The Hockey Star Wants Me Back: His Secret twins

[LAURETTA POV]

My son worshipped the man I hated.

Every morning, five-year-old Ryan woke up talking about Aaron Carter as if he hung the moon and personally painted the stars.

Unfortunately for me, today was no different except that instead of just talking about his idol, Ryan had apparently decided to fight for him.

"He bit a kid, Ms. Hayes," the elementary school principal said, rubbing his temples

I blinked at Principal Higgins from across his desk.

Before I could respond, Ryan jumped to his feet.

"I did not bite him!" he protested. His dark hair stuck out in every direction, making him look as though he’d just stepped out of a storm.

"I checked him into the cubbies. It was a clean hit."

"Ryan, hush," I warned gently, rubbing the bridge of my nose. "Principal Higgins, I am so sorry. Ryan is usually very sweet. What even started this?"

Principal Higgins sighed. "Another boy in his class told him that Aaron Carter was overrated and that the Chicago Blizzard were going to lose the playoffs. Your son took it as a personal declaration of war."

I closed my eyes for a brief second, feeling a headache. A single mother's life already incredibly difficult to manage. Between overdue bills, my mother's medical expenses, and raising twins on my own, the last thing I needed was my son defending a professional hockey player on the kindergarten battlefield, because someone insulted the country's biggest hockey star.

I'm sorry," I said. "It won't happen again."

"It better not," Principal Higgins replied.

Ryan muttered something under his breath.

I didn't even want to know.

I took Ryan’s sticky hand and guiding him out to the parking lot.

The drive home was normal, except Ryan couldn’t stop talking about his favorite hockey star and the event that happened earlier.

"He said Aaron's slap shot is weak, Mom," Ryan muttered from his car seat, crossing his small arms stubbornly. "It's not weak. It's ninety-eight miles per hour. I'm gonna have a ninety-eight-mile-per-hour shot when I grow up. I need the new Blizzard jersey. The blue one. With the captain’s 'C' on it."

"Ryan, we talked about this. No more hockey talk today," I said, catching his eye in the rearview mirror. "And no jerseys. We have to save our money right now."

"You always say that," he grumbled.

From the seat next to him, his twin sister, Raynell, didn't look up from her drawing pad.

She was only four minutes younger than her brother, but mentally, she was thirty years older. "Shut up, Ryan," she said, her voice a calm, observant tone. "Mom looks tired. Plus, Aaron Carter doesn't even know you exist. Why do you care if Leo thinks he sucks?"

"He doesn't suck! He’s the Ice King!" Ryan shouted. "He’s the best player in the whole world! I’m gonna meet him face to face someday and he’s gonna sign my stick!"

Every time Ryan said Aaron’s name, something inside me tightened, bringing back old memories. I gripped the steering wheel so tight the fake leather groaned. It was a cruel cosmic joke that out of all the sports in the world, my son had chosen hockey. Out of all the players, he had chosen him.

"Raynell is right, Ry," I said, forcing my voice to remain completely neutral. "He’s just a man on a TV screen. Let's focus on your reading homework tonight instead."

An hour later, the kids were settled in the living room. Raynell was quietly organizing her crayons by color, while Ryan was silently brooding on the rug.

Looking at her drawing they made me remember my younger self, my passion for art but it got suppressed by reality

I walked into their small bedroom to pick up Ryan's discarded laundry and froze. taped to the back of the door was a page Ryan had torn out of a sports magazine.

I couldn't look away.

The man staring back at the camera was breathtakingly handsome, his jawline shadowed with dark stubble, his icy gray eyes piercing right through the glossy paper. He wasn't smiling. The media called him the Ice King for a reason he looked untouchable, wrapped in the heavy, expensive armor of the Chicago Blizzard captain's uniform.

Aaron stared back at me from the torn magazine page.

Older.

More successful than the boy I’d once loved.

Past memories folded in immediately.

Once upon a time, Aaron Carter had been more than a hockey star. He had been the boy who shared a single order of cheap diner fries with me because we were both broke. He had been the man who held me in the dark and promised that his future meant nothing if I wasn't in it. He had been my entire world.

Until he wasn't. Until a screaming match tore us apart, and he chose a flight to another country, a sparkling career, and a wealthy socialite over the girl from the wrong side of the tracks.

I forced myself to look away from the poster, swallowing all the grief that i had alwaystried to burry. I had survived the heartbreak. I had survived a high-risk pregnancy alone in my aunt’s spare room while my abusive father hunted me for money. I had built a life. Aaron Carter was a ghost, and ghosts couldn't hurt me anymore.

Leaving the bedroom, I sat down at the small kitchen table, pushing aside a stack of final-notice utility bills to open my laptop. I had spent the last three weeks aggressively applying for corporate PR and communications roles. I needed a real salary. I needed stability.

A small chime echoed through the quiet kitchen.

New Email: Chicago Sports Entertainment Group - Application Status.

My heartbeat suddenly increased, I quickly clicked it open, my eyes scanning the text so fast they blurred.

[ Dear Ms. Hayes,

We were highly impressed by your portfolio and your extensive background in crisis management. We want to fast-track you for an interview for the Senior PR Manager position. This role oversees player relations, media training, and brand protection for our primary franchise. The salary and comprehensive benefits package are attached below]

I gasped, a sudden, laugh escaping my lips. The salary number listed in the attached P*F was more money than I had ever seen in my life. It was medical care for my mom. It was a safe neighborhood for the twins. It was the future I had been drowning in trying to provide.

"Yes," I whispered, tears pricking my eyes. "Thank you, God. Yes."

Scroll down to open the attached onboarding outline. The smile slipped from my face.

At the top of the document was a silver-and-blue logo.

The Chicago Blizzard.

My pulse stumbled,slowly, I scrolled down,Past the management structure, past the player profiles.

Until I reached the team captain.

Aaron Carter.

For a second, I forgot how to breathe.

Five years ago, I had loved him with everything I had, he broke my heart, left me to raise his children.

Now fate wanted me to work for him.

"No."

The word came out as a whisper.

Then my gaze landed on the overdue bills sitting on my kitchen table.

Electricity.

Rent.

Medical expenses.

Reality kicked in.I couldn’t reject the offer.I closed my eyes.

Whether I wanted to see Aaron Carter again or not...

I needed this job.