บททั้งหมดของ THE HOCKEY ALPHA WANTS ME: บทที่ 81 - บทที่ 90

Chapter 81AceThe words were like knives, each one cutting deeper than the last."Max..." My voice broke completely. "Please. Let me stay. Let me help. I can...""There's nothing you can do." He turned away from me, pulled Sofia closer. "There's nothing either of you can do. You've done enough already."I stood there, frozen, feeling my heart shatter into a million pieces.This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be how it ended."I love you," I whispered.Max didn't respond. Didn't even look at me.Sofia did though. She lifted her head from Max's shoulder and stared at me with red, swollen eyes full of so much pain and anger."Go away," she said quietly. "Please just go away."I looked at Max one more time. Waited for him to turn around, to take it back, to tell me to stay.He didn't.So I turned, my shoulders falling, my whole body feeling like it weighed a thousand pounds. Every step toward the exit felt impossible. Like I was walking through concrete.I made it to the automatic

Chapter 83AceTwenty minutes later, I was pulling into the parking lot of Freya's university. I'd been here a handful of times before, usually to pick her up for holidays or family dinners. The campus was smaller than mine and Max's, more compact, with brick buildings clustered around a central quad.I parked near her dorm—a three-story building on the east side of campus—and sat there for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell I was doing.This was crazy. Completely crazy. Even if Mr. Rivera had been here at some point, he was probably long gone by now. And what was I planning to do if I did find him? Beat the location out of him?I was about to start the car and leave when I saw someone I recognized.Sarah Mitchell. One of Freya's friends from freshman year. She was walking across the quad with a backpack slung over one shoulder, heading toward the library.I got out of the car before I could overthink it."Sarah!" She turned, squinting against the sun. When she recognized m

Chapter 86 AceThe wake was held at the Rivera house and I wasn't sure if I had any right to be there but I came anyway because Max needed people who cared about him even if he didn't want to admit it and even if he'd spent the last week avoiding my calls and pretending I didn't exist.I stood at the back of the living room where the furniture had been pushed against the walls to make space for the folding chairs that now filled every available inch of floor space and I watched as people filed in with casseroles and condolences and curious eyes that darted around looking for the drama they'd heard whispered about in grocery store lines and church pews.Max stood near the closed casket with Sofia beside him and both of them wore black that seemed to swallow them whole and make them look younger than they were and more fragile than they'd ever let anyone see and I wanted nothing more than to go to him and hold him and tell him that everything would be okay even though we both knew it w

Chapter 88AceWe turned another corner and came to a small park that I'd never noticed before and Max led me to a bench that overlooked a playground and we sat down."She used to bring me here when I was younger," Max said and he was staring at the swings that swayed slightly in the breeze. "I'd play for hours and she'd sit right here and read her book and every so often I'd look over and she'd wave at me to make sure I knew she was watching.""When they decided to move, she chose here. And thinking about it now, she decided to move here because of me. All her life revolved her family." I felt tears burning behind my eyes but I blinked them away."When I got older I stopped wanting to come here because I thought I was too cool for playgrounds," he continued and there was a bitter edge to his voice now. "But she'd still come by herself sometimes and sit on this bench and read and I never understood why until now.""Why?" I asked quietly."Because she was happy here," Max said simply.

Chapter 90 MaxI couldn't breathe and that should have terrified me but all I could focus on was the rage burning through every cell in my body like fire in my veins, like something wild and feral was trying to claw its way out from under my skin and I didn't know how to stop it.My father's face was swimming in front of me and all I could think was that this man had destroyed everything, had taken my mother from me, had shattered our family into a million irreparable pieces and now he stood there looking at me like I was the one being unreasonable, like I was the problem, like I was the child throwing a tantrum when all I wanted was for him to disappear and never come back."Max," he was saying, his voice sounded distorted and far away like I was underwater. "Max, you need to calm down."Calm down? That was rich coming from him when he was the reason I felt like my entire body was about to explode, when every nerve ending was screaming and my bones felt like they were trying to rear