Chapter Seven
"HOW BAD IS IT?"
In the room were Jonas, his business manager, Garth, his lawyer, Trey Flint, CEO of the Waymakers, and his wife Camilla, who was the daughter of Flint's predecessor. These were the people Troy trusted the most, not only to tell him the truth—
"Every team you've defeated in your career is celebrating right now like they've won the Stanley Cup," Jonas reported.
He had his laptop open in front of him, scrolling through something Troy couldn't see from where he stood.
"It might also cause sponsors and investors to back out, but for now they're all in a wait-and-see position. "
But also, these were the only individuals in the world, aside from his wife, whom Troy could also trust with his truth.
"I don't give a damn about any of those things."
Everyone in the room looked at him in shock. Jonas's hand froze on the laptop. Garth set his pen down. Camilla's lips parted.
Or rather, everyone but Trey, who only looked at him with interest. The Waymakers CEO sat at the far end of the table with his arms crossed and his face unreadable, watching Troy the way he watched everything — like a man who had already run every possible outcome and was simply waiting to see which one would play out.
"All I care about is saving my marriage."
Camilla let out a soft gasp. "Oh, Troy." When she had first read the exposé about Troy's secret marriage, she had really thought it was some kind of fabrication.
She had known him almost her whole life, and he had never given any hint of his marriage.
It was only when she saw that clip about him referring to the schoolteacher as his wife that she realized all the reports were true, and after that, well...
Trey was the sole reason she hadn't badgered the former Waymakers star to have them meet his wife. She had been dying to meet Laina and find out how they had met and fallen in love, but now...
"It's a lie then?" she asked hesitantly. "When she said she had someone else?"
"Naturally."
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Camilla found herself biting back a smile at Troy's reply, which also caused her husband to smirk. Like recognized like, she supposed.
"But that doesn't mean I didn't mess up.
" Troy's hands were flat on the table, and his gaze had dropped to the surface between them.
It was the first time any of them had seen him unable to meet someone's eyes.
"Because in all the years we've been married...
I've taken her for granted. I was so focused on proving to myself that I wouldn't let my marriage affect my career that I didn't realize what I had to worry about was the opposite.
And that's how chasing for the next trophy blinded me from seeing how my marriage was crumbling from the start... "
The harshly spoken words had Trey taking his wife's hand under the table, and he only realized that he was on edge until Camilla squeezed his hand, telling him without words that everything was alright.
Because what Troy had said sounded painfully familiar, and since it wasn't something he would wish on anyone, not even on this man whom he had once considered his greatest rival...
"Tell us what you need to do."
TWENTY-SIX HOURS.
That was how long Troy had been gone.
She had tried not to count them. She really, truly had.
She had thrown herself into work the way she always did when the world became too much to bear, spreading out her lesson plans across the kitchen table and grading the stack of worksheets she had brought home from school.
She sorted her craft supplies into labeled bins because her substitute would need to know where everything was.
She updated her reading log. She wrote next week's vocabulary words on index cards in her neatest handwriting, the round kindergarten letters that her students could trace with their fingers.
She reorganized the art station materials by color because that was a thing that needed doing, and then she reorganized them by type because maybe that was better, and then she put them back by color because the first way had been right all along, and by the time she was done, three hours had passed and her hands were stained with marker ink and she still hadn't stopped counting.
She knew counting would only make things worse. But what one knew wasn't what one always ended up doing, and well...that was how it was with her.
She didn't want to count, but she still ended up doing so because every hour that passed was like hope draining out of her bit by bit.
But thankfully...
She also knew that what one felt wasn't necessarily true.
Just like the good prophet Jeremiah said, the heart was deceitful above all else, and honestly, if she hadn't found herself clinging to God, she didn't think she would still be here, waiting for Troy.
She would have long packed her bags again and run away, but for good this time.
Like completely disappear. Maybe even take her own life because there were nights that the whispers were really so, so horrible...
It was like there was a personal demon assigned to her case, and its main job was to taunt and torture her.
Why do you think he's taking so long to come back? It's because he's changed his mind, you idiot.
Why don't you just kill yourself? It's the least you can do to make it up to him.
Why won't you just accept it? He never loved you, and he never will.
Again and again, she would hear such whispers in her mind, and the only reason she was able to push them away was because she knew the truth.
Just like countless people in the world, she had started reading her Bible when it felt like there was nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to, and that was how she knew those whispers in her mind...
None of it was true because all the thief wanted was to steal, kill, and destroy while God...
He wanted them to not just have eternal life but live abundantly, too.
Even people like her who had messed up so, so much...
No, oh no.
She still didn't want to cry. She still didn't think she deserved it. But that was exactly what she ended up doing every time she remembered the article she had read about how Troy Barrymore Going Viral For All The Wrong Reasons could potentially kill the foundation he was intending to set up.
Barrymore is supposed to be a certain famous sports magazine's cover model for its next issue. But why feature a man who's been cheated on by his wife...with her co-teacher? A former hockey MVP, made a fool by an average Joe? Who's going to want to buy copies of that?
Rumor has it that Barrymore was about to lock in lifetime funding from Sir Luthrell, whose philanthropic pursuits are as well known as his aversion to publicized marital disputes, attributed to his daughter's suicide following her divorce.
If the Eastshore Vipers had known about Troy Barrymore's wife, they could have saved themselves millions. Why spend on a new coach or a new player when you can just hire the woman your enemy sleeps with?
She sat at the kitchen table surrounded by index cards and marker-stained fingers and the cold remains of tea she had forgotten to drink, and the tears fell onto a worksheet about the letter Q.
If she hadn't known God, those words would be like poison in her heart, and something that she would never be free from. But because she did know Him, and she knew Troy, and this time...
I love you, Laina.
This time, she wouldn't make the same mistake she had made when she walked out on their marriage...
Wait for me here like a good wife—
Even if the whole world believed she would never deserve her husband, or it was Troy who shouldn't ever be forgiven...
None of it mattered.
—while I fix things like a good husband.
Because she realized now, this was what it meant to love her husband.
It was to put her trust in him...even if things didn't work out in the end.
To love him was to risk it all.
Because love kept no records of wrong.
To love him was to have no regrets about doing what was right.
And was there anything more right than having hope?