Chapter 4

Jamie

Thankfully, the whole ceremony was wrapped up in under an hour, but by the time I retreated to my room, I realized that the news of my engagement to Sophia was the most trending topic on the internet.

By the next morning, we had made the front page of every major blog, and my phone was buzzing incessantly from friends and acquaintances, texting for several reasons.

I ignored them, because there's only one person I wanted to hear from.

Ash.

But my phone has been suspiciously empty in that aspect, so I woke up as early as possible and drove down to the skating rink where I knew he'd be.

That's because, according to Ash, it's the only place he could truly express himself and unload his troubles.

“Ash?” I called out as I flipped the locks, checking around if anyone was in yet. “Ash, it's me. We need to talk!”

The sound of someone grunting and breaking reached my ears, and I pushed into a slight sprint, stopping when I got to the ice rink.

A lone man was there, violently skating around the ice, his boots carving deep marks into the ice as he pushed the puck around, playing with himself.

“Dammit!” I muttered under my breath, and then I spoke up, raising my voice. “Asher!!”

My voice was loud enough this time, bouncing around the walls and forcing him to jerk his head. His piercing blue eyes found mine, and my breath caught at the anger simmering in them.

“Please, can you come here so we can talk?” I called out, but he didn't respond, his chest heaving the longer he looked at me.

Realizing that he wasn't going to answer me, I grabbed a pair of boots and strapped them on, ducking underneath the railing that separated the ice rink from solid ground.

I didn't stop moving until I was standing a few feet from him, my heart beating like crazy.

“Can we talk?” I asked, brushing my hair from my face.

“Talk,” was his curt one-word response.

“I know you've probably seen the news, but I can explain-”

   

Pausing, he yanked off his helmet, his blonde curls sticking to the side of his face, his eyes glazed with confusion. “What news?”

Perplexed, I do a double take. “I thought you knew about it. I mean, isn't that why you're pissed?”

“I'm pissed because I saw you kissing that girl just minutes after you had my tongue in your mouth!” He growled. “Why else do I need to be angry?”

Oh, crap.

The realization that he doesn't know about my engagement to Sophia hit me with the force of a freight train, and I popped my mouth open.

“Fuck!” I muttered under my breath.

“No, don't do that.” Ash took one step towards me. “What the fuck aren't you telling me?”

Knowing that I was going to regret this, I opened my mouth and told him the truth. “Last night, I… I got engaged.”

Ash's mouth dropped open, shock and disbelief warring in his features. “Wait, you… you did what?!”

The words dropped out of my mouth “It was a mistake, Ash! My father ambushed me with the party an-and…”

Asher took a step back, rearranging his features to look disinterested, but not before I saw the flash of pain. “So you're getting married?”

His question threw me off balance, and I rushed to explain, words bouncing off my lips. “No, it's… it's not that simple. I mean, sure… to the public, it looks like I'm getting married, but I swear, I don't even know the girl! I don't love her or anything-”

Scoffing, Ash just shook his head in disappointment, angrily taking off his elbow and shoulder pads. “I should have known that something like this would happen. This was just a fling to you, right? You just wanted to play for the other team and see how it feels. Is that what this was?”

The sheer betrayal and pain in his voice cut me deeply. “No, Ash, I swear-”

“Stop swearing!” He growls, cutting me off before shutting down, his face a blank mask. “You know what? I'm not going to deal with this… fuck you!!”

Without waiting for me to speak, he angrily throws off his hockey gloves and helmet on the rink and stomps off the ice.

“Dammit, Ash! Wait!” I bellowed, immediately following suit.

I knew that telling him about the engagement wouldn't be easy, but I didn't expect this level of pain and regret.

Running after Ash, I passed the hallway and then burst through the open doors, only to nearly bump into Asher.

“Hey, Ash, I…” I raised my hand to touch him, but he moved away, still staring at someone.

Confused, I looked up, only to see people staring at us while taking glances at their phones.

What the hell is going on?

A lady passed us, gasping in shock before taking a peek at her phone. “Oh, my gosh, it's them! I never believed it!”

Ash's brows furrowed, and he stalked towards the girl, snatching her phone to check what was going on, ignoring the girl's angry yell.

I stood there, waiting for him to say something, but his jaw went slack and his face pale, color leaching out of it. “Holy shit!” He breathed, looking absolutely stunned.

“What is it?” I grabbed the phone from his hand and immediately regretted my actions when my gaze collided with the news on the screen.

It was a picture of Ash and me, kissing passionately while holding each other.

Oh, no….

My thumbs went over the screen as I dug a little deeper, confirming my worst fear.

It turns out that the picture was currently trending and was in every major news blog.

My life is over!

                    ~~~~~~~~~~

The next couple of hours passed by in a blur.

After Ash and I found out that our affair was the trending scandal, he bolted, treating me like I was some radioactive material.

Not knowing how to react, I abandoned all my plans for today, got into my car and drove until I got to an empty spot where I could be alone without the judging eyes or whispers echoing in my ears.

Throughout the car ride, my phone didn't stop buzzing with calls or texts, half of them from my father.

Not sure what to do, I simply turned off my phone and sat in the car for the next twenty minutes, allowing Miley Cyrus's voice to wash over me.

“Holy fuck, what am I going to do now?” I muttered under my breath, suddenly finding it hard to breathe as it felt like some huge weight had settled on my chest.

In the space of 24 hours, my life had done a 360 spin, the entire thing making me feel dizzy.

Wrapping my arms around the steering wheel, I rested my forehead against it, trying to decide what step to take next.

I didn't know it then, but I loved Asher.

My world feels better and brighter whenever I'm with him, and he makes me forget all the shitty things I've been through.

When our relationship was still secret, my biggest worry was for people to find out about us, but now that our affair is in the open, I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

Asher and I could be together!

Hope springs up in my chest, and I could almost envision it…

Ash and I… in the open air, our hands intertwined as we laughed, soaking up the sun and the feeling of being in love.

Unfortunately, a loud shrill buzzing startled me, dragging me out of my daydream.

My eyes flew open to see the spare phone Dad made me carry around buzzing in the compartment box.

I had half a mind to ignore it, but I picked it up, skimming through the texts he'd sent until my gaze caught on one.

“If she dies, her blood's on your head”.

Dies? Who's dying and what does he mean?

My heart thundering in my chest, I hastily called the last number back, waiting for whomever it was to pick up.

The call connected a second later, my father's voice coming through the speaker. “There you are, ready to talk now?”

I was confused. “I don't understand, what's going on?”

My father's icy tone came through again, the sheer violence radiating through it making me shiver. “You have ten minutes to come home, or I'll kill someone you care about.”

My eyes nearly flew to my forehead. “Wait..?” Before I could even get a word out, he ended the call with a click.

“Dad?!” I called out, panic and fear lacing my tone as I gripped the phone so tightly, I was surprised it didn't break. “Dad, please!!”

Realizing that he wasn't here to hear me cry and I was wasting time with every second I spent here, I tossed the phone to the backseat and kick-started my car.

I just blew through every speed limit possible, images of Ash being hurt and undergoing whatever sink forms of torture my father had planned racing through my mind.

I extended the ten- minute timeline by a minute and and soon as I drove into the driveway, I jumped down from the car and raced towards the front door.

Pushing them off their hinges with a bang, I ran towards my father's office where I knew he'd be waiting for me.

“There you are…” My father says calmly, perched on the edge of his seat.

“Where is he?” I wheezed out, doubling over to catch my breath before straightening. “I Sweta if you hurt him, I'll-”

“You'll what?!” Dad spits out with a great deal of duty in his tone, his calm demeanour shattered, shouting at the top of his voice. “You'll mess up this family more than you currently have?!”

I've never seen him this angry so I just stood there, frozen in place.

“You know, I tried to do right by you but I guess you like things the hard way!” He steps aside, showing me a laptop with an video playing on it.

I peer closely, only for shock and disbelief to render me speechless.

Right there on the screen was Asher's sister, Molly, tied up, blindfolded and bound to a chair with a gun pointed to her head.

“No!” I wailed in anguish, dropping to my knees.

“I guess now you have a choice. Which one is it going to be huh?” Dad sneered, his tone cruel. “Your boyfriend's sister or… Sophia?” me, his steely