Chapter 283: Three months
Rhys
This was exactly what I had been desperately trying to avoid. Letting the entire world find out about us, about our private lives, and most importantly, about the baby. The public proposal was one thing, but now that a pregnancy was being broadcasted to the globe, we were never going to have a single moment of peace.
I heaved a deep sigh as I paced restlessly around Coach Reddick’s office.
Kayden remained seated in his chair, his arms tightly folded across his chest, keeping entirely quiet.
The moment we had received the links and checked the trending headlines, we had rushed straight to the management offices. To our complete surprise, the Avalanche’s new CEO, Anderson Park, was already sitting inside, waiting for us alongside the coach.
"Calm down, Calder. I know this private information got leaked out," Anderson said, his voice level and entirely unbothered as he gestured toward the chair opposite him. "But if you are panicking like this, then what happens to your partner?" He pointed toward Kayden, who still hadn’t muttered a single word.
I ran a hand frantically through my hair, ignoring the CEO as I rushed straight over to Kayden’s side.
He has to avoid stress. Dr. Amara Bennett’s strict medical warnings echoed loudly in my head. Cortisol spikes were the absolute last thing his volatile endocrine system needed right now, and it was my job as his alpha to ensure this media nightmare didn’t compromise the pregnancy.
"Baby, are you alright?" I demanded softly, dropping down onto my knees right in front of his chair so I could look up into his face.
Kayden looked down at me, his expression unreadable before he gave me a firm nod. "You are the one spiraling, Rhys. Calm down, I am completely fine. There is no way I am going to let any of this public noise affect the baby. I will just treat this leak like any other internet rumor."
"But—" I tried to argue, my chest tight with protective anxiety, but the sharp clearing of a throat behind us cut me off.
"If I were you, I would listen to my partner," Anderson Park interjected from across the desk. "That is exactly what you need to do right now, Calder. Your mate needs you to be his anchor, and if you are spinning out like this, he won’t have a stable foundation to rely on."
As much as it bruised my pride, Anderson was right. I needed to force myself to breathe, pull it together, and figure a constructive way out of this mess.
Standing up, I looked over at the desk. "Coach, what does this mean for us?"
Coach Reddick cleared his throat, casting a brief, cautious glance at Anderson Park as if waiting for permission to lay out the damage. When the CEO nodded, the coach continued. "Well, according to what is currently trending online, the public is running wild with speculations. They’re trying to claim this sudden pregnancy is the sole reason behind your public proposal. Worse, a vocal faction of Kayden’s fans are actively blaming you, claiming you’re the reason the league is benching him this season. Meanwhile, the critics are accusing Kayden of trapping the team captain with a pregnancy. It’s incredibly toxic out there right now."
Reddick paused, tapping his fingers against the desk. "Our media relations team is already working around the clock to take down the most hateful comments, but it ultimately comes down to what you two decide to do. Do you want to get ahead of the narrative and announce the pregnancy exclusively to the world, or do you intend to keep hiding it?"
I let out a long, heavy sigh that vibrated straight through my bones. I honestly didn’t know how to respond to that, or what the correct play even was.
All I could think about was the terrifying reality that our most fragile, dangerous secret had been stripped bare for the public to dissect.
Who could have done this? Did Rami Calder figure it out during our hostile meeting? Did Raymond notice something out of the ordinary when he aggressively showed up at our house?
A relentless flood of paranoia raced through my mind as I tried to trace exactly who could have connected the dots and sold us out to the paparazzi.
But a more critical question remained: what do we do now?
"I..." I trailed off, turning my gaze back to Kayden.
He still maintained a perfectly straight face, looking as calm as if our names weren’t currently dominating the global sports trends, as if our unborn child hadn’t just been exposed to millions of strangers.
I was the one losing my mind, acting like our world was going to end in the blink of an eye.
How could he just sit there and keep his composure when everything was going sideways?
Heaving another sigh, I rubbed my face slowly. "What do you think, Kayden? What should we do?"
Kayden looked up, his eyes locking onto mine, and he let out a very faint, controlled sigh. That was the exact moment I realized my alpha instincts hadn’t lied to me. He wasn’t actually calm; he was forcefully keeping it all bottled up inside, pretending everything was perfectly fine for my sake whereas beneath the surface, he was just as terrified.
The absolute last thing I wanted was for him to internalize this pressure.
"Should we just announce it formally to the world after the first three months are over... right before the preseason starts?" Kayden asked carefully.
I instantly caught the hidden meaning behind his words. We needed to ensure the embryo successfully survived this high-risk stage of instability before we invited the rest of the world into our lives.
"Whatever timeline you choose to go with for the announcement, management will support it, as long as it doesn’t completely derail your focus during the preseason," Coach Reddick muttered. "In the meantime, I strongly advise both of you to maintain an absolute low-profile. Avoid the public eye entirely."
"Copy that, Coach," I responded.