Page 117 of Sven

“Good,” Sasha said, turning back around as they pulled up to Conner’s house. “I don’t think I could handle another tarnish childhood memory.”

There was a black SUV waiting outside of Conner’s house. As Conner stopped to open the garage door, Sven got out of the car and ran over to the SUV. He pulled open the back door and found Natalie looking rough with sleeping Winnie in a car seat next to her, and something in him broke.

He fell into the car and pulled her into his arms and held both of them as the tears he had been holding back spilled from his eyes. Sitting up, he cupped her face in his hand and kissed her before bending his head to drop a kiss on Winnie.

He got Winnie out of the car seat and held her close before helping Natalie down from the SUV. He held her hand tight as Conner held open the front door for them.

Sven held onto Winnie with his other arm wrapped around Natalie. He couldn’t bring himself to be parted from them. He still wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but he could tell Natalie was shaken.

He ushered his sleeping daughter and the woman he had fallen in love with through his teammate’s front door.

“What happened?” he said as they made their way into a great room.

“They found out. They found out everything. I don’t know how. I thought the foundation was killing the story.”

“Did something happen at the game?” he asked.

“I went into the bathroom to change Winnie into pajamas after the second period, and there was a woman talking to me. At first, she was nice... but then she started asking me about things. I left and got Winnie’s diaper bag from the family suite,but when I came out, there was a swarm of reporters following me.”

“They were following you when you had Winnie?” Sven asked Seething.

Sasha came over and set a mug of tea in front of Natalie as she continued.

“I made it home, but then there were a bunch of reporters outside of your house, and I just went to Sydney’s. I didn’t know what else to do,” she said, looking up at him with her big blue eyes, and it made him want to burn the world down for her.

She did not deserve any of this.

“You did the absolute right thing,” he said as he cupped her cheek.

“I’m sorry. I think I made a mess of things,” she said, looking down in the mug of tea before her.

“Why don’t you guys stay here for a few days?” Sasha said.

Conner came and stood behind her with his hands on Sasha’s shoulders and nodded.

“Yeah, it might be for the best,” Sven said.

Just then, there was a knock at the door. “That’s Hillary,” Sasha said to Conner as he left to go answer the door.

“I thought we could come up with a plan on how to best proceed with this.”

Natalie nodded numbly.

Hillary came into the room on a mission. “What the hell is happening and who do I have to kill?”

Sven had always been kind of scared of Hillary, and in that moment, he knew why. He was glad to have her on his side.

They filled her in while Sven grew more and more angry.

“Okay,” said Hillary after hearing everyone. “Sven and Conner, you go to Sven’s and get what you guys need for a few nights here. Natalie, you’re here until further notice. We will fix this.”

“Are you okay if I go?” Sven asked Natalie.

If she didn’t want him to leave, he would not be going anywhere. She’d gone through enough tonight.

“Yeah,” she said barely above a whisper. “You know what I need?”

The look in her eyes filled him with more rage than he safely knew what to do with, but he didn’t have a place to direct that anger.

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