Chapter 120
-OLIVIA-
We sat in the living room.
“How is the baby?” I asked.
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Blair smiled, looking tired but excited. “Better than last week. The nausea still comes in waves. Some mornings I can eat toast. Some mornings Grayson finds me sitting on the bathroom floor pretending I am meditating. The doctor said the heartbeat is strong. Everything measured where it should.”
“And you?”
“I am fine.” She said it like she was practicing.
Then she exhaled. “I am scared in the quiet moments. I keep touching my stomach like the baby might vanish if I stop checking.”
“When will you know the gender?” I asked.
“Next appointment. They can do the blood test now, or we wait for the anatomy scan. Grayson wants to know.
I want to know. I also want one day where it is still a secret we get to keep.”
I leaned forward. “Are we doing a gender reveal?”
Blair’s mouth curved. “We were going to keep it small.”
“Small is a lie and you know it.”
She laughed. “Fine. I was going to ask you anyway. When the envelope comes, I am giving it to you. You plan the reveal. Colors, cake, whatever insane thing you want.”
“I will make it beautiful,” I said. “And I will not let Grayson pick the balloons.”
“He thinks it’s a boy.”
“I guess I’ll be the first to know.” I smiled.
We were still smiling when Grayson came in with what had to be a hundred roses.
He set them down like this was just what you did when you came home to her.
Blair laughed, surprised and happy. “You are going to run out of vases.”
“Then I will buy more vases.”
I smiled because I was happy for her. I was. After everything they had survived, she deserved a man walking into a room with too many flowers and no cameras required.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“I am so happy for you,” I said.
But then sighed as I remembered Roman’s rejection.
“And so sad I may never get this with Roman.”
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Blair’s face gentled. She reached over and squeezed my hand. “I know more than anyone how much hardship a relationship can take before it gets to this point. Ours was a disaster at first. Public, ugly. It still became this. Do not write your ending from one rejection.”
“I don’t know, he definitely doesn’t like me.”
“He sent his date home,” Blair said. “And stared at you through an entire basketball game.”
I wanted to believe her.
I picked up my phone so I could distract myself.
Then I saw it. Something that made me feel awful inside.
I gasped. My heart squeezed so tight I had to put a hand against my
chest.
ROMAN VALE AND EDEN HART-PORT CITY’S NEW POWER COUPLE?
What the hell?
Photos. The two of them leaving a restaurant. Her hand near his arm. Her smile aimed at a camera he was not looking at. A second headline stacked under it, brighter, meaner.
FROM THE COURT TO THE CARPET: VALE TAKES FASHION’S FAVORITE GIRL
Blair took a look at my screen and frowned.
“That cannot be right. He was single just a few days ago. I have never seen him around her.”
Eden Hart.
Eden freaking Hart.
The model. The actress. The one with her own skincare and make-up line. Her own clothing line also. The woman whose face sold out drops in an hour. That was who he was dating? That was who got the dinner, the photos?
This could not be happening to me.
I refreshed like the article might correct itself. It did not. More pictures. More headlines.
IT’S OFFICIAL: ROMAN VALE STEPS OUT WITH EDEN HART
BASKETBALL’S GOLDEN BOY MEETS FASHION’S IT GIRL
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
People in the comments already calling them a power couple. Already deciding they made sense.
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Already writing a future with red carpets and brand deals and a woman who looked like she belonged next to him in every photo I would have to see for the rest of my life.
Today the internet had given him a girlfriend I could not compete with.
“Olivia.” Blair’s voice went careful. “Breathe.”
“He does not even like the press like that,” I said, too fast. “He does not date models he does not know. This is -this is not him.” I tried to laugh. It came out forced. “Well, truly, do I even know him?”
Blair did not smile.
I kept going because if I stopped I would cry in her house. “Look at them. Power couple. Fashion and
basketball.”
My voice cracked on the last word.
Grayson glanced at the roses, then at me, reading the room without stepping into it. “Do I need to beat someone up?”
“No.” Both Blair and I said at the same time. He had already fought too much in the past. We didn’t need to go through that again. Besides, Roman wasn’t doing anything wrong. We weren’t together, he was free to date whoever he wished to.
Blair took the phone from my hand before I could keep scrolling. “Let’s spend some time by the spa. It’s on me. We can have a great time there and you could forget all about this article.”
Too late.
The headline was already stuck in my head.
I looked at the roses on the table. Just Grayson coming home to Blair like loving her was the simplest yet most important thing he did all day.
I wanted that.
I wanted Roman walking into a room with too many flowers just for me.
Scratch that. I simply wanted him walking into a room for me. He didn’t need to bring anything with him.
Instead I had a photo of him standing next to Eden with a bright smile.
I felt sick.
Roman Vale. Eden Hart.
And me, in my sister’s house, surrounded by roses I would never get from him, realizing the man I loved might have already replaced me with someone the whole world would understand and support.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.