Chapter Text
The night and day after the phone call passed in a blur, clouded by an emotional haze that distorted time and space, a feeling that Hannah was intimately familiar with from her final two years of high school.
After Hannah explained that she wasn’t the only woman Aaron had hurt, and that her story was likely to be dragged out into the open again, Garrett tucked carefully into his chest and hugged her for a long time. A part of Hannah wished she could stay there forever and pretend that the outside world didn’t exist, and that the only real thing was Garrett’s sandalwood scent wrapping around her and the warmth of his body.
Then he stood up and anxiously paced around their bedroom, and the illusion shattered. “I’m going to kill Delaney this season.” he said, clenching his fists, and Hannah believed him.
“No.” she said. “Absolutely not. You’re not your father, Garrett, and I don’t want you to be.”
He gave her a tight nod, and then went to their home gym, probably to work off the rage that Hannah could see coiling under his skin.
After a moment’s hesitation, she saved Maya’s number as a contact and sent her a brief message:
- Bob
- It feels too soon to come out to New York and meet everyone
- Good luck for the interview
Two blue ticks appeared as Maya read the message, but she didn’t reply and Hannah’s mind whirred overtime with a mixture of guilt, anger, and worry.
She passed the day imagining the other women: what they might look and sound like, what their stories were, if they were judging her for not coming, if they even knew she existed. Those thoughts kept her awake all night, and when bird song and weak, golden light streamed through their bedroom blinds Hannah carefully lifted Garrett’s arm off her, which he’d clamped tightly around her waist in his sleep, and tiptoed downstairs.
She made an overly strong coffee in her favourite mug, which was a gift from Allie, and said ‘Baby got Bach’, with a picture of the musician at the piano. After several sips, wrinkling her nose at the taste, she decided to start work early, and try to finish composing the opening credits of an alien abduction film that was due in by the end of the week.
Hannah was adding synth to the track to make the sound sufficiently eery when her phone ‘pinged’ with an alert. She looked down and her eyebrows creased with worry when she saw Maya’s contact, and Hannah scrambled to unlock her phone.
- Bob
- Hey girl
- Just a heads up that the article is coming out this morning
Hannah stared at the text in disbelief, frantically dialling Maya’s number and letting out a sigh of relief when the other woman picked up. “This morning?” said Hannah, echoing the text. “Didn’t the interview only happen yesterday? I thought it would take days, or weeks even, for the New York Times to publish it.”
Maya let out a heavy sigh. “Me too. I thought we had more time to be honest but Casey, the interviewer, said that her editor decided it was breaking news, so they decided to push up the timeline.”
Hannah closed her eyes and tried to calm her frantic breathing. “Please tell me it’s at least going to be further back in the paper.”
There was suspended pause and then Maya said, “It’s going to be on the front page in print and online. This is the a new era honey, the newspapers don’t ignore us anymore, they just milk our stories for all they’re worth and wait for the guilty men to be let off by a jury.”
Hannah’s hand clenched around her phone. “If you think they’ll rule that Aaron’s not guilty, then what’s the point of all of this?”
When Maya replied her voice was a little angry. “There are better odds of Aaron ending up behind bars if our story gains traction and if we try, than if he never sees a day in court. And at least some women may read the article and think twice if he offers them a drink in the bar.”
Hannah softened her voice, “That’s true, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make light of how brave you’re being. I’m just worried about the reaction this is going to create. Some ice hockey fans can be…traditional. I think a lot of them will band behind Aaron and they’re going to say awful things about you all.”
Maya let out a dark laugh. “Tell me about it. You should have seen what people said about me in Las Vegas. Promise me one thing Hannah: don’t look online. Those men aren’t worth a minute of your time.”
“I promise.” said Hannah, already knowing she wouldn’t keep it because she’d never really managed to stop caring what other people thought about her. Some part of her was still that insecure girl just waiting for the court of public opinion to tear her apart.
“Get ready.” said Maya, with a note of warning, and then the phone disconnected with a staticky crackle. Hannah spent a few minutes obsessively checking the New York Times app, but the article wasn’t coming out any quicker, so she tossed her phone as far away from her as she could.
She tried to go back to her work but writing music, a process that normally felt as natural as breathing, was impossible. The notes slipped out of her mind like quicksand.
Garrett came back in from his work out, glistening with sweat and taking his earbuds out as they faintly blasted Bon Jovi. “Hey Wellsy.” he said, affectionately dropping a kiss on her head, and then shooting her a carefully assessing gaze, like she was a piece of glass that might break at any moment. He had been doing that a lot the last day, since she’d told him about the phone call.
Hannah tried her best to act natural and like her world wasn’t imploding, as she jokingly crinkled her nose. “Go take a shower and then you can kiss me as much as you want.”
Fifteen minutes later, Garrett came downstairs wearing only a towel tied around his waist, and Hannah took a moment to stare appreciatively at her fiancé’s abs and v-line before she said, “As much as I’m enjoying the view, you might want to put some clothes on, because you only have thirty minutes to get to practise.”
Garrett paled as he raced upstairs and, glad for the temporary distraction, Hannah whizzed up his usual protein powder and banana shake, which she found inedible, but he seemed to love.
When Garrett emerged again, tugging his shirt over his head, and then over his broad shoulders, he stared at Hannah, holding his equipment bag and protein shake, with dazed appreciation.
“Have I ever told you how much I love you, Wellsy?” he asked, as he pulled her gently in and kissed her like he could never get enough.
Hannah took a moment to enjoy the warmth of his lips on hers before she pulled away. “Only every day.” she said teasingly, passing the clunky bag filled with hockey gear to him, relieved to let go off the impossibly heavy carryall.
Garrett lifted it onto his shoulder with ease, took a swig of his protein shake and then wrapped his free arm around her in a half-hug. “Call me if you need anything, okay.” he said, his tone suddenly serious again. “I’ll invent an excuse to tell Coach and come straight home.”
Hannah shook her head, her bob swishing. “That won’t be necessary, I promise. I’m okay.”
Garrett’s eyes stared at her with so much concern that Hannah felt guilty. Guilty for telling him, and dragging him into her mess —
“No.” said Garrett softly, taking her hand and rubbing small circles on it. “You have your spiralling face on. Whatever you’re thinking about me, or you, let it go because all you need to know is that I love you Wellsy. You’re my family. And I promise everything’s going to be okay, I’ll make sure of it.”
Somehow, when Garrett spoke to her like that with so much assurance, magically plucking the words she needed to hear out of space, Hannah believed him.
“I love you.” she said. “Now go, before you really are late.”
Garrett raced out the door in a blur of brown curls and Hannah took a deep breath, trying to repeat what he’d said to her. “Everything’s going to be okay.” she murmured.
Opening the article on her laptop, an hour later, Hannah decided everything was not actually okay.
The New York Times
Aaron Delaney Accused of Sexual Assault By 10 Women
Aaron Delaney is best known as the centre for the Las Vegas Tigers, who won the Stanley Cup last year after a twenty-year drought. Outside of Las Vegas, however, Delaney has been critiqued for his aggressive style of play. Although fights are usually carried out by ‘enforcers’, unusually for a centre Delaney takes what has been described as a ‘sadistic joy’ in checking and brawling with other players.
One particularly nasty hit resulted in the Boston Bruin’s forward, John Logan, being benched for most of last season: his injury was considered by some pundits to have cost Boston last year’s cup. Delaney’s rivalry with both Garrett Graham and John Logan, which extends to their college days, has been widely documented and fans look forward to seeing the two yellow-and-black teams clash on the ice.
Outside of hockey, little is known about Aaron Delaney. Although his hometown of Ransom, Indiana, is clearly proud of their homegrown hockey star (the town is covered with posters of the player and most shops sell his merchandise) very little about his past there, or his time at St. Anthony’s College, has surfaced in the media.
That’s about to change. Ten women have come forward for an exclusive interview with the New York Times, alleging that Aaron Delaney is a serial predator. Separately, their stories took place in different cities and years but with striking similarities: every woman was at a party or a bar when Aaron Delaney offered them a drink. They all report going from feeling mostly or entirely sober to immediately unsteady, and collapsing soon after, only to wake up without clothes in Delaney’s home, frat house or apartment with minimal memory of the last few hours.
In the aftermath, they described suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks, difficulty in their personal relationships, and blaming themselves for the assault. Each woman said it has had an enormous negative impact on their lives, and they are seeking prison time for Delaney and financial compensation to cover therapy costs and emotional damage.
Three women from Ransom in Indiana, who claimed they were assaulted in high school and asked not to be named out of fear of consequences for their family, made a joint statement: “Aaron Delaney had been hurting girls since he was in fifteen years old. If we allowed him to continue, he would continue to do so for the rest of his life. He’s a violent and dangerous man, and it’s an open secret, which everyone chooses to overlook because he’s good with a hockey stick. But is that worth the pain he causes? Ten of us have been brave enough to speak out, which means there are likely many more victims suffering in silence, and our message to them is: you are not alone.”
Another woman, Hailey Jones, said that she was only eighteen when Delaney offered her what he claimed was a ‘non-alcoholic drink’ at a college party. When asked what happened after, she stared into space for a few seconds, visibly struggling to compose herself: “The same as the other girls. I remember stumbling out of his frat house, as they jeered and added my name to some kind of chart, where they tallied the girls that they’d slept with. He was the college’s star hockey player, and I knew it would be social suicide to take a stand, so I tried to push it to the back of my mind. But I guess he didn’t bother with protection because a few weeks later I realised my period was late. I ended the pregnancy and never told a soul until now.”
Priya Kumar spoke of her own assault, tapping her leg anxiously beneath the table: “It ruined my life. I had to move away from New Jersey, and drop out of St. Anthony’s college, because I couldn’t see his face plastered on posters all over campus without having a panic attack.”
Maria Thompson, who comes from a deeply religious family, nervously rolled rosary beads between her fingers as she said fervently: “I would never have slept with Delaney willingly. I don’t care what other girls do but me, personally, I always wanted to wait until marriage. He took that from me.”
Jessica Zhang added, “I want to be clear; this isn’t about money [Zhang’s family own several casinos in Las Vegas]. This is about justice, about not allowing a culture to continue where men can just use and abuse women without consequences.”
Mikayla Hale claimed that Delaney “ruined her life” adding: “I was engaged to my high school sweetheart when that bastard roofied me. My fiancé broke off our engagement because he thought it was consensual.”
Yasmin Hassan, who worked for two years as a social media manager for the Las Vegas Tigers, spoke in a clear, reverberating voice when she said, “I loved my job. I grew up watching ice hockey and getting to work with one of the biggest teams in the league was a childhood dream come true, until the Christmas party for the team and their employees. I don’t drink and Aaron offered me what he said was orange squash. You can imagine what happened next. I went to the HR department the next day, to explain what had happened, and instead of protecting me they fired me for ‘unprofessional conduct’.” Hassan is also suing the Las Vegas Knights for wrongful termination.
Maya Lopez, who was the only one of the women to publicly accuse Aaron Delaney on social media, claimed she was forced to take down the post and had her dancing career sabotaged. When asked why the other women hadn’t publicly come forward yet, Maya Lopez let out a sardonic laugh, “Look at what happened to me. He’s a psychopath, and a powerful one at that. His team will do whatever it takes to protect their star player, and they don’t care who they have to crush on the way.”
When asked to comment, Delaney’s agent strongly denied the allegations, saying: “These women are clearly money hungry, and are smearing the good reputation of my client. Many friends and colleagues can attest to his good character, and we look forward to proving his innocence in the court of law.”
Similarly, the Las Vegas Tigers said, “We stand behind Aaron Delaney in this difficult time.”
There were already 200 comments on the article itself, and Hannah could imagine the internet reactions writing themselves as she closed her laptop. It was only a matter of weeks, maybe even days, before a journalist hungry to cash in on the media storm of the month would go to Indiana and discover what had happened to Hannah.
For the first time, she felt a tiny kernel of regret about accepting Garrett’s proposal, because his fame in the ice hockey world would undoubtedly turn her own, buried story into an even bigger headline by association.
Her hands moving almost against her will, Hannah opened her laptop again and she didn’t even have to search Aaron’s name on Twitter. She only used it to get updates on her favourite singers or see how the Boston Bruins were doing, and every hockey account that she followed had already tweeted about the article, and the responses were plastered across her home page.
Jules, who had turned the Fifth Line into the most followed account on ice hockey, had reacted with a link to the article and a scathing response:
Jules Logan
@theFifthLine
Ice hockey’s resident monster, Aaron Delaney, who tore my brother’s ACL last November, has proven to be even more of a beast than we thought. Shocking that the @Las Vegas Tigers are standing behind him, when there’s so much evidence of his guilt.
Casey Cavanaugh @newyorktimesjournalist · Sept 5
BREAKING NEWS: Aaron Delaney Accused of Sexual Assault By 10 Women
73.3K Retweets 814 Quote Tweets 102.1K Likes
Jules seemed to be the exception. Most hockey accounts were carefully neutral in their tweets, making sure to add a tone of doubt and to use words like ‘alleged’ and ‘supposedly’.
The hockey fans themselves seemed split, with various trending hashtags of support for the ten women or for Aaron, as disgruntled Las Vegas Tigers fans on a power trip wrote tweets critiquing everything from the women’s appearance to their character and credibility.
There were a few tweets expressing belief and support that filled Hannah with relief, and she could feel some of the shattered pieces of her faith in humanity starting to glue themselves back together.
Poppy Hallowell
@poppythepuck
Delaney always gave me the creeps. These women come from all walks of life and the only thing uniting them is that their lives were ruined by this man. It’s a pattern of predation. #Ibelievethe10women #getAaronDelaneyofftheice
53.3K Retweets 736 Quote Tweets 92.1K Likes
The most popular tweet, though, was awful:
Brad Stevens
@lasvegastigers1987
So, what I’m hearing is that multiple women had sex with a young hockey player in his prime and later claimed it was non-consensual. What could be motivating them aside from money and fame?’ #falseaccusations
107.3K Retweets 1037 Quote Tweets 205.5K Likes
Hannah looked at a few of the replies, saw the word ‘females’ scattered across them, and wrinkled her nose and closed the tab.
Hannah heard a car pulling into the drive and stared at the time on her laptop in confusion. She’d been spiralling down an internet rabbit hole for a few hours, but it was only the early afternoon, and far too early for Garrett to be home from practice. Hesitantly, Hannah grabbed a hockey stick from Garrett’s spare equipment bag, her fingers tensing around the handle as the front door opened, and she dropped the stick when she saw her fiancé walk through the door.
“Hey Wellsy.” he said softly, wrapping her in a hug. She’d always loved his hugs: he was a foot taller than her and broad, so when his arms wrapped around her, and she melted into him, it felt like the whole outside world had disappeared, like she was totally safe.
Hannah emerged from her haze to stare up at Garrett in disbelief, half-convinced that she was delirious from exhaustion and imagining him there. “What are you doing home?” she asked. “Did they end practise early?”
“Something like that.” said Garrett, ruffling his hair sheepishly. “The guys were talking about Delaney,” he spat out the name, “in the changing room. Some of them saw the talk online after the article was published today. I left and tried to call you, but you weren’t picking up, so I told coach it was a family emergency and came home.”
Hannah looked guiltily at her phone, which was still discarded somewhere across the living room. “Sorry, I was distracted but I promise I'm coping.” she said.
“I’m just glad you’re okay.” said Garrett, and then after a slight pause he added, “I think you should speak to our lawyer.”
“About the article?” asked Hannah hesitantly and Garrett shook his head.
“No, about your options if a reporter finds out what happened to you in Ransom. You were a minor at the time, and the court records were sealed, right?” asked Garrett, and Hannah nodded hesitantly. “Well,” he continued, “I’m not a lawyer but I’d guess that any journalist who reports the story could be in major legal trouble.”
“When did you get so smart?” asked Hannah teasingly, and Garrett smiled in a way she’d always loved because it lit up his whole face like sunshine.
“I had a good philosophy tutor at college.” he teased, and Hannah collapsed with laughter into his chest, as his broad arms held her up.
“No one gets to tell your story if you don’t want them to Wellsy.” Garrett promised her, and Hannah wanted desperately to believe him.