Alle Kapitel von The Hockey Star Wasn't My Baby's Father. His Father Was : Kapitel 61 – Kapitel 69

061: ELARA POV"We don't have to do anything tonight, if you'd rather just sit with the day a while longer."Dominic says it quietly, once we're inside, standing in the entryway with the house settled and dark around us, giving me an easy exit if I need one, the way he's given me easy exits from nearly every significant moment this year."I don't want an exit," I say, meeting his eyes steadily. "I want this. I've wanted it for a while now, honestly, and tonight just finally feels like the right time to stop waiting for some imaginary version of ready that's more certain than what I already feel."Something shifts in his expression relief, want, a tenderness that undoes something careful in my chest.He doesn't rush. That's the first thing I notice, walking with him toward his room instead of the guest wing for the first time since I moved onto the property the deliberate, unhurried pace of a man determined to let every moment be fully chosen rather than swept forward by momentum alon

063: ELARA POV"Miss Vale! Can you confirm you spent the night at Dominic Hale's private residence? Is the relationship now official?"The reporter plants herself directly in my path across the quad, microphone already extended, two more trailing behind her with cameras raised. A week ago, even a few days ago, I might have kept walking, head down, letting silence do the work of deflection the way it always has.Today, I stop.The reporter looks momentarily startled by my stillness, clearly expecting the usual evasive routine. A small crowd of students has already begun gathering at the edges of the quad, phones lifting, sensing something is about to happen that's worth capturing."Yes," I say plainly, my voice carrying clearly across the quiet that's fallen around us. "I spent the night at his home. And yes, we're in a relationship. I'm not going to pretend otherwise, and I'm not going to apologize for it either."The reporter blinks, visibly thrown by the directness. "Can you speak t

065: ELARA POV"This might actually be the first entirely boring week we've had all year."Mia says it over lunch, incredulous, like she's almost afraid to acknowledge the quiet out loud in case naming it makes it disappear. We're sitting in the dining hall, nothing urgent pulling at either of us for the first time in longer than I can remember."Don't jinx it," I say, only half joking."I'm serious, though. No hearings this week. No leaked photos. No threatening texts from Eleanor, as far as I know. Just... classes. Normal, boring classes, and you complaining about a professor's unreasonable reading load like a regular college student.""It has been quiet," I admit, almost disbelieving it myself. "I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.""Maybe it just doesn't, this time. Maybe you're allowed one normal week."For the next several days, it almost feels true. Classes continue without incident. The viral quad statement fades slowly from the top of everyone's feed, replaced by whatev

067: ELARA POV"You don't have to decide what to do with it tonight."Kieran says it gently before he leaves, glancing once more at the plane ticket now sealed in an evidence bag on my counter. "Once Marcus has fully documented it, you can do whatever you need to with the original. There's no rush.""I know," I say. "I think I already know what I want to do, though."He studies me for a moment, something understanding in his expression. "All right. Whatever helps."After he leaves, I sit alone in the guest wing kitchen for a long while, staring at the sealed bag, the plane ticket visible through the plastic — a date, a destination, a single word stamped across it that I can't stop looking at. *One-way.*She wanted me to see it and understand exactly what it meant. Run, or be forced to eventually, one way or another. A clean, permanent exit from a story she apparently still believes she controls the ending of.I think about the ticket Eleanor sent months ago, in an earlier wave of her

069: DOMINIC POV"She's fine. Shaken, understandably, but fine. Security has Eleanor in custody now, and I expect formal charges for witness intimidation to follow within the day."Kieran delivers the update the moment I arrive at the bench outside the lecture hall, Elara sitting there looking pale but composed, and something in my chest that had been clenched tight since her text finally begins to loosen.I sit down beside her without a word, and she leans into me immediately, more of her weight settling against my side than she usually allows in public spaces. I wrap an arm around her, feeling the slight tremor still running through her body despite the steady voice she'd used on the phone."Tell me what happened," I say quietly, once Kieran has stepped away to handle a call from the prosecutor's office.She recounts it carefully, Eleanor appearing in the lecture hall, sitting through the entire class without speaking, the confrontation afterward where Elara walked toward her rather