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Chapter 141: What the Living Owe
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-09-20 22:10:13
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Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 145: What You Could Have Had
Dean showed up at my father’s house the next afternoon. I found him standing beside his car when I stepped outside, his hands shoved into his pockets and uncertainty written across a face I had rarely seen unguarded.“I got in my car,” he said before I could ask. “I didn’t decide to come here. I just started driving, and somehow I ended up pointed in this direction.”I stopped halfway down the steps. “What do you want, Dean?”He met my eyes. “Can we talk?”“We’re always talking.”“Not like this.” He glanced toward the house, then back at me. “I don’t want another conversation where we try to solve everything or convince each other of anything. I just want to be around you.”I didn’t know what to do with that. “You drove all the way here just to be around me?”“Yes.”The honesty landed harder than any explanation could have. I looked back at the house, where my father was probably watching television or pretending not to notice my car still in the driveway, then faced Dean again. “Wher
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 144: The Meeting
Melissa drove us to the small café Mason had chosen as neutral ground. Before we went inside, she squeezed my hand. “You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to say.”“I know.”Mason was waiting at a corner table, his phone facedown beside his coffee. He looked less restless than he had the last time I’d seen him, but the way he kept checking the entrance suggested he hadn’t suddenly discovered inner peace. He stood when we approached and gave us a restrained nod.“Thank you for coming.”“I still don’t trust you,” I said, taking the chair opposite him.“Fair.” His mouth twitched, though there was no real humor behind it. “This isn’t about you trusting me. I’m trying to get my best friend back, and I know how bad this looks. Sophie is genuinely unstable, and Dean shouldn’t be marrying her to solve a business problem that isn’t even his to fix.”I folded my arms. “Then why should I believe anything you say?”“You don’t have to.”The answer stopped me more effectively than any defen
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 143: Clipped Wings
“Iris, I have to.” Dean’s voice was quiet, resigned in a way I had never heard from him before. He sat across from me in the stripped-bare room, surrounded by the last traces of a life that no longer felt like mine. “I don’t have a choice. My father has been there for me my whole life. This is my chance to protect him for once instead of letting him be the one protecting me.”“How long are you going to keep doing this?” I asked, folding my hands in my lap to stop them from shaking. “How long are you going to keep sacrificing yourself for a family that keeps taking everything from you?”His gaze dropped to the floor. “I don’t have a reason not to anymore.”There was no argument I could make against that. The fight I had been holding on to slipped out of me, leaving behind an exhausted calm that felt more frightening than anger. I looked around the room at the half-packed boxes, the bare shelves, and the pale rectangles on the walls where photographs had once hung. Everything had alread
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 142: The Valedictorian
I stood at the podium in my cap and gown, looking out over the sea of Northbridge graduates. Somewhere in the crowd, my father had his phone, probably recording every second, whether I wanted him to or not. For one suspended moment, the noise, the cameras, and the heat of the afternoon faded, leaving only the long road that had brought me there.“Two years ago,” I began, keeping my voice steady despite the tremor beneath it, “my life became a headline I never asked to be part of. I lost a scholarship I had earned. I lost people I thought I could trust. For months, I was told who I was supposed to be based on things that had happened to me instead of the choices I made afterward.”I found my father in the crowd. He watched me with the same quiet pride he had carried through every awful part of the last two years, and seeing him there gave me somewhere to place my focus.“What I learned is that the story other people write about you is never the whole truth. You get to write your own ve
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 141: What the Living Owe
The church was full by the time Ava and I arrived, all dark suits, lowered voices, and the particular hush that settled over places built for grief. She had driven back with me the moment I told her about the headline, and now she slid into the pew beside me while I searched the crowd for Mason. I found him near the front with his shoulders drawn tight and his younger sister tucked against his side, both of them facing the altar as if looking anywhere else might make the day more real.Dean arrived a few minutes later and took the pew across the aisle without saying anything. He glanced at me once, then faced forward. I gave him a small nod, and that was enough. His presence needed no explanation.The service moved slowly through hymns, readings, and a eulogy from one of Mason’s aunts, whose voice cracked twice as she described a woman who had spent decades holding a difficult family together with patience and quiet love. I kept thinking about the hospital room months earlier, when Mr
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 140: What Comes Next
Mrs. Sinclair knew something was wrong before we were fully inside. Her smile faded as her gaze moved from Ava to Ryan, then back to Ava again, and she stepped aside to let us into the living room. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”Ava opened her mouth, but no words came. Ryan came in behind us and took her hand, his thumb moving over her knuckles as if the small, familiar gesture could lend her enough courage to say what we had come to say.“I’m pregnant.”She got the words out quickly, before fear could stop her.The room went quiet. Mr. Sinclair lowered the newspaper he had been reading, while Mrs. Sinclair’s hand rose to her mouth. For a moment, no one seemed to know which question to ask first. Then her mother set the newspaper aside and focused on Ava.“How long have you known?”“A few weeks.”“How far along are you?”“Almost two months.”“Does Ryan’s family know?”“Not yet. We wanted to tell you first.”The questions followed one another after that, practical and immediate. Graduatio
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