~BLAIR~
I found him at the Southbay practice facility, exactly where I knew he’d be.
Chase was leaning against the wall outside the locker room, phone in hand, still wearing that same smile he used to save for me.
The same smile that was now shining across every sports site next to photos of his new wife. He looked up when he heard my footsteps, and for a split second something like guilt flickered across his face before he locked it down.
“Blair.” He straightened. “I was going to call—”
I slapped him hard across the cheek before he could even finish that sentence.
“Don’t.” I snapped harshly. “Don’t stand there and lie to me. I saw everything.”
He glanced around, clearly checking who might have just seen him get slapped.
A couple of equipment staff lingered near the end of the hall. He jerked his head toward an empty meeting room and walked in without waiting to see if I followed. I did.
The door clicked shut behind us.
“How could you?” I asked. “Six years, Chase. Six years of me standing next to you, believing we were building something. And you marry her without even a conversation with me first? Without a warning?”
He ran a hand over his jaw, looking uncomfortable. “It happened fast. Sophie and I. . .it just made sense.”
“Made sense?” I let out a bitter laugh. “I supported every single one of your dreams. When you couldn’t afford new skates, I bought them. When your rent was short, I covered it. When you needed someone to believe in you before anyone else did, I was there. And the second you became captain, it was like I suddenly wasn’t good enough anymore.”
His expression hardened. “That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” I stepped closer. “I was good enough when you had nothing. I was good enough when you needed someone to hold everything together. But the moment the spotlight hit you, you decided you needed an upgrade.”
And did he truly think she was an upgrade over me?
Chase exhaled sharply and looked away for a second before meeting my eyes again. “I needed someone who looked the part, Blair. Someone who fit the image of a captain. You’re. . .you. You’re quiet. You stay in the background. Sophie understands this world. She grew up in it. She knows how to stand next to me at events and make me look like I belong at the top.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
“And she told me something else,” he continued, voice lower. “She told me she’s the reason I got the captaincy. That her father pushed for me because of her. That I owe her for where I am now.”
I stared at him.
The irony was so sharp it almost made me dizzy. Sophie Preston had taken credit for the one thing she had nothing to do with. The captaincy he was so proud of had come from my father. From Monroe Athletics. From me quietly asking for favors I never wanted him to know about.
And he believed her.
A short, disbelieving laugh escaped me. “You really don’t know what you’re losing, do you?”
His brows pulled together. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Before I could answer, the door opened.
Sophie Preston stepped inside like she owned the building. Her blonde hair was perfectly straight, her expression already quite territorial. She took one look at me and let out a soft, mocking laugh.
“Oh, look. The unimportant ex.” She closed the door behind her and moved to Chase’s side, sliding her arm through his. “I thought I made it clear this was over. What are you still doing here, bothering my husband?”
“Sophie—” Chase started.
She ignored him. Her eyes raked over me with open disdain. “You always were a little desperate, weren’t you? Hanging around for years, hoping he’d eventually see something special in you. Newsflash—he didn’t. He settled until something better came along. And now that something better is wearing his ring.”
I didn’t flinch. I had already been humiliated in the most public way possible. Her words were just noise to me.
“You two deserve each other,” I said with a forced smile.
Sophie’s smile turned mean. “We do. Which is why you need to back off. Chase doesn’t need his old charity case lingering around, reminding everyone where he came from. Stay in your lane, Blair. It suits you better.”
I held her gaze for a long moment, then looked back at Chase. He wasn’t defending me. He wasn’t even uncomfortable anymore. He just looked like he wanted the conversation to end.
That told me everything.
I reached into my bag and pulled out the thick ivory envelope I had brought with me. My hands were steady as I held it out.
“I actually came to give you this.”
Chase frowned, taking it automatically. “What is it?”
“An invitation.”
He tore it open without wasting any time. His eyes scanned the card. Then they froze.
I watched the exact moment he processed the names.
Blair Monroe
&
Grayson Shaw
His head snapped up. “What the hell is this?”
“My wedding invitation,” I said calmly. “I’m getting married this weekend. Since you were so rude and chose to get married without inviting me, I wanted to show you how it’s really done. The proper way.”
The color drained from his face, then rushed back in a wave of disbelief and something that looked a lot like anger.
“This is a joke.” He held the card up like it might change if he stared hard enough. “Grayson Shaw? The captain of the Blackridge Wolves? You’re marrying him? Come on Blair, you know how unbelievable this looks. You and someone like Grayson? You only got someone as popular as me because I knew you for years. . .Grayson doesn’t even know you exist.”
I try not to take his words too personally.
“It’s true.”
“Bullshit.” He laughed once, sharp and humorless. “You expect me to believe you’re suddenly engaged to my biggest rival? What, is this some kind of revenge stunt? You trying to get a reaction out of me? How much did this fake invitation even cost you? Do you want me to pay for it?”
“It’s not a stunt.” I kept my voice soft even though I wanted to scream at him. “The wedding is real. This weekend. You’re invited. . .though I understand if you and your new wife are too busy celebrating your own marriage to attend.”
Sophie snatched the invitation from his hand, reading it quickly. Her lip curled. “This is pathetic. You’re so desperate for attention that you’re announcing a fake engagement to the one man you know will get under his skin. It’s hilarious that you think someone like Grayson will ever marry you. Or to even think that we would believe something that’s so obviously fake.”
I looked at her, then back at Chase.
“Believe whatever you want,” I said. “I just thought you should hear it from me instead of the press. The same way I had to hear about your wedding.”
Chase’s jaw was tight. He kept staring at the invitation like it had personally insulted him.
“You’re serious.”
“I am.”
Silence stretched between the three of us. The same man who had spent years telling me I was his future was now looking at me like I was a liar.
I didn’t wait for him to find more words.
I turned and walked out of the room, leaving them standing there with the invitation and whatever twisted version of the truth they wanted to believe.
My hands only started shaking once I reached the parking lot.
I had done what I came to do.
I had looked him in the eye.
I had told him the truth about my wedding.
And I had walked away before either of them could see how much it still hurt.
. . . .
~CHASE~
The invitation sat in my hands like it might burn through the paper.
I kept reading the same two names over and over, certain that if I stared long enough they would rearrange themselves into something that made sense.
Blair Monroe
&
Grayson Shaw
There was no way.
Sophie leaned over my shoulder, her perfume sharp in the small meeting room. She let out a short, dismissive laugh and plucked the card from my fingers, scanning it again with open scorn.
“Oh, please. This is so obvious.” She tossed the invitation onto the table like it was trash. “Your little ex is trying to get under your skin. She’s pissed you moved on, so she cooked up some fake engagement to the one man she knows will bother you. It’s desperate. And pathetic. And honestly, even a bit sad.”
I wanted to believe her. Everything about the situation felt unreal.
Blair marrying Grayson Shaw—my biggest rival, the guy who had spent years looking at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of his skate—was impossible.
“You’re right,” I said. “There’s no way Shaw would marry someone like her.”
Sophie smiled, satisfied. “Exactly. Blair is. . .simple. Quiet. Boring. She never belonged in this world. Grayson Shaw has a childhood sweetheart he’s been obsessed with forever. Everyone knows it. They’re the golden couple of the Wolves. He would never throw that away for her.”
She pulled out her phone, already scrolling through it.
“Lily and I are close,” she added. “Best friends since we were teenagers. If anyone would know what’s going on, it’s her. I’ll call her right now. We’ll clear this up in two minutes and laugh about how sad your ex has become.”
I nodded. “Do it.”
I needed to know for sure. Blair just never seemed like someone who would lie about something this big. It was just too crazy for me to believe.
Sophie put the phone on speaker and tapped the screen. It barely rang once before a soft voice answered.
“Sophie?”
“Lily, hey.” Sophie’s tone turned bright. “You’re not going to believe what I’m looking at right now. Chase’s ex just showed up and handed us a wedding invitation. It has her name and Grayson’s on it. It says Blair and Grayson Shaw getting married this weekend. Can you believe the nerve? Obviously it’s fake. I told Chase there’s no way your man would ever marry some nobody like her. He loves you. Everyone knows that.”
There was a short silence on the other end of the line. It made me uneasy. Even Sophie seemed anxious waiting for her to confirm it was fake.
Then Lily spoke, her voice broken.
“It’s not fake.”
Sophie blinked. “What?”
“It’s true,” Lily said. “Grayson is marrying her. Blair Monroe. This weekend.”
The room suddenly felt like there was an earthquake happening.
I stared at the phone like it had just spoken in a foreign language. Sophie’s confident expression cracked for the first time.
“Lily, that doesn’t make sense,” Sophie said, forcing a laugh. “You’re telling me Grayson is actually marrying Chase’s ex? Some quiet little nobody? Come on. You two are endgame. You’ve been together forever. That man loves you and worships the ground you walk on. He will never marry someone like her. She’s nothing compared to you.”
“I know.” Lily’s voice wavered slightly, but she didn’t take the words back. “But it’s happening. His father arranged it. He doesn’t have a choice but to marry her. She’s William Monroe’s daughter. The Monroe Athletics Monroes. Billionaire family. He said he can’t get out of it. She’s using her money to get him.”
Billionaire’s daughter.
The words hit me square in the chest.
Blair.
My Blair?
The girl who used to wear oversized hoodies and sit in the stands with a cheap thermos of coffee. The girl who never talked about money, never flashed wealth, never acted like she came from anything more than a comfortable middle-class home. The girl who had quietly paid for things when I was short and never made me feel small about it.
William Monroe’s daughter.
That couldn’t be right. She didn’t have a fancy car. Never wore designer clothes. Everything she owned was cheap.
Sophie recovered first, her voice turning sharp with denial. “No. Absolutely not. The Blair we know is not a billionaire’s daughter. That’s ridiculous. She was always scraping by. She must have just used the fact that she has the same name as William’s daughter to make the invitation look real. It’s a stunt. A pathetic little stunt.”
I forced myself to nod. “Yeah. Has to be. Blair never once mentioned anything about money like that. She would’ve told me.”
But even as the words left my mouth, something cold settled in my stomach.
Because she had always had money when I needed it.
She had always known people.
She had always managed to make problems disappear without explaining how.
I had never asked questions. I had just taken what she offered and told myself I would pay her back someday.
Sophie was still talking to Lily, trying to poke holes in the story, but I barely heard her.
My eyes kept drifting back to the invitation on the table. The thick paper. The embossed lettering. The names that refused to change no matter how long I stared.
Blair Monroe.
Grayson Shaw.
And somewhere underneath the shock and the anger, a much uglier feeling was starting to crawl up my spine.
If it was true. . .
If the girl I had just publicly discarded was actually the daughter of the man who owned one of the most powerful sports companies in the country. . . Then I hadn’t just cheated on my girlfriend. I had made an enemy I never saw coming.
Sophie finally ended the call, still insisting Lily must be confused or covering for something. She turned to me with a confident little shrug.
“See? Even if Grayson is somehow involved in some weird arrangement, it doesn’t mean it’s our Blair. There’s no way. She’s not that girl.”
“Yeah,” I said quietly. “You’re right.”
But the bad feeling wouldn’t leave.
It sat in my chest like a bruise that kept getting darker, and no amount of Sophie’s reassurances could make it fade.
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.