—
I turn off the TV the second the interview is over, bracing myself to comfort my boyfriend because, well, most of his trauma is now out there. He’s quiet though. Grey still has his head lying on my lap, staring at the now black TV.
“Are you okay?” I know this is a dumb thing to ask.
“Mm-hmm.” He sighs. “If I think this is bad, I can’t wait to find out how much worse it’ll be once Storm publishes the recordings in a few days.”
“Look on the bright side; you’ll be able to live in peace again. Genuine peace. No more fucked up father who will come for you. And, yes, okay, it might destroy Li Co., but getting justice for what your dad has done to you and your mother is far more important than that company.”
My dad will be thrilled because sales for Hayesland will shoot through the roof, but this isn’t aboutmydad right now.
“I know. It’s just… weird, you know? For as long as I can remember, I did my best to hide my past, and now it’sthere. In a few moments you’ll be able to read about it everywhere online. There’ll be tons of websites talking about it, and some will question whether I’ve been lying. My life shouldn’t be that big of a deal.” Grey turns onto his back, looking up at me. “You won’t run away again, will you?”
“Maybe in June. I don’t know, depends on our engagement rings.” I shrug, trying to seem serious but the grin on my face says anything but.
“June, huh?”
“Yup. I think five years is long enough for you to propose to me.”
“You do realize that we’ve onlyknowneach other for five years. We haven’t been together for that long.”
I take his face into one hand, slightly squeeze his cheeks together. “I want to be married by thirty, Grey Davis. So, unless you can manipulate time, we’ll have to get engaged this year.”
“Or next year. You won’t turn thirty for another two years. So we could get engaged next year and get married the year after that in January.”
I lean back on the sofa, letting out a heavy sigh. “No, no, this year is better. It has a better vibe to it. Get engaged this June, then get married… the year after also in June because that seems to be the only month you’re off work.”
“The Stanley Cup is in June.”
“You know, sometimes, I wish you’d still ignore me because at least then I wouldn’t get answers likethese.”
Chapter 8
“no one ever got me high like this”—Like This by Jake Scott
April 2027
Most of the teamhas been hiding inside of their houses, condos, or apartments for the past two months, all because they’re trying to avoid the paparazzi that might as well be ready to commit a crime just to talk to any of us.
Much to my surprise, I received a lot more support after the recordings were released than I thought I’d get. Random people slid up into my DMs to let me know that they’re feeling for me or just let me know that they’re sorry for what happened. Even old business partners of my father’s tried to reach out to me, a lot of them even put out statements about shit I had no idea even happened. Like that my very own fatherconstantlytalked badly about me at work. You know, the very place where my name didn’t belong at all because I had absolutely nothing to do with Li Co.
The more people that spoke up about my father, the more pressured the authorities were to do something about it. And thank fuck for that because my father is currently in jail, though they’re still discussing what he’ll be charged with and how long he’ll have to stay in prison. At least there’s one thing I know for sure, he’ll be off my family’s ass now that he knows what I am capable of.
It was long overdue anyway. Someone was bound to show him that he doesn’t get to walk all over everyone without consequences. It was time someone did something about him. And although even a few months ago I still thought he would never be able to do worse things than hate me for a sexual orientation, I’m sad to know he is, in fact, ready to commit murder just because things don’t go his way.
People like Li Ji-Hoon would never show remorse and they do belong behind bars, locked away from everyone.
Anyway, ever since my last interview, tons of magazines, news sites, and blogs, etcetera have been trying to get me to speak about it again. Even if my lawyers suggested I didn’t because it might get me in trouble, I wouldn’t agree to any interviews either way. All I wanted was to feel safe again, to finally get at least some justice for what my father has done to my mother, sister, and I. Even to Moon, though he hasn’t tried to contact me at all, which is fine with me.
Now that I don’t respond to requests, reporters are trying to get ahold of me out on the streets, but since that doesn’t happen as I’ve been spending the past two months locked up in Luan and I’s apartment with only rare visits to my lawyers and courthouses, they’re now targeting my teammates. But once again, these guys go out of their way to be as disrespectful as humanly possible until these people finally realize that there won’t be any more interviews coming, especially not when they’re trying to force one onto me.
“Grey Davis.” Luan snaps his fingers against my forehead to which I instantly narrow my eyes at him. He laughs. “You have an exercise to finish.”
Right. In order to regain my mobility in my arm the way it was before, I have a couple more months of physical therapy ahead of me. At least the doctors are positive that I’ll regain all of my strength, or enough to spend a few more years on the ice.
“I don’t like this one.” Pectoralis stretches are annoying. Not a lot of work, but I just don’t like them. They make me feel incompetent, especially on those days when even these stupid stretches seem too much for me to do.
Today is one of them.
