CHAPTER 7 #2
“Text when you arrive,” he said.
“Ask.”
His mouth tightened.
“Will you text when you arrive?”
“Yes.”
He looked almost offended by how easily the answer came.
The police took statements in Robert’s suite while arena staff quietly redirected employees away from the executive level. Olivia watched her father answer questions with the same careful language he used in board meetings.
He described Vale as a trusted employee who had become unstable. He did not mention Parker until Olivia forced the name into the room.
“Richard Parker has contacted the family,” she said to the detective.
Robert’s head turned. “That is not relevant to this assault.”
“It is relevant if Vale is acting for him.”
“Do you have evidence?”
“His credentials connect every breach.”
“That connects Martin, not Richard.”
The detective looked between them. “Ms. Carter, do you have copies of those logs?”
“Yes.”
Robert’s expression hardened. “Those are private organizational records.”
“They are evidence of a threat against me.”
The detective accepted the files through a secure transfer. Robert could not stop it without making his priorities obvious.
Alex remained near the door, silent. Olivia felt his attention without the pressure of intervention. When Robert attempted to redirect the interview toward Alex’s fight in the tunnel, Alex did not defend himself.
“I assaulted Gerard Mills after he threatened Ben and described Olivia’s movements,” he said. “I will provide a full statement.”
The detective blinked at the direct admission.
Robert looked furious. “You will speak through team counsel.”
“No.”
“Your conduct affects the franchise.”
“My statement affects me.”
The distinction entered the room like a challenge.
Olivia looked at him. Alex had spent his career treating the team as the structure that kept everyone safe. Now he was separating responsibility from ownership, refusing to let Robert manage his truth.
She wondered whether he understood he was teaching himself the same lesson she demanded in private.
After police left, Coach Davis arrived with Luke and Daniel. Daniel’s humor disappeared when he saw Robert’s bandage. Luke inspected the suite’s exits and quietly asked Olivia whether she wanted a different escort.
She chose Luke.
Alex accepted the choice.
Daniel noticed and moved beside him. “Are we celebrating maturity later?”
“No,” Alex said.
“Shame. I ordered a cake.”
Robert requested a private conversation with Olivia. She refused until he answered one question in front of the others.
“Did Mom believe Richard threatened her?”
His face changed. “Where did you get that idea?”
“The photograph he left in my bedroom.”
Alex watched Robert’s reaction closely.
Her father sat behind the desk. “Your mother and Richard disagreed about the foundation.”
“That is not an answer.”
“She believed financial records were being manipulated.”
“By Richard?”
“Yes.”
“And you?”
“I believed the irregularities could be corrected internally.”
Coach Davis made a disgusted sound.
Robert looked at him. “You did not manage a franchise with hundreds of employees.”
“No. I only managed young men whose bodies financed it.”
The room tightened.
Olivia’s father returned his attention to her. “Eleanor wanted to involve authorities. I asked her to wait.”
“How long?”
“Until we knew the extent.”
“She died while waiting.”
Robert’s expression cracked.
Only for a moment, but Olivia saw the grief beneath the defenses. It did not absolve him. It made the failure more human and therefore harder to dismiss.
“Did Richard cause the crash?” she asked.
“I have no proof.”
“Do you suspect him?”
“Yes.”
The answer filled the suite.
Alex’s body shifted. Not toward Robert. Toward Olivia, as if pain itself had become a threat he could block.
She did not want a shield. She wanted somewhere to put the shock.
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Because Richard knew where you were. What school you attended. Which car you drove. He sent photographs after the funeral.”
“So you sent me away.”
“I kept you alive.”
The familiar language made her laugh once, broken and sharp. “You and Alex should form a club.”
Alex did not defend himself. “She is right.”
Robert stared at him.
“I tracked her because you asked,” Alex continued. “Then I continued because fear became justification. Do not use me as proof your methods were necessary.”
Olivia could not look at him. Not yet.
Her father lowered his voice. “I did what I believed would protect you.”
“And you never asked what I needed.”
“I was your father.”
“That is not permission.”
The words echoed every argument with Alex, now directed at the man who had taught both of them control.
Robert looked suddenly tired. “What do you need now?”
The question arrived years too late, but it arrived.
“Every record connected to Parker, Evan Hale, Martin Vale, and Mom’s investigation. No filters. No legal summaries. Originals.”
“They could destroy the team.”
“Then decide whether the team deserves protection more than the truth.”
Robert did not answer.
Olivia walked out with Luke. Alex remained behind because Coach Davis needed him for the disciplinary meeting. He did not ask her to wait.
In the elevator, Luke stood beside her without speaking.
“Does he ever stop watching doors?” she asked.
“No.”
“Do any of you?”
“Different doors.”
She looked at him.
Luke’s expression remained calm, but something old and private moved beneath it. Each man on the Titans guarded a different wound, and the locked doors were rarely the ones visible from the corridor.
“Alex will respect the choice you made,” Luke said.
“Will he?”
“He will hate it. Respect is not comfort.”
That distinction felt useful.
At the building, Luke waited until Olivia authorized the new security access herself. He did not enter the apartment until invited. The behavior was so unlike Robert’s people that she nearly laughed.
She thanked him.
“Do not thank me for the minimum,” he said.
Alex’s exact phrase.
“You all share vocabulary.”
“We share a captain.”
Luke checked the living room, then chose a chair near the door. Olivia went to the cleaned bedroom carrying her mother’s photograph and the first honest answers Robert had given in years.
At home, Olivia’s bedroom had been cleaned, but she could still see the lipstick message on the mirror after it was gone. She moved into the guest room and left the lights on.
Luke sat in the living room, silent and immovable. Ben had gone to Noah’s apartment under protest. Alex was at the arena, though she could feel his attention through the phone in her hand.
She sent one word.
Home.
His reply arrived immediately.
LOCKED?
She smiled despite herself.
Yes.
A second message appeared.
THANK YOU.
No command. No demand for a photograph. No instruction to remain inside.
Her chest tightened.
She changed for bed and found an unfamiliar notification on her laptop. An encrypted email had bypassed the spam filter.
The subject line read: YOUR MOTHER TRIED TO WARN YOU.
Inside was an audio file.
Olivia pressed play.
Static filled the speakers. Then her mother’s voice, unmistakable even after eight years.
“Robert, if anything happens to me, Richard has the original medical report. Do not let him use Alex Morgan to bury what we did.”
The recording ended.
Olivia stared at the screen.
Her phone vibrated with a new message from an unknown number.
NEXT TIME, MORGAN WATCHES YOU DIE.
Attached was a photograph of Alex leaving the arena alone.