Chapter 176
ROMAN-
I walked through the gates because Ethan said to come now.
No context. No joke. Just come to the house. I could sense that something was wrong without him saying it. I could feel it through the phone.
The house looked the same. The man waiting for me did not.
The second I got there, my best friend punched me straight in the face.
Shock came first. Then the hit.
I saw the sky. Felt the pain along my jaw.
Fuck. I knew something was wrong but I hadn’t expected him to punch me the second he saw me.
I staggered back a step and saw his expression-all of it at once. Rage. Hurt. Disgust.
The particular betrayal of a man who had thanked me on this same driveway for bringing his sister home, who had called me a great friend in a club parking lot while I stood there with her scent still in my car.
I knew. I knew that he knew about Olivia and me. It was all over his face. I wasn’t sure how he’d found out.
But he knew.
“How could you fucking betray me like that?” Ethan shouted, his voice tearing. “My sister, Roman? My fucking sister. There are a million girls for you to mess around with and you choose my sister?”
I could hear the disbelief and anger in his voice. I winced. This was exactly what I’d been trying to avoid all along. Ethan hating me for falling for his sister.
1-”
“Shut up!” He hit me again. My head snapped back.
Blood hit my tongue. “You are not the friend I thought you were. Best friends? Fuck no. I don’t deserve a friend like this. I never should have trusted you. I never would cross a line like this. Never once even looked at your sister inappropriately because I respected our friendship enough. I guess it was never that important to you.”
Years of friendship sat in the space between punches. Dinners. The track. Game nights. Him waving me toward her seats like I was celebrating with him. Him thanking me for a hotel I had only gone to because I could not stand another man near her. Every thank you I had taken like a thief.
It was all being thrown back at me again. I didn’t know how to make it better. How to fix things.
“Ethan, I was going to tell you-”
“When?” He laughed. “After the wedding? After you ruined her? And you’ve already ruined her. Haven’t you? This entire time I’ve been scared of her being alone with Luca when I should have been afraid of leaving her with fucking you! She was safer with the player. He was the one who kept his hands off her.
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The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Imagine that?”
was going to tell you.”
“And you didn’t just kiss her.” His voice broke into a roar that travelled across the lawn. “You fucked around with her? My sister? What the fuck were you thinking? Look at your age. Look at hers.”
Twenty-seven and twenty-one. I had used that math against myself for months, had built fences out of it. had recited Ethan’s name like a reason that was supposed to keep my hands off her. I had still failed despite it all.
Hearing it from him made it sound like a crime I had committed on purpose instead of a fall I had been in since she was nineteen and I was already too far gone.
I ran a hand down my face. Blood smeared.
I hated seeing him like this. He had every right. I had sat at his table. I had looked him in the eye. I had put my mouth on her and then let him believe I had rescued her.
“And on top of that.” Ethan’s chest heaved. He looked like he might be sick. “You got my sister pregnant. Pregnant!”
I froze.
What?
She’s pregnant?
Who’s pregnant?
“What did you just say?”
“Fuck what I said. I’m going to kill you today!”
He came at me again. I let him. I refused to hit him back. A punch landed on my mouth.
Another on my shoulder. I staggered and stayed on my feet because falling felt like agreeing I had only used her, and that was the one thing that was not true.
I had used a lot of things. Eden. His trust. I had not used Olivia. I had loved her and in secret, and that was still a betrayal.
Pregnant.
Olivia was carrying my child.
And she had not told me yet.
Ethan grabbed my shirt. “You sat at my table. You looked me in the eye. You brought her home and I thanked you. I thanked you, Roman. I stood in this driveway and thanked you for looking after my sister while you were-” He could not finish it.
He did not have to.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“I know.”
regnant.” He said it like he still could not fit it in his mouth. “My little sister. You knocked up my little sister and I had to hear it through a bathroom door. Do you understand what that does to our friendship? Do you understand that I walked upstairs to check if she was okay and instead I found out my best friend had a whole life in my house I was too stupid to see?”
I nodded once. The only thing I could do besides stand there and let him empty it out on me.
“I love her,” I said, when I could get air. Blood in my teeth. Hands open at my sides so he could see I was not going to make this a fair fight. “I am not messing around. I love her. I have been in love with her. That does not make what I did to you right. It is still the truth.”
“Do not say that to me right now.”
“It’s the truth.”
He shoved me. I did not lift my hands. Not against him. Not today. Behind him I saw movement at the door and I did not look long enough to find out who it was.
If I saw Olivia I would walk through him to get to her, and that would finish whatever was left of this friendship in one stupid step.
“You can’t even explain yourself.” He growled.
“There is an explanation. It just isn’t one you want.”
He hit me again for that. Fair.
I stayed standing. Tasting more blood.
Ethan pointed at my face. “You do not go near her until I say so. Fuck. Actually stay away from her for good.”
I looked at him. I did not agree. I also did not move toward the door.
“I need to talk to her,” I said. “I can’t fucking stay away from her. Not now. Not ever. That isn’t going to happen.”
“You need to get off this property. You are no longer welcomed here.”
“She’s pregnant, Ethan. I need to see her.”
His face changed. He looked even angrier than before.
He shoved me toward the gate. “Go before I make things worse!”
I didn’t plan on going anywhere.
Olivia was pregnant.
I needed to hear it from her. From her mouth. I needed to see that she was okay.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.