All Chapters of The Girl He Never Knew : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

ELENA'S POV "Is this the part where you tell me the truth, or are we just going to keep pretending you aren't the villain of this story?"Noah leaned against the doorframe of his penthouse, his silhouette cutting a jagged line against the warm light of the hallway. He didn't move to let me in. He just stood there, a bottle of water dangling from one hand, looking at me with an expression that sat somewhere between boredom and a deep, simmering hunger."The truth is a heavy thing to carry, Elena," he said, his voice dropping into that low, gravelly register that always made my pulse skip. "Usually, people only want the version that lets them sleep at night."He stepped back, finally giving me enough room to slip past him. The apartment felt different than it had during the team dinner. Without the noise of the guys, it was a cavern of glass and expensive shadows and felt like a trap. I walked toward the living area, my heels clicking far too loudly against the polished floor. I sat on

ELENA'S POV The universe has a twisted sense of humor, and apparently, its favourite punchline is my misery.The lecture hall for Advanced Media Ethics was a cathedral of bad memories and tiered rows of mahogany-stained desks. I was three minutes late, a cardinal sin in a class taught by a professor who valued punctuality over oxygen and my heart was performing a violent erratic rhythm against my ribs from the sprint across the hall. I stood in the doorway, breathless and scanned the room, desperate for a sliver of space, but the hall was a sea of occupied chairs and glowing laptop screens. My eyes raked the rows until they stopped at the very back. My stomach didn't just drop, it evaporated.There was exactly one empty seat in the entire hall. It sat like a trap, positioned perfectly next to a man who looked like he’d been carved from the very granite of the university’s foundation. Noah Hale was leaning back, his long legs stretched out under the desk, his arms crossed over a blac

ELENA’S POVThe silence of the university library at 10:00 PM wasn't peaceful. It was the kind of silence that amplified the sound of your own heart until it felt like a drumbeat. I sat tucked away in the deep recesses of the South Stacks, a place where the air tasted of dust and where the security cameras were famously unreliable.I was supposed to be transcribing my notes from the "interview" with Noah but the cursor on my laptop screen just blinked, a mocking line that seemed to count down the seconds of my borrowed time.“Tell him the truth.” My mind screamed. Noah’s voice echoed in my head, a rasp that still made my skin prickle. “I hate how much you still smell like mine.”He didn't know. If he did, he wouldn't be looking at me with hatred, he’d be looking at me with the kind of pity that would finally break me. I reached into my bag for my water bottle, but my hand brushed against my phone instead. I picked it up. My thumb hovered over the power button. Since I’d returned to

Elena’s POV"If you don’t stop looking at that laptop screen, I am going to pour this green smoothie directly onto your keyboard. I’ll do it, Elena. I’ve lost my mind, and I’ll take yours with me."Lora didn’t wait for an invitation. She swept into our shared dorm space, her heels clicking in a tempo against the floor. She was already dressed in a slip dress the color of crushed rubies, her blonde hair styled into effortless waves that probably took two hours to perfect. I didn't look up from the transcript of my interview with the Ravens’ defensive coach. "I have a deadline, Lora and a headache. And I have zero desire to be anywhere that involves a sticky floor and the smell of cheap tequila.""It’s not just any party," Lora said, leaning over and slamming my laptop shut. I glared at her, but she was already tossing a sequined dress onto my bed. "It’s the Ravens’ mid-season bash. At. The. Heights. It’s mandatory for your social survival, and more importantly, it’s mandatory for mine

Elena’s POVI walked into the Ridgewood Chronicle office at 8:00 AM. I was here to bury myself in the defensive stats of the Ravens' upcoming opponent, anything to drown out the memory of Noah’s voice whispering that I was a distraction. I reached my cubicle, a cramped corner overflowing with style guides and recorders, and stopped dead.Sitting directly in the center of my desk, right on top of my closed laptop, was a takeaway cup from Ground Cafe. I reached out, my fingers hovering over the plastic lid before I finally pulled it back. A double-shot oat milk latte. Two pumps of sugar-free vanilla and extra hot. My stomach did a slow, nauseating somersault. Noah.I sank into my chair, the plastic groaning under my weight. I looked around the empty office, my eyes searching the shadows between the filing cabinets. Was he here? Was he watching me from the hallway, waiting to see if I’d throw it away or drink it? I wrapped my hands around the cup. It was still warm which meant he’d be