CHAPTER 2

HELENA

He opened his mouth to speak but I silenced him with one gesture.

I held up a hand between us before he could utter another lie.

Then a broken laugh escaped my lips. Did he really take me for a fool?

That I would take his contract, demean myself and my legacy for him?

My fingers tightened around the pregnancy test.

The future I’d dreamed about was still in my hand.

But this?

This was over.

I lifted my chin and planted both feet firmly on the floor.

“I don’t care what excuse you’ve prepared. I will not be giving you any more chances to destroy what we have left,” I said, bending to pick up the document from the bed.

They stood in silence, watching as my hands held both sides of the document.

And in one perfect motion. Tore it in half.

Vanessa flinched and Brent’s jaw ticked.

I should have seen all the signs from the beginning but I had loved him. Excused his silly behaviour and tantrums.

No more.

“I want a divorce,” I spat and Vanessa’s eyes darted to Brent for reassurance.

I didn’t care. The silence stretched out like a vast ocean as my words dissolved into the air, making it heavy.

Slowly, Brent began to laugh. I didn’t move.

“You always know how to make everything harder than it needs to be, Helena.” He said, his voice filled with a spite I didn’t notice before.

“You can tear up that document but there’s several more where that came from,” he sneered and I cocked my head to the side, hiding the pain in my heart.

“I’ll tear them up one after the other but for now, you may as well get the hell out of my office. The last time I checked, you still worked for me as a player,” I spat and walked past him.

He turned abruptly, a scoff on his lips.

“Not anymore,” he said and I paused.

“And what the hell does that mean?” I questioned, not facing him.

“If you hadn’t been such an icy mess and let me finish, I would have told you that I already quit and joined the Icy bears” he mocked and I turned around swiftly.

The blood drained from my face.

“What?”

The icy bears were the second biggest team in the world, led by a conglomerate.

Brent really betrayed me through and through.

“Y–you can’t do that. I didn’t sign off on it,” my voice was wavering but Brent was grinning proudly.

“Vanessa already took care of that.” He said and to my horror, she walked to my desk reproducing a document with my signature.

I snatched it, eyes skimming through it thoroughly.

“That’s not my signature.” I frowned but Vanessa only chuckled.

The innocent girl who I had once praised for her relentless work attitude, now different from what I knew her to be.

A traitor.

“It turns out it’s much easier to fabricate your signature than trick you into it.” He confessed and my head snapped up.

My mind immediately connected the dots. Missing records,Altered guest lists,Suspicious accounts. Forged documents.

This wasn’t sabotage anymore.

It was fraud.

“And I took a little something as my parting gift, I’m sure you don’t mind,” he mused, a muscle around my left eye twitched.

A little something?

As if years of work were a souvenir.

As if my company existed for his convenience.

Something inside me snapped.

My hand connected with his face before I could stop it.

My lips were trembling as the weight of his betrayal crashed into me like ice.

“How fucking dare you?” disgust filled my throat.

My years of hardwork. Our sweat.

“After everything I’ve done for you. All the years of your constant belittling, trying to become the best for you. Trying to build a family for you—“

“And I never asked you to do any of those fucking things Elena.” He interrupted and I was taken aback.

“What?” I questioned, perplexed. His eyes held malice.

“Maybe if you’d spent less time obsessing over your dead wolves and more time acting like a wife— His words landed exactly where he intended.

My fingers curled tighter around the pregnancy test hidden against my palm.

The truth sat right there. One sentence away.

I said nothing. Just watched the love I had for him crumbled to ash.

“You failed at the most basic of things and now, I’m done with all of your bullshit,” He said and the jab hit me square at the center of my chest.

For a moment I could only stare at him, realizing that he meant every word.

“So stop pretending that you broke down the world for me when you couldn’t even give me something so simple,” he spat.

“I suggest you go downstairs and tell whoever is left that there would be no game today,” he said, his head still turned.

He thought this was over.

But It wasn’t.

Contracts could still be challenged. Forgeries could be proven. Accounts could be audited.

“It’s nothing personal. I just found something better,” he said when I was close to the door.

I scoffed but my voice was cracked now. I wanted to reverse all of this, tell him that I was pregnant but what good would that even do?

My whole life was just upended in a matter of seconds.

I slammed the door behind me, my body trembling with a grief unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

Brent was my first player. The only one who had believed in me when I started up the team. My own husband.

Weeks of planning, gone in a matter of minutes. My marriage of three years, destroyed.

And somehow, beneath all of it, another impossible thought refused to leave me.

Jarrett Brooks.

Dead men weren’t supposed to walk into hockey arenas.

I stood outside the office, trembling when my phone suddenly pinged.

I ignored it until it became ferocious.

I fished out my phone from my pocket and my eyes widened.

“HOCKEY PROTÉGÉ HELENA CALLAHAN ACCUSED OF TEAM FRAUD

LIKELY TO FACE LAWSUIT AND TEAM EXPULSION”

“What the fuck?!” I shrieked in horror.