جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 90

Jace's POVThe first hit came twelve minutes into the first period, a Fairview defenseman catching me hard against the boards, and pain exploded through my shoulder so violently that white spots danced across my vision for a full second before I forced myself upright."Carter, you good?" Mike skated over fast, concern etched across his face despite the roar of the crowd around us."I'm fine." I pushed off the boards, ignoring the way my arm hung slightly wrong for a moment before I forced it back into position. "Let's go."The rest of the period blurred into a haze of gritted teeth and careful compensation, favoring my left side wherever the play allowed, forcing my body through motions that sent sharp, electric pain radiating down my arm every time I lifted my stick too high or took a shot with any real power behind it. Scouts sat somewhere in the stands tonight, I knew that much, their presence a weight I couldn't ignore no matter how badly my shoulder screamed at me to stop.By the

Jace's POV"Jace." My father's voice came through flat, unbothered, like this was any other late-night call instead of the reckoning I'd promised myself this would be. "You're persistent tonight.""You leaked private information about someone's trauma to protect my image." My voice shook, fury and grief tangled so tightly I could barely separate them. "I need you to actually explain yourself. Right now.""I already explained myself." Ethan's voice stayed maddeningly calm. "I protected your career. That's my job as your father, whether you appreciate it or not.""Your job as my father was never to destroy an innocent person's reputation," I said, my voice cracking with disbelief. "She didn't do anything to you. She didn't do anything to deserve this.""She became a liability the second she let herself become public knowledge attached to your name," Ethan said, his tone shifting into something colder now, something that made my stomach turn. "I don't concern myself with whether collater

Jace's POVMy shoulder woke me before my alarm did, a sharp, grinding pain radiating from somewhere deep in the joint that made me suck in a breath through gritted teeth just trying to sit up in bed.Three days had passed since the Fairview game, since my father's confession about Davian, since Ariana's confirmation text had landed like ice water in my chest. I still hadn't gotten the imaging Mike insisted on after the game, still hadn't told Coach how bad things had actually gotten, the fear of what an official diagnosis might mean for scouts still louder in my head than it probably should have been, even now, even after everything.I got dressed slowly, favoring my left arm entirely now, the right one barely cooperating enough to manage basic tasks without sharp, electric pain shooting straight down to my fingertips. I stared at myself in the mirror for a long moment, exhaustion carved deep into my face, dark circles shadowing my eyes in a way that mirro

Ariana's POVThe scholarship meeting had come and gone three days ago, ending not with a clear verdict but with a probationary warning, the committee's careful, clinical language informing me I'd have one semester to prove the "concerns raised" wouldn't affect my continued academic performance. Not expelled from the program. Not fully cleared either. Just suspended in an uncomfortable, uncertain middle ground that felt worse somehow than a clean rejection would have.I sat on my bed now, staring at the ceiling, exhaustion pressing down on every part of me in a way that had nothing to do with lack of sleep and everything to do with how thoroughly hollowed out these last few weeks had left me.Becca sat across the room, her own laptop open, though she kept glancing over at me every few minutes with the particular worried expression she'd been wearing more and more often lately."You've barely spoken today," she said finally, closing her laptop halfw

Ethan's POVI read the sports page article twice, my jaw tightening with each pass, the casual speculation about my son's performance dips landing exactly where I'd feared it might after our confrontation weeks ago.*Team chemistry visibly suffering. Carter's focus reportedly off since a widely publicized personal matter.*I set my tablet down on my desk, irritation coiling tight in my chest. This was precisely the kind of narrative I'd worked to prevent, the exact outcome I'd hoped Marcus's intervention would avoid entirely. Instead, here it sat, publicly documented, threatening the exact scouting interest I'd spent years carefully cultivating on Jace's behalf.I dialed his number, my grip tight around the phone."Dad." His voice came through cautious, exhausted. "I know what you're calling about.""Then you understand why I'm concerned." I kept my tone level, controlled, though frustration bled through regardless. "This article isn't speculation anymore, Jace. It's documented eviden