Playing Pretend With The Mafia Hockey Star

Yara's POV 

I should have known something was wrong when I didn't see my name on the guest list.

Jeriah hadn't told me about the press conference. I found out the same way everyone else did. A notification on my phone that morning. Volkov Sports signing ceremony. Jeriah Hart officially joining the team. Red carpet. Cameras. The whole thing.

I even had to show the security guards multiple photos of us together before he finally let me in.

Seven years together and he forgot to mention it.

I told myself he was probably nervous. That he had a lot going on. That I would show up, surprise him, and he would pull me close in front of the cameras and say something about how I was the reason he made it this far.

That was my whole thought on the train over.

The venue was packed when I arrived. Suits and cameras everywhere. Sports journalists with microphones. Volkov Sports banners hanging from every wall. The kind of event filled with people who had never struggled a day in their lives.

I spotted Jeriah immediately.

He was standing near the center of the room, already cleaned up in a suit I had never seen before, laughing with a group of people I didn't recognize. He looked comfortable. Easy. Like he belonged there completely.

My heart swelled looking at him.

Seven years. I had worked double shifts, skipped meals, carried his rent when he couldn't, believed in him when he didn't believe in himself. And now here he was. We had made it.

I started moving toward him but before I could reach the ceremony began. 

Everyone was guided to their seats. I found a spot near the back and watched as Jeriah was called up to the front with the other new signings. Cameras flashed. Applause filled the room. A Volkov Sports executive gave a speech about the future of the team.

Then Jeriah was handed the microphone.

He smiled at the crowd. 

"I want to start by saying this moment wouldn't be possible without the people who believed in me," he looked around. "The people who pushed me and stood by me when things were hard."

My throat tightened.

I pressed my hand to my chest.

He was going to say my name. I knew it. After everything, after all of it, he was going to stand in front of all these people and say my name.

"There's someone very special to me in this room today," he continued.

I sat up straighter.

"Someone who changed my life and made me a better man."

Tears were already burning behind my eyes.

"Talia." He looked directly across the room and smiled. "Baby, stand up."

I froze.

A woman stood up three rows from the front. Tall, blonde, polished from head to foot in a white dress that fit her like it was made specifically for her body. She laughed softly and covered her mouth with one hand like she was surprised, but she wasn't surprised. She had known. Everyone in this room knew.

Everyone except me.

Applause started, everyone admiring the beautiful couple. 

"Seven months with the most incredible woman," Jeriah continued, still looking at her like she was the only person in the building. "Talia Donovan, everyone."

Seven months?

Like seven actual months, when I was still covering our electricity bill because he said his card wasn't going through. Seven months ago, when he would tell me he was busy making our dream come through and that's why he couldn't come home. 

But he was actually with her, all this time.

The applause went on and on when I suddenly stood up.

"Jeriah!!"

My voice came out louder than I meant it to. The people around me instantly stopped. Journalists, executives, even the servers, everyone turned to me. 

Jeriah looked out into the crowd and found my face. He looked shocked, like he wasn't expecting me.

So he really hadn't wanted to invite me, he didn't just forget.

"What are you doing here?" he asked into the microphone. 

The room went quiet.

"What am I doing here?" I laughed but nothing about it was funny. "What are you doing? What is this? Who is she Jeriah?"

"Yara." His voice dropped. "This is not the place."

"Then when is the place?" My chest was burning. "You didn't tell me about today. You didn't tell me about her. Seven years Jeriah. Seven years I gave you everything I had. I paid your bills, I worked myself to nothing, I believed in you when nobody else did and you couldn't even tell me..."

"Would you listen to yourself right now?"

"I am listening to myself. I want you to listen to me too. If she's so good why didn't you let her pay your bills, why were you still eating off me, why..."

"SILENCE!"

His voice cracked through the room like thunder

I immediately stopped my words.

"Would you stop disgracing me!" He stared at me from the front, jaw tight, eyes cold, every trace of the man I loved completely gone. "Standing there making a scene like some pathetic desperate fat sack of excuses. Have you no shame?”