Chapter 125
-ROMAN-
Practice was supposed to be simple.
Sprints. Half-court sets.
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I had Eden’s dinner in my calendar and Olivia’s face in the kitchen still refusing to leave my mind, and the only thing that usually shut that down was sweat.
Jalen talked the entire time. Tyrell talked over him. Mateo ran the drill.
“Again,” I said.
We ran it again. I hit the midrange. Box out. Rotate.
I wanted the noise of sneakers and the ball and nothing else. I wanted the thought of her in my head gone. The look on her face when I apologized. I wanted it all gone.
It did not leave. No matter how hard I tried.
I took the next possession too hard. Elbow in. Shoulder first. Tyrell bounced off me and laughed once, then stopped laughing when I did not apologize.
“Easy,” Mateo said.
I did not answer. I ran the floor again. The ball felt good in my hands and useless everywhere else. Olivia’s look from the kitchen kept cutting in between possessions. Ice cream. Sweats. The article on the counter. I had walked Eden through that door because Ethan said she would not be home. I had climbed the stairs to apologize and left her with the same wound.
Jalen checked his phone on a water break and let out a low whistle.
“Yo. Isn’t this the same girl that was cheering at the game? The one you said was unavailable?”
I frowned, still breathing hard, still holding the ball like I might put it through the floor.
What the fuck was he talking about?
“If this is her,” Tyrell said, leaning in, “she’s surely letting Luca touch her up.”
I froze.
The gym noise dropped out. Sneakers. Water bottle. Jalen’s stupid grin. All of it went distant.
He could not be talking about Olivia. I had already warned her to stay away. After the punch I had given Luca, he would not dare go near her. He should know better by now.
Luca Vescari collected women the way he collected trophies. Half of Europe. A reputation so cheap it made
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
me sick. He did not get to put those sick hands on Ethan’s sister.
“Give me that.”
Jalen handed the phone over, still grinning, until he saw my face.
I almost dropped it.
He was right.
The video was dark but loud and unmistakable.
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Olivia in a short dress, hair down, body moving against Luca Vescari like the wedding punch had never happened.
He kissed her neck. He fucking kissed her neck? And she was letting him?
His hand sat on her waist. She tipped her head. She did not look like a girl being careful. She looked like a girl who did not care who was filming.
It was already everywhere.
The clip continued. Neck. Waist. His mouth. Her laugh under the music. Comments already stacking under a crosspost I could not stop reading.
William Monroe’s daughter. Club. Luca.
Other teammates crowded the screen. Whispers
followed around me. A couple of ugly laughs they killed when I looked up.
I could not hide it.
Whatever was on my face made the circle step back.
Jalen’s grin was gone. Tyrell muttered something that was not a joke. Mateo said, quiet, “That’s Monroe’s sister.”
“I know who it is.”
I had to act. Like putting my fist in Luca’s mouth.
This was not a normal date. This was a message. Aimed at me. Fired in public. It had to be. Why else would she be with him after telling me that she was in love with me?
It still made me want to put Luca through a wall.
Another man touching her. That was enough to send me insane. Luca touching her was a different kind of violence. He did not want her. He wanted the show. He wanted the likes. He wanted the girl who belonged to a house he could scandalize. And she had given it to him because I had walked Eden Hart into her kitchen and thought an apology at her door would be enough.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
The ball slipped out of my other hand and bounced once, stupid and loud.
“Vale,” Mateo said. “Breathe.”
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I was not breathing right. I was seeing his mouth on her throat. I was seeing my own hand there instead and hating that I had no claim I could use without becoming the hypocrite she already thought I was.
I was seeing Ethan finding this. Blair. William. Comments under her name written by people who did not know her like I did.
“Practice is over for me,” I said.
Jalen lifted his hands. “We were just—”
“I know what you were just.”
Tyrell frowned. “You’re leaving? We still have sets. Coach isn’t even-”
I did not answer him.
Another voice, farther down the bench. “Why are you out? It’s a clip, man. It’s not—”
I did not answer that either.
I threw the phone back at Jalen harder than I needed to. He caught it against his chest. I grabbed my bag. The gym watched me walk. I felt every pair of eyes. I did not care. If I stayed I was going to put a fist through a locker or say her name in a room that already knew too much.
The hallway outside the gym was cold. My hands were shaking. I flexed them once, twice, like I could wring the video out of my fingers. I could still see it. The dress. The way she moved. The fact that she had chosen the one man I had already hit for her.
She wanted me jealous.
She had it.
She also had me terrified in a way I would not say out loud.
Luca did not stop at a dress. Olivia thought she was holding the match. She did not understand the kind of fire she had lit.
I got in the car with the video in my head. Playing over and over again.
Eden’s dinner sat in my calendar like a joke.
I felt something.
I felt like I was going to tear the city apart to get her off that dance floor.
Find her.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Before I had to watch another man hurt the only girl I was not allowed to want.
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14:58 Thu, Sep 17
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.