Chapter Thirty-Three Hit Piece
ZANDER
I am one hundred percent sure that I’m in love with Rylee.
It’s been a week now since we got back to Colorado, a week since she’s been living with me in my apartment, and it’s been amazing.
Her boss let her have the time off she requested, but she’s still been keeping busy assisting with some projects on a part-time basis because my Wildcard does not like to get bored.
She’ll have to go back to Nashville after the holidays, so I’m already figuring out dates to travel home to be with her and I plan on living with her in the off season.
When I think about building a future with her, I’m so excited I can hardly contain myself.
It’s Sunday morning and I wake up to find Rylee’s already up and in the shower.
I stretch, thinking for a moment about going in to join her, but then decide to give her some privacy instead.
Grabbing my phone, I scroll through it to double check my flight and hotel information for the away game tomorrow that we’re leaving for tonight.
It won’t be nearly as fun as last game because Rylee and the girls are staying behind to have time to themselves.
Just as I’m opening the email with the flight information for tonight, I get a text message. Then another. Then another, and another, and another.
What the hell? Why’s my phone blowing up?
I open the first message, which is from Landon.
Landon: Who the hell did you piss off, dude?
The fuck is he talking about?
His next message has a link to an article, and it hits me that today’s the day that Rylee’s article about me was released
Stomach twisting with anxiety, I click the link to open the article and read.
Zander Caldwell is an excellent hockey player and shines on the ice, but when it comes to his personal life, things aren’t so impressive.
There’s a reason he’s still a bachelor, and it’s because he can never seem to settle for one woman.
A notorious playboy, he’s smooth talking and charming, but how much of that is genuine …
and how much is just a facade to get what he wants?
What the hell is this?
I go to the ICON website to pull up the article directly from the source. Maybe this is a prank - a fake news thing. However, I start reading again and it’s the same as what Landon sent me.
The article is an assassination of my character. It basically calls me out for being an arrogant playboy who lies to women.
How did this happen? This couldn’t have been Rylee. She wouldn’t do something like this. What happened? Did they switch up the article without telling her? She would have warned me if she knew this was what was coming out.
Why would anyone do this to me? I don’t understand…
The shower turns off and a few moments later, Rylee comes walking out with a towel wrapped around her.
“Thank god this building has endless hot water… ” She stops when she sees me and frowns. “Zander? Are you okay?”
“Have you seen this?” I ask, getting out of bed to give her my phone.
She blinks, clearly caught off guard, and slowly reaches out for my phone.
“What is it?”
“Supposedly the article is about me.” I expect her to read it and fly into a rage. To declare that she’s going to get to the bottom of whoever did this and rain hell down on them.
She turns her gaze to the screen and starts to read, and I watch as all the color drains from her face. She shakes her head and murmurs, “No… no, this isn’t right. This isn’t the article I wrote.”
I feel a wave of relief. Thank God! I knew it. But, why isn’t she angrier?
Why are her eyes going wide and her jaw dropping?
“You didn’t write that… right?”
Her gaze jerks up to mine and she stammers, “Well… I, uh, no… not like this. I mean, I did write something… but it was private. I was just venting… it wasn’t this clean and put together—”
I stare at her, shocked, unable to believe what I’m hearing.
“Wait… you did write that?”
“No!” she exclaims. “I swear, this isn’t the article I submitted for publication. I mean… there was a private journal entry I wrote… but I don’t know how ICON would’ve gotten it.”
My knees shake and I stumble back to the bed, sinking down on the mattress.
“No… no, that’s… you wrote those things about me? I can’t… I can’t… ”
Rylee hurries toward me and grabs my shoulders.
“Zander, I can explain. Please, just give me a chance… ”
I shake my head in disgust. “Fuck… I can’t believe this! I should’ve known this would happen.”
She furrows her brow. “What does that mean?”
“It means I should’ve known better than to trust you,” I snap. “You never took this seriously. You were never going to give me an actual chance!”
Rylee looks shocked, her jaw dropping. “What do you mean? Of course I’m taking this seriously!”
“Holy shit,” Realization suddenly dawns on me.
“I thought… I thought we’d moved past the mess with the app, but you never actually forgave me, did you?
We never actually talked about anything…
never worked through it. I assumed when you introduced me to your mom as your boyfriend that things were good between us, but I was an idiot to think that.
Has this all been some fucked up revenge plot? ”
She jerks back as if I’ve burned her, her expression stunned.
“I don’t know what happened!” she shouts. “I don’t know how they got this, but it was never meant to be read by anyone! I certainly didn’t plot against you… ”
“Then why write it at all?” I demand to know.
She throws up her hands in frustration. “I told you! I was just venting. I was angry and drunk and… ”
“Oh, well, that explains it then,” I hiss, standing and turning to my closet to grab clothes and get dressed.
“Explains what?”
“You were drunk.” I grab more clothes and start stuffing them into a duffle bag. “I shouldn’t be surprised. You’ve been drunk every time something bad has happened between us. I should’ve known it was only a matter of time.”
“What are you doing? Why are you packing?”
She doesn’t even acknowledge what I’ve just said.
Fine. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t keep fighting for her and trying to make her happy when she won’t do the same for me. When she’s still holding back and harboring these thoughts about me.
“I’m done,” I tell her, zipping my bag. “I don’t want to hear any more of your excuses, and I don’t want to keep fighting a clearly losing battle. I’m leaving and you better not be here when I get back.”
I storm past her and out the bedroom door.
“Zander!” she cries, and I can hear her coming after me but I don’t stop and I don’t look back. I make my way out the front door and slam it shut behind me.
Making my way down to the parking garage, I climb into my truck but don’t start the engine. Instead, I slam my hand against the steering wheel and roar out in rage.
This is going to fuck up my reputation! My family is going to read it… my friends and teammates. Mom and Dad are going to be so upset… so hurt…
The thought makes me want to vomit.
I don’t even want to think about the fallout this will cost me with brand deals. And what will this cost the team? This is supposed to be paired with the article about the Night Hawks as a whole - there’s no way this doesn’t bring everyone down with me.
Why would Rylee fucking do this to me?
I’m so tired of getting fucked over like this again and again. Of being the nice guy. The one who forgives easily. The pushover. The guy who fights to win over girls who never actually care about me.
My dream of finding someone to be in a committed, loving relationship with just seems impossible to achieve. Why can’t the other person ever care as much as I do?
I don’t want to continue to be walked over and disregarded, like I don’t really matter.
I’m not doing it anymore. I can’t. My heart can’t fucking take it.
I’m done.