*Thank-you for the reviews on the last chapter they were greatly appreciated. Thank-you all so much*
"Hello, Beautiful," I say as I am in my hotel room in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania preparing myself for my meeting with Mack and his lawyer as I see Hayden's name on my caller ID as her ringtone rings out and I answer the phone.
"Hey, Baby," she says making me smile. "I miss you so much."
"I miss you too," I say, "but soon you'll be up here in Pittsburgh with me. We only have two more weeks to go before you move up here."
"I know but two weeks is such a long time," she says. "It feels like forever."
"I know, I hate being away from you and the girls but training camp starts this week and I need to get them into shape for preseason and soon the regular season. It's going to be a wild ride from now until February."
"That's if the Steelers make it to the super bowl," she says, "that's not guaranteed."
"I know but I have faith in my team. I think we can get there," I say hopefully. It's my first time being a head coach for an NFL team but hopefully we can make it to the big game in February. I hope we have a pretty good season.
"I hope so for you," she says, "You're a good coach and I know you're ready to make a name for yourself. The Steelers needed you."
"I hate to say it but I think Mack and I might be what this team needed. It's a brand new team going into this season."
"Speaking of Mack, how are you feeling today about that?"
"I don't know," I say, "I'm not happy about it but we need this sit down to move forward."
"When are you meeting with him?"
"In about 30 minutes," I answer.
"Just don't get hot headed and don't let your temper get the best of you," she says. "I know how you can get."
"I'm not going to lose my temper," I say.
"I just remember a time you punched him in the mouth, you can't allow that to happen," she reminds me. "You know he likes to taunt you and push your buttons. Don't let him get away with it please. Just be the bigger person, say what you need to say and move on."
"I know," I say. "I promise, I am not going to lose my temper."
"I hope not," she says.
"I won't. So how are you feeling?" I ask. "Are you ready for your appointment today?"
"Yes," she says, "and I am doing the blood test to determine the sex of the babies."
"Wouldn't it be easier to just get an ultrasound in a few weeks rather than doing the blood test?" I ask.
"Only if the babies are cooperative," she responds, "but this is just as accurate and we find out sooner."
"Okay, and then what happens?" I ask.
"The doctor is going to mail the results to Shea and then she's going to get everything together for the gender reveal party," she says.
"Does it have to be Shea that we use to know the gender before anyone else?"
"I know but I don't want any of our family members to know first."
"Why can't you just have a baker make a cake, we take a piece and eat, see if the inside is pink or blue and voila we know the sex and then Shea doesn't have to know the sex of our children before we do."
"Well, she wants to reveal the sex in a big fireworks display and before we had a falling out she did offer to do this. I know you don't like Shea but just allow her to do this for us."
"Why does it have to be fireworks? Why can't it be something with football?" I ask.
"Because not everything in our lives has to be about football," she says.
"But you know football is everything for me," I say with a smile, "and a football gender reveal might be kind of interesting."
"How about you take a break just this once from thinking about football," she says, "let's not do football for this and if we're having boys you can go football crazy with the nursery," she says.
"And if they are girls what are we going with?"
"I don't even know," she says, "I'll think about it."
"Okay, but mark my words you're having boys," I say.
"Maybe, we'll find out in two weeks," she says making me smile. "I love you, baby. I have to go take a shower. Let me know how your meeting goes and remember keep your cool."
"I love you too," I say with a smile. "I promise, I will keep my cool. Goodbye."
"Bye, Baby," she says before we kill the call.
Once I get off the phone with my wife I get myself prepared to face the man I consider my biggest enemy and the devil. I know it's not going to be easy forgiving him for what he did to my wife but I have been holding onto so much anger and so much resentment for far too long. If my wife can move on after what he did to her and forgive him for what he did to her then I can do the same thing but I will never forget it and the pain it caused Hayden and how she almost had a downfall from everything. I am not looking forward to facing this man but he's my quarterback so I need to face him regardless.
About 30 minutes later I am walking into the building I am meeting with Mack and his lawyer. I take a deep breath outside the door letting go of all the negativity before I walk into the door. I remind myself that I am going to keep calm and I am not going to lose my temper as much as I would love to punch Mack in his smug face I am going to resist the urge. I let out a deep breath as I pull on the door handle, opening the door. I swallow hard, swallow back any negative comments as I see Mack sitting nonchalantly with his lawyer. "Coach Reigns," he says with a smile. "Long time no see. How's life treating you?" he asks smugly.
"Mack," I say with a nod. "Life is pretty good."
"You know the irony of me being your quarterback is rather crazy isn't it? It's like life repeating itself. Remember when I took the Yellow Jackets all the way? I mean we had a really good season that year, remember that? Oh yeah, that's right you were fired before you could enjoy that sweetness. Was it worth losing everything for? Losing your job for a student, was it all worth it?"
"Actually, I would lose my job a thousand times over if it meant that I could be with Hayden. I'm not mad that I lost my job, I'm not mad that I lost my coaching position because I still had Hayden and then I got my job with the Saints which was a lot better than a college coaching job. I enjoyed my time as a coach for Georgia Tech but I also enjoyed my time as a defensive coach for The Saints just like I am sure I will enjoy my job as the head coach for the Steelers."
"So humble," he rolls his eyes. "So you and Hayden are still married?" he asks.
"Yes, we're married and we're having twins in February," I say.
"Interesting," he says. "Look, I'm sorry for everything that happened," he says shocking me. "I'm sorry that I took advantage of Hayden and made her life a living Hell. I'm sorry for that. She didn't deserve it and I'm sorry that I did that to her."
"You're apologizing? I thought you didn't rape her?" I ask, "now you're admitting to raping her?" I ask. He shrugs his shoulders as his lawyer whispers to him.
"I didn't say I raped her, I apologized for taking advantage of her, I never said I raped her, those words didn't come out of my mouth," he says.
"It's the same thing," I say.
"No, it's not the same thing, taking advantage of someone isn't raping them and besides she didn't say no," he says, "so it wasn't rape."
"Well, whatever it is I forgive you for what you did, not because you deserve it because as far as I am concerned you deserve to burn in hell but I'm forgiving you to help me move on. If my wife can forgive you, then I shouldn't have any reason not to be able to forgive you. And with you being a member of the Steelers and me being a coach we need to work together for the good of the team."
"How noble of you," he says, "does Hayden ever think about me? Does she ever mention me?" he asks and I know what he's doing.
"Never," I say. "She never mentions you."
"Interesting," he says. "So you're forgiving me so that I can help the Steelers win?"
"I'm forgiving you to make myself feel better. It's not fair to hold this grudge against you. It's not fair to me," I say, "so I just want to move forward, forget about the past and start new. I cannot deny the fact that you're an amazing football player and you have a great talent for what you do and I admire that. I don't like you but I will tolerate you, I will be the bigger person and forgive you. So can we co-exist together for the team?"
"If that's what you want," he says.
"Look, I still think you are an arrogant, smug, scum of the Earth SOB and personally I don't like you, I can't stand you but professionally as your coach I am going to support you and cheer for you despite how I actually feel about you. So can we co-exist together or not?" I ask.
"You think I like you any more than you like me? I remember when you punched me in the mouth," he says, "I don't trust you with my career which is why I had my lawyer draw up some papers for you to sign."
"You don't trust me? You raped my wife, lied about it and used your daddy's money to get away with it and you don't trust me? I don't trust you, you're the type of person that would sell their Grandmother for a buck if you needed to."
He lets out a laugh and says, "You should really read over the paperwork," he says.
His lawyer pulls out an envelope and pulls out some papers from the envelope. I tap my fingers on the desk in front of me as I wait. "These papers just state that you cannot be biased toward my client meaning, you must play him despite your true feelings and can't let your prejudice in the way. You must treat my client fairly and not in an unjust manner. My client will be on his best behavior as long as he is on your team," he says looking at Mack and Mack nods, "and you must treat him equally like every other player on the team and if you don't, or you're in violation it will cost you a lot of money at least $50,000 to violate this contract and being prejudice toward my client," he says. I bite my lip and tap my fingers even harder as Mack glances at me with a smug look on his face. "So if you could just sign this paperwork and we will be done here," he says sliding the papers over to me with a pen.
"Not so fast," I say pulling out my own envelope of papers from my lawyer. "I have my own papers," I say, "and the owner has looked them over and my lawyer has looked them over. It clearly states that while he is a member of my team he needs to be on his best behavior if there's any air or rumor that he violated, raped or assaulted another female his NFL career will be over and he will be fired from the Steelers. He is not allowed to mention my wife's name or even converse with my wife if given the opportunity. If he violates this he will lose his job." I slide my own papers over to the lawyer. He reads them over and whispers to Mack as I look over my own papers from Mack's lawyer. I reluctantly sign them before giving them back to Mack's lawyer. "Is he going to sign those papers or not?" I ask.
"He will but I want to take them to my office to look over them just to make sure they are legitimate and there are no loopholes. My client will have these papers back to you by the beginning of training camp."
"He doesn't play unless he signs those papers," I warn.
"Do the other players have these same stipulations or just my client?"
"Given the history of your client and his actions he is the only one," I say.
"Ah, I see, then my client is not obligated to sign those papers UNLESS you reword the stipulations about talking to your wife and have other players sign similar papers about behavior otherwise you are in violation of your contract with my client," he says as Mack gives me a smug arrogant smile making my skin crawl, I grit my teeth trying to keep my cool. His lawyer hands the papers back to me, "you wouldn't want to be prejudice with my client, Mr. Reigns, it's not in your best interest to do so and it could cost you thousands of dollars."
"I will revise these papers and have everyone sign them," I say. "Training camp begins Wednesday, I'll see you then, Mack," I say knowing he has me by the balls, knowing one misconstruing could cost me thousands of dollars.
"It's going to be a pleasure, Coach Reigns," he says smugly before holding his hand out to me. I reluctantly shake it as he squeezes it, "it will be so great to play for you I can't wait to see Hayden again." He smiles before he and his lawyer take their leave. I pound my fist on the table knowing there's NOTHING I can do at this point without losing money.
*a/n: So what did you think? What do you think the babies will be girls or boys? We will find out in the next chapter? What did you think of Mack and Roman meeting with each other? Is Mack blackmailing Roman? Is his contract fair? Please review and thank-you for reading.