if he’d been running his hands through it. “T—”
“What?”
He holds up his phone, and a news article flashes across the screen, but he’s too far for me to read it. “There’s a story running about you…and Jade. It’s—they’re saying some pretty heinous things.”
I rush over to him, the team’s equipment manager forgotten, and snatch the phone out of his hand.
Wanks for Wins: Legends owner Jade McKallen giving out sexual favours to players?
My stomach roils in disgust at the vile words filling the screen, and I scroll to the next one.
Who’s Really the Boss? Multi-Millionaire influencer turned Legends Owner won’t bow down in a boardroom but will in her office.
I read countless articles, all about Jade, my name barely even mentioned despite being half as responsible.
I’m used to the heat from trash rags, but the fact that none of these are condemning me, instead easily pitting Jade as this perverse monster, makes me see red.
They’re defiling everything we are, taking this beautiful thing we had and staining it in an ugly wash of colour when she was the very thing that kept me tethered to this world.
I torture myself by looking at one last article.
Ruck or Fuck! It looks like the owner of The Legends got too comfortable in her office.
That one goes on to say there are blurry camera snapshots of me and Jade in a compromising position in her office. How the fuck do they even know that? How could they possibly know that?
It dawns on me that Harry might know. I whirl around, and he’s still standing ten paces away, looking like he wants to curl up and die. “How does the press know about this?” I hold the phone out so he can see the article.
“Chapman hid cameras in her office,” he says, ashamed.
“Fuck,” Myles hisses.
Violence coats my body. “I’m going to fucking kill him.” I start to storm off to fulfill my promise when Myles’ arm shoots out, stopping me.
“Let me go,” I seethe. All I can think of is getting my hands around that measly little fucker’s neck and snapping it.
“You can hate me all you want, but I’m not letting you do anything to harm yourself. Jade wouldn’t want you to hurt your career more than it’s already been affected.”
My stomach lurches at her name, and I reach for my phone, dialing the one person whose voice I need to hear more than anything, but it goes straight to her voicemail. Even the sound of her monotone voice ringing out over the speaker soothes a small part of me.
I try calling her another five times, getting the same result, so I send a text, not knowing if she’ll receive or ignore it.
“Fuck!” Frustration and devastation war with each other for top spot.
Our sudden break up made a lot more sense now, and if I know my girl, I bet Chapman used this to blackmail us.
Jade being Jade, felt she needed to bear the burden by herself.
My beautiful, brilliant, bold woman still doesn’t get it.
She isn’t doing this alone anymore, and she never will, not as long as I draw air.
Coach Ballard comes striding down the corridor. “Do you two plan on joining us? We have a match in an hour, and everyone’s waiting on you guys to have our pregame.”
There’s nothing I want to do less. I should be running to Jade’s front door, not up and down on a pitch, but she won’t even answer my calls. Fuck, she may have already skipped town back to L.A.
“Stone.” Ballard grabs my attention. “The press wants to do pregame interviews with you for, uh,” he scratches the back of his neck, “obvious reasons. I can tell them to suck my ball sack if you prefer.”
I’m about to agree with him when a thought occurs to me: Jade might not answer my calls because she thinks she’s saving me, but if I know her, I bet she’ll still tune into the game.
“Actually, Coach, I would like to talk to them, but I need to talk to the team first. I need their help with something.”
I look to Harry, who’s been cowering in the corner this whole time. “Do you want to make it right?” Ballard looks between us with confusion, and Harry nods vigorously. “Good. There’s something I need you to do, but you’ll have to be quick and go unnoticed.”
“Going unnoticed is my forte, sir.”
That will work in my favor for what I’m about to ask him to do.