MasukChapter 172Max*Unknown Number: Mr. Stiles, this is Greg Harlan, Director of Player Personnel for the New York Liberty. Apologies for the radio silence, the organization needed time to get everyone aligned after the finals. Your performance in the championship, especially the way you carried the team in the third period, was impressive. We’d like to sit down and discuss a two-year entry-level deal with performance bonuses. Are you free for a meeting this week?*I blinked hard, reading it again. Then another message appeared right beneath it, time stamped only minutes earlier.*Unknown Number: Off the record, that proposal on the ice was something else. The league needs players with heart like that. Looking forward to talking. Call me when you can.*My knees actually went weak. I gripped the edge of the display table so tightly my knuckles turned white. All the guilt that had been poisoning me for days – the sleepless nights where I replayed every second of that proposal, wonderin
Chapter 171MaxThe days following the release of the videos felt like stepping out of a violent, swirling storm into a strange, lingering calm. We knew from the very beginning that the internet would be a battleground, and it certainly lived up to that reputation. There were always going to be bitter strangers with too much time on their hands, leaving their negativity and cruelty in the comment sections.But as the hours ticked by, the tide had undeniably turned. For every hateful message we received, there were ten more calling out the homophobia, quoting our fathers' words, and reminding everyone that we were just two human beings who loved each other.The university administration had quietly backed off. The threats to strip my scholarships and remove us from the team had evaporated overnight. They were likely terrified of the massive public relations nightmare that would follow if they went against the families of two prominent players, especially after the very public apolog
Chapter 170MaxI sat frozen, the glow of the phone screen illuminating the dimness of the dorm room. The quiet hum of Ace’s refrigerator was the only sound in the space for a long, heavy minute.I kept expecting the screen to refresh, expecting some new wave of backlash or another video, but the feed had stopped. My father's words hung in the air, echoing off the walls, refusing to dissipate."Max?"Ace’s voice was a soft, warm whisper against my ear. His arm tightened around my waist, pulling me flush against his chest. I could feel the steady, reassuring rhythm of his breathing, a stark contrast to the chaotic fluttering in my own ribcage.I slowly turned my head to look at him. His dark eyes were filled with an intense, unwavering devotion that made my throat tighten all over again."He actually said it," I breathed, my voice cracking slightly on the vowels. "My dad... he actually apologized. In public. For
Chapter 169MaxI had to put the phone down for a second, pressed the back of my hand against my mouth and stared up at the ceiling, fighting the rising panic in my throat. I breathed deeply through my nose until the tightness in my chest loosened enough that I trusted myself to keep going.Then, with trembling fingers, I picked the phone back up.My mother's video appeared on my feed next. It was the shortest of them all. I wasn't surprised, she wasn't someone who performed emotion for an audience. I had learned that about her during the months we'd found each other. She felt things deeply but kept most of it private, expressing love through action rather than words.She was sitting at the kitchen table of our family home, her hands folded neatly in front of her. She looked tired, yet profoundly composed. I wondered who had helped her set up the camera, likely Maria or Adrian."I don't know how to do these things," she said quietly, gesturing slightly as if the concept of the vide
Chapter 168MaxI woke up before Ace again. He was out cold beside me, one arm thrown over his face, his chest rising in a slow, steady rhythm.It made me wonder when he actually slept.After the meeting, we’d returned to his dorm and stayed indoors. We weren't hiding; we just needed each other’s company to stay grounded. We didn’t make love, we just held each other close until we drifted off. I lay there for a minute, just watching him the way I sometimes did when I needed to remind myself that this was real.Then, I reached for my phone.Bad habit. I knew it before I even touched the screen. But after yesterday, there was a compulsion I couldn’t shut off, like needing to check a wound to see if it had festered overnight.It had gotten worse. Obviously.Notifications had piled up while we slept, more tweets, more think pieces, more strangers with loud opinions about our lives. I scrolled past most of it without reading. I’d learned over the last twenty-four hours that reading the c
Chapter 167AceThe athletic director's office smelled like coffee and polished wood. The kind of room designed to make you feel small before anyone said a word.Max and I sat side by side on the leather couch, shoulders touching, fingers locking. Our rings caught the light, I noticed it because the woman behind the desk noticed it.Her eyes dropped there for just a second before she looked back up, and that second told me everything I needed to know about how this meeting was going to go.Dr. Eleanor Drew sat behind a desk that was probably chosen for exactly this purpose. It was wide, dark and immovable. She was late fifties, sharp in the way that came from spending decades being underestimated and deciding to make everyone pay for it. Under different circumstances I might have respected that.She didn't waste time."Gentlemen," she said. "I'm going to be direct. The university is receiving hundreds of calls this morning. Donors. Alumni. Parents. The Board of Trustees is in an eme
Chapter 123Max"I'm okay," I said quickly because I needed him to know that first before anything else, needed him to understand that I was alive and breathing and safe even if I wasn't exactly free. "I'm safe, I'm not hurt, I promise I'm okay.""Oh thank God," Ace breathed out and his voice crack
Chapter 127MaxPain flashed across her face and she looked down at her hands like she couldn't meet my eyes while answering. "Because when they found me I was in bad shape," she said quietly. "I'd lost a lot of blood during the birth and I was going in and out of consciousness, my memories of wha
Chapter 119MaxShe's probably in her early twenties with long dark hair that fell in waves past her shoulders and caught the light from the window in a way that made it seem almost alive. Her eyes were the same unusual shade as mine, it was like looking into a mirror that showed me a feminine ve
Chapter 116AceI sat up abruptly, Max's shirt still clutched in my hands, and my mind began racing through possibilities I didn't want to consider but couldn't ignore anymore because the truth was staring me right in the face and I was too afraid to acknowledge it. I kept my private spaces privat







