Tessa stood behind her desk. “Both attorneys recommend disclosure?”
“Yes,” I said.
Jace nodded. “Mine said ‘voluntary transparency’ so many times I started to feel like I was trapped in a corporate retreat.”
Tessa ignored that, though her mouth nearly betrayed her. “Good. Then this is the final step before the organization controls the process.”
She turned her tablet around.
A short list. Names. Times. No dramatic title. No cushion.
“Tomorrow morning,” she said. “Nine o’clock. Ownership representative, general manager, president of hockey operations, HR counsel. Marlene will be there. Both of you will attend. You will state that you are in a consensual relationship, that you understand the reporting conflict, that you are disclosing voluntarily before external discovery, and that you will cooperate with whatever review process follows.”
Jace’s hands clasped together.
I kept mine on my knees.
Tessa looked at him. “You will not ramble.”
His mouth opened.
She pointed one finger. “I’m saying that because I know you, not because I underestimate you.”
He shut his mouth, then nodded. “Okay.”
“Write it down. One page. Not six. Not a speech you revise until three in the morning. One page, so if your thoughts start sprinting, you have a track to put them on.”
His face changed at that. Less defensive. More grounded. “I can do that.”
“I know.”
Then she looked at me. “You will not walk in there and try to take every ounce of blame onto yourself.”
I said nothing.
“Declan.”
“I hear you.”
“No martyr routine. Legal will hate it, management will distrust it, and Jace will probably explode.”
Jace said, “Accurate.”
Tessa continued, “Answer what they ask. Do not volunteer details they don’t need. Do not minimize the harm. Do not offer yourself up as a solution before they’ve identified the problem.”
Jace rubbed his palms on his sweats. “If they ask if we’re ending it?”
The room lost its office noise. No hum of lights, no distant hallway sounds, nothing but that question sitting between the three of us.
Tessa’s face softened, not much, but enough to matter. “Then you answer honestly.”
Jace looked at me.
I met him without looking away.
“No,” he said.
“No,” I said.
