Chapter Forty-Eight The Calvary
JULIAN
“The press conference is canceled!” I frown, confused. That sounded like Jensen.
I spin around, my eyes widening at the sight of my friends crowding into the room.
Jensen is leading the charge with Carson, Owen, Zander, and Jayce flanking him. Right behind them are the girls. They’re flushed, breathing hard, and shouting over each other. Even Theo is here at the back of the group, his jaw set, looking ready to throw down.
Right in the middle of the chaos, her dark hair flying behind her, her brown eyes bright with tears, is Hadley.
“Julian!” she cries out, breaking into a full sprint the second her eyes lock onto mine.
Without hesitation, I rush forward and catch her in my arms, pulling her small body against my chest, lifting her clean off her feet. She buries her face into my neck, her arms locking around my shoulders like an iron vice, her body shaking with a ragged sob.
“I told you,” she whispers into my skin, her fingers clawing into the fabric of my sweatshirt. “I told you we were going to fight.”
“Hey! What the hell is the meaning of this?” Coach Williams shouts. “This is a restricted area…”
“Shut your mouth, Williams,” Skyler snaps, stepping right past the security guards.
She doesn't look intimidated in the slightest. Instead, she holds up her phone, practically shoving it in his face.
“While Mr. Sullivan was working the legal angle this morning, I spent the last six hours being your worst-fucking-nightmare. Doing a deep-dive forensic audit on your personal server and the digital payment trails from your offshore accounts. Guess what I found?”
Stetson glances down at the screen, and the last remaining drop of color drains from his skin. His mouth opens, but no sound comes out.
“That’s right,” Skyler cackles. “We have the direct payment routing logs from your office to the private investigator who took those surveillance photos of Julian and Hadley. Even better? We found the digital ledger for the illegal sports-betting ring you and Stetson have been running through a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands. You’ve been manipulating roster information and trade deadlines to shift the betting in your favor for years, haven’t you dipshit? ”
Williams and his assistant appear shell-shocked.
“This is absurd,” Williams stammers, his face red with rage. “This is a fabricated digital file…”
“It’s an encrypted federal backup, you idiot,” Carson shouts from the back, his arms crossed over his chest, a smug smirk on his face.
“We already blind-copied the league commissioner’s compliance office and the federal sports fraud division.
They received the packet ten minutes ago.
You would have gotten away with it too, if my wife wasn’t such a genius badass. Eat shit, fuckers!”
As if on cue, there’s a knock on the door. Skyler grins.
“Ah! I bet that’s the Ironclad owner now,” she declares. “I hope you don’t mind, but I reached out to him and a few of the other executives as well.”
Carson moves to open the door with a flourish. An older, imposing man with silver hair and a black striped suit marches in with another man trailing behind him.
“Williams,” he snaps. “What the hell have you done?”
“Sterling, wait, this is a massive misunderstanding,” Coach Williams starts, his voice pitching higher. He takes a step forward, his hands raised in a placating gesture. “The data the girl has is completely fabricated. We can handle this internally…”
“Shut your mouth, Williams,” Sterling barks. “ Mrs. Monroe just forwarded a copy of her research to our team. You’re done. Both of you.”
Stetson tries to slip backward toward the door, but before he can reach it, it opens to reveal two police officers.
“Sir, keep your hands where we can see them,” one officer instructs.
“This is an unlawful arrest!” Stetson shrieks. “You can't do this based on an unverified digital file! Julian, tell them! Tell them you requested the trade terms!”
I don't say a word. I just tighten my grip around Hadley’s waist, pull her flush against my side, and glare at him and Williams.
“Escort them out the back freight elevator,” Sterling orders, turning his back on his own head coach. “No press. No statements. If a single reporter gets a comment before the league office issues the official suspension, it’s your jobs, got it?”
“Sterling, you can't do this! I built this roster!” Williams yells, his voice echoing off the walls as the officers grip his elbows, forcing him toward the doors. Stetson follows right behind him, his shoes scuffing pathetically against the floor, his head low.
Sterling and his companion follow them out, slamming the door shut behind them.
“I can’t believe you guys did this,” I say, my voice thick with an emotion I don't know how to properly express. I look at each of my friends, my chest heaving. “You flew all the way out here…just for me? Thank you. Every single one of you.”
Owen lets out a laugh, stepping forward to slap his hand against my shoulder. “It’s good to have friends with private jets. Look, Wilder, you’re an idiot if you thought you could escape us that easily. Did you really think we were just going to let some assholes draft you away from us?”
“We understand why you considered it, big guy,” Carson adds, his eyes softening as he looks at me and Hadley.
“We know you were trying to protect us, but you forgot one basic rule…we handle our shit together. Being on this team doesn't stop when we take off the jerseys. We’re friends for life, Julian. Family. You’re irreplaceable to us, on and off the ice. Deal with it.”
Before I can even process the weight of that, Sutton lets out a loud cheer. “Group hug! Right now, get in here, you big idiots!”
The girls force the guys forward, and within seconds, I’m buried beneath a wall of limbs. Jensen’s elbow is in my ear, Owen’s protests are muffled against my shoulder, and Hadley is squeezed against my ribs, laughing through her tears.
For a guy who spent his whole life believing he’d never be able to hold onto anything good, the suffocating warmth of this circle feels like home.
Once the hallway finally clears and the team starts drifting back toward the lobby to organize transport back to the airport, a heavy quiet settles back over the corridor.
Hadley is standing with Rylee and Grace a few feet ahead of me. When I hear the sound of a throat clearing behind me, I know it’s Liam, and I turn around, eager to thank him.
Hadley’s dad is standing just in the doorway of the hall, his briefcase back in his hand.
“Liam, I want to thank you…”
“No, I need to thank you, Julian,” he says, cutting me off.
He steps forward. He extends his hand out toward me.
I blink, confused, but slowly reach out to wrap my hand around his. “For what, sir? Pretty sure I should be thanking you.”
“For loving my daughter,” he answers. “For listening to her when I refused to. For helping her get that scholarship, and for supporting the life she actually wants instead of the one I kept trying to force on her.” He lets out a short breath, shaking his head.
“I was wrong about you. After seeing what you were willing to give up to protect her reputation and this team…I know exactly what kind of man you are, Wilder. I trust you with her. You have my approval. But let me make one thing very clear…no babies and no weddings until she finishes her degree. Do we understand each other?”
A short, helpless laugh breaks out of my throat. It’s the first genuine laugh I’ve experienced in what feels like days. The relief is a physical wave washing over me.
“Understood, sir,” I nod. “You have my word. Absolutely nothing until graduation.”
Someone else clears their throat. This time, the sound is small, but it has a strange, nervous pitch to it. Liam and I turn to find Hadley staring up at us with a nervous expression.
“Hey, sweetheart,” I say with a grin. “You ready to go home?”
“Yeah, uh,” she chuckles, but the sound is choked. “So, I couldn’t help but overhear you two just now…”
Liam frowns. “And?”
Her cheeks are a deep crimson as she reaches into her purse and pulls out a small, white envelope.
My eyes narrow right away. “What is that?”
She gives a shrug, her bottom lip twitching as she hands the paper over to me.
“Well…” she mutters, clearing her throat. “It, uh, turns out we are already married.”
The fuck? I open the envelope, pulling out a certified document from the Clark County Clerk’s Office in the State of Nevada. It has a gold foil seal at the bottom, my signature on the right, and her signature on the left.
A marriage license.
“Wait…what?” I stammer, my brain completely short-circuiting as I look from the paper to her face. “This is real?
Hadley just bites her lip, her eyes wide and pleading as she looks at her father, who has gone rigid.
“Yep…Vegas,” she replies. “I got it the same time I got my scholarship letter. I was going to tell you at the rink, but…it didn’t seem like the right time.
We, uh, got married the night before Skyler and Carson’s wedding…
apparently. Turns out we went to that little chapel in the hotel ourselves. It’s, um, very real.”
The lobby goes dead silent for half a second.
Then, the world explodes.
“Married?” Grace shrieks.
“Were we there for that?” Sutton asks with a laugh.
“Maybe?” Carson shrugs. “I literally remember nothing.”
“Had to lock it down, huh, Hads?” Rylee chuckles.
“I’m not even mad,” Skyler smirks. “I remember my wedding, so that’s cool.”
“Are you all just eavesdropping on our conversation?” I demand to know, exasperated.
Hadley’s dad looks like he needs to sit down. He closes his eyes, his hand coming up to rub his temples as he mutters something that sounds like a prayer under his breath.
I look back down at the paper, and then I look up at Hadley.
After the last twenty-four hours of hell, the sheer, beautiful absurdity of this moment hits me all at once.
I search her face to see if she is happy about this.
Dating is one thing, but being stuck with me for the rest of her life.
Hadley has nothing but love and joy shining through her eyes, and all of my fears fade away on the wind.
The love of my life. She's not only it for me… she's mine.
Hadley is my wife.
A loud, booming laugh breaks out of my chest. I drop the paper onto the floor, reach out, and grab her around the waist, lifting her straight off the ground. I spin her around as she shrieks with laughter. Everyone around us cheers, yells, and hoots over each other.
Keeping her body pressed against mine, I kiss her with every ounce of love I have in me. It’s a deep, joyous kiss that seals this deal. When I finally let her feet touch the floor, I rest my forehead against hers.
“Well then, sweetheart,” I whisper, my voice thick with happiness. “I guess I better get my wife a proper ring.”
Hadley laughs through fresh tears, her hands coming up to cup my jaw as she pulls me down for another deep, heart-stopping kiss.