From Rags to Riches: The Discarded Wife's Revenge

Dress-Up

Sienna

Nina's team arrived at my apartment at seven in the morning with two garment bags and a makeup case the size of a small suitcase.

I stood in my doorway in sweatpants and a t-shirt I'd slept in and watched three women walk into my half-empty apartment like it was completely normal.

If any of them noticed that I didn't have a couch or that my kitchen table was a folding chair next to the counter, nobody said a word.

"We're doing a casual sighting today," Nina said from behind them, walking in last with her phone already in her hand. "Coffee shop two blocks from the arena. You and Dominic will arrive separately and sit together for twenty minutes before a fan photographs you so it'll look organic."

"A fan?" I raised my brow.

"Someone on our team. Once the photo hits social media by noon, the speculation will start." She looked me up and down. "But we need to fix this first." She gestured to me.

By nine o'clock I looked like a version of myself I didn't recognize. Although I wasn't glamorous, because Nina was very clear about that.

The whole point was that I was supposed to look like an ordinary woman having coffee, not like someone who'd been styled by a team.

But my hair was down for the first time in weeks and the jeans they put me in actually fit. The blouse was simple but expensive enough that it automatically changed the way I carried myself.

I caught my reflection in the bathroom mirror and stood there for a second too long.

"Don't overthink it," Nina said from the doorway. "Once the public ships you two, you can drop the act. Besides, you look exactly like what we need."

I didn't know if that was a compliment or not.

The coffee shop went fast. Dominic was already there when I arrived and he stood up when I walked in which I wasn't expecting.

We sat across from each other while he ordered for black coffee and I ordered a latte. As per instruction, we made it look like we were two people getting to know each other.

"You look different," he whispered when Nina wasn't looking.

"Your team dressed me," I replied, rubbing my hands on my thigh.

"I know. I meant you look uncomfortable."

"Is it that obvious?"

Something moved at the corner of his mouth that could have been a smile.

Twenty minutes later we left separately. When I checked my phone in the car, the photo was already online. Someone had posted it with the caption "is that Dominic Ashford on a DATE??" and it already had a few thousand likes.

I put my phone down and told myself this was just a job.

The fake date wasn't the hard part, it was the evening game.

Nina had a seat for me in the family section which was a roped-off area behind the home bench filled with wives, girlfriends, and people who looked like they'd been born into money.

I was given a jersey to wear, not Dominic's number because Nina said that would be too obvious this early, just a regular team jersey.

I sat down and tried to look like I belonged there even though everything about the place reminded me that I didn't. The women around me had diamond earrings and designer bags and I immediately regretted my decision.

The arena was massive. I'd seen hockey on television but being inside the building was something else entirely. The ice was blinding under the lights and when the team came out the noise was deafening.

Eighteen thousand people screaming, and half of that sound was for the man I was pretending to date.

I watched Dominic skate out and the reaction from the crowd was complicated. Some people cheered while some people booed. A group near the glass held up a sign that I couldn't read from where I was sitting but from the expressions of the women around me, it wasn't kind.

He didn't react, instead he skated to center ice for the faceoff and his face was completely blank like none of it touched him. I wondered how long he'd been practicing that expression.

I also wondered if it cost him as much as my fake smile was costing me.

The game started and I tried to follow it but I kept losing track of the puck. One of the women next to me, a blonde with a ring the size of a small country, leaned over and asked, "First game?"

"That obvious?" I chuckled nervously.

She smiled. "You'll get used to it. I'm Chelsea. Javi's girlfriend."

"Sienna."

"I know. Nothing about this team gets past me." She said it warmly enough that I almost relaxed.

I was starting to settle into the noise and the rhythm of the game when my eyes drifted to the VIP section and I saw him.

Marcus.

He was standing near the bar with a drink in his hand, talking to a man in a suit who I assumed was a client.

He looked exactly the same as the last time I'd seen him, which was across a conference table while his lawyer explained why I was entitled to nothing.

He wasn't looking at the man he was talking to. He was looking at me.

And the expression on his face wasn't anger, it wasn't even surprise or curiosity.

It was amusement like I was a joke he hadn't expected to hear tonight. Like seeing me in a hockey jersey in the family section of an arena was the funniest thing that had happened to him all week.

He tilted his drink toward me slightly, just enough for me to notice, and then turned back to his conversation like I wasn't worth more than three seconds of his attention.

My hands went cold. I could feel my heartbeat in my throat and the noise of the arena turned into something muffled and far away.

Chelsea was saying something next to me but I couldn't hear her. All I could hear was the sound of my own breathing and all I could see was that look on his face.

That look that said I know exactly who you are and I know exactly what you're doing here and you and I both know you don't belong.

As soon as the game ended, I dashed out of there, not knowing who won.

I was supposed to wait for Nina's team to walk me out the designated exit where there might be cameras, but instead I went straight to the clinic because it was the only place in the building that felt like mine.

I sat on the floor behind the supply cabinet and pressed my back against the wall.

"I can't do this," I choked, already making up my mind to quit. The money didn't matter.

Nothing was worth sitting in a room full of strangers pretending to be someone I wasn't while the man who destroyed my life watched from across the room with a smile on his face like he'd already won.

I was pulling out my phone to call Nina when the door opened.

"The lights are off so either nobody's here or someone doesn't want to be found."

I heard Dominic's voice. He was still in his under armor, hair damp from the shower, standing in the doorway letting the hallway light spill across the floor.

"I don't want to be found," I replied.

He stood there for a moment before he came in and closed the door behind him.

Then he sat on the floor across from me with his back against the opposite wall. He didn't try turning the lights on or ask what went wrong.

He just sat there in the dark with me and the only sound was that of us breathing.

"I'm going to quit," I said after a while.

"Ok. I'll let Nina know..."

"That's it? Just ok?" I don't even know why I was getting angry.

"It's your decision. I'm not going to talk you out of something you've already decided."

"I haven't decided."

"Then why did you say it?"

I didn't have an answer for that.

We sat there for a while longer. The building was getting quiet above us as the crowd filed out and the only sound was the hum of the refrigeration unit in the corner.

"Someone was at the game tonight," I said finally. "Someone I wasn't expecting to see."

He waited as I took a deep breath.

"My ex-husband."

He didn't react the way I thought he would. He didn't tense up or ask what happened or offer to do something about it. He just nodded slowly like he understood the weight of those two words in a way most people wouldn't.

"He's a sports agent," I continued, even though I hadn't planned to say any of this. "He represents athletes and has clients on teams across the league so he's going to be at games. I just didn't think about that when I signed the contract."

"What did he do?"

The question was simple but the answer wasn't. I could feel the whole story pressing against the back of my teeth, all of it, the receipt, the track star, the lawyer I couldn't afford, the house I lost, the calls he made, the career he erased.

But I wasn't ready to give all of that to someone I'd known for less than a week, no matter how quietly he sat with me in the dark.

"It's not important. Just know that he might know this is fake."

"The first time I got booed in my own arena was three weeks ago," he said. "I'd played in that building for nine years. Nine years of sold-out crowds chanting my name and then one clip later, and suddenly I'm the villain. I sat in the parking garage after that game for an hour because I didn't want to drive home to an empty apartment and listen to the silence."

I didn't say anything.

"Look, it's ok if you don't want to do this. I wasn't on board with the whole idea until Nina convinced me. I have a foundation I'm fighting to save." He let out a heavy sigh.

My eyes were burning but I didn't cry because I was so tired of crying over things Marcus had done to me.

"What can I do to help?" he asked and I looked at him like he was insane.

"Look, if we're going to make this fake stuff work, you need to let me in on a few things. Can you do that?"

I looked at him in the dark and tried to decide how much of my life I was willing to hand to a man I barely knew.