*Thank-you for the reviews on the last chapter they were greatly appreciated. Thank-you all so much*
I arrive back to my new home after a flight back from Atlanta, everything feels so surreal knowing that Mack has been arrested on rape charges seeing the video of him being taken to jail in handcuffs was unbelievable. It was beautiful to see and the fact I know justice will be coming his way makes me happy. I have talked to our lawyer and he has a good feeling about the charges against Mack as well as all the evidence that suddenly turned up that wasn't there years ago when I pressed charges against Mack the first time but the case was dropped with a lack of evidence. I am starting to think that maybe someone was paid to hide the evidence or to make the evidence disappear. I don't want to think about back then, I want to think of now and focus on getting the charges to stick. I already know that he's a celebrity so it's going to be public news.
I pull into the driveway of my home to see a lot of paparazzi gathered on my front lawn, with a lot of reporters holding cameras and microphones. I wasn't expecting this at all. I get out of my rental car and as soon as I am out of the car I am hounded by reporters and paparazzi charging at me. "Hayden, what made you reopen the case against Mack?" asks one reporter as I try to push my way through the crowd.
"Hayden, do you think the charges will stick this time?" asks another reporter.
"Hayden, was the baby you aborted Mack's baby?" asks another reporter. I don't even know how they have all this information especially about my abortion.
"Hayden, do you believe that Mack should be fired from the NFL?"
So many questions and so many people crowding my way to my front door, it's nearly impossible to get through the crowd as Roman comes out of the house. "BACK OFF!" he yells, "You have no right to be on my property," he says forcefully, "LEAVE MY WIFE ALONE!"
They run toward Roman taking their attention away from me and begin to ask him questions, freeing my way to my house. Roman chooses to ignore the questions being asked, pulling me into the house and slamming our front door in their faces, locking the door and making sure the blinds are closed so they can't see into the house which is very nice, he did a great job putting everything together. "It's crazy out there," I say.
"Tell me about it," he says, "they have been out there since the day the news broke that Mack was arrested on rape charges."
"Hounds," I say. "I didn't deal with any of that in Atlanta."
"Because this is California," he smiles. "We have more paparazzi here," he says. "How was your flight?"
"It was good," I say with a smile, "I can see you were busy while I was gone."
"I did some work," he smiles proudly. "Come here," he says wrapping me up in a hug, I wrap my arms around him. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," I say with a smile resting my head on his chest. He kisses the top of my head.
"How do you feel about everything?" he asks.
"Hopeful," I say, "you know what the most hopeful thing was?" I say looking up at him.
"What's that?" he asks.
"When I reported it to the police, told the detective my story and he looked at the report from 5 years ago he apologized to me, he told me he was sorry that this happened to me and sorry that they didn't believe me. No one has ever apologized to me for what happened, I was always making it up and told there wasn't enough evidence, there was a video, Roman; a video of me being raped unconsciously how can I consent to having sex when I am passed out on the bed? I can't," I say.
"Baby Girl, I'm sorry that happened to you, and I am sorry no one believed you but I ALWAYS believed you and I still believe you. I hope that this works out for the best and the moment he was arrested was a relief. There's talk that he could lose his NFL contract for this."
"Why didn't he lose his NFL contract when he was accused of raping Bayley?" I ask.
"I am sure if the charges had stuck and it had been true he would have lost his contract but from what I hear there are talks of suspending him until all this is over," he says. "But you didn't hear that from me."
"So no one knows for sure if he's going to be suspended?" I ask.
"Like I said there are talks of a possible suspension but I don't think the decision has been made yet or at least made known to the public. NFL takes this kind of thing very seriously so if they don't suspend him and then fire him I would be surprised," he says.
"Oh," I say, "the paparazzi was asking so many questions."
"It's better not to answer them, the less information we give to them the better it is for us," he says.
"But if we don't give them information they won't leave us alone and I don't want to live my life like this, being attacked every time I leave my home."
"We'll talk to the lawyer and see what he recommends we do."
"That sounds like a good idea," I say, "so you've been busy," I say, "I want to see what all you've done."
"Okay," he smiles, "Let me take you on a tour."
"Sounds good," I say with a smile.
Roman takes my hand and leads me through the house taking me on a tour. We start in the foyer that leads to the staircase to take us upstairs. He put a nice table in the foyer with a vase of artificial sunflowers, pictures on the wall of him and me together, a cubby organizer to put our shoes when we enter the house, a coat hanger mounted to the wall to hold the girls' bookbags and jackets if it gets cold enough for them. He takes me to the living room which he painted a teal green color with tons of family pictures on the wall, wall quote decals and pictures of the girls, the TV mounted on the wall, the sectional sofa stretching through the living room with an entertainment center holding the blu-ray disc player and his playstation 4, with the DVD's, blu-rays and games hidden away in the shelves. He takes me to the dining room which he also painted a dark teal green, a cabinet holding our expensive and fragile fancy dishes we use for holidays and special occasions, the kitchen looks beautiful with the marble counter tops, the polished wooden cabinets and the stainless steel refrigerator, stove and oven my kitchen utensils, oven mits hung over the stove. A small wooden table by the sliding glass door in the kitchen leading out to the backyard with an in-ground pool, a trampoline for the girls and the newly built swing set for them as well. Everything so far looks perfect as he takes me upstairs to see the bedrooms, the two guest rooms decorated nicely and welcoming for our guests when they arrive, Nova's room decorated with a Paris theme like she requested, Kylynn's room decorated in a unicorn theme with ombre pastel walls in the colors pink, purple and blue. He takes me to our bedroom with pale yellow walls, pictures of us on the walls, a TV mounted onto the wall across from our bed with a sunflower comforter. It's absolutely beautiful, he really did work hard while I was away. He definitely saved me a lot of work.
"You really worked your butt off while I was away," I say with a smile.
"I try," he smiles, "it was a lot of sleepless nights, between practices and trying to get this done it was a lot of sleepless nights."
"Aww, poor baby," I smile, "I think you better get ready for some sleepless nights because with two newborn babies we won't be getting much sleep."
"I know," he says, "I did work on one more room while you were away," he says.
"You did?" I ask. "What room?"
"Follow me," he says leading me to the door connecting us to the room next door. "Close your eyes," he says. I follow his instructions and close my eyes. He takes me by the hand as he opens the door, leading me through the open space, "all right," he says, "open your eyes."
I open my eyes and I am in awe of the room I am standing in. It is absolutely beautiful, the walls painted dark blue and light blue, two white cribs set up in the room one crib with the name Luca decaled on the wall and the name Roman decaled above the other crib on the wall, each crib with ocean themed sheets with octopus, whales and fish on them, a comforter matching the sheets hanging over the side of the crib, the walls decorated with fish, whales and octopus decals through out the room, a decal on the wall saying I whale always love you and another decal that says if you want to know how much I love you, count the waves in the sea. There's a little bookshelf set up with some of my favorite children's books on the shelf and hopefully there will be more after the babies are born because I have requested as a gift for the boys to help start their book collection and gift a book instead of a card. On top of the white dresser in the room there is a frame holding the two ultrasound pictures of the boys, there are stuffed animals in the room including one of the stuffed animals I had when I was a baby that I said I wanted to pass down to my first born. Everything is perfect even the octopus night light in the outlet giving off a faint light. "Roman," I say with tears in my eyes. "It's beautiful."
"Anything for you, Baby Girl," he says with a smile, "you like it?"
"I love it," I say, "but I thought you wanted to do a football theme with their nursery?"
"Football is a major part of our lives and it is everywhere we go," he says, "it's okay to step away from the football and focus on something else. You wanted to have either a dinosaur theme or an under the sea theme so I went with one of your ideas. I like the sea theme," he says.
"Me too," I say with a smile. "I love it all, thank-you for all the hard work you put into the house while I was away."
"You're welcome," he says with a smile, "I didn't want you to have to lift a finger."
"I really appreciate it," I say, "you did such a wonderful job and you took all my ideas."
"I know," he says with a smile. "I'm glad you like it."
I wrap my arms around him tightly and say, "I love it! Thank you so much."
"Anything for you," he smiles before kissing the top of my head.
Roman did such a wonderful job on the entire house, he worked so hard and I appreciate everything he did. "So have you heard from Shea?" I ask as we are sitting outside on our patio.
"Yes, I've heard from her, she's not feeling this move to California. She wants primary custody of the girls. She's blaming it on my job and now with this media circus she is really hesitant about it. She doesn't want their lives disturbed by it all."
"She has always known you were a football coach, you were married when you were a football coach for Georgia Tech. How is being an NFL coach any different not to mention the fact you coached for the Saints and still had primary custody, what's the difference now?"
"That she's unwilling to move to California," he says. "It's just a big mess with her and now she's going to use this new media attention as part of her case against me."
"I'm sorry," I say apologetically, "if I had known I would have never went ahead with reopening the case."
"No, she's just a child," he says. "Things aren't going her way so she's throwing a fit. I have never given a reason to be deemed uncapable of being the primary custodian of our children. I have always been an amazing father to our children."
"I know you have and Nova and Kylynn are very happy when they are with us. I understand it's hard for her to be away from her children just as it would be hard for you to be away from your children. I thought she wanted to move to Vegas with Dean?"
"That's what they discussed, I don't know if that's going to happen or not."
"Hmm, I see," I say. "I'm sorry, Baby."
"You don't have to apologize, I trust my lawyer and I know it will all work out somehow."
"Yes it will," I say with a smile. "Everything will work out," I say.
Roman's phone buzzes and dings alerting him that he has a new news alert and text messages. He looks at his phone and his eyes get big, "Holy shit," he says.
"What?" I ask. "What's wrong?"
"Holy shit," he says again.
"Roman, what is it? What happened? Is everything okay?"
"Everything is great!" he says with a smile. "NFL Commisioner has announced that Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Mack Ryan has been suspended from the NFL and will be benched for the season without pay amid the accusations against him. NFL takes sexual assault and violence against women seriously and there is no place for individuals who commit these heinous crimes against women here in the NFL. Jordan Thomas wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints has also been suspended and benched for the first 6 games of the season without pay due to his involvement in the rape of Hayden Gonzales-Castellano now known as Hayden Reigns the wife of the coach of the San Francisco 49ers. Decisions regarding their careers will be up to the owners and the coaches of each team but as for me I have chosen to bench and suspend both players without pay."
"Holy crap!" I say, "that's big!"
"Very big!" says Roman with a smile, "they are finally being held accountable for their actions."
"It's about time," I say with a smile. "So was Jordan arrested too?"
"Apparently he was," says Roman.
"Good," I say, "They both need to be held accountable for their actions. No more depending on Daddy to handle your problems, they both need to be held accountable. I already know this is going to be a long battle and it's going to get ugly but I am ready to fight. I need to fight not just for me but for every victim of violence against women, every survivor of rape that didn't get their justice and for all women everywhere. Violence against women needs to end. It needs to end now."
"I am so proud of you," he says with a smile, "I am happy to call you my wife and I am glad to be by your side and fight with you. I love you, Hayden."
"I love you too," I say with a smile.
*A/N: So what did you think of this chapter? Please review and thank-you for reading. Should I keep this story going? Are you still interested in it?