ログインTheo~I woke the morning after my mother’s meeting with Reina still carrying the residual tension of everything that had shifted in the hospital and beyond, yet when Noah and I walked onto Blackwood’s campus together for the first time without any attempt at concealment, a strange lightness settled over me for a few brief minutes. Noah’s arm rested across my shoulders in a casual, unthinking way, and I did not shrug it off or glance around to measure who might be watching. For that short stretch of pavement the relief of simply existing beside him without calculation felt almost unfamiliar, as though some constant weight I had carried for months had finally been set down. Then the stares began. They were not the ordinary curious glances that followed any new pairing on campus. These lingered longer, slid away faster, and carried the distinct edge of recognition. Whispers moved between groups of students as we passed. One voice, low but clear enough, reached me with the words “That’s
Thea~I woke the next morning to the same heavy quiet that had settled over the house after the hospital. Exhaustion clung to every muscle, yet sleep had refused to stay. Jeff’s admissions from the night before kept circling, how much he had known, how little he had said, the way Morrison’s name had become a shadow stretched across years of our marriage. I kept seeing Theo’s face as he spoke of the threats, the vanished opportunities, Benito’s sudden appearance with those photographs, the careful way Morrison had twisted every part of our son’s life until even happiness looked like rebellion. I no longer recognized the man who had once sat at our dinner table as if he belonged there. And somewhere in the middle of that restless night I remembered Jeff’s reluctant mention of his first wife. If anyone still carried the sharp edges of Morrison’s past, it would be her.Jeff was already at the kitchen table when I came down, coffee untouched, the newspaper folded but unread. I sat across
Jeff~ I sat in the stiff hospital chair beside Thea’s bed, the steady beep of the monitor the only sound filling the room. She stared out the window at the scattered city lights, her face pale but set with a calm that unsettled me more than any tears would have. I reached for something to say, anything to close the sudden distance that had opened between us, when her voice cut through the quiet. “I want a divorce.” I blinked, certain the exhaustion and the harsh lights had twisted her words. “What did you say?” “I want a divorce,” she repeated, turning to face me fully. Her eyes held no hesitation, only a quiet certainty that landed like a weight on my chest. I forced a short laugh, the sound brittle in the sterile air. “Thea, come on. You just fainted. You’re still coming out of it. The doctor said stress–” “I am perfectly aware of what I’m saying,” she cut in, irritation sharpening her tone. “I’m not asking for your understanding, Jeff. I’m telling you what I’ve decided.”
Thea~I was in the kitchen finishing the chicken when I heard the front door open. Theo’s voice mixed with Noah’s as they came in. Jeff was already at the table, scrolling through something on his phone. Everything felt ordinary. Dinner was almost ready. The house smelled like rosemary and garlic. I called out that they should wash up.They sat down a few minutes later. Theo looked tired. Noah stayed quiet, which was normal for him these days. We passed the food around. Jeff asked about practice.“How did the drills go?” Jeff said.“Fine,” Theo answered. “Coach kept us late on the power play.”“You look worn out,” I said. “Are you sleeping enough?”“Enough.”I talked about a call from the university about some fundraising event. Jeff mentioned a work meeting that had run long. Noah said almost nothing. It was the kind of dinner we had most weeks. Plates moved. Forks scraped. No one raised their voice.Then Theo put his fork down.“I need to tell you both something.”Jeff looked up. I
Reina~A cup of tea sat cooling at the edge of the desk, untouched, the surface already forming a thin skin. Beside it lay the folder bearing the name of Theodore Morrison ’s father in discreet embossing. I had left it closed until the report was finished.One of my men stood across from me, voice steady, the cadence of someone who understood I required facts without decoration. I did not interrupt. I watched the city move beyond the glass while he laid out the architecture of a man who had spent years purchasing influence the way other men purchased property. Sports agents who owed him introductions. Sponsors whose contracts could be redirected with a single call. Journalists who knew which stories to pursue and which to leave unfinished. University board members whose favors had grown into quiet obligations. He rarely delivered a threat in his own voice. He paid others to carry the consequence, preserving the distance that kept him respectable.None of it surprised me. I had expecte
Noah~The national news hit before lunch. I was sitting in the back of the lecture hall with Theo’s knee pressed against mine under the desk when my phone lit up with a breaking-alert banner from every major network at once. The volume on the muted classroom projector somehow managed to catch the crawl at the bottom of the feed someone had left open on their laptop two rows ahead. Blackwood University. Hockey star. Private messages. Photographs. The words “suspended pending investigation” scrolled past in white letters against a red bar while a polished anchor’s face filled the small screen, lips moving in the familiar cadence of manufactured outrage. I did not need the audio. The caption alone was enough. Theo’s name and mine sat side by side beneath a still of us walking across the quad that morning, hands linked, faces calm. The freeze-frame made the contact look deliberate, almost staged, which was exactly what we had intended and exactly what the networks now wanted to dissect.
Noah~I’d seen a lot of people try to fake control before.Athletes, especially. Hockey guys were the worst for it. All that chest-beating, loud voices and hard eyes, like if they looked confident enough nobody would notice they were falling apart inside. I had absolutely no idea why the fuckers co
Theodore~I should've fucking said no. That was the first thought that hit me when I saw the moving truck pull up but the second thought was far worse.Why is he actually here?I stood by the window of my dorm, arms crossed, watching like it was some kind of bad joke the universe was trying to sel
A deep groan clawed its way out of my chest as my phone kept vibrating against my nightstand like it had a personal vendetta against me.For a split second, I considered letting it die.It didn’t.I snatched it up without checking the caller ID. “What?!” I barked, voice thick with sleep and last ni
Theodore POVYou probably think it can’t get any worse than hooking up with a random guy after a win and then seeing him the next morning as the newest member of your hockey team.Try going home that same day and finding out your mom got a ‘fiance’ over the weekend.Try watching that same guy—same







