The Striker's Forbidden Love

Chapter Twenty-One - No Comment

"There are cameras in the parking lot." Priya said, phone still clutched in her hand, voice hushed like the walls might be listening. "Actual cameras, Mia. Like, news vans."

"I saw them pulling in when I got here." Mia said, stomach still churning from the headline she'd read twenty minutes ago, now sitting frozen in the locker room like moving might make it more real. "How many?"

"Three vans. Maybe more by now." Priya said. "This is insane. This is actually insane."

Elena's voice cut through the tension before Mia could answer, sharp and clipped, carrying down the hallway well before she appeared in the doorway. "Everyone in the film room. Now. All of you."

The team filed in slowly, confused, the usual pre-practice chatter replaced by a heavy, uncertain quiet. Mia found a seat near the back, Daniel already standing at the front beside Elena, jaw tight, eyes fixed somewhere on the middle distance like looking at anyone directly might cost him something.

"There's a story circulating." Elena said, addressing the whole room, voice steady in a way that clearly cost her effort. "Some of you have already seen it. I need everyone to hear this directly from me instead of from a headline. The club is treating this as a serious matter. We are gathering facts. Until that process is complete, nobody and I mean nobody speaks to the press. Not confirming, not denying, not speculating. Direct all inquiries to my office."

"What if they ask us directly?" One of the defenders asked, voice small.

"Then you say 'no comment' and walk away." Elena said. "That's not optional. A single careless word from any of you turns a story into a confirmed story, and confirmed stories don't go away quietly."

Mia felt every eye in the room she wasn't looking at anyway, felt the weight of twenty-one teammates processing a headline about her private life in real time, felt Daniel's careful stillness beside Elena like a held breath that hadn't found anywhere safe to land.

"Coach Reyes will run practice as normal." Elena continued. "Business as usual, on the pitch, in front of anyone watching. That's the message we're sending, whether or not it's comfortable. Understood?"

A ragged chorus of "understood" answered her, quieter than usual, nobody quite meeting anyone else's eyes.

Elena dismissed the team toward the pitch, and Mia found herself hanging back, unable to make her legs carry her out the door with the rest of them.

"Torres." Elena said, catching her before she could slip out unnoticed. "A word."

Mia's stomach dropped, though this particular dread felt different from the fear of the conduct inquiry more exhausted than terrified, like she'd already burned through most of her capacity for panic over the past two weeks.

"I'm not going to ask you the same questions again." Elena said, once the room had emptied. "I did that already, and I got the answers I got. What I need from you now is different. I need you to understand what's actually at stake this time."

"I understand." Mia said quietly.

"Do you?" Elena asked, not unkindly, but with a weight that made Mia actually stop and consider the question instead of just answering reflexively.

"This isn't a whisper campaign anymore, Torres. This is a story with a byline. Reporters who print things like this don't retract them quietly if they turn out to be true. If this gets confirmed by anyone, in any way it doesn't just cost Daniel his job. It follows you. Every write-up about your career from this point forward carries a footnote about a coach and a scandal, whether or not the football itself was ever in question."

Mia's throat tightened. "I know.

"I hope you do." Elena said, gathering the folder she'd brought in, voice softening just slightly at the edges. "For what it's worth, I don't relish any part of this. You're a good player, and whatever Reyes is or isn't to you privately, he's built something real with this team. I don't want to lose either of you over speculation. But I need you both to give me something to work with besides silence."

She left without waiting for a response, and Mia stood alone in the empty film room for a long moment, the weight of the morning finally catching up all at once.

She found Daniel near the equipment shed twenty minutes later, the one place that had somehow become their unofficial meeting point over the past few weeks, though today it felt less like a refuge and more like a place they were both too tired to avoid.

"How bad is it?" Mia asked.

"Bad." Daniel admitted. "The story's been picked up by two more outlets since this morning. My phone hasn't stopped."

"What are you telling them?"

"Nothing. Elena's handling all official inquiries. I've been instructed to say exactly two words to anyone who asks, and those two words are 'no comment.'" Daniel said, something exhausted and almost darkly amused in his voice. "I've said it so many times today it's started to lose all meaning."

"Welcome to my morning." Mia said, managing a tired, humorless smile.

They stood there a moment, careful distance maintained between them despite every instinct telling Mia to close it, the whole training ground feeling like it had eyes now in a way it never had before.

"Practice starts in five." Daniel said finally, voice returning to its coach register, professional and flat. "Business as usual. That's the plan."

"Business as usual." Mia echoed, though nothing about today felt remotely usual.

She turned to head toward the pitch, and that was when she saw him….. a man with a camera slung around his neck, standing just outside the perimeter fence, lens already raised, already pointed directly at the equipment shed where she and Daniel had been standing only seconds before.