Pustaka
Cari
Beranda / Romance / Behind the Ice Wall / Chapter 51 — Playing Angry

Share

Chapter 51 — Playing Angry

Penulis: Rovelt Vell
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-08-22 00:24:09

SKY’S POV

Game one of the first round felt different than any playoff opener I’d played before, and it took me most of the first period to understand exactly why.

I wasn’t nervous. That surprised me more than anything else — no tightness building behind my ribs, no old fear circling the edges of my focus the way it usually did under this kind of pressure. Just a clean, steady kind of anger that had nowhere else to go except directly into the game in front of me.

I stopped thirty-one shots t
Lanjutkan membaca buku ini secara gratis
Pindai kode untuk mengunduh Aplikasi
Bab sebelumnya Bab selanjutnya
Bab Terkunci

Bab terbaru

  • Behind the Ice Wall    Chapter 52 — The Witness

    SKY’S POV Reyes called me two days before the second round opener, his voice carrying something I hadn’t heard from him in weeks — actual hope, unguarded, instead of the careful patience he’d been managing this whole ordeal with. “The witness came forward,” he said. “Officially. Submitted a signed statement to the investigation this morning.” “Who?” “June. Amira’s old office assistant.” He paused. “She’s willing to say, on the record, that Damian asked her directly to describe the sessions in a way that made them sound more personal than professional. Said he coached her on specific language to use if anyone ever asked.” I sat with that a moment, a tightness in my chest loosening that had been there for weeks. “That’s real evidence. Not a records request with his name on it. An actual person saying he told her what to say.” “That’s real evidence,” Reyes confirmed. “The investigation’s already reopened lines of inquiry because of it. This isn’t just about clearing Amira anymore

  • Behind the Ice Wall    Chapter 51 — Playing Angry

    SKY’S POV Game one of the first round felt different than any playoff opener I’d played before, and it took me most of the first period to understand exactly why. I wasn’t nervous. That surprised me more than anything else — no tightness building behind my ribs, no old fear circling the edges of my focus the way it usually did under this kind of pressure. Just a clean, steady kind of anger that had nowhere else to go except directly into the game in front of me. I stopped thirty-one shots that night. Shut them out completely, the kind of performance that used to define the version of myself before any of this season happened, and when the final horn sounded, Reyes met me at the bench with a look close to disbelief. “That’s the best you’ve looked all year,” he said. “Didn’t feel like effort. Just felt like the only thing I had left to give it.” • The pattern held through the second game, and the third. Something had shifted in me since Amira’s message, some redirection of every

  • Behind the Ice Wall    Chapter 50 — Goodbye

    SKY’S POV I found out the details three days later, not from Amira, but from Reyes, who’d pieced together what he could from front office gossip and a sympathetic contact in HR who still believed the whole situation had been handled badly from the start. “She didn’t just resign,” he told me, sitting across from me in his office, door closed. “She released a statement. Short. Professional. Said she was stepping away to protect the integrity of the organization and the well-being of the players she’d worked with, and that she wouldn’t be commenting further.” “That’s it? No mention of Damian? No mention of any of it?” “Nothing about him. Nothing about you, either, by name. She kept it clean, Sky. Deliberately clean, so nobody could point to anything in it and claim it proved what they’d been trying to prove.” I sat with that a moment, understanding the shape of what she’d done even before I fully felt the weight of it. She hadn’t just resigned. She’d taken the fall in a way that pr

  • Behind the Ice Wall    Chapter 49 — Choose

    SKY’S POV Marcus called me back into his office two days later, and this time Reyes wasn’t invited to come with me. “I’ve made a decision,” he said, not bothering with any preamble this time. “Effective immediately, you’re to have no further contact with Dr. Frank until the investigation concludes. None. No calls, no texts, no meetings, nothing that could be photographed or subpoenaed or used against either of you in that hearing.” “You already asked me to do that. I already agreed.” “I’m asking you to actually mean it this time.” He leaned forward, hands flat on the desk. “I have a general manager breathing down my neck about ownership’s confidence in this organization’s judgment. I have sponsors asking pointed questions. I have a playoff run that this entire team has worked years for, potentially compromised because my starting goalie can’t stop seeing a woman he’s been explicitly told to stay away from.” “That’s not what happened.” “I don’t care what actually happened anymor

  • Behind the Ice Wall    Chapter 48 — Caught

    SKY’S POV The photo went up online sometime before six the next morning, and by the time I saw it my phone already had eleven missed calls and a string of texts I didn’t have the stomach to read in order. It wasn’t damning, exactly. Just the two of us in a parking lot, her hand on her car door, me a few feet away, nothing in the image itself that proved anything beyond two people talking somewhere they probably shouldn’t have been talking, days before a hearing that depended on both of us staying visibly apart. The headline didn’t need proof. It just needed a caption. Ice Wall’s Secret Meeting: Sky Wilson Spotted With Psychologist at Center of HR Investigation, Days Before Hearing. • Reyes called before I’d finished reading the first article. “You need to see me. Now. Before practice.” “I know what this looks like.” “I don’t care what it looks like right now. I care what Marcus is going to say once he sees it, and based on the three calls I’ve already gotten this morning, he

  • Behind the Ice Wall    Chapter 47 — One Conversation

    SKY’S POV Amira called instead of texting, which hadn’t happened in weeks, and something about hearing her actual voice again made the whole conversation feel different before she’d even finished her first sentence. “I need to see you,” she said. “Not over the phone. In person. There are things I don’t want to write down anywhere, not even in a message.” “When?” “Tonight, if you can. Somewhere neither of us usually goes. My lawyer suggested I stop all contact entirely until the hearing, and I’ve been following that advice for weeks. But this can’t wait, and I trust you more than I trust waiting.” I didn’t ask what “this” meant. I just told her where to meet me — a diner on the edge of town, the kind of place neither of us had any reason to be seen, plain enough that nobody would think twice about two people sharing a booth. • She was already there when I arrived, sitting in the back corner, a cup of coffee in front of her that looked untouched. She looked thinner than I rememb

Bab Lainnya

Anda juga akan menyukai

Jelajahi dan baca novel bagus secara gratis
Akses gratis ke berbagai novel bagus di aplikasi GoodNovel. Unduh buku yang kamu suka dan baca di mana saja & kapan saja.
Baca buku gratis di Aplikasi
Pindai kode untuk membaca di Aplikasi
DMCA.com Protection Status