All Chapters of Across The Ice: Falling for my ex’s biggest rival: Chapter 141 - Chapter 146

The church was full by the time Ava and I arrived, all dark suits, lowered voices, and the particular hush that settled over places built for grief. She had driven back with me the moment I told her about the headline, and now she slid into the pew beside me while I searched the crowd for Mason. I found him near the front with his shoulders drawn tight and his younger sister tucked against his side, both of them facing the altar as if looking anywhere else might make the day more real.Dean arrived a few minutes later and took the pew across the aisle without saying anything. He glanced at me once, then faced forward. I gave him a small nod, and that was enough. His presence needed no explanation.The service moved slowly through hymns, readings, and a eulogy from one of Mason’s aunts, whose voice cracked twice as she described a woman who had spent decades holding a difficult family together with patience and quiet love. I kept thinking about the hospital room months earlier, when Mr

“Iris, I have to.” Dean’s voice was quiet, resigned in a way I had never heard from him before. He sat across from me in the stripped-bare room, surrounded by the last traces of a life that no longer felt like mine. “I don’t have a choice. My father has been there for me my whole life. This is my chance to protect him for once instead of letting him be the one protecting me.”“How long are you going to keep doing this?” I asked, folding my hands in my lap to stop them from shaking. “How long are you going to keep sacrificing yourself for a family that keeps taking everything from you?”His gaze dropped to the floor. “I don’t have a reason not to anymore.”There was no argument I could make against that. The fight I had been holding on to slipped out of me, leaving behind an exhausted calm that felt more frightening than anger. I looked around the room at the half-packed boxes, the bare shelves, and the pale rectangles on the walls where photographs had once hung. Everything had alread

Dean showed up at my father’s house the next afternoon. I found him standing beside his car when I stepped outside, his hands shoved into his pockets and uncertainty written across a face I had rarely seen unguarded.“I got in my car,” he said before I could ask. “I didn’t decide to come here. I just started driving, and somehow I ended up pointed in this direction.”I stopped halfway down the steps. “What do you want, Dean?”He met my eyes. “Can we talk?”“We’re always talking.”“Not like this.” He glanced toward the house, then back at me. “I don’t want another conversation where we try to solve everything or convince each other of anything. I just want to be around you.”I didn’t know what to do with that. “You drove all the way here just to be around me?”“Yes.”The honesty landed harder than any explanation could have. I looked back at the house, where my father was probably watching television or pretending not to notice my car still in the driveway, then faced Dean again. “Wher