All Chapters of Faking It With The Hockey Playboy: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Lila POVThe dove seemed to fly even in stillness, captured in mid-flight by the hand of a child who missed his mother.I could not take my eyes off it. The simple beauty of it. The raw emotion in every pencil stroke. The heartbreaking message at the bottom."I drew it when I was ten," Derek finally said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Right after she died. I was not very good at drawing, but I wanted to make something for her. Something that showed how I felt."I turned to look at him. He was still sitting on the bed, staring at the portrait with an expression I had never seen on his face before. Vulnerable. Young. Lost."The dove was her favorite," Derek continued. "She used to say that doves represented peace and hope. That no matter how bad things got, there was always hope for something better."My throat tightened with emotion. "Derek, I—""I keep it here," Derek interrupted softly. "Where I can see it. To remind myself that she believed in me. That she thought I could be so

Lila POVTime seemed to freeze.Ryan stood in the doorway, his eyes moving from Derek hovering over me on the bed, to my flushed face, to Derek's hands still on my waist, to the way our bodies were pressed together.His expression shifted from shock to hurt to fury in the span of seconds.I scrambled to sit up, pushing Derek away. My face burned with humiliation. My whole body felt like it was on fire with shame."Ryan," I started, my voice shaking. "This is not—""Not what it looks like?" Ryan finished, his voice cold as ice. "Because it looks like you are in Derek Stone's bed. At his party. While you are supposed to be suspended and staying out of trouble."Derek stood up from the bed, positioning himself between Ryan and me. "We were just talking.""Talking," Ryan repeated flatly. "With your hands all over her. With her lying on your bed. Sure, Derek. That is exactly what it looked like."Cassandra stepped fully into the room, her eyes gleaming with malicious joy. "This is quite th

Lila POVThe car was silent except for the hum of the engine and the sound of tires on wet pavement.I sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window at nothing, my hands trembling in my lap. My injured wrist throbbed with a dull ache that matched the pain in my chest.Ryan's hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. His jaw was clenched. His eyes were fixed on the road ahead like he could not bear to look at me.Cassandra sat in the back seat, and I could feel her satisfied gaze burning into the back of my head. She had not said a word since we left Derek's house, but her silence was almost worse than her usual cruel commentary.She was enjoying this. Every second of my humiliation and shame.I wanted to say something. Wanted to explain. Wanted to defend myself.But what could I possibly say? Ryan had caught me in Derek's bed. There was no explanation that would make that okay.The silence stretched on, suffocating and heavy.Finally, after what felt lik

Lila POVRyan stood there staring at me with an expression I had never seen before.Not just anger. Not just hurt. Something deeper. Something that looked like betrayal."You fell in love with him," Ryan said slowly, like he was testing the words. "Before the championship. Before everything fell apart. You already loved him.""Yes," I said, maintaining my lie even as guilt twisted in my stomach."So while I was working my entire life for that game," Ryan continued, his voice getting harder, "while I was putting everything I had into winning that championship, you were falling in love with the person who was going to destroy it all.""It was not like that," I protested."Then what was it like?" Ryan demanded. "Because from where I am standing, it looks like you chose Derek over me. Over your family. Over everything.""I did not choose anyone over you," I said desperately."Yes, you did!" Ryan shouted. "You chose him! You looked at Derek Stone and me and you chose him!""That is not fai

Derek POVI lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling, my phone on my chest where Lila had just hung up.She knew I was lying. I could hear it in her voice. The skepticism. The concern.But I could not tell her the truth. Could not admit that I had gotten into another fight at my own party. That I had punched James, my only real friend. That the school had extended my suspension by two more days because of it.It was humiliating.I was supposed to be the star hockey player. The guy who had it all together. The one everyone admired.Instead, I was a mess. A violent, drunk, out-of-control mess.My father had been furious when the school called. He had threatened to pull me from hockey completely. To send me away to military school. To disown me.I had locked myself in my room for the past week, only coming out when absolutely necessary. My father and I were not speaking. My older brother kept trying to check on me, but I told him to leave me alone.I did not want to talk to anyone. Did not