I yanked free with a glare. “I can walk, thanks.”
“Then do it before you hand the federation more ammunition,” she snapped.
The press kept shouting, but in seconds, the four of us were shoved into a small meeting room, the door slamming shut behind us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
GRIFFIN
“You used her,” Callaghan spat a few minutes later.
I laughed. Short. Sharp. Disbelieving. “Oh, fuck off. Used her? Your sister doesn’t get used by anyone. If anything, she used me to piss you off.”
“Don’t act like you’re innocent!”
“And don’t act like you’re the victim here, Jesse.”
His eyes narrowed to slits. “Don’t call me that.”
“Why not?” I took a step closer, wiping blood from my lip. “It’s your name, isn’t it? Or is it still too soft for the big bad wolf of the grid?”
Callaghan’s jaw tightened until I thought his teeth might crack.
He’d hated the name since we were rookies in karting. Said it sounded like a boy band member, not a world champion. He’d spent ten years rebranding himself as ‘Callaghan’—the ruthless, untouchable machine. Using his first name was the easiest wayto remind him he was just a guy from Australia with a temper problem.
“Fuck you,” he snarled, stepping into my space.
“Save it.” I pushed him back and moved to another part of the room, clearing space before he decided to start a brawl. “The real question is, how the hell did you miss it? You live in each other’s pockets and you didn’t notice your own sister was pregnant?”
That stopped him cold.
“She told me she was a surrogate for a friend.” His shoulders slumped.
Of course she did. Smart, really.
“She lied to us. My whole fucking family—” His voice cut off, his fists twitching like he didn’t know whether to hit me again or rip his own hair out. “She lied, and you let her.”
I rolled my jaw, pain flaring up my cheek. “It’s not like I knew until she dropped Hazel on my doorstep.”
Callaghan stilled.
Selene swore under her breath. Julian just sighed, pinching the bridge like he was calculating whether he could kill both of us and make it look like an accident.
“Isolde Callaghan is Hazel’s mother?” Julian asked.
I nodded, wiping blood from my lip. “Congratulations. You just handed the press their next six months of headlines.”
Selene groaned. “Fucking hell.”
Julian’s expression didn’t change. “And you didn’t think this was something we should have been made aware of?”
I tilted my head. “Why? So you could slap together a PR statement? Throw all the attention onto Izzy? She’s the one who didn’t want to be part of this circus. I respected that. Unlike some people.”
My gaze flicked to Callaghan.
His fists curled again, but I wasn’t done.
“You’re throwing punches like you’re defending her honor.” I sneered, the movement pulling at my bruised jaw. “But if you actually gave a shit about your sister, you wouldn’t have caused a fucking scene in front of the press and dragged her name into this shitshow.”
