Chapter 35
~CHASE
50 voucher
Sophie was in the bedroom sorting through a shopping bag when I found her. She’d been spending my money like crazy. Every day she was on a shopping spree. Blair was never like that. She never touched my money. Now I knew she never even needed it.
She looked up with the smile that said she spent a lot more than we agreed upon.
“We need to talk,” I said.
“About what?”
“About me becoming captain.” I closed the door behind me. “About you telling me your father pushed for it because of you. About every version of that story you sold me when I was stupid enough to believe it was
true.”
Her eyes narrowed. “How dare you.”
“How dare I?”
“Yes.” She dropped the bag on the bed and crossed her arms. “I begged my father to give you that spot. He didn’t think you were ready. He said you weren’t consistent enough, that there were safer options in the organization. I fought for you anyway. I pushed until he agreed to give you a shot because of me. And now you’re standing here accusing me of lying like I didn’t put my neck out for your career?”
I laughed once, short and empty. “Give it up, Sophie.”
“Excuse me?”
“I know the Monroe family helped. I know they were the reason the door opened in the first place, and the reason my name stayed in the conversation when leadership was being decided. They only did it because of Blair.”
For a second something careful moved behind her expression. Then the defensiveness slammed back into
place.
“That’s convenient,” she said. “Blame the ex with the famous last name so you don’t have to admit I was the one in the room advocating for you. Talk to my father if you want. He’ll tell you a completely different story. He’ll tell you I wouldn’t leave it alone until he considered you. It’s up to you who you actually believe, the woman who stood next to you while it was happening, or the girl who kept her family connections quiet for years and now expects credit after you left her.”
“I already talked to people who don’t need to protect your ego,” I said. “Monroe influence moved my name up the list. Not the Prestons. You took credit for something you didn’t do.”
“I took credit for what I did do.” Her voice rose. “I supported you. I made you look like someone who belonged at the next level. I gave you a partner who made sense in that world. If the Monroes made a call somewhere in the background, that doesn’t erase the fact that I was the one choosing you publicly when it mattered, I was the one begging my father to give you special treatment that you’re still benefiting from?”
“It erases the story you used to make me leave her.”
Sophie stared at me, breathing harder. “So this is about Blair again. Of course it is. Everything is about Blair now. One party, one conversation with her brother, and suddenly you’re rewriting the entire relationship like I manipulated you into a marriage. You were the one who left Blair, I did not force you to do it.”
“Didn’t you?”
“No.” The word came out sharp. “You chose Successfully unlocked!nted someone who matched the life you were building. You said that. Don’t put it on me because you’re having regrets now that your ex turned out to be richer than you thought.”
Chapter 35
50 voucher
The accuracy of the insult didn’t make it hurt less. It just confirmed how ugly the foundation under us had always been
Sophie grabbed her purse off the dresser with short, angry movements. “I have a nail appointment. I’m not staying here to be interrogated about something I already explained. Believe whatever version helps you sleep. Talk to my father. Talk to the whole front office if it makes you feel better. I’m done with this
conversation.”
She moved past me toward the door.
“Sophie.”
She paused without looking back.
I should have said more. Should have demanded the acknowledgment that she had let me build a decision as large as leaving Blair on a lie that flattered her. Instead the fight went out of me in a single exhausted breath, replaced by something colder.
“Go,” I said.
She left.
The apartment settled into silence around the sound of the front door closing.
I stood in the middle of the bedroom staring at nothing, the argument still ringing in my ears and the truth sitting heavier than it had in Keller’s office.
Sophie would never give me the clean version. She would keep the story that made her important in my life.
She would point me toward her father and any narrative that preserved her role. And some part of me had always known she was capable of that. I had just wanted the story enough to stop looking closely.
Blair had never needed to do all that she did.
She had simply done it all quietly on my behalf and asked for nothing but loyalty in return.
She was nothing like Sophie. In the past, I’d thought that was a bad thing. Now, I realized how much of a
fool I’d been.
I sat down on the edge of the bed and put my head in my hands.
I had let her go for this.
For a woman who took credit that wasn’t hers, defended it under pressure, and then walked out to a nail appointment like the conversation was an inconvenience instead of the collapse of the story I had used to justify the worst decision of my life.
The regret didn’t arrive all at once. It had been building for days, in the research, at Ethan’s party, in Keller’s office, in the hallway after the game when I had accused Blair of feeding plays to Grayson like she owed me something. Now it sat fully formed and undeniable.
I had been a fool.
Not the dramatic kind who made one bad choice in a moment of passion. The slower, more shameful kind who ignored what was in front of him and only recognized the value of what he had once it belonged to someone else.
Blair Monroe had been the real thing.
And I had handed her straight to my rival because of my own arrogance while congratulating myself for upgrading,
Fuck.
What had I done?
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.