Semua Bab Dumped On Live TV, Claimed By The Hockey King: Bab 181 - Bab 190

CHAPTER 182EMILYJust as the phone buzzed again, Ava stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her damp hair, water droplets tracing down her pale cheeks. She froze the second she saw the screen flashing with his name."Ava, your phone," I whispered, pointing toward the table.For a split second, a flicker of raw, desperate hope crossed her face but then her expression hardened into pure granite.Before I could even blink, Ava lunged across the room, snatched the phone off the table, and aggressively swiped to end the call before it could ring another time."Ava, wait..,,maybe you should give him a chance to explain himself," I urged gently, stepping toward her. "Just hear what excuse he has—""No," Ava cut me off, her voice flat.Without hesitation, she held down the power button, bypassed the warning prompt, and completely shut the phone off. The screen went pitch black, plunging the room into a heavy, suffocating stillness.She tossed the dead phone back onto the mattres

CHAPTER 184EMILY"I was just... so confused," I admitted, my voice dropping to a fragile register as I tried to untangle the messy web of thoughts in my head. "My best friend's life is literally falling apart around her, my world has been turned upside down by things I never even knew existed, and suddenly I'm questioning things about myself and my life that I thought were completely set in stone. I wasn't running away from you, Stacey. I was running away from myself. I needed space to think... and I am so, so sorry for icing you out while I tried to figure it all out."Stacey held my gaze for a long, heavy beat, absorbing every word. The tension in her shoulders slowly melted away."Take all the time you need to think about it," she said softly, her voice dripping with an overwhelming, undeserved amount of patience and grace. "You don't have to have all the answers tonight, Em. But... for what it's worth? I really like you. Not as a friend. I really, truly like you, and I would love

CHAPTER 186LIAMThe absolute helplessness of the moment crushed my chest. All the power, all the corporate resources, all the fight I usually carried meant nothing if the only person who mattered wouldn't even look at me.Without thinking, I slid off the edge of the mattress and dropped hard onto my knees on the floor beside the bed, bowing my head."Liam, what are you doing? Get up," Ava gasped softly, startled by the motion."No," I murmured, staring at the floorboards, refusing to move. "If you don't believe me... if you can't forgive me... then I'll stay right here. I'm not getting up until you look at me and tell me you believe the truth."For a second, the room was suspended in time. Then, I heard the rustle of the blankets. Before I could process what she was doing, Ava scrambled off the bed, dropping down right beside me on the floor. Her hands reached out frantically, grabbing my shoulders, trying to haul me back up."Get up, Liam! Stop it, get up!" she demanded, her voice c

CHAPTER 188LIAMThe autumn wind biting at the back of my neck felt entirely different this morning. Walking across the central campus quad with Ava’s hand safely, firmly slipped inside mine, I could feel the heavy weight of every single pair of eyes turning our way. Whispers rippled through the milling clusters of students like static electricity. Heads snapped around, smartphones dipped below eye level as people scrambled to re-examine the walking, breathing reality of the scandal they had spent the last forty-eight hours dissecting on every anonymous forum and social feed.She kept her chin up, though I could feel the faint, nervous tremor in her pulse against my wrist. The digital fallout from Brittany’s malicious stunt didn't just vanish overnight; internet trolls and campus gossips loved a juicy drama, and our names were still plastered across trending threads. But walking back onto campus together wasn’t about proving anything to them….it was about proving it to ourselves."You

CHAPTER 190 SENATOR HAYESThe mahogany walls of my private study offered zero insulation against the rising tide of panic bleeding through my secure phone line. I paced the length of the Persian rug, the cold glow of the late-night election tracking polls casting a harsh light across my desk. My campaign manager was screaming about voter demographics in the northern district, but my attention was entirely seized by the man on the speakerphone…"I'm telling you, Senator, the girl is completely unhinged," voice cracked through the receiver, tight with an ugly mix of parental exhaustion and sheer terror. "Brittany took matters into her own hands with that stunt at the luxury hotel. She thought she was being clever, leaking those fabricated files and getting that boy Liam cornered with some local muscle. But it blew up in her face. Liam’s forensic tech friends are tearing through the digital breadcrumbs, and now the university board is sniffing around my security contractors."I stopped