Semua Bab Beneath The Ice : Claimed By My Stepbrother : Bab 61 - Bab 70

Theo~The dorm felt too small lately. Everything was pressing in at once, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that the walls were closing tighter every day.I was sitting at my desk, pretending to review plays on my laptop when Melody walked in. She dropped her bag on her bed and immediately pulled out her phone. Her face lit up in that soft, stupid way I’d started noticing more. Her thumbs moved fast across the screen. A small smile tugged at her lips as she typed.I tried to ignore it. I really did.But then her phone buzzed. She read the reply and let out a tiny breath, almost relieved. She typed again, biting her lip.“Who are you texting?” I asked, keeping my voice casual.Melody startled like I’d caught her stealing. “No one. Just… a friend.”I raised an eyebrow. “Reina?”The name slipped out before I could stop it. Melody’s face flushed deep red. She didn’t deny it. Instead, she turned the phone face down too quickly. That told me everything.“Drop it, Theo,” she muttered, but her

Theo~Avoiding Noah turned out to be a lot harder than I expected.It wasn’t because he kept chasing me or cornering me in empty hallways. That would have been easier. I could have gotten annoyed, told him to back off, and convinced myself I was doing the right thing.Instead, Noah acted completely normal and somehow, that made everything worse.The first few days after the bathroom incident, I tried my best to stop ending up alone with him. I changed my routine, practiced with the team, ate with other people, and left when everyone else left. It sounded simple.But I quickly realized how much time we had started spending together without me even noticing.The first morning I slipped out of the dorm before Noah woke up, I felt ridiculous. I stood in the hallway at six-thirty, holding a coffee I didn’t even want, wondering how my life had become this complicated.The answer was probably the moment I slept with my future Stepbrother and everyone related to him decided to start fucking.

TheoI didn’t think about it for long.That’s what I kept telling myself after I clicked accept on the invitation.It wasn’t hesitation. It wasn’t fear. It was just the right decision, one that made perfect sense once I stopped letting everything else cloud my head.The Invitational program. Elite players from mixed universities. Weeks away from campus, away from the same exhausting routine, away from the pressure that had been tightening around my chest lately.Away from Noah.I didn’t say that part out loud. I barely even let myself think it.The email had been sitting open on my laptop screen for what felt like forever. All I had to do was hit confirm. No drama. No second thoughts. So I did it. Then I slammed the laptop shut like that would end the conversation.But it didn’t.Because the second I accepted, my mind started filling in all the things I refused to admit.I told myself it was about growth. About pushing my limits. About breaking out of the cycle I’d been trapped in sin

Theo~At first, I thought Noah was being dramatic. Honestly, what did he expect me to say after dumping his entire heart out in the kitchen like that? He stood there waiting for some life-changing response that would magically fix everything between us.I didn’t know how to respond. Hell, I still didn’t. So I left. It wasn’t my finest moment, but staying would have been worse. I would have said something stupid. Or something honest. Neither option felt safe.The next morning, I woke up expecting things to be awkward. I was ready for awkward. I was ready for Noah to corner me before class or after practice and demand answers I didn’t have. What I wasn’t ready for was absolutely nothing.I came out of the bathroom with my hair still damp and found Noah sitting on his bed scrolling through his phone. Normally, he would have said something. A sarcastic comment. An annoying observation. Anything. Instead, he barely glanced up.“Morning.”Then he went back to his phone. That was it.I stood

Joe~The entire team felt weird after the dinner disaster. Nobody talked about it directly. That was the thing about hockey teams. Everyone noticed everything, but most people pretended they didn’t. Especially when it came to personal shit.I walked into practice the next morning already knowing something was off. Theo was there before everyone else. That alone was unusual. He usually showed up early, but not this early. Not sitting alone in the locker room staring at nothing while his gear sat untouched beside him.I paused near my stall. Theo didn’t notice me. Or maybe he did and just didn’t care. For a few seconds, I watched him. His shoulders looked tense. His jaw looked tense. Hell, even the way he was sitting looked tense. Like his entire body had forgotten how to relax.Something twisted uncomfortably in my chest. The stupid part was that I should have been happy. Noah and Theo were falling apart. Wasn’t that exactly what I had been hoping for? For weeks I had watched Noah orbi