Chapter 33 They Turned Up The Heat
Harper's Pov,
The next morning, Mike showed up at Maya's apartment at nine AM with a recording device and a laptop full of questions.
He was younger than I expected, maybe early forties, with the kind of tired eyes that came from years of chasing stories nobody wanted him to tell.
"Harper Sinclair." He shook my hand. "Thanks for doing this."
"Thanks for listening."
We sat down in Maya's living room and he pulled out his recorder.
"Before we start, I need you to understand something. Once this story goes live, there's no taking it back. Richard Moss is going to deny everything. The Titans are going to claim they had legitimate concerns about Crew's welfare. The DA's office is going to say they were just doing their job. And they're all going to try to paint you as a liar who's making things up because you're facing prison time."
"I know."
"And you're still willing to go on record?"
"Yes."
"Okay then." He hit record. "Let's start from the beginning. Tell me about your relationship with Joel Hartley and how it ended."
So I told him everything.
About the ten years with Joel. The breakup dinner. How I found out he'd cheated with Brianna. About the fake dating arrangement with Crew that became real. About the fight with Brianna at the engagement party. And about Richard's campaign to destroy me.
Mike listened without interrupting, occasionally making notes, his expression getting darker as the story went on.
When I finished, he sat back.
"Jesus Christ. This is worse than I thought."
"Worse how?"
"Worse as in Richard Moss has been orchestrating a multi-pronged attack on you for months and nobody noticed because they were too busy focusing on individual incidents instead of the pattern." He pulled up something on his laptop. "I've been doing background on Richard. Did you know he's done this before?"
"Done what before?"
"Targeted someone who threatened his client's reputation. Five years ago, one of his hockey players got accused of sexual assault by a woman he met at a bar. The case got dropped after the woman suddenly recanted her testimony and moved out of state."
My stomach dropped. "You think Richard paid her off?"
"I think Richard has a history of making problems disappear. And you're his latest problem." Mike closed his laptop. "Harper, this story is going to destroy his career. Once people see the pattern—once they see he's been coordinating with prosecutors and team management to target you—he's done. No athlete is going to hire an agent who weaponizes the legal system against people."
"Good. He deserves it."
"He does. But he's going to fight back hard. Are you ready for that?"
I thought about Crew in that treatment facility. About Monica's warnings. About the fact that I'd already come this far and there was no going back.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm ready."
Mike smiled. "Then let's burn this mother-fucker down.”
Mike hit record on his device and leaned forward. "Let's start from the beginning. Walk me through your relationship with Joel Hartley and how it ended."
So again, I told him everything.
About the ten years following Joel from city to city, always putting his career first. About the anniversary dinner at Marcello's where he broke up with me because his agent said "single and marketable" would boost his brand. About finding out six weeks later that he was marrying Brianna, the woman he'd been cheating with, who was pregnant with his child.
Mike took notes but didn't interrupt.
"That's when Maya came to me with the offer," I continued. "Crew Lawson needed image rehabilitation after the bar fight video went viral. I needed a date to Joel's wedding that would make him regret everything. It was supposed to be fake. A three-month contract."
"But it didn't stay fake," Mike said.
"Not really. Somewhere between the staged coffee dates and the PR appearances, I fell in love with him for real. And he fell in love with me." My voice cracked slightly. "Which is when Richard Moss decided I was a problem that needed to be eliminated."
"Tell me about Richard's campaign against you. When did you first realize he was coordinating with multiple parties?"
I pulled out my phone and showed him the threatening texts from both Marcus and Richard.
"Marcus Chen is Crew's agent. Richard had him approach me first, offering legal help if I'd break up with Crew publicly. When I refused, that's when things escalated."
"Escalated… how?"
"My old college roommate Emma Rodriguez suddenly reached out after years of no contact. We reconnected, had coffee a few times. I thought she was genuinely interested in being friends again." I pulled up the documents Marcus had shown me.
"...Turns out Richard had hired her months earlier to extract information from me. Everything I told her in confidence ended up in gossip columns."
Mike's expression darkened as he read through the invoices. "Richard paid her to spy on you."
"And when that wasn't enough, he leaked our fake dating contract to the media. Made it look like I was a manipulative psychopath using Crew for revenge."
"What about the assault charges? Walk me through what actually happened at that engagement party."
I took a breath and described the bathroom confrontation with Brianna. How she'd cornered me, asked invasive questions about Crew, called me pathetic for still being obsessed with Joel. How I'd told her the truth about Joel cheating with her, and she'd slapped me across the face.
"I pushed her away to defend myself. That's it. She lost her balance and fell. I didn't know she was pregnant until later." My hands were shaking now.
"But Richard spun it as premeditated assault. He got the civil case escalated to criminal charges. Assault and battery with intent to cause fetal harm. Two to five years in prison if I'm convicted."
"And you believe Richard coordinated with the DA's office to make that happen?"
"I know he did. Emma gave me a flash drive with all his emails. There are threads between Richard and an Assistant DA named Jennifer Walsh discussing my case weeks before charges were filed. He's feeding her information, telling her I'm unstable and dangerous, suggesting they escalate from civil to criminal."
Mike pulled up something on his laptop. "Jennifer Walsh went to law school with Richard's wife."
"Exactly. That's not a coincidence."
"What about the Titans? When did they get involved?"
"A few days ago. David Morrison, their VP of Player Personnel, called Crew's mom. Said they were concerned about our relationship being detrimental to Crew's recovery." I showed him Morrison's business card.
"Then he called me in for a meeting and gave me an ultimatum; break up with Crew publicly or they void his contract for conduct detrimental to the team."
"Did he say that explicitly?"
"He said if I didn't end the relationship voluntarily, they'd be forced to reevaluate Crew's contract. Same thing." I pulled up the emails between Richard and Morrison.
"And according to these, Richard's been advising Morrison on how to frame the termination so it doesn't look like retaliation."
Mike read through the emails, his jaw getting tighter with each one. "This is coordinated harassment. Richard's been working with your ex's fiancée's lawyers, the DA's office, and Crew's team to systematically destroy both of you."
"That's what I've been trying to tell people. But nobody believes me because I'm just the crazy ex-girlfriend with an assault charge."
"Not anymore you're not." Mike closed his laptop.
"Harper, this story is going to change everything. Once people see the pattern—once they see Richard coordinating across multiple institutions to target you—the narrative shifts completely. You're not the villain. You're the victim of a coordinated conspiracy."
"Do you really think people will believe that?"
"I think the evidence speaks for itself. Richard documented everything in writing like an idiot. The emails are damning. The timeline is clear. And his history of making problems disappear for his clients is going to raise a lot of questions." Mike leaned back.
"But I need you to understand what's going to happen when this story drops. Richard's going to deny everything. He'll claim the emails are fake or taken out of context. The Titans will say they had legitimate concerns about Crew's welfare. And the DA's office will insist they were just doing their jobs."
"So nothing changes."
"Everything changes. Because now there's public scrutiny. Now journalists are going to start asking questions. Now Richard has to explain why he was communicating with prosecutors about a case his client isn't even involved in. The Titans have to explain why they were taking advice from another team's player's ex-boyfriend's agent." Mike smiled.
"Corruption only works when it happens in the dark. You're about to turn on all the lights."
"When does the story run?"
"Tomorrow morning. Front page of the sports section, online by 6 AM." He packed up his recording device.
"I'm also sending it to every major sports outlet. ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report. By noon tomorrow, everyone in sports media is going to be talking about this."
My stomach twisted with equal parts fear and excitement.
"One more thing," Mike said as he stood up. "I need a comment from Crew. His perspective on the relationship, the Titans' ultimatum, all of it. Can you get him to talk to me?"
"He's in rehab. No outside contact except supervised phone calls."
"Then I'll work with what I have for now. But when he gets out, I want an interview. His voice is crucial to this story."
"I'll ask him."
Mike shook my hand. "Thank you for trusting me with this. I know it wasn't easy."
"Thank you for believing me."
After he left, I sat on Maya's couch feeling completely hollowed out.
I'd just told my entire story to a journalist who was about to blast it across sports media.
No going back now.
Maya came out of her bedroom where she'd been listening to the whole interview. "You did good. You sounded credible, specific, and pissed off in exactly the right way."
"I'm terrified."
"I mean… you should be. But you should also be proud." She sat next to me. "You just declared war on people who thought they were untouchable. That takes guts."
My phone rang in the middle of our conversation.
Monica.
I answered with dread. "Before you yell at me—"
"I'm not calling to yell. I'm calling to tell you that the DA's office just filed a motion to increase your bail."
My blood went cold. "WHAT?... Why?"
"They're arguing you're a flight risk due to the recent media attention and your attempts to influence witnesses. The judge is hearing the motion tomorrow morning at 9 AM." Monica's voice was tight.
"Harper, if they succeed, your bail goes from $20,000 to a $100,000. Can you cover that?"
"Hell not. I don't have that kind of money."
"Then you need to be at that hearing tomorrow and you need to convince the judge that you're not going anywhere." She paused.
"Also, you need to be prepared for the prosecution to use Mike's story against you. They're going to argue that you're manufacturing a conspiracy theory to manipulate public opinion."
"But the emails are real—"
"The emails are inadmissible. Which means in court, they don't exist. All that exists is you going to the media with unverified accusations against powerful people." Monica sighed.
"I told you this would complicate things. Tomorrow morning, we deal with the consequences."