Have you seen this? (Link attached)
We have a SERIOUS problem
Conrad
Answer your phone
You need to see this. It’s bad.
Rick
I’m not kidding Kane. Call me immediately.
My stomach drops. That feeling you get when you’re about to get checked into the boards and you see it coming but can’t avoid it.
I open the link Rick sent.
Minnesota Bridal Magazine. Posted three hours ago.
The Not-So-Perfect Wedding Date: When Hockey Romance Meets Cold Reality
By Jennifer Hartley
And there’s our photo. The one from yesterday morning. Chloe and me in front of the fireplace, smiling like lovesick fools.
My blood turns to ice as I skim the article. Sources close to Chloe. The contract. The staged breakup that’s supposed to happen tonight. The accusations about Ashley. The convenient timing. Every detail we thought was private, now exposed for the world to see and judge.
The plan I had—the beautiful, simple plan where we just mutually agree to tear up the breakup clause and make this real—shatters like glass.
Because it’s not private anymore.
Is their romance real, or is this hockey’s latest publicity stunt? You be the judge.
The article ends there. Short. Devastating. Leaving just enough unsaid to let readers fill in the blanks with their worst assumptions.
And the comments below—I shouldn’t read them, but I do—are exactly what you’d expect:
“I KNEW something was off about them.”
* * *
“Poor Chloe, he’s using her.”
* * *
“Typical athlete behavior.”
* * *
“Wait, they’re supposed to break up tonight? This is going to be messy.”
* * *
“If there’s a contract requiring a breakup, how was ANY of it real?”
That last one hits the hardest. Because it’s the question I’m asking myself. How do you prove something became real when it started fake? How do you convince anyone—including maybe Chloe herself—that feelings evolved when there’s a contract saying it was supposed to end tonight anyway?
The section I was planning to ignore. The section I thought we could just void because no one knew it existed.
