Page 28 of Breaking the Ice

“Yolanda specializes in lies.”

Ignoring my warning, Ellie says, “I’ll bring your curtains over later this afternoon. If you’re not there, can I just take them in?”

“Sure,” I tell her. “I don’t have anything to hide either.”

Ellie’s gaze narrows to the point where it feels like she’s trying to see inside my soul. “Then you shouldn’t be worried about anything.”

How can she be so naïve? The truth rarely wins, especially for public figures. Hollywood is nothing but a giant illusion meant to create a narrative to keep people entertained while lining the pockets of the studios. The press is their handmaiden.

I try one last time. “Please be careful, Ellie. I know how to handle Yolanda. You don’t.”

“Good thing I don’t live a life where I have to handle people then. I’m not a child, Zach.” Oh yeah, she’s mad.

I watch as she walks toward her car. While I’m tempted to help her bring the baskets in, I know she doesn’t want me around. Also, I don’t need to give Yolanda any more footage of me and Ellie together.

After walking around the back of the building, I call Troy. He didn’t answer earlier when I tried to alert him the press had already arrived, but he answers now. “Hey, bro. What’s up?”

“Yolanda Simms is here, and she’s bent on causing trouble.”

“What happened?”

“I was hiding in your office when Ellie came in. When we walked out, Yolanda pounced.”

“There’s nothing to do but face her head-on,” Troy says. “You’ve had enough exposure to the press to know that.” He sighs loudly. “We all have.”

My brother has had his own run-ins with persistent reporters when he played for the Chicago Blizzard. Several of the players were accused of sexual misconduct by a hotel housekeeper and subsequently became the focus of a nasty investigation.

The housekeeper’s lawyer agreed to settle the case for five million dollars, but Troy wouldn’t go for it. He said that he didn’t do anything wrong, and he wouldn’t let people think he’d had any part in such a heinous crime. Troy’s teammates, who also claimed innocence, felt accusations like the ones they were facing came with the game, and they just wanted them to go away.

Because Troy wouldn’t play ball, the investigation became fodder for the international media, and the reports were salacious at best. The housekeeper didn’t go to the hospital after the supposed attack, so there was no DNA evidence. Yet, she had severe bruising and an apparent affinity for acting. So much so, the entire world was ready to convict the players without any proof.

Luckily, Kelly also worked for the hotel—this was before she and Troy met. She overheard some valuable information. The housekeeper was dating a bartender who got drunk one night and boasted to his co-workers that he had come up with a brilliant scam that was about to pay off. He claimed to have coerced his girlfriend into pretending to be victimized by teammates from the Blizzard, so they could make a fortune and move to the Caribbean.

Kelly asked for details and learned that Tanya had just gotten word that without Troy’s consent, the club was going to pay her off to make the whole story go away. Kelly didn’t know what to do with the information, so she contacted the press and told them what she’d heard. When the police brought the boyfriend in for questioning, he folded like a house of cards in a tornado.

After having his name cleared, Troy wrote Kelly a letter thanking her for her courage. That led to them becoming friends, and when Troy’s team went back to Minneapolis to play, he and Kelly had their first date.

“I’m starting to realize how hard your ordeal with the press was,” I tell my brother.

“Hockey players are notorious for their bad behavior,” he says. “But I wasn’t going to be painted with that brush. And you shouldn’t let the press pigeonhole you either.”

“I won’t. I just hate that people are so ready to believe the worst.”

“Most people look at guys like you and me and think that because we have money and fame, we don’t have any problems. That makes them jealous and eager to find a reason to hate us. Sadly, that’s just human nature.”

“Yolanda has money,” I remind him.

“Yolanda is a woman. She’s part of a demographic that hasn’t always been on the receiving end of fair treatment.”

“That’s not the case here.”

“I didn’t say she was a good person. She’s clearly taking advantage of past inequality.”

“Women should be appalled by what she’s doing.”

“And they will be if you’re able to keep your cool long enough for the truth to come out.”

I sound like a real Eeyore when I moan, “I just wish I knew how to make people believe me.”

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