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Chapter 18: Out in the Open
publish date:
2026-08-13 18:13:46
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The Hockey Captain's Forbidden Girl Chapter 18: Out in the Open
Mason showed up at my apartment on a Thursday night, two weeks after the hallway, without calling first, which had once been ordinary and now felt significant enough that my heart jumped straight to my throat the second I opened the door."Can I come in?""Of course." I stepped back, and he came in slow, hands in his pockets, looking younger somehow than he had in the two weeks since he'd found out, like some of the anger had worn down into something more tired and more honest underneath it."I've been thinking," he said, sitting on the edge of my couch like he wasn't sure he was actually welcome yet. "About what you told me. Prom. Savannah. All of it.""Mason—""Let me finish. Please." He rubbed a hand over his face, and I sat down across from him, giving him the space he clearly needed. "I've known Ethan since we were fourteen. I've watched him lose his dad, watched him build his entire life around not falling apart from it, watched him become the most careful person I know about li
The Hockey Captain's Forbidden Girl Chapter 17: Before It Breaks
Coach Reynolds agreed to meet us in his office after hours, which felt like a small miracle given how carefully he'd avoided the subject of Voss every single time it had come up before."I don't have long," he said, not inviting us to sit, arms crossed behind his desk like a man bracing for something. "And I want it understood that whatever's said in this room stays in this room.""Understood," Ethan said."You've been asking questions. Both of you." Reynolds's eyes moved between us, tired in a way I hadn't noticed before, the particular exhaustion of someone who'd been carrying something heavy for a long time. "I warned you off once, Ms. Harper, back when this was still simple enough that a warning might have worked. I take it that ship's sailed.""Someone's been threatening me," I said. "Anonymous texts. They know things about Ethan's father. About Voss. About Savannah, from years ago."Something shifted behind Reynolds's expression, old guilt surfacing despite his careful composure
The Hockey Captain's Forbidden Girl Chapter 16: The Name
"How do you know that name?"Ethan's voice was low, urgent, the second I said it, meeting me in the same equipment hallway that had ended nine days of secrecy two weeks ago, empty now except for the two of us and the particular tension that came with finally saying out loud something we'd both been circling for weeks."Savannah told me. She got threats too, three years ago, mentioning Voss by name. Said someone slashed her tires the same week." I watched his face carefully, cataloguing every flicker of reaction. "Coach Reynolds mentioned him my very first week covering the team. Told me Voss doesn't like complications this close to a draft year. I didn't think anything of it until now."Ethan closed his eyes briefly, like the name landing out loud in this hallway confirmed something he'd been hoping to keep unconfirmed for a while longer."Richard Voss owns the sponsorship group that funds half the athletics department. Funds my scholarship, specifically." He said it carefully, watchi
The Hockey Captain's Forbidden Girl Chapter 15: What Savannah Knew
Savannah agreed to meet me at a coffee shop off campus, somewhere neither of us was likely to run into anyone who mattered, and she was already sitting in a corner booth when I arrived, two coffees on the table, one already prepared exactly the way I took mine."Mason knows about you and Ethan," she said, before I'd even sat down. "Small campus. Word travels fast.""That's not why I asked to meet you.""I know why you asked to meet me." She pushed the coffee toward me, something almost kind in the gesture. "You want to know what really happened three years ago. Why I left. What the messages actually said, all of it.""Yes."Savannah wrapped both hands around her own cup, staring into it a long moment before she spoke again. "The messages started small. Little things about Ethan, hints that he was hiding something, that our relationship was built on a lie. I ignored the first few. Then they got specific. Financial details about his father's old accounts. A name, Richard Voss, someone I
The Hockey Captain's Forbidden Girl Chapter 14: Damage Control
Mason didn't answer my calls for three days.He didn't come to Sunday dinner, which my mother noticed immediately and I lied about badly, mumbling something about him having a project due, and I caught my father watching me a beat too long across the table, like he suspected the lie even if he didn't yet know the shape of the truth underneath it.I finally caught Mason outside the athletics building on the fourth day, catching his arm before he could disappear into practice."You have to talk to me eventually.""Do I?" He didn't stop walking, and I had to jog to keep pace with him. "Because it seems like you and Ethan managed to not talk to me for three weeks just fine.""Mason, please."That got him to stop, finally, turning to face me with an expression that was somehow worse than anger, something tired and hurt that made my chest ache in a way I hadn't fully braced for."Do you know what it's like finding out your best friend and your sister have been sneaking around for weeks? Eve
The Hockey Captain's Forbidden Girl Chapter 13: Caught
We had exactly nine days of careful secrecy before it nearly fell apart entirely.Nine days of stolen minutes between classes, of texts that said nothing incriminating in case anyone else ever saw them, of Ethan finding excuses to walk past the newsroom and me finding excuses to watch practice from the upper section where nobody thought to look. Nine days of being, in secret, exactly as happy as I'd spent three years telling myself I'd never let myself be again.It ended on a Tuesday, in the equipment hallway behind the rink, because we'd both gotten careless in exactly the way careful people always eventually do."Two minutes," Ethan said, pulling me into the narrow gap between the supply closet and the wall, laughing low against my ear in a way that undid something in my chest every single time. "Coach thinks I'm getting extra tape.""You're going to get us caught.""Probably." He didn't sound remotely concerned about it, his hands finding my waist, and I let myself have exactly the
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