Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

AVA'S POVWHO DO YOU TRUSTI don't sleep.I lie in bed staring at the ceiling until the sun comes up, Chase's words from the parking lot circling my head on an endless loop, tangled up with the text still burning behind my eyelids every time I close them.Careful who you trust with the truth, Ava. Leon's not as loyal as you think.It's not true. It can't be true. Leon has been my best friend since sophomore year, the one who followed me outside that night, the one who came up with this insane plan in the first place because he wanted to see me smile again. There's no universe where Leon sells me out to some anonymous number just to watch me squirm.Except.Except he's the only other person who knew from the very beginning. Before Chase. Before any of this became real enough to matter.By seven a.m. I give up on sleep entirely and drag myself into the kitchen, where Emma is already sitting at the counter nursing a mug of coffee, dark circles under her eyes that match mine."You look li

AVA'S POVTHE INVESTIGATIONI wait outside Coach's office because apparently whatever this is, it's a hockey matter, not a me matter, and the last thing either of us needs is Coach deciding my presence counts as another distraction he has to manage.Twenty minutes crawl by. I spend the entire time perched on a bench in the hallway, phone clutched in my hand, jumping every time it buzzes even though it's never the unknown number, just Emma checking in, Leon apologizing for the fourth time, my mother texting to ask why my birthday photos on Instagram suddenly disappeared.When Chase finally emerges, his face tells me everything before he says a word. Pale, jaw tight, a muscle ticking near his temple like he's grinding his teeth to dust."What happened?" I'm on my feet before he's fully through the door."Not here." He glances down the hallway, empty except for us, but clearly not convinced enough. "Come on."We end up in his car again, parked in the far corner of the athletic lot where

AVA'S POVWHAT WE'RE MADE OFI've never seen Chase look like this. Not the night Alfred beat him bloody in front of half the campus, not standing outside Coach's office bracing for a lecture. This is different. This is the look of a man watching the ground open up beneath everything he thought he understood about his own life."Chase." I reach for his arm, and he flinches slightly, like the touch surprised him out of whatever spiral he's caught in. "Look at me."He does, eventually, eyes glassy and unfocused. "My whole life," he says, voice hoarse, "people have assumed I got everything handed to me. The captaincy. The grades. The reputation. I've spent three years proving them wrong, working twice as hard as anyone else specifically so nobody could say my name came with an asterisk." His jaw works. "And now there's actual proof that maybe they were right all along.""We don't know that yet," I say, even though the documents sitting open on my phone say otherwise. "Financial contributi

AVA'S POVMY FATHER'S NAMEI'm still in my pajamas when Chase shows up at my door instead of the coffee shop, his face pale enough that I know before he says a single word that whatever he's about to tell me is bad."What happened?""Can I come in?"I step aside, and he walks in slowly, like he's carrying something heavy he doesn't know how to set down. Emma pokes her head out of her room at the sound of the door, takes one look at Chase's expression, and quietly retreats, apparently deciding this isn't a conversation to interrupt."A reporter called me this morning," Chase says, once we're settled on the couch, close enough that our knees touch but neither of us quite reaching for the other. "Diane Cho. Investigative, working a story for tomorrow's print edition.""Okay." My stomach is already tightening, bracing for whatever's coming. "About your father?""About my father." He hesitates, and something in his face makes my blood run cold before he even finishes the sentence. "And abo

AVA'S POVTHE NIGHT BEFORENobody sleeps at the apartment that night. We end up crowded around the kitchen table until nearly two in the morning  me, Chase, Alfred, even Leon and Emma once word spreads that Rodney's been found and everything's about to detonate in front of a stadium full of cameras tomorrow  trying to figure out how to get ahead of whatever Jill's planning before it happens."We could talk to her," Emma offers, though even she doesn't sound convinced. "Try to talk her down before the game.""She's not going to listen to any of us," Alfred says. "Not after everything.""What about the athletic department?" Leon suggests. "If we tell Coach what we know, maybe they can tighten security, keep her away from the arena entirely.""And say what?" I rub my temples, exhaustion pressing heavy behind my eyes. "Hey, Coach, we think our former best friend is going to publicly detonate a recruiting scandal in front of scouts and