Chapter 17

Seventeen

“W ell, you missed an interesting night,” Ellis said as he walked in her office.

“Oh no, did something go wrong?” Tori stood, preparing to handle whatever had happened.

“Emmett didn’t tell you?” he asked.

“Emmett stayed at Isaac’s last night.” Confused, Tori waited for him to get to the point.

“Take a seat. There’s nothing for you to do right now. Maybe don’t check your emails yet.”

She listened as Ellis relayed to her the events of last night. Apparently, Chance had knocked out Isaac on the field. There were videos taken and he sent her a few of them.

“You need to watch with the sound on,” he told her.

Tori watched the video in horror. She hadn’t turned the sound on but she’d seen all she needed to. She made to leave her office.

“Tori,” Ellis stopped her. “Listen to the videos before you run off. It’s important.” He stood as though to leave her office before turning to her again. “It matters to me and Chance that you listen to that audio.”

She nodded. Eventually, she would but right now she needed to talk to Chance. This was not okay.

“The man is going to ruin his career,” she told Ellis.

“Maybe he found something worth ruining it for.” Ellis let himself out of her office, closing the door behind him.

Tori sat and played the video with the sound on. She heard the terrible things that Ellis was saying about her in front of Emmett. At this point she was ready to send the whole thing to her lawyer and change their custody agreement again.

In the next video, she heard Isaac more clearly but the video focused on Chance and Maddox. She listened to them defend her and then watched at what she hadn’t seen from the angle of the first video.

Chance had definitely told Maddox to get Emmett. He made sure that Emmett was away from what he was about to do beforehand. That only meant that he thought through what he was going to do.

She finished the video and sent them over to Leah before leaning back in her chair. One tear escaped before she could stop it, and she wiped it away.

Her phone rang, and she answered it without looking, knowing it would be Leah.

“What the hell was that?” she asked.

“It’s what we missed after the clinic last night,” Tori said.

“What are you going to do?” Leah asked.

Tori sighed. “I don’t know.”

“Tori…” Leah dragged out. “I think you do.”

“He’s going to ruin his career over this.”

“He might.”

“He can’t.”

“Then do something about it.”

Tori ended the call and grabbed her keys. “I’ll be back,” she yelled towards Ellis’s office.”

“Or not. Either way,” he called back.

She didn’t respond as she left. She hoped he was home because she was on her way to his house. This didn’t change anything for her and him, but she was on a mission.

Hell, she didn’t know what mission she was even on, but it involved going to his house. She’d figure out the rest when she got there. She wasn’t going to try to save their relationship or whatever it was, she was going to save his career.

As she pulled up in front of his house the nerves she’d pushed off came back in full force. She shouldn’t be here if they weren’t dating.

Chance opened the front door before she could drive away. This was it, no going back now. She opened the door and headed to him.

“What do you want?” Chance folded his arms and leaned one hip against the door jamb.

“I wanted to talk to you about last night,” she told him.

“Oh, so now you want to talk about something? I thought you just listened to what everyone else said anyway.”

She deserved it, but it didn’t stop the sting of his words. She winced but pressed on closer.

“Chance,” she started.

“Don’t.” He stopped her. “Don’t come here like nothing has changed between us and you suddenly give a shit.”

“That’s not what I’m doing.” She stayed at the bottom step.

“No? Sure as hell what it looks like.” Chance didn’t move either.

“You shouldn’t have done that last night.”

“Unlike other people, I don’t listen to the things people say about the people I care about and believe them.”

He would never forgive her, but that wasn’t why she was here today. She needed to get him to see reason when it came to Isaac.

“Chance, I know I screwed up and I’m not here to ask you to forgive me. I probably should, but if I were you I wouldn’t.”

He backed away from the door. “Come inside so we don’t give the neighbors a show.”

She walked past him into the house but stayed in the foyer. It was clear that she wasn’t welcome and she knew why.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Please don’t throw away everything you worked on for me. I will be the first person to tell you that I don’t deserve it.”

“Tori,” his voice softened.

“No. Let me finish.” She had to get this out before she lost her nerve or her words. “I don’t know what the right decision was for us and if we would have worked if I hadn’t screwed it up, but at no point did I ever want to see you throw your career away.”

“He shouldn’t have said those things at all, especially not in front of Emmett,” Chance defended.

“I agree. I am glad it’s on video. I will be sending it to my lawyer later. That’s not the point, though. You have enough on your plate without my mess in there, too. I know this is going to impact you in some way, even if it’s not on my fields.”

“It’s already done.”

She nodded. “I guess I just came to say, please don’t do it again on our account.”

“Got it. I don’t imagine I’ll be seeing you much after this week anyway.”

“If you ever want to practice with Emmett, just know that I wouldn’t stop you. If you don’t see him again after this, then I understand completely and wouldn’t think less of you for it. In my story, he will know that you aren’t the bad guy here.”

Chance stared at her for a minute, a move she was getting used to. He always tried to get a read on her before answering like he was judging if she was being honest or not.

She moved to walk past him to go out the door and Chance put a hand on her arm.

“Fuck, Tori,” he hissed out. “I can’t do this.”

“I understand. I do want to say that I am sorry for everything. It was my insecurities that I let take over and for that, I am sorry for the way things ended between us.”

“Maybe one day I will be able to see Emmett. Not right now,” his sad tone cut through her.

“As I said, you aren’t the villain in his story, and he will know that. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll be using that video to help adjust custody with Isaac, so hopefully, nothing bad from there either.” She brought her hand up to his on her shoulder and squeezed it. “I really wish you nothing but the best.”

Chance pulled his hand back from her, and she let herself out of the door. The tears stayed hidden until she got home.

Work wasn’t going to happen today. She went inside, crawled into her own bed, and let the tears fall. There was nothing left to fix between them. She’d screwed it up too much by doubting him more than once.

It was for the best. They weren’t a good fit. Chance’s life was too different from hers to make it work. She’d said her piece and made her apologies. That was all she could do.

If Chance forgave her, then that was great, but they weren’t meant to be more than friends. Her life was just too messy, or so she repeated to herself.

At some point, she got up and cleaned herself up before going to get Emmett. She still had to see Chance two more times this week with the clinic. Everything else could be done via email and he’d probably prefer it that way, too.

Going to a Bardley game would never be the same again. Seeing Chance would probably never stop hurting her in some way. She would do it. She’d make it work for Emmett’s sake and not let this stop her from enjoying the games that she loved to attend.

Tori steeled her spine and made her way to the fields. Emmett was quiet, something that she would need to talk to him about after. Clearly, Isaac had done something to upset him and she doubted it was just what she saw on the video.