All Chapters of His Icy Regret: I Quit My Hockey Secret Lover's Wet Sheet: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

This was supposed to be a tactical training session for the end of the year, but for Marco Marten, it was a hunting ground. His dark eyes were locked exclusively on a single target darting across the ice: Jonah Bennett.Every time Jonah took possession of the puck, Marco hunted him down with irrational speed. His hockey stick swung, not to find a scoring position, but to violently shatter Jonah's rhythm.Three months.The clock ticked through Marco's head like a torturous broken record. The child was his flesh and blood. Growing in that sinful woman's womb, and now she was planning to give the Bennet name to something imprinted with his DNA.Shameless.Marco's jaw clenched so hard his teeth ground together, the muscles in his neck bulging as the rage nearly choked him out of his sanity.But beneath the pure, blinding anger, a tangled thread of contradiction churned in his gut, making him nauseous. If Hazel were pregnant with his child, then what?It wasn't as if he was going to marry

The scent of cinnamon and scorched coffee beans in this cramped warehouse turned cloying, coating the back of my throat like dust. The fluorescent lights above us hummed low, casting sharp shadows on Marco's hardened face."The hospital."The word hung between us. Does he know? Does he know about the decay eating me from the inside, that my expiration date is flashing in red?I forced a smile, though my lips felt brittle. "People go to hospitals, Marco. It’s what they’re for. Why the sudden interest in my errands?"His jaw tightened, the veins in his neck roping like strained cables. He took a step forward, cutting off the remaining air between us. "Don't play games with me, Hazel. You think you can keep this a secret? This isn't a joke. This is life and death."Life and death.The irony tasted like copper in my mouth.He knows. A cold sweat breaks across my nape. He knows I’m dying.Damn. I didn't want him to know, though."And if it is?" I hissed, refusing to look away from his obsi

The phone wouldn’t stop ringing. It drilled into my skull, over and over, dragging me out of sleep with a spike of irritation. I groaned, eyes still shut, blindly groping for the source of the noise.My head felt like it had been stuffed with wet cement, heavy and pounding, and my throat, oh God, dry enough to crack.“Shut up…” I rasped.The screen kept lighting up. Thirty missed calls. All from Mom, and a few from Marco.Of course. It rang again. And again.Fine.I exhaled sharply and swiped to answer, if only to make it stop.“Haze?” Mom's voice was soft. So soft, it contrasted with the rumbling in my chest.I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth. I forced myself to sit up, wincing as pain stabbed the base of my skull. My gaze blurred for a second before settling on the unfamiliar ceiling.Right. Not my apartment, but Jonah’s house.The realization barely registered. My body had already moved on instinct, I grabbed the glass on the nightstand and d

How many more layers of deceit could I stack on top of the fragile truth?I stared at the woman sitting beside me, watching the warm living room light catch the edge of her sapphire ring as she gently held my icy hands. There was a pure, unadulterated tenderness in her grip, the kind I was so used to desperately giving to others, yet never receiving myself.If I confessed that there was no heartbeat in my womb, would these warm hands turn cold? Would those loving gazes harden into daggers of disgust?A bitter, hollow laugh threatened to spill from my throat. All my life, I’d been surrounded by people who treated my heart like a punching bag, and to them, I had offered my softest, most sincere self. Yet here, to a woman who offered me kindness, I came bearing nothing but parasitic lies. The guilt churned in my stomach, sour and heavy.So uncomfortable."About that family gathering..." I cleared my throat, trying to clear the dusty itch in my throat. "I apologize, Mrs. Bennet. I think t

"This is all my fault," he continued, his voice rough, every word scraping out of his throat like broken glass. "So please... don't try to love another man."A sharp, silent twitch tugged at my heart, but I kept my expression guarded. Behind my closed eyelids, I could almost see the silk threads of the web I’d woven tightening around him.Just a little more. Just a few more inches of rope, and this monster would be exactly where I needed him, drowning in his own obsession.Say it, Marco. Give me the words."I'm going to call off my engagement to Cassandra," he breathed into my ear. His heat was stifling, a humid weight that made the fine hairs on my neck prickle. "Give me one more chance, Haze... please."I took a deep breath, then slowly turned my body in his embrace. I stared deeply into his eyes. "You don't have to lie like this," I whispered, forcing my expression to crack into something fragile. "Don't give me hope if you don't mean it."Something dark flickered across his face