INICIAR SESIÓNThe chaos on the ice was absolute. The stadium security guards were straining with all their might, their boots slipping on the slick surface as they held Julian back. Julian didn't struggle against their grip. He stood tall, his expression completely calm but incredibly cold, staring down at the giant man who was still on his knees on the bloody ice. Seeing his player on the ground, the Canadian head coach immediately sprinted onto the ice. Fearing that his own involvement in the plot might be uncovered, he pointed a shaking finger at the officials and roared, "This is an absolute outrage! Julian Vane just brutally assaulted my player for no reason! I demand that you suspend him immediately! Disqualify the Hawks! He should be thrown out of professional hockey!" The stadium security chief looked toward Julian, waiting for an explanation. But Julian didn't shout, nor did he explain. Instead, he pulled off his heavy hockey gloves and tossed them onto the ice. He looked directly at the
It 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 moved and relaxed his body on a plush armchair, the picture of a man in total control, yet every fiber of his being was vibrating with a suppressed, lethal energy. His grey eyes, cold and fixed, remained on Valeria as she sat opposite him. She looked breathtaking, a goddess carved from the
I stood with my back pressed against the heavy door, my fingers still trembling as they let go of the cold handle. The vip lounge was a testament to his wealth, sleek, expensive, and filled with the kind of high end technology that signaled he was no longer the boy from my past, but a global icon
As I walked through the backstage corridor of the North Am Arena, every rhythmic click of my heels echoed against the walls, sounding less like footsteps and more like a count down to a confrontation five years in the making. My heart was hammering an uneven rhythm against my ribs, but I forced m
Ever since I received the news that I was the one assigned to the Julian Vane exclusive, the very air in the Apex Media building seemed to have thinned, leaving me lightheaded and breathless. I sat at my desk in the bustling newsroom, my fingers hovering uselessly over the keyboard of my laptop. E







