While I pack up the few personal belongings I kept at my desk, Summer sits back in her chair, smiling like a Cheshire cat. She’s won, yet I can’t help feel pity on her for what she had to resort to in order to get to the finish line.

“You know Olivia, you shouldn’t feel too badly. If it wasn’t the story, it would have been something else.” She pauses and I pretend I don’t hear her as I clear out the rest of my drawers. Getting a last rise out of me is just what she wants. “That man is just way too much man for you to handle.”

The need to defend him wins out, even though he’s not mine to defend anymore. “You don’t know a thing about Vinny.”

“Maybe that was true, but I know he came to my apartment a few nights ago. And not yours.”

I take a deep breath, digging deep to quell my rising anger. Closing my eyes, I try desperately to rise above it. But I’m a writer, and closing my eyes just brings the visual of the words to life in my head. And it’s more than I can bear to witness. Unable to stop myself, I take the two steps to walk around my desk to where she’s standing and pull back and smack her square across the face. Her head flails to the side with the power behind my angry slap.

Hand stinging, box in hand, head held high, I don’t look back as I walk out of the Daily Sun Times.

Chapter 50

Vince

Underneath the arena, less than an hour to go until the biggest fight of my life, and I’m f**king miserable. Finding it difficult to pretend to be psyched up for a fight that I know I can’t win, I’m glad for the chaos in the locker room that surrounds a championship fight. Otherwise I’d have to deal with Nico one on one. The f**ked up part is I feel worse for doing this to Nico than I do for myself.

Over on the other side of the room, I see him talking to a reporter. He talks about the years that we’ve worked together with pride. He’s a pain in the ass, always has his nose in my business, yet I don’t know where I’d be without him. In more ways than one.

Half an hour before we have to go up for announcements, Nico kicks everyone out of the room. Wrapping my hands, he starts with the pep talk I knew was bound to come.

“You’re better than this guy.”

“I know.”

“Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Watch for when he drops his left…”

“I know.”

“And don’t let him take you to the ground.”

“I know.”

“Well if you know everything, what the hell do you need me here for?” Nico jokes, giving me a playful smack across the face.

“Listen, Nico,” I pause, not sure of my words, not wanting to come out all sappy, sounding like a pu**y…so I go for simple. “Thank you.”

“I’m your trainer, you don’t have to thank me. I get a cut, remember?” He smiles.

“I meant for everything.”

Finishing the tape, Nico stills and looks up at me. A nod that says more than words ever could. He slaps one arm around my shoulder. “Come on, let’s go kick some ass.”

***

Standing at the back of the arena behind closed doors, I wait as the crowd cheers after the announcer calls my opponent into the ring. Head bowed, I close my eyes, taking in the electricity of the moment. A moment that should be mine. Ten years in the making, and I’m finally here. The doubters never thought I’d make it. Thinking back, neither did I most days. I spent my life swimming upstream, but sometimes…sometimes, it just got to be too much. So I’d stop swimming and just let the current take me for a ride, never knowing where I was going to land.

Nico clasps his hand to my shoulder as the door opens and I look down the familiar dark aisle toward the center where all the lights shine. “You ready to do this?” he yells to me over the sound of the crowd leaking out through the open door.

“As I’ll ever be.”

Chapter 51

Liv

The plane circles in the air for what seems like the hundredth time and I sit fidgeting in my seat. I’m not going to make it. They need to land this damn plane. A voice breaks into my thoughts, coming from a speaker above me. “Ladies and gentlemen we’re just going to be a little while longer here. We’re backed up and they’ve got us in a holding pattern. It seems our delay out of D.C. has made us miss our ground time here in Chicago and now we need to wait our turn in line.”

A hand covers mine, stilling it, ending my mindless tapping with worry on the armrest. “Relax, we have time. We’ll make it.” Elle’s smile comforts me. A little anyway. There are no words to describe how much Elle making the trip means to me. She did so much more than prepare the legal documents, I’m not sure I could’ve gone through with it without her. Standing by my side the whole time gave me the confidence I needed to know I was doing the right thing. Well, technically, what we were doing wasn’t the right thing, I’m not even sure it was really legal, but sometimes it takes a series of wrongs to come out in the right place in the end.

“Thank you so much for doing this with me,” I say, turning to the beautiful woman sitting beside me. “I know how hard it must have been for you to leave the baby all day. And I’m sure Nico is going to have a whole lot to say when he finds out the real reason you went out of town.” Half teasing with my last comment, I attempt a playful smile, although it comes out what it really is…a sorry excuse at covering my frayed nerves.

“You’ve thanked me a hundred times, Liv.” She smiles. “I’m glad I could help, but really, Vinny’s family. I’d do anything for that boy.” Turning in her chair to face me more directly, her eyes filled with sincerity, she says, “I know you don’t think so now, but everything is going to work itself out. I just feel it. He loves you, Liv. He wouldn’t be so angry and miserable if he didn’t.”

I know she’s trying to help, yet hearing that I’ve made Vinny angry and miserable just tugs at my heart. Seeing my face falter, she continues, “It hurts. I know. But you’re sacrificing a lot to make it right for him and someday, when his hot temper cools down, he’ll see it.”

***

Finally we pull up to the front of the arena. The cab barely stopped, I throw money in the front seat and rip open the car door. It’s quiet outside as we make our way to the entrance. Everyone is already inside. Not a good sign. Elle needs to get to him before it’s too late.

We pass through security quickly and shove our tickets in the hands of the man collecting them and take off running down the hall before he even has a chance to rip them in half and give us our stubs.