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Chapter 77: What Melissa Knew
Tanggal publikasi:
2026-08-07 03:20:23
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Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 78: The First Step
The last exam ended at 4:17 on a Thursday. When the invigilator called time, I didn't move right away. I just sat there with my pen still in my hand, staring at the empty booklet. Nothing dramatic happened. Just silence, and the quiet finality of being done. When I finally stood and handed in my paper, it felt almost anticlimactic, like I had been bracing for impact and it never came. Outside, Ava was waiting on the steps with two hot chocolates. She pressed one into my palm before I could gather my thoughts, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. "Don't ask me how it went," I said automatically. "I wasn't going to," she replied. "I was going to ask if you're still alive." "Technically yes," I said, taking a careful sip. "Emotionally, jury's still out." That earned a laugh, and we started walking without deciding where we were going. For once, there was no urgency pulling at us. Just the strange, unreal feeling of being finished. "I can't believe we only have
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 77: What Melissa Knew
Something about Mercer Athletics felt wrong the moment I stepped off the elevator, as if the building itself had exhaled and forgotten how to draw breath again. The executive floor was usually a controlled storm of movement and clipped conversations, but today the air was strangely still. Melissa’s assistant sat at the front desk with her usual precise composure, yet even she seemed subdued, and I caught two marketing associates slipping out of Melissa’s office a little too quickly, their expressions carefully blank in a way that never meant nothing. The door to Melissa’s office stood open. That alone made something uneasy settle in my stomach. I walked in without knocking. Melissa wasn’t at her desk, wasn’t on a call, wasn’t doing any of the things that usually defined her. Instead, she was packing. Books were already boxed and stacked neatly against the wall. Framed photos had disappeared from her shelves, leaving faint rectangles of lighter paint behind. A few small plants lin
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 76: The Story Changes
Exam season had turned the library into a controlled kind of collapse, the sort where everything looked orderly from a distance but up close revealed itself as exhaustion held together by caffeine and stubbornness. Every table was taken, every surface buried under laptops and notebooks, the air overworked, as if it had been breathed through too many deadlines and not enough sleep. I shut my textbook harder than necessary and pressed my fingers to my eyes. "If I read the words media ethics one more time, I might actually lose my mind in a very academically responsible way." Ava didn't look up as she shoved another notebook into her bag. "You've been threatening that for hours." "And I stand by it." "You need air." "I need a degree." "You need both, unfortunately." I didn't have the energy to argue, so I let her win and followed her outside. The campus felt indecently normal. Sunlight spilled across stone paths, students moved in loose clusters that suggested freedom rather tha
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 75: For Tonight
The drive back from the wedding felt heavier than the ceremony had, as if something unspoken had followed us out of the venue and settled quietly between us in the car. Dean drove with one hand on the wheel, the other resting near the gear shift, steady in the way I’d come to recognize as his version of restraint. Streetlights slid across the windshield in slow, molten bands of gold, and neither of us reached for the radio. After everything we’d just witnessed, silence didn’t feel empty. It felt shared—like speaking might fracture something fragile we were both still trying to understand. I watched the city blur past for a while before the thought finally rose to the surface and refused to stay buried. “I still can’t stop thinking about Lucas,” I said softly. Dean didn’t look away from the road. He only gave a small nod, as if he’d been carrying the same thought the entire time and hadn’t needed to say it first. “I know.” A car passed us, headlights briefly washing over his prof
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 74: Until Tomorrow
The invitation had been sitting on my kitchen counter for two days, cream cardstock and gold lettering that made it feel less like paper and more like a decision I hadn’t agreed to but was expected to attend anyway. It had survived coffee rings, a stack of unopened mail, and Dean’s habit of moving things just slightly out of place, which meant it had become impossible to ignore. He slid it toward me while I finished my coffee like he was passing over something routine. “Melissa called,” he said. I set the mug down without looking at it. “How is she?” “Better than expected.” He leaned back against the counter, arms folded, watching me like he was measuring how I’d take the rest of it. “She isn’t coming.” That landed quieter than I expected. Not relief exactly, but the absence of something heavy I hadn’t realized I was still carrying. “I think that’s the right decision,” I said after a moment. “So do I.” The conversation should have ended there, but Dean stayed where he was, gl
Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival Chapter 73: The Weight of Tomorrow
Leaving Mercer Athletics felt wrong in a way neither of us named, as if the world had continued exactly as it should have while something between us had shifted just slightly off its axis. The building gave no sign of it. Glass doors caught the late light, floors reflected movement, and someone near reception laughed too loudly at a video on their phone. Ordinary sound, untouched by anything we were carrying. Dean opened the SUV for me and waited until I was inside before circling to the driver’s seat. We did not fall into our usual rhythm. No teasing, no argument over music, no easy noise to fill the space. Just silence settling in, unfamiliar enough that it made everything feel slightly misaligned. Melissa straightening Lucas’s tie kept replaying in my mind. A small, practiced gesture that should have disappeared the moment it ended, but instead stayed lodged somewhere under my skin. We were already on the main road when I finally turned to Dean. “What did you mean earlier?” He
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