LOGINIt was him! It was the huge Russian guy who had threatened him yesterday after they had knocked Russia out of the tournament. But how was that even humanly possible? He was a Russian citizen. The Russian national team had been officially eliminated from the championship yesterday. Yet, here he was, wearing a Canadian jersey, playing under a false identity for the Canadian team. It was completely illegal, highly fraudulent, and a severely punishable offense in professional sports. In that single, clear minute, a realization hit Julian like a lightning bolt. Everything suddenly made perfect sense now. The brutal, targeted attack on Ken’s leg. The violent hit that almost ended Marcus. The crack on the ice. And finally, the poisoning of his private water bottle in the locker room, the very crime Valeria had witnessed. It wasn't just a rough game of hockey. It was a massive, illegal criminal conspiracy orchestrated by the eliminated Russian guy using the Canadian team as a front to ruin t
Julian kept his grey eyes fixed completely on the black rubber puck resting between his skates. His mind was incredibly quiet. He didn’t hear the deafening screams of the ten thousand fans filling the arena, nor did he care about the flashing lights of the media cameras. His entire soul was consumed by a single, burning purpose, he had to end this game once and for all, right now, before Valeria could change her mind and leave the building. Every second spent on this frozen rink was a second away from the woman he loved and the truth he desperately needed to hear Because he was so completely engrossed in looking at the puck, Julian failed to notice the incredibly tense and terrified stares passing between Barrett and the Canadian captain across the center circle. The two players were completely destabilized. Their eyes darted from Julian's perfectly stable frame back to their own dugout in utter confusion. They wondered what on earth might have gone wrong. Did Julian not drink his
The heavy silence in the room was so thick it felt hard to breathe. Valeria stood completely frozen, her mind spinning around in circles as Julian’s words echoed in her ears. Her eyes were wide with a mixture of shock and deep confusion. "What do you mean my mother wrote to you?" Valeria asked, her voice shaking as she stepped forward, her painful tears momentarily drying up. "My mother never wrote any letter to you, she isn't even literate" Julian’s face twisted into an expression of absolute bewilderment. He looked at her as if she were speaking a foreign language. He shook his heavy head, his massive shoulders tensing beneath his jersey. "That is completely impossible, Valeria. I wrote to you every single week during my first year away. When I didn't get any reply, I sent a special package containing three long letters and a custom silver bracelet directly to your place. A few weeks later, I received a physical letter from your mother's official mailing address. It stated clear
The absolute audacity of his accusation infuriated Valeria so much that her vision practically went blurry with rage. She let out a breathless, sobbing gasp, taking a step closer to him, completely unfazed by his massive size. "I threw it away?!" Valeria screamed, her voice cracking with pure agony. "You are an absolute manipulator, Julian! A liar and a manipulator! How can you stand there in my face and say that to me? You suddenly changed the very moment you left. You became a completely different, cold hearted person, five years and now you’re in a relationship with some other lady while trying to play mind games with me!" "I am not dating Ariel!" Julian roared, completely interrupting her before she could spit out another word. His chest was heaving violently, his face turning a dark shade of furious red as he stepped closer, his boots slamming against the floor tiles. "I never was dating her, and I never damn well will! How many times do I have to scream that into your ears b
"I'm serious Julian!" Valeria insisted, her voice rising into a sharp, desperate pitch as she stepped even closer to him. Her hands were still tightly clenched into small fists at her sides, her whole body vibrating with the raw adrenaline still pumping through her veins. "I know exactly what I saw! It was a man in a full stadium security uniform. He was heavy, he was wearing a black tactical mask, and he had a strange key that opened that exact locker. And he didn't just look inside. He explicitly pulled out the bottle, poured some of your water out, and emptied a small glass vial of some strange liquid into it. He did it so fast, like a criminal!" Seeing how incredibly serious, terrified, and breathless Valeria was right now, Julian's skepticism began to crack. A heavy, dark weight settled into his stomach. At first, when she had burst out from the dark corner, he had honestly thought she might be overwhelmed, hysterical, or simply didn't know what she was saying because of how fr
Julian’s blazing anger evaporated into thin air the exact millisecond his brain fully processed who was standing right in front of him. The furious words died instantly in his throat. His grey eyes widened in absolute shock, sweeping completely from her head down to her feet in immense surprise. She was truly the very last person he ever expected to see in this restricted stadium locker room. She wasn't even wearing her usual professional, reporter clothes with her press badge dangling from her neck. Instead, she was swimming in a loose simple black hoodie and matching trousers, looking incredibly small, fragile, and completely out of place. He immediately moved closer to her, his massive hockey pads clicking loudly on the floor. The cold, aggressive ice king persona completely vanished, replaced by an intense, raw worry. His eyes dropped softly as he reached out, his gaze taking in the way her hands were still shaking uncontrollably. "Valeria..." Julian breathed, his voice dropping







