The question hung in the air, direct and unavoidable. Liam considered it for a moment, aware that his answer would likely be the headline on every sports site within the hour.
“Some things are worth fighting for,” he said finally, “even if you lose everything else.”
Liam
Inside the security of his SUV, Liam exhaled heavily, his hands trembling slightly with residual adrenaline. For better or worse, he had just laid his cards on the table for the entire world to see. There was no going back now.
As he pulled out of the parking lot, his phone, cracked but still working, erupted with notifications. Texts from teammates, calls from Mike, no doubt furious voicemails from management. He ignored them all as he navigated through downtown traffic, his mind already racing ahead to his next move.
How would he find Sunny? What would he say when he did? After everything that had happened, would she even listen?
The phone rang again, the sound cutting through his thoughts. Glancing at the display, Liam nearly swerved into the next lane.
Morgan.
His finger hovered over the decline button. What fresh hell was this? His sister had been Sunny’s most vocal critic from the beginning, delighting in every tabloid speculation, every managerial pressure. The last person he needed to hear from right now was Morgan, with her smugI-told-you-soattitude.
And yet…
With a resigned sigh, Liam accepted the call, putting it on speaker. “What do you want?”
“Well, helloto you too, brother dear.” Her voice carried its usual sardonic edge, but something else lurked beneath it — uncertainty, perhaps?
“I’m not really in the mood for—”
“I saw your press conference,” she interrupted. “Or at least enough of it streaming on Twitter to get the gist.”
Liam waited for the criticism, the cutting remarks, the reminder that she’d warned him about Sunny from the start.
“It was…” Morgan hesitated, an almost unheard-of occurrence for his normally decisive sister. “It was brave.”
Liam nearly missed a red light, so shocked was he by the unexpected praise. “Who is this, and what have you done with my sister?”
A soft laugh filtered through the speaker. “Believe me, no one’s more surprised than I am.”
“I don’t understand.” Liam navigated around a delivery truck, his brow furrowed in confusion. “You’ve been against Sunny from day one. You called her a gold-digger, an interloper—”
“I know what I said.” Morgan’s voice quieted, the usual sharp edges softening. “But watching you stand up there, risking everything for her… it made me realize something.”
“What’s that?”
A long pause followed, the silence stretching between them.
“That I wouldn’t know love like that if it smacked me in the face,” she finally admitted. “And that maybe — just maybe — I’ve been judging your nanny through the lens of my own damnable failures.”
Liam pulled into a parking lot, too distracted by this unprecedented conversation to trust his driving. “Morgan, are you feeling okay? This doesn’t sound like you at all.”
A humorless laugh. “Oh, I’m fine. Just having one of those rare moments of self-awareness that my therapist charges two hundred dollars an hour to inspire.”
“You’re seeing a therapist?”
“Don’t sound so shocked,” Morgan retorted, a hint of her usual acerbity returning. “Even I can recognize when my life’s a train wreck.”
Liam leaned back in his seat, trying to process this strange new version of his sister. “So, what? You’re calling to apologize?”
“Don’t push it.” But the expected sting was missing from her voice. “I’m calling because… because I was wrong, okay? About Sunny. About you. About a lot of things, probably.”
“You’re serious.” It wasn’t a question.
