All Chapters of My Basketball Rival is my Roommate : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The voice outside the door sent a cold wave through my entire body because I knew it before I even saw the person speaking. It was the same voice from the memory I had just recovered, the calm voice that had told me not to be afraid when I was younger, the voice that had guided me through the university building seven months ago while I trusted the person beside me completely. My fingers tightened around Jace’s hand as another piece of the missing night forced its way into my mind. I remembered walking beside him. I remembered the old hallway. I remembered being afraid. Then I remembered turning around and seeing his face.Coach Daniels.I stared at him as he stepped into the room, and something inside me cracked. For months, I had trusted him without question. He had been my coach, the man who gave me a place on the team when everything else in my life felt uncertain. He had pushed me on the court, defended me when people questioned my position on the team, and acted like he wanted me

The door opened slowly, and the man standing outside stepped into the light from the emergency lamp in the corridor. For several seconds, I couldn’t move. I knew his face. I knew the shape of his jaw, the faint scar near his left eyebrow, and the way his eyes narrowed whenever he was trying to understand something. I had seen that face in family photographs, across our dining table, and in the memories I had spent the past few days trying to recover. My mother’s voice echoed in my head, telling me to stay hidden, and suddenly I understood why she had sounded so frightened.It was Dr. Elias Ward.My father’s closest colleague. The man who had visited our house when I was younger, brought me birthday presents, and sometimes stayed for dinner when my father worked late. I remembered sitting on his shoulders at a family gathering while Ethan laughed at me. I remembered my mother calling him Uncle Elias, even though we weren’t related. He had been part of my childhood for as long as I coul

CARTER POV'sI couldn’t stop staring at the photograph.Jace stood beside me in the print, years younger, his arm resting awkwardly over my shoulder. Behind us, Ethan wore that familiar, easy smile. My mother stood beside my father, and everyone looked happy. It was framed like an ordinary family memory, but nothing about it felt ordinary anymore.Jace had been in my life long before the championship. Before the rivalry. Before Room 214. Before I ever convinced myself that I hated him.I looked up from the photo, trying to trace the boy in the faded gloss to the young man standing in front of me now. The same eyes. The same crooked smile. Even the faint scar near his eyebrow was there, just slightly less defined.How could I have forgotten him?Jace took a cautious step toward me. "Carter, I remember this place. I remember Ethan being there. I remember your mother and your father... but I don’t remember you."His words cut sharper than they should have.I looked away. Maybe a part of m

CARTER POVThe scraping sound dragged against the floorboards again from somewhere in the hallway.Jace and I locked eyes, frozen. Whoever was lurking outside had heard Ethan tell us about the court. They knew where we were heading next, and after everything that had gone down, I wasn't about to write it off as a coincidence.Marcus glided toward the doorway without a sound, Coach and Elias shadowing his movements. He cracked the door open carefully, but the hallway was a stretch of empty shadows. Only the faint, rhythmic tap of footsteps echoed deeper inside the building, fading into nothing."They’re gone," Marcus said, peering into the dark."Or they want us to think they are," Jace countered, his voice low.I looked down at the basketball tucked under my arm. My father’s initials were still faintly visible beneath the scuffed, faded number seven. The grip felt unnaturally familiar, like my hands had molded to the leather over hundreds of forgotten afternoons."We need to get to my

CARTER POVThe man stopped at the edge of the basketball court, and every instinct in my body screamed at me to run.I’d seen him before.Not clearly enough to put a name to the face, but enough to recognize the cold wave of terror that came with it. It was the same sick, hollow feeling that had trailed me through every recovered memory.Jace instantly shifted, putting himself between us. "Don’t come any closer."The man’s mouth curved into a faint smile. "Still protecting him, Jace?"My stomach twisted into a knot. "You know him?" I whispered.Jace didn’t answer right away. His shoulders were locked tight, his grip on my hand so hard it almost bruised. "I knew his voice before I remembered his face," he finally said, his tone grim.The man chuckled a dry, raspy sound. "That’s unfortunate. I was hoping the memory loss would be more complete."Coach stepped forward, cutting off the man's angle. "You shouldn’t be here."The stranger’s eyes flicked over. "Neither should you, Daniels."Coa