INICIAR SESIÓNCHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Lila’s POVI’d never once seen Nia go quiet on her own. Not during exams, not at her own mother’s wedding toast, not the time she got food poisoning at my birthday dinner and still found the energy to narrate her own nausea to a waiter who clearly did not need the details. Nia had opinions about silence and the opinion was that she considered it a personal failing in other people.Thirty seconds or maybe a full minute was how long it lasted before she snapped back to life, clearing her throat and diving face-first into her makeup case like the last two minutes hadn’t happened.“He seemed nice and tall,” she announced to absolutely nobody.“Mm.”“Tall.”“You said that already. Also you didn’t speak to him. At all.”“Restraint,” she said, snapping the case shut hard enough to make a stylist flinch. “It’s called restraint, Lila.”“It’s called you forgot every word you know.”She glared at me, cheeks doing something warm and unconvincing, and across the room the man w
Chapter TWENTY: Lila’s POV“Chin down, chin down, no, too far, there, hold that.”The photographer had said the same commentary and corrections that’s starting to grate on my nerves within the last twenty minutes, and I was starting to lose the will to comply with any of it.The wig itched, it was an auburn-wine shade close enough to my own hair to read as natural on camera, different enough that nobody scrolling past this cover in six months would connect it to me or anything related to my personal life. The stylist had spent forty minutes arranging loose wisps of it across my cheekbone, angling my bangs low over one eye, building an entire silhouette designed to suggest a face without ever fully showing one. There would be no full reveal and my identity would still be safe for now all thanks to the photographer agreeing to focus on my shadow, silhouette, hair, the curve of a jaw caught mid-turn, everything is enough to be beautiful and nothing close to identifiable. I’d made the
Chapter 19 : Zeek’s POV“You gonna actually skate today, or you just here for the ambiance?”Coach Reyes didn’t slow down as he said it, clipboard tucked under his arm, already moving on to yell at someone else before I could answer.I’d missed the drill. Badly in an embarrassing way that got noticed even on a day everyone was still riding the high of the finals win, when half the room should’ve been too pleased with themselves to notice anything I did wrong.“In your dreams,” I muttered under my breath, the exact three words that had been looping through my head since yesterday afternoon, and skated back into position before Reyes decided I needed a lecture in front of the whole team.Sasha glided up beside me, grinning behind his mouthguard. “Rough morning, Marlow?”“Rough couple of days.”“Heard that.” He knocked his stick against mine in a familiar way. “You want to talk about the mystery redhead everyone’s losing their minds over, or should I keep pretending I don’t know that’s w
Chapter 18 : Lila’s POV“You’re actually here. I was starting a betting pool on whether you’d bail again.”Richy pulled the door open before I even knocked, wooden spoon still in hand, an apron tied over his button-down like he hadn’t quite committed to either version of himself tonight, businessman or home cook.“I don’t bail.” I stepped past him into the smell of garlic and something simmering that had clearly been on the stove for hours. “I reschedule.”“Is that what we’re calling it now?”“That’s exactly what we’re calling it.”He laughed, his rare stomach rumbling laughter that would make eye the saddest person crack a smile, this one had nothing to do with boardrooms or contracts or any version of himself the outside world got to see, and something in my chest loosened for the first time in days. This was the version of Richy I actually knew, apron and all, humming under his breath while he stirred a pot that didn’t need stirring, home in a way his office never was.“Leo’s alrea
Chapter 17 : Lila’s POV“You absolute drama queen, you’re going to survive one text from an arrogant hockey player.”I said it out loud to my ficus, which was doing a spectacular job of not caring, and dumped water into its pot with far more aggression than a plant deserved.In your dreams. Those were the words I sent an hour ago, and I still felt weirdly proud of myself for typing them.Even if I’m lowkey regretting it now. The doorbell rang. It’s a delivery I’d forgotten I ordered, a set of ceramic mugs from a shop across town. I signed for it, carried the box inside, and started unwrapping them one by one, needing my hands to be doing something. Anything at this point to get my mind off the particular man I’m supposed to hate and not fantasize about his large hands choking my neck gently as he did the wonders he did with his tongue the last time. “Arrogant,” I muttered, unwrapping the first. “Frustrating.” Second mug. “Motherfucker.” Third mug, set down harder than necessary.My
Chapter 16 CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Zeek’s POV“You look like shit.”Dex let himself in without knocking, because apparently the last decade of friendship had convinced him he didn’t need to, and dropped onto my couch like he owned the place.“Thanks. Really needed that today.”“I’m serious. You’ve got a face like someone stole your dick.” He kicked his feet up onto my coffee table, which I hated, and he knew I hated, which was exactly why he did it every single time. “Also I watched the fight like six times already. Cane’s got a mean right hook for a guy who skates like he’s scared of the puck.”“He got lucky.”“He got you good is what he got.” Dex grinned, entirely too pleased with himself. “And then apparently you went full soap opera hero and claimed some mystery girl in front of half the internet. People are losing their minds trying to figure out who she is.”“Careesha made a scene. I handled it.”“Uh huh.” He studied me the way he always did right before he said something I didn’t wan







