Chapter: Chapter 7 Chapter 7: The Contract*Sloane*I walked into the meeting room the next morning with a legal pad, three pens, and enough sleep deprivation to make me either extremely sharp or slightly unhinged. I hadn't decided which yet.Rhys was already there, sitting across the table, arms crossed like he was bracing for a fight he already expected to lose. Our eyes met the second I stepped through the door, and neither of us bothered pretending to be pleased about it."Miss Reyes," Marcus said, standing to greet me, all warmth and business smiles. "Please, sit."I sat. I didn't smile back."Before we start," I said, pulling out my legal pad, "I have conditions. I didn't come here to sign whatever you put in front of me.""Didn't expect you to," Rhys said. "You strike me as someone who reads the fine print on cereal boxes.""I strike you correctly," I said, not looking up. "It's called literacy. You should try it sometime."Marcus cleared his throat, the sound of a man deciding not to referee ye
Last Updated: 2026-10-11
Chapter: Chapter 6Chapter 6: The Number*Sloane*I was still fuming by the time I got two blocks from the facility.*Fake date him. Fake date Rhys Calloway.* The audacity of it kept looping in my head, over and over, like a song stuck on repeat. As if I hadn't spent months getting splashed with mud and insulted about my hair by that man. As if I could just smile for a camera and pretend I didn't know exactly what kind of person he was underneath the expensive jacket.I walked faster, like I could outpace how angry I was.*The nerve.* Marcus sitting there so calm, like he was offering me a coupon instead of a lie I'd have to live in for an entire hockey season. And Rhys, standing there the whole time, arms crossed, not saying a single word in his own defense, like he already knew I'd say no and didn't even care enough to try changing my mind.Good. Fine. Let him think whatever he wants.My phone rang halfway home. Mateo."Hey," I said, working to smooth the edge out of my voice before he could hear it.
Last Updated: 2026-10-11
Chapter: Chapter 5Chapter 5: The Proposal*Rhys*My morning started like every other morning. Alarm at five. Gym by five-thirty. An hour of weights before my body even fully woke up, followed by a shower and a breakfast I don't particularly enjoy but eat anyway because my nutritionist would have my head if I didn't.By seven, I was pulling on my jacket, mentally running through the day's schedule. Practice. Film review. A sponsor call I was already dreading.Then my phone started buzzing.Once. Twice. Then it didn't stop.I ignored it the way I ignore most things before eight in the morning. Texts from teammates usually mean somebody's hungover or somebody wants to trash talk about fantasy hockey. I figured it was one or the other.It wasn't.By the time I actually looked at the screen, I had forty-three missed notifications, a dozen texts, and three calls from Marcus, my agent, who does not call three times before eight unless something's on fire.*Get to the facility. Now.*I got to the facility.Mar
Last Updated: 2026-10-11
Chapter: Chapter 4Chapter 4: Rhys*Rhys*I woke up thinking about her, and that was the first thing that annoyed me about the day.Not the alarm. Not the game film I still needed to watch. Her. Sloane Reyes, standing in the middle of a dark street with her hands flat against my chest, looking up at me like she'd forgotten how to breathe.I lay there for a second, staring at the ceiling, trying to figure out why that image was still sitting in my head hours later. It shouldn't have been. I've caught teammates off the ice before, hauled guys up after bad hits, hell, I've caught strangers stumbling out of bars. None of them took up residence in my head like this. None of them made me lie there running the exact weight of them against me, over and over, like my body had filed it under *important* without asking me first.I got up, splashed water on my face, and told myself to drop it.I didn't.I've never liked journalists. That part isn't complicated, and it isn't new. Years ago, one of them decided my fa
Last Updated: 2026-10-11
Chapter: Chapter 3Chapter 3: Fifteen Seconds*Sloane*I checked my account balance three times that night, like it might be different the fourth time. It never was.Mom's dialysis was starting soon, and dialysis isn't cheap, not even with insurance covering part of it. Mateo's fees were still due. The electric bill was sitting in my email, unread on purpose, because I already knew what it said. I did the math again, the same grim math I always do, and landed on the same answer.Not enough.I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the wall for a long time. I didn't cry. I've gotten very good at not crying, mostly because once I start, it's hard to stop, and I didn't have time to fall apart tonight. I didn't want to call anyone either. My mom would worry. Mateo would apologize again. My best friend Tessa would tell me to take a break, and she'd be right, and I'd ignore her anyway.What I wanted, more than anything, was one single night where I didn't think about money.So I got up, put on the one good d
Last Updated: 2026-10-11
Chapter: Chapter 2Chapter 2: My Worst Neighbor*Sloane*There wasn't one big reason why Rhys Calloway and I hated each other. There were dozens of little ones, stacked up like unpaid bills.It all started the very first week he moved in.I was in the hallway, dragging my trash bag to the chute, half-asleep and not caring how I looked. He walked out of his apartment in a suit that probably cost more than my rent, looked at me like I was something that had wandered in off the street, and said, "You're not supposed to carry that through the front hallway. There's a service elevator."No "hello." No "good morning." Just an order, like I worked for him."Thanks for the tip," I said, and kept walking the exact same way I had been walking. "I'll file it under things I didn't ask you."He didn't like that. I could tell. Most people who live in that building are used to being agreed with. I've never been very good at agreeing with people just because they're rich and tall and used to it.That was the start of i
Last Updated: 2026-10-11
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