Chapter 27
Chapter 27
~BLAIR
The stares started the second we reached the family section.
v 30 voucher
Even with most of the worst articles taken down, people remembered. Conversations dipped when I passed.
A few phones tilted in my direction with less subtlety than their owners probably intended.
The narrative about me forcing Grayson into marriage and destroying his relationship with Lily had done its damage.
Apologies and quiet corrections online didn’t erase the way strangers now looked at me like I had stolen something.
Olivia linked her arm through mine and muttered, “If one more person side-eyes you, I’m going to start throwing popcorn.”
“Please don’t.”
“I’m just saying. You’d think they’d find a new hobby. ‘Judging Blair Monroe’ can’t be that entertaining.”
I sat down and tried to ignore the weight of attention. “Ignore them. I’m here for the game.”
Olivia dropped into the seat beside me, already scanning the ice. “Good. Because this one should be personal.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Blackridge Wolves versus Southbay Vipers.
Grayson versus Chase. The first time the two captains would share the ice since the weddings, the rumors, and every complicated thing that had happened between then and now.
The Vipers came out first.
Olivia leaned closer. “Oh look. Your ex.. .the asshole.”
Chase skated onto the ice with his team, stick in hand, expression locked into the focused mask he always wore before a rivalry game. He didn’t look up toward the stands. I was grateful for that much.
Then Sophie appeared near the glass, dressed to be noticed, smiling and waving as cameras found her. She blew Chase a kiss and held the pose long enough for phones to capture it. Media attention gathered around her like it had been arranged.
I rolled my eyes and turned back toward the ice.
‘Subtle,” Olivia said under her breath.
“She never is.”
The puck dropped, and the noise of the arena swallowed everything else.
I had watched Grayson play against Chase before. From a distance. As a rival. Tonight was different. For the first time I actually watched him-how he moved, how he controlled space, how the game seemed to bend around his decisions.
He was relentless.
In the first period he picked off a pass at center ice, accelerated past a defender like the man was standing still, and fired a wrist shot that hit the back of the net before the goalie fully committed.
The Blackridge crowd erupted. Grayson did successfully unlocked inted once at the teammate who had trailed the play and skated back into position, already locked on the next shift.
Chapter 27
30 voucher
They came together along the boards hard enough that the glass shook. The referee’s whistle cut through the noise as the puck squirmed free and a Blackridge winger sent it back to the point.
Grayson was already moving.
He caught the pass on his stick, faked once, and ripped a one-timer through traffic. Another goal.
The arena got louder. Olivia grabbed my arm.
“Okay, I hate how hot that was,” she said. “Like, objectively. The skill. The violence. The jawline. It’s unfair.”
“Olivia.”
“What? I’m supportive of your marriage and also have working eyes.”
By the second period the game had turned into a personal war between the two captains. Chase shadowed Grayson through the neutral zone, stick-checking, body-checking, trying to force mistakes.
Grayson answered by making the next play cleaner than the last. He drew a penalty when Chase’s frustration got the better of him along the half-wall, then set up the power-play goal with a cross-seam pass that split the Vipers’ coverage.
I found myself leaning forward, elbows on my knees, completely locked in. The judgmental stares faded under the sharpness of the game.
Grayson on the ice was nothing like Grayson in a quiet room. Out here he was decisive. Dominant. Completely certain of his body and his timing.
When he scored again early in the third-redirecting a shot at the crease with the kind of hand skills that made the broadcast crew lose their minds, I actually stood up with the rest of the Blackridge section before I caught myself.
Olivia looked delighted. “You’re hooked.”
“I’m watching the game.”
“You’re watching him.”
I didn’t argue.
The final minutes were messy. Chase pushed for a late goal that would have made the score respectable. Grayson blocked the lane, took a puck to the shin, and still managed to clear the zone. When the horn sounded, Blackridge had won by three.
The crowd reaction split down the middle-cheers from one side, frustration from the other. Down near the glass, Sophie’s smile had vanished. She stood with her arms crossed, expression tight, as Chase skated off without looking in her direction.
Olivia stretched her arms over her head and sighed happily. “Your husband is amazing out there. The skating. The vision. The fact that he somehow looks better when he’s angry on the ice. I stand by my earlier assessment. Significantly hotter than Chase.”
I shot her a look. “He’s your brother-in-law now.”
She wiggled her eyebrows at me, completely unrepentant. “Why yes he is. Lucky you, sis.”
I shook my head, but I couldn’t fully kill the smile. My pulse was still racing from the game. The image of Grayson cutting across the blue line, completely in control, kept replaying whether I wanted it to or not.
Lucky was a complicated word.
As the teams cleared the ice and the arena lights shifted, I sat back in my seat and watched the tunnel where Grayson had disappeared.
The stares from earlier still existed. The articles still lingered in the background of every public appearance.
But for the first time since the marriage started, I wasn’t thinking about escaping it.
I was thinking about him. Grayson. And how much my sister was right. He was indeed way hotter than
Chapter 28
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.