All Chapters of Beneath The Ice : Claimed By My Stepbrother : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

Theo~I knew something was off the second I walked into the meeting room and saw the woman sitting there with a press badge clipped to her blazer.She didn’t belong here. Not in a school hallway, not in a space that was supposed to be about training schedules and ice time and keeping things simple.Coach introduced her like it was routine, like a reporter showing up mid-season to talk about “team visibility” didn’t change anything.But it did.At least for me.Because everything already sitting under the surface suddenly felt a little closer to breaking.She smiled when I sat down.I didn’t return it.We started with the usual questions. Training, the season, how the team was performing. The kind of things you could answer without thinking too hard, the kind of things that let you stay in control.Then she shifted.Not suddenly. Just enough that I noticed.“So,” she said, pen hovering over her notebook, “there’s been a lot of attention on the team this year. New dynamics, new players…

Melody~I couldn’t fucking function.Dinner with Reina kept replaying in my head like a song I couldn’t turn off. Not the big stuff. Not the actual conversation topics or the food or even how long we sat there. No. It was the tiny, stupid details that wouldn’t leave me alone.The way she tilted her head slightly when I spoke, like she was really hearing every word. Not that half-assed listening most people do. Real listening. Like my voice mattered. Like I mattered.The way she never interrupted. Not once. She let silences sit between us without rushing to fill them, and somehow that made everything feel heavier. More intimate.The way she said my name. “Melody.” Soft around the edges, warm in the middle. Like it belonged in her mouth. Like she’d said it a hundred times before even though she hadn’t.I hated it. I hated how those fragments stuck to me like burrs.I tried to act normal when Theo got back to the room. I really did. I was already on my bed, legs crossed, phone in my lap,

Melody~Reina replied like it was nothing.Just a simple “haha yeah, that sounds fun” with a little emoji at the end. Casual. Easy. No big deal.It fucking destroyed me.More than if she’d left me on read or said she wasn’t interested. Rejection would’ve been clean. Sharp. Something I could feel and then shove away. But this? This steady, consistent warmth kept pulling me back in.She was always like that. Stable. Replying at reasonable hours. Never too eager, never cold. Just… safe. Emotionally safe in a way that made my chest ache because I wanted it so badly.I stared at the message for way too long, thumb hovering over the keyboard. My brain wouldn’t shut up. It started spinning these little fantasy scenes I couldn’t stop.What if we grabbed coffee again, just us? What if she looked at me the same way she did at dinner, head tilted, really listening? What if her hand brushed mine when she reached for her drink and neither of us pulled away? What if she said my name again, soft lik

Theo~Noah was changing tactics.I felt it before I could name it. No more aggressive bumping in the room. No more crowding me against the door or leaning in too close like he used to. That physical push was gone. Instead, something quieter had taken its place. Something worse.He was emotionally aware now. Like he’d studied me and figured out exactly where to press without leaving bruises.It started small.I came back from class one afternoon and he was already there, sitting on his bed with his laptop open. He looked up when I walked in. Not with that cocky smirk. Just steady eyes.“Rough day?” he asked. Soft. Like he actually gave a shit.I dropped my bag harder than necessary. “It’s fine.”He nodded slowly. “You’ve got that tight look around your eyes again. The one you get when you’re overthinking practice.”I stopped halfway to my desk. He wasn’t asking permission anymore. He just said it. Lovingly almost. Like it was normal for him to notice these things about me. Like we were

Nikolai~Jeremy showed up again.No text. No warning. He was just leaning against my car in the parking lot after evening practice, hands in his pockets, staring at the ground like he had been waiting a long time. The lot was almost empty. Only a few cars left under the yellow lights.I slowed down when I saw him. Something in my stomach tightened. This wasn’t the usual game anymore.“You’re here,” I said, stopping a few feet away.He looked up. His face was calm. Too calm. The kind of calm that felt like it was hiding something sharp underneath. Dangerous calm.“Yeah,” he replied quietly. “We need to talk.”I didn’t move closer. I stayed where I was, bag slung over my shoulder, sweat still cooling on my skin from practice. “About what?”Jeremy pushed off the car and took two slow steps toward me. Not threatening. Just enough to close some of the distance. His eyes stayed locked on mine.“About Theo.”The name hit me harder than I expected. I kept my face blank, but Jeremy noticed any