Chapter 156
LIVIA-
Blair’s next text was all caps.
LOOK AT THE ARTICLES NOW.
That message had definitely gotten my attention after I’d been ignoring her for at least an hour.
I opened them.
My stomach dropped.
There were plenty photos. Me and Luca entering the hotel. My face looking like I’d been crying. His hand near my back. Headlines already doing the rest.
OLIVIA MONROE AND VESCARI CHECK IN AFTER BASKETBALL GAME
This was not good.
This was not good at all. I didn’t think anyone would see us entering the hotel together. I was stupid to think that. Everyone knew Luca and was always looking for headlines with his name on them.
Panic hit so fast I could not sit still. My hands started shaking. The suite that had felt like peace ten minutes ago felt like a trap.
Every headline was a door slamming in my face. Every photo was my father standing up from his desk, thinking about ways to fix this.
Every comment under the pictures was Ethan’s voice in a parking lot, it better not be fucking Luca.
Ethan’s name lit the screen right on time.
No no no. This was not happening to me.
Then dad’s name. They were both trying to call at the same time.
I stood up so fast I felt like I was going to faint. “I have to go.”
Luca frowned from the sofa. Charlotte’s door was still shut.
“Everything okay?”
“There are pictures of us.” My voice came out rushed. “Entering the hotel. My family is going to freak.”
He was on his feet immediately. “I can come with you. Explain that nothing happened. I can even bring Charlotte along, she will gladly help.”
“You being there will make it a hundred times worse.” I grabbed my bag. My heart was a mess. I could not find the zipper on the first try. “I’m sorry. I’m not interested in you, not in that way. I do not want you to think there is a chance or that I am leading you on. I already have someone and I’m going through something right now. Why am I even explaining? I need to leave right now before both my brother and
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10:24 Sat, Sep 19
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
father end up in here.”
grinned, noLunkind. “Hopefully I can change your mind one day.”
“I don’t think so. Thank you, Luca.”
55 vou
He walked me to the elevator anyway. I asked him not to come farther. I did not want more cameras, more of his face in a shot next to mine.
My brain was already running to the next article. Vescari escorts Monroe out after an hour in the hotel They would all think I was just a booty call.
I could see dad reading too much into it.
“Stay in the suite,” I said. “Please.”
He held the elevator door with one hand to stop it from closing. “Text me when you’re home.”
“I won’t.”
The doors shut on his face.
In the lobby I kept my head down.
A man with a phone turned as I passed. I did not check if he snapped a picture. I could not breathe right.
Ethan: Where are you.
Ethan: Olivia I swear to…Fuck. When I see you you’re dead!
Dad: call me when you see this.
Blair: I told you to turn around.
Blair: Come to me first if you can. I think you should stay the night by me. Things might be a little too heated home.
I kept refreshing even though I knew I should stop. The articles kept loading. Comments.
I didn’t want to walk out the hotel when there were so many cameras waiting.
Blair’s sister. Fl playboy. That’s two of Monroe’s daughters getting with famous athletes. Do you smell a wedding in the air?
Nothing had happened in that suite.
It would not matter. People would think what they wanted to.
I pressed my forehead to the window and tried to think clearly. I could say I only went because I was upset. But then they would want to know why I was upset.
I couldn’t exactly tell them about Roman.
I could say Charlotte was there. I could say Charlotte was my friend.
10:24 Sat, Sep 19
The Mockey Captam’s Unwanted Wife
I could already picture my father waiting in his office with a solution. A groom.
phone buzzed again. Ethan.
Answer me.
I could not. If I answered I would start freaking out the second he started shouting.
If I told him nothing happened he would not believe me, not after the club, not after I had gone missing from the seats during Roman’s interview.
They all thought I liked Luca. I’d even said I was interested in someone during family game night. Everyone assumed it was him.
I thought about Roman seeing it.
He would think I had done it to punish him. Part of me had. Most of me had just wanted to forget the pain.
I had done this.
I had also been pushed here.
Neither version would save me when I got into a car and it stopped at our gate.
I felt like I might be sick. I wiped my face, locked my phone so I would stop reading comments from strangers who thought they knew me personally.
Dad would be in his office the second I got home. He would be waiting.
The pictures would already be on his desk.
I had somehow turned into the girl who had run from one scandal into the next.
10:25 Sat, Sep 19
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.