Page 20 of Dream On, Liar

Raina’s eyes lifted to mine for a second before flicking away again.

“It’s just...” She exhaled quietly. “My manager sent over an idea for a piece.”

Oliver’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

I already hated where it was going.

“What kind of piece?”

Neither of them answered immediately, which told me enough on its own.

She cleared her throat. “A piece on Maeve Knox.”

The kitchen suddenly felt too warm despite the cold drink in my hand.

“This is not being announced until the next week,” She continued as Oliver placed a comforting hand on her back, a sign he could see the anxiety seeping into her skin just like I could, and I knew the source of it was the worry for my reaction. “But, she’s being hired as the one of the official Physiotherapist for England Lions. At least for the training camp in Abu Dhabi and the tour to New Zealand. They’ll re-evaluate her role after that. But Hazel wants me to do a profile on her…and she wants me to do an exclusive piece from you and your reaction to her study.”

Something hot and ugly twisted low in my stomach.

The same woman whose study had half the cricket world looking at me like I was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off on a pitch somewhere. With the international tour coming up, every spell I bowled, every hit I made, every game I played, would be dragged apart by commentators and analysts, every movement scrutinised, every bad day would be turned into proof that my body was already giving up on me, all because of ‘my personality’. They’d question my place in the only part of my life I’d never had to doubt before. The only thing that had been imposed one, and that I’d still carved into something that belonged entirely to me.

All because of the research she’d published.

And now she was being rewarded for it.

The word No sat on the tip of my tongue, and I had to bit it hard enough to make it bleed. I was suddenly so angry I could feel it buzzing beneath my skin like static.

I stared past them both for a moment, jaw clenched hard enough to ache. Then I dragged a breath in through my nose.

“I’ll do it,” I gritted out.

Raina blinked, clearly not expecting my response. “You will?”

“On one condition.”

Her shoulders straightened slightly. “What?”

I set the smoothie glass down on the counter with a dull clink. “You write a piece for me too. Alongside a press statement.”

Oliver frowned faintly, but I kept my eyes focused on Raina. “But it goes out exactly one minute after Maeve’s announcement does.”

Raina’s expression shifted slowly from confusion to dawning concern. “What statement?”

“That I’m letting go of Dad as my sports manager.”

Silence slammed into the room as Raina’s eyes widened slowly with each second passing by. It would’ve been comical if I wasn’t being serious.

Even Oliver looked caught off guard by my statement.

Raina broke the silence. “You’re serious?”

“Very.”

The concern on her face deepened almost instantly. “What did he say to you?”

I shook my head, silently saying let it go, but she continued, clearly unable to bite her tongue. “Look, I’m just trying to understand what happened earlier,” she said carefully. “Because if you refused to cut him off after finding out he lied to you for years, had an affair our entire lives, and the fact he has a secret love child that basically forced our mother to abandon you, and still somehow finds ways to verbally tear you whenever he feels like it...” She exhaled sharply. “Then whatever happened today had to be worse for you to suddenly do something this impulsive.”

“It’s not.” I leaned back against the counter, forcing my voice to be steadier than I felt. “And before you start, no, this won’t destroy my career. People fire managers all the time.”