The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 69

Chapter 69

~BLAIR~

Olivia’s name lit up my phone while I was still standing in the kitchen with coffee I hadn’t tasted.

“Have you seen the articles?” she asked the second the call connected.

“No.”

“I’m sending them. Don’t hang up.”

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The link arrived before she finished the sentence. I opened it one–handed, the coffee still warm against my other palm, and the first image almost made me drop the mug.

I had to set it down quickly before it slipped.

Grayson.

Lily.

Her arms were around his neck outside a house I didn’t recognize, they were both holding onto each other.

He wasn’t pushing her away. He wasn’t holding her at a distance. He was standing there, returning it.

I read the caption. It had the words this morning in it.

That was this morning? After I’d woken up and realized he wasn’t in bed with me.

This was why? He’d chosen to run straight back to Lily after a passionate night with me.

He’d done this hours after he had been inside me. Hours after he had come deep inside me with nothing between us and left marks across my skin like he wanted everyone to know about us.

No. Please tell me this wasn’t real. I didn’t want to believe he would do something like this to me. I knew he was in love with Lily but to go see her the exact same morning after the special night we’d had? That was just cruel.

“Blair?” Olivia’s voice sharpened. “Talk to me.”

“He went to her.” The words came out strange. “Last night happened, and this morning he went to her.” “What happened last night? Did the thing happen?” she asked with a gasp. Then added. “Do not freak out.”

“I’m not-”

“You are. I can hear it.” She exhaled loudly. “There has to be some explanation. A conversation. Something stupid and badly timed. That picture does not automatically mean he spent the night with you and then ran back to her like nothing happened.”

“It means he left my bed and went to her house.”

My throat tightened. “Olivia, I woke up alone. And now there’s a photo of him holding her like the night we had never meant anything to him at all.”

“Listen to me. Do not read too much into one article. Call him. Wait for him. Do not do that thing where you decide the worst and then act on it while you’re still upset.”

“I have to go.”

“Blair-”

I ended the call because if I stayed on the line any longer I was going to start crying, and once that started I wasn’t sure I would be able to stop.

The second image in the article loaded under the first: the same hug from another angle, Lily’s face turned into his shoulder, she looked happy, like he’d just given her good news.

The headline speculated about problems in the Monroe–Shaw marriage.

I felt sick. Why would he choose to do thi

te night? It didn’t make any sense.

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Chapter 69

My phone rang again.

This time it wasn’t my sister, it was…Chase. He had horrible timing.

For a second I only stared at the name. Then the ache in my chest made a reckless decision for me.

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If Grayson could walk out of our bed and into Lily’s arms after what we did, then I could at least answer this call.

I answered before I could change my mind.

“I saw the articles,” Chase said. “I really want to meet you. Please. At least hear what I have to say.”

I agreed before I could stop myself and knock some sense into my body.

An hour later, we met at the park. I’d also turned off my phone.

Chase was already waiting near the bench under a tree, and the moment he saw me his expression shifted, like a man approaching a door he had only just realized he should never have closed.

I wasn’t here to give him another chance.

So then why was I here? What was my reason for meeting him when I knew there wasn’t a possibility that I would ever give him another chance?

“What is this about?” I asked,

“I’m going to divorce Sophie.” He said it like it was something I was supposed to celebrate. “I made a huge mistake. I know that now. I want to fix it.”

I stared at him.

“I mean it,” he continued, stepping closer. “I threw away the best thing in my life because I was arrogant and hungry for a version of success that looked better from the outside. I know what you did for me. I know what I cost myself. And after those photos this morning–Blair, Grayson is clearly still in love with Lily. Everyone knows she’s the only woman he has ever loved. He’s never going to leave her for you. He’s always going to choose her. Nothing is going to change that. She’s the one he goes to. But for me…you’re the one I go to. I’ve known you for so long Blair. I can’t imagine life without you in it. We are meant to be. I realize that now. I should have realized it before I destroyed what we shared.”

Meant to be? From the man who had married someone else without warning, danced to our song with her, and only rediscovered my worth after my last name became impossible to ignore.

The irony.

Then his eyes dropped to my neck.

I had been careless. Or too devastated to care.

The hickey sat just above the collar of my sweater, faint but unmistakable in the daylight.

Chase’s whole face changed. The careful apology drained out of it, replaced by something else.

“Did you sleep with him?” The demand came out harsh. “Did you give yourself to Grayson?”

I didn’t answer. It wasn’t any of his business.

He closed the remaining distance and caught my wrists, pulling me against him with a grip that was more panic than tenderness.

“I was patient for years,” he said, lips trembling. “We never did that. I waited because you asked me to. I respected it even when it drove me crazy. And you’re telling me he got it from you this easily? After a forced marriage and a few public appearances? You held that back from me for six years and handed it to him like it was nothing?”

I couldn’t even focus on what he was saying. All I could see was Grayson hugging Lily and the contented smile on her face.

Chase’s words repeated in my head. ‘He is always going to choose her.’

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