All Chapters of My Ex-Husband's Enemy Loved Me better: A Hockey Rival Romanc: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Elena's POVI felt the ugly feeling of dread settle deep in my stomach as I arrived at the hospital. All evening, I had convinced myself that tonight would be different. Tonight was supposed to be the night. The turning point. The night Damien finally looked at me and saw me. The night I would tell him about our baby. The night everything would change.Instead, I found myself rushing to the hospital because of her. Georgina. The woman I barely knew but had somehow turned my life upside down from the moment she arrived in Boston.The woman who constantly occupied Damien's thoughts, Damien's time, Damien's attention. His affection. Something I had spent five years begging for without ever truly receiving.My fingers tightened around the strap of my handbag as I walked down the hallway. The sterile smell of disinfectant stung my nose, my chest feeling tight and heavy.Then I saw him. Damien was pacing back and forth outside one of the private rooms. His usually perfect appearance looked

Elena's POVI sat on the floor, my trembling hand still pressed against the cheek that stung badly from the slap Damien gave me.Georgina let out a soft whimper, remaining on the floor, clutching her leg dramatically as tears shimmered in her eyes. Looking up at Damien, she appeared fragile and broken. "Damien..." she whispered weakly. "My leg hurts so much. I don't even know what I did for your wife to push me."Something inside me twisted and I stared at her in disbelief. "What did I do to you?" I demanded. My voice shook with anger and pain. "Why are you doing this?""Just shut the fuck up, Elena." Damien snapped at me, making me flinch. His eyes were full of fury as he looked at me. "If anything happens to her, I will make sure you pay dearly."Then, without another glance in my direction, he wrapped an arm around Georgina and carefully helped her to her feet. He guided her toward the hospital bed as though she were something precious. "I'm so sorry for her behavior, Gina," he sai

Elena's povThree days.That was how long I stayed in that house after I asked for a divorce. Three of the longest, most suffocating days of my life.Damien and I didn't speak. We moved around each other like strangers who happened to share the same walls. He left early. He came back late. Sometimes he didn't come back at all.On the second day, I called a lawyer. A woman named Patricia Cole whose number I had looked up online at two in the morning while Damien slept. She was soft-spoken but sharp, and when I told her everything, she was quiet for a moment before she spoke."Mrs. Volkov," she said carefully. "Do you have any evidence of the affair?"I thought about the ultrasound picture. I had taken a photo of it on my phone before I put it back on the dresser. Smart. Maybe the only smart thing I'd done in years."Yes," I told her. "I have evidence.""Good." Her voice was steady. "Then we have something to work with."On the third day, I packed a bag. Not everything. Just what matter

Elena's POVI said no.I went home that night, lay on my thin mattress in my small Millbrook apartment, stared at the water-stained ceiling, and talked myself out of it.Because it was crazy. The whole thing was crazy. Pretending to be engaged to Alexander St. James? A man I didn't know? A man whose entire public persona was built on being intimidating, cold, and impossible to get close to?No. Absolutely not.I had enough complications. I was pregnant and hiding that pregnancy. I was trying to get a divorce from a man who hadn't signed anything. I was working a bakery job that paid barely enough to cover rent and food. Adding a fake engagement to a rival hockey captain into that mix was not a solution. It was like a second disaster piling on top of the first one.I was not going to do it. I rolled over, pulled my blanket tighter, and went to sleep. I stayed decided for exactly eleven days, eleven days before everything fell apart at once.It started with Miss Clara.She called me int

Elena's POVThe apartment was on the fourteenth floor.I stood in the middle of it on a Friday afternoon, my single bag at my feet, and turned slowly in a full circle, Floor-to-ceiling windows. Clean, wide walls painted a warm shade of cream. A kitchen with countertops I could actually cook on. A bedroom with a real bed and linen that smelled like something expensive. A second room that was smaller but bright, with afternoon light coming through the window.It was quiet. Safe. Completely different from everything I'd had for the past month.A woman named Rachel had met me at the door. She introduced herself as Alexander's personal coordinator and she was efficient and pleasant and had already stocked the kitchen and set up the bathroom without anyone asking her to. She handed me a key card and a phone with three numbers saved in it. Her own, a private security desk downstairs, and Alexander."Mr. St. James asks that you let him know when you're settled," she said. "He's in a team prac