Chapter 86
Three months ago, this would’ve shattered me. I would’ve run straight into Tessa’s arms, sobbing. But now? I just stare. I think about what it would mean to file a formal complaint.
Stone’s face flashes in my mind and my jaw tightens.
Tess once told me how these cases go – how athletes bounce back. How money and charm and followers make the world forget. I remember when that Chicago player’s girlfriend sued him for rape and abuse. A year later, he was back on the ice. Sponsored. Applauded.
Zane had been there that morning. Foot propped on the coffee table while I served him breakfast. “Why should one mistake ruin his career?” he said. “She’s his girlfriend. If she didn’t like it, she would’ve left. Probably just BDSM gone wrong.”
I almost gag at the memory.
I’d felt sick back then too. But I said nothing.
Why is it always “just a mistake” when a man does something wrong?
Why is his future always worth saving — but hers is always a lie, a plot, a smear campaign?
Why is she always the monster?
I turn off my phone and look up at myself in the reflection. Hair messy. Eyes tired. But I’ve never looked more like me than I do
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right now.
I still have a long way to go.
But I’m not scared anymore.
Not of Stone. Not of the headlines. Not of who I used to be.
Not of the girl hockey turned me into.
So I do what I’ve always done when the world feels like it’s falling apart.
I call Tessa.
She picks up on the first ring. “Em? Are you okay? God, how are you feeling? I’m so-”
“I’m breaking the contract,” I say, grinning so hard my cheeks ache. “Technically, I’m not allowed to cheat on Liam, right?”
There’s a beat. Then-
“Are you fucked?” Her voice/sharpens like a slap I somehow dodge by being a few states over.
“Emotionally? Physically? Mentally? A little bit of everything,” I say sweetly.
“Jesus, you really do only say this crap when there’s miles between us, Say it to my face and I’d actually throw my phone at you.”
I laugh. For the first time in what feels like forever, it’s real.
“I got you one of those boba milk tea plushies you keep
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showing me on Instagram,” I say, trying to make it sound casual even though I’d spent twenty minutes picking the perfect one.
She pauses. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. And after hockey season ends, let’s go on a trip. Somewhere random. Middle–of–nowhere Nebraska or
something. Just us. You, me, and every cliché from those small- town romance books I always made fun of.”
Tessa exhales slowly, and I swear I can feel her smiling through the phone.
“Well…”
“I’ll pay for the whole trip,” I add quickly.
“There it is. That’s what I love to hear.”
“So…” I say, quieter now, more hopeful than I want to admit. “Do you forgive me?”
Tessa goes silent for a second. Then she sighs. “I should be asking you that. I overreacted. I shouldn’t have—”
“You didn’t,” I cut in. “We’re supposed to tell each other stuff. That’s the whole deal. No secrets.”
It feels kind of hypocritical to say this now, especially when all I can think about is what happened here a few minutes ago.
I hate how my cheek’s instinctively heat up.
It’s obvious I never learn my lesson, because my first thought is, “Eh, Tessa doesn’t need to know about that.”
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Which is probably a sign I’m heading in the wrong direction. again.
I can hear Tessa’s high–pitched morning voice in my head, tearing me a new one and pressing on and on about how – apologies that don’t come with change is manipulation.
She makes a noise, like a wince. “Yeah, well. Hypocrite alert. I’ve been keeping one, too. Slightly better than your Zane fuck up, but pretty head–on to call it a Tessa fuck up.”
I lean against the railing. The rain is slowly stopping and the sun seems closer and closer to rising. My stomach twists. “What?”
“You know Lyle? My once in a few months hockey player hookup?”
“The one with the biceps for days and bedroom eyes?”
“Ding! Ding! We have a winner!” She laughs awkwardly and I’m already terrified of whatever it is she’s going to say next. “Yeah, I never told you… I’m in love with him.”
My heart stops. “Wait. What?”
“I mean, technically I’m doing the walk of shame right now. Again. But what you don’t know is… every time I do this, I keep hoping I’ll magically turn into his priority. His person.”
“Tess…”
