Rumor Has It I'm Dating the Football Captain

Chapter 124: Chapter 124: The Divorce Papers

Zoya walked back into the loud, crowded lounge.

She smoothed down the front of her charcoal blazer. She checked her posture. By the time she reached the velvet booth, she looked completely composed, as if she hadn’t just spent the last ten minutes pinned against a door by Jackson Pierce.

She slid back into her seat.

David immediately noticed the slight flush in her cheeks.

"Is everything okay?" David asked politely.

Zoya calmly picked up her cell phone from the table. She tapped the dark screen, frowned slightly, and pretended to read an urgent message.

"I am so sorry, David," Zoya said smoothly. "I just received an urgent message from the firm. We have a massive contract emergency. I have to leave."

Maya narrowed her eyes. She knew exactly what Zoya’s lying face looked like.

"Zoya, are you sure?" Maya asked, trying to read her friend’s expression.

Zoya shot Maya a sharp, completely unreadable warning look.

"I’ll explain later," Zoya told her colleague.

She stood up, offered David a polite apology for ruining his evening, and quickly walked out of the lounge before anyone could ask her another question.

Zoya stepped out onto the sidewalk. The cool city air hit her face.

She let out a long, heavy exhale.

Her perfectly logical mind instantly went right back to Jackson. She thought about the dim suite. She thought about the heavy, desperate kiss. She remembered the heat of his arms holding her, and the terrifying way she had completely surrendered her control.

Zoya closed her eyes.

"I should stop denying it," Zoya whispered to the empty street.

She reached into her leather bag and pulled out her phone. She opened her messages and tapped on Jackson’s name.

For several seconds, she just stared at the blinking cursor.

She typed: Come over.

She stared at it. It felt too aggressive. She deleted it.

She typed: I think we need to talk.

Too dramatic. She deleted it.

Finally, she typed: Come to my place.

She hit send before she could change her mind. She stared at the delivered message, her heart beating a little too fast.

Jackson responded surprisingly quickly.

Jackson: Tonight?

Zoya hesitated for a fraction of a second.

Zoya: Yes.

A few seconds later, the reply came through.

Jackson: I’ll come.

Zoya locked her phone and slipped it into her pocket. For the very first time in seven years, she didn’t overthink what she was doing. She just let herself want him.

Zoya hailed a taxi. Before she could even give the driver her home address, her phone rang loudly in her hand.

It was Chloe.

Zoya answered immediately. "Hello?"

"Zoya," Chloe said. Her voice sounded incredibly small and tight. "Can you meet me?"

Zoya instantly noticed something was terribly wrong. Chloe never sounded like this. Chloe was always bright, loud, and full of energy.

"Where are you?" Zoya asked.

Chloe gave her the address of a quiet, 24-hour diner on the edge of the city. Zoya immediately agreed and gave the new destination to her taxi driver.

She pulled her phone back out and sent Jackson another message.

Zoya: Something came up. I’ll be home later.

She expected him to cancel. She expected him to say they could do it another time.

Instead, Jackson replied instantly.

Jackson: I’ll wait.

That simple, three-word message made Zoya pause. A strange, completely warm feeling bloomed in her chest. She put her phone away and watched the city lights blur past the window as the taxi sped toward the diner.

When Zoya walked into the diner, she immediately spotted Chloe sitting in a back booth.

Chloe looked completely different.

She wasn’t wearing her usual bright colors. She was wearing a baggy gray sweater. Her hair was pulled into a messy knot. She looked entirely exhausted, staring blankly at a cold cup of tea.

Zoya slid into the vinyl booth across from her.

"What happened?" Zoya asked directly.

Chloe didn’t answer immediately. She just kept tracing the rim of her teacup with her finger.

Zoya studied her friend’s pale face.

"Why didn’t you call Audrey?" Zoya asked gently.

Chloe finally looked up. Her eyes were red and swollen.

"Audrey has her own issues right now," Chloe said quietly.

Zoya sighed softly. She knew exactly what Chloe meant. Audrey was completely drowning in the mess of Mason, Alexander, and the heavy emotional fallout of their reunion. Audrey didn’t have the emotional capacity to handle a crisis tonight.

Zoya didn’t push the subject. She folded her hands on the table.

"So what is it?" Zoya asked.

Chloe took a shaky, uneven breath.

"Leo might be cheating on me," Chloe whispered.

Zoya went completely still.

"What?" Zoya asked.

Chloe looked at her. Her eyes were already filling with wet, heavy tears.

"I think Leo is cheating on me, Zoya," Chloe repeated, her voice cracking.

Instantly, Zoya switched into full corporate lawyer mode. There was no panic. There were no wild assumptions. There were just strict, objective facts. She needed to protect her friend, and panic wouldn’t help anyone.

"What makes you think that?" Zoya asked calmly.

Chloe hesitated. "I’ve noticed things."

"What things?" Zoya pressed. "Be specific."

Chloe wiped a tear from her cheek and started explaining.

"He has been receiving late-night phone calls," Chloe said softly. "He walks out of the room to answer them. He has started hiding his phone face-down on the counter. There have been unexplained changes in his training schedule. He says he is at the gym, but when I called the facility yesterday, they said he wasn’t there."

Zoya listened carefully, tracking every single detail in her head.

"He has become unusually secretive," Chloe continued, her voice shaking. "When I ask him simple questions about his day, he gives me completely vague answers. And... last week, I saw a text message pop up on his screen from an unknown number. It was a woman’s name."

Chloe stopped talking. She let out a quiet sob and covered her mouth with her hand.

But then, Chloe admitted the most important detail.

"I haven’t actually caught him doing anything," Chloe whispered. "I don’t have proof."

Zoya processed the information. The signs were definitely bad. But in the legal world, suspicion was not a conviction.

"Have you confronted him?" Zoya asked.

Chloe shook her head quickly. "No."

"Why?"

Chloe’s voice completely broke. "Because I’m scared of what he’ll say."

Zoya reached across the sticky diner table and gently took Chloe’s trembling hand.

"Then don’t accuse him of something you cannot absolutely prove," Zoya advised firmly.

Chloe looked up at her with desperate, tear-filled eyes.

"But what if I’m right?" Chloe cried softly. "What if he is actually betraying me?"

Zoya’s sharp expression completely softened. She squeezed Chloe’s hand.

"Then we will deal with that when we know the absolute truth," Zoya promised. "But you cannot blow up your marriage based on a hunch."

Chloe looked down at their joined hands. She took a deep, shuddering breath.

"I want you to draft the divorce papers," Chloe said.

Zoya completely froze.

The diner suddenly felt entirely too quiet. This wasn’t just a friend venting about a bad argument. This was Chloe, the most loyal, loving woman Zoya knew, seriously contemplating ending her marriage to Leo.

"Chloe," Zoya asked quietly. "Are you sure?"

Chloe didn’t answer.

She just sat there in absolute silence, staring at the table.

That heavy, painful silence told Zoya absolutely everything she needed to know. Chloe wasn’t sure. Chloe was just terrified of being made a fool.

Zoya looked at her closest friend. She looked at the untouched cup of tea sitting between them.

She thought about how entirely strange this night had become.

Just two hours ago, Zoya had gone out to a lounge to prove she could completely move on from the past. Instead, she had kissed Jackson Pierce in a private suite and asked him to come to her apartment.

And now, Chloe was sitting across from her, asking her to prepare divorce papers for a man she had loved since university.

Zoya finally let out a soft sigh.

"I’ll draft them," Zoya agreed quietly.

Chloe looked up, relief washing over her tired face.

"But," Zoya added strictly, pointing a finger at her. "You do not file anything. You do not sign anything until you know for an absolute fact whether Leo actually betrayed you. Do you understand?"

Chloe nodded slowly. "I understand."

Just as the words left her mouth, Chloe’s cell phone lit up on the table.

A new message flashed across the bright screen.

Leo: Where are you? [Red heart emoji]

Chloe stared at the red heart emoji. Her face completely fell.

Zoya noticed the absolute heartbreak in her friend’s eyes, and a quiet, terrible feeling of uncertainty settled heavily over the table.