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The Return
publish date:
2026-05-07 02:29:28
Latest chapter
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother Epilogue : The Empire
Tamine’s POVFive Years Later.The Chicago summer night was perfectly clear, the sky a deep, bruised violet against the glittering lights of the skyline.I stood on the rooftop terrace of the newly completed central pavilion in the South Side. A warm breeze swept off Lake Michigan, rustling the heavy silk of my dark emerald evening gown.Below me, the streets were alive. The pedestrian walkways were packed with people, string lights illuminating the open-air cafes and local storefronts. The terraced, decentralized housing blocks rose seamlessly into the city grid, their solar arrays absorbing the last rays of the setting sun.It wasn't a blueprint anymore. It wasn't a 3D rendering on a flash drive, or a desperate pitch to a panel of judges.The Green Grid was real. And as the Lead Architect of Vanguard Associates, I had built every single inch of it."You're hiding from the press again, Mrs. Thorpe."I turned away from the glass railing.Evans stepped onto the terrace. He was wearing
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Penthouse and the Promise
Evans’s POVJune. The NHL Draft, Montreal.The Bell Centre was a massive, echoing cathedral of nervous energy. The floor was packed with franchise executives sitting at round tables covered in laptops and phones. The stadium seating above was filled with draft prospects, their families, and thousands of fans.I was sitting in the lower bowl. I wasn't wearing a custom designer suit bought with Thorpe money. I was wearing a sharp, classic charcoal suit I had bought off the rack and had tailored myself.Tamine sat to my left, her hand gripping mine so tightly my fingers were going numb. Atlas sat to my right, taking up two seats with his massive frame, casually checking his phone. My agent, David, was pacing the aisle."With the fourteenth overall pick," the Commissioner announced, his voice booming through the arena, "the Winnipeg Jets select..."I tuned it out. Fourteen was gone.The first ten picks had been agonizing. Every time a team went on the clock, David’s phone would buzz, he w
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Boardroom
Tamine’s POVThe conference room on the 42nd floor of Vanguard Associates was entirely encased in glass, offering a dizzying, panoramic view of the Chicago skyline.I sat at the far end of the massive mahogany table, feeling incredibly small.There were twelve people in the room. Eleven of them were senior partners, lead architects, and municipal investors wearing suits that cost more than my entire college tuition. I was the twelfth. The junior intern."Moving on to the West Side waterfront redevelopment initiative," Marcus Vance, the head of Vanguard (and the judge who had awarded me the internship), announced. He projected a massive, sprawling digital map onto the smart-screen. "The city council is demanding a proposal by Friday. They want high-density luxury condos, but the soil density reports from the waterfront are... problematic."A senior architect named Sterling sighed, rubbing his temples. "If we have to drive steel pilings deep enough to hit bedrock to support luxury high-
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Return
Tamine’s POVLate August. The start of Junior Year.The alarm went off at 5:00 AM.I didn't groan. I didn't hit snooze. I sat straight up on the brand new, firm mattress we had bought with Atlas's money, my heart already hammering a frantic rhythm of adrenaline.Today was the day.I slipped out of bed, quietly padding across the hardwood floor to the bathroom. I showered, pulled my hair back into a sleek, professional bun, and put on the best outfit I owned: a crisp white button-down, a black blazer, and tailored slacks I had spent hours altering myself.I walked back into the main room.Evans was awake. He was sitting on the edge of the mattress, his bags already packed and sitting by the door. His flight to Boston left in three hours. The summer bubble was officially over. The distance was about to begin again.But as I looked at him, the crushing, terrifying panic that had defined our sophomore year goodbye was completely absent."Look at you," Evans murmured, standing up and walki
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Domestic Grind
Evans’s POV"If you burn the garlic again, I am officially banning you from the hot plate."I looked up from the cutting board, wiping a bead of sweat from my forehead. Chicago in July without air conditioning was a special kind of hell."I didn't burn it yesterday," I argued, scraping the diced garlic into the sizzling pan on our single-burner hot plate. "I heavily caramelized it. It’s a culinary technique."Tamine snorted from her spot on the floor. She was sitting cross-legged on our deflating air mattress, her lap covered in heavy architectural blueprints. She was wearing one of my old Blackridge hockey t-shirts, her hair tied up in a messy bun secured with a drafting pencil."It was black, Evans," Tamine pointed out without looking up from her calculations. "It tasted like actual charcoal. Please don't ruin the pasta. It's the last box we have until Friday.""The pasta will be flawless," I promised, stirring the cheap marinara sauce.Living in the walk-up was the hardest, most in
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Media Spin and the Summer Lease
Evans’s POVThe joy of Tamine winning the Vanguard internship carried me through the first agonizing week of my concussion recovery. But Richard Thorpe wasn't a man who lost gracefully. If he couldn't control his assets, he destroyed them.Two weeks after the Frozen Four.I was lying on my dorm bed, staring at the ceiling. The blackout restrictions had been slightly lifted. I was allowed to look at my phone for fifteen minutes at a time.My agent, David who had formally agreed to represent me after Atlas threatened to fire him called."Evans," David said, his voice tense. "Have you looked at the sports blogs today?""No," I replied, sitting up slowly. "Dr. Thorne still has me on a restricted screen-time diet. What's going on?""Your father," David sighed heavily. "He couldn't leak the medical records about Tamine's mother, so he pivoted. He's leveraging his media contacts to control the narrative around your injury and your severance from the family."A cold knot formed in my stomach.
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Dean's List
I sat on the cold concrete curb for twenty minutes, my breath hitching in jagged, ugly gasps. The school parking lot was empty now, save for a few distant cars and the ever-present hum of the highway.I had done it. I had nuked the only good thing in my life to save it from the fallout of my own ex
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Fallout
I didn't sleep. I spent the night sitting on the floor of my bedroom, listening to my mother pass out in the living room, staring at the screen of my phone. The notification had come through at 2:00 AM. A single ping that sounded like a gunshot in the silent house. Blackridge Buzz: New Video Upl
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother The Fallout Begins
The drive was quiet, but it wasn't the heavy silence of the theater or the tense silence of the library. It was comfortable. The heated seats warmed my frozen bones, and the soft hum of the engine was a lullaby compared to the chaos of my life.Evans navigated the streets with practiced ease, drivi
Stuck between Hockey Player and his Quarterback Brother I Choose You
"Am I?" he challenged, hobbling toward me until he was towering over me. "Because last night, I felt pretty stupid. I felt like the idiot younger brother who thought he could actually compete with the quarterback.""It wasn't a competition!" I shouted, frustration boiling over. "He cornered me! He
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