The Ice Between Us:Broken Promises

Three-The Girl He Left Behind

Rowan's POV

There were exactly three reasons I swore I'd never step foot in Frostheaven University.

The first was my father.

The second was hockey.

And the third...was Violeta Whitmore.

Not after leaving the way I did five years ago and never reaching out since then.

Not because I hated her, that would have been so much easier.

I stayed away because I knew exactly what would happen if I ever saw her again, if I ever got the chance to stand face to face with her once more.

I would remember everything I'd spent the past five years trying to forget.

The boy I was before I left that morning, the promises I made but never got to keep, and the girl I had loved so much that even five years apart did nothing but grow my want for her.

---

"This is your last chance, Rowan." Grandfather's voice was furious and ashamed as he pushed a folder in front of me.

I didn't bother looking down at the documents. It was always the same thing, a new way to cover up my messes like they didn't happen. I wonder what school he had to pay next to accept me mid-semester, especially with my reputation spreading around like wildfire.

"Northcrest was the third university that you had gotten yourself expelled from in just two years. Aren't you tired of all these?" He breathed, his eyes solely fixed on me, watching me like he was waiting for some sort of reaction from me.

Sadly, I didn't have any to give.

“I only defended myself.” I shrugged, doing my best to avoid his angry gaze.

“You are not even remorseful.” It was definitely not a question.

“I am sorry.” I muttered, doing my best to refrain from rolling my eyes. The last thing I need is to annoy him any further.

“I don’t think you are, Rowan, and that is what annoys me the most.” His voice was still filled with anger, but this time I didn’t miss the extra tone it had, a tone he only makes use of when he wanted to talk about her.

“I promised your mother I would do everything possible to make sure you end up as the man you want to be.” He held my gaze as he spoke. He was trying to push me. Trying to get the familiar reaction people always got out of me when they talked about her, but I know when I am being tested, and this is more than a test, one I am not willing to fail.

“I know, Pops.” I breathed. If I am not mistaken, I have heard these same words a thousand times. I could probably say it in my sleep.

“Rowan,” he warned, “You need to take this seriously, or else you will leave me no choice but to send you back to him.”

That was all he needed to get my full attention.

I immediately sat properly, my eyes slowly darting to the office door as I tugged at the sleeves of my hoodie, trying to contain the anxiety that was building up in my chest. I hated the fact that I couldn't stop waiting for the moment he would walk in. Times like these are when he finally remembers he has a son somewhere.

Pops sighed softly as he noticed my stance, a glint of regret in his eyes.

“I am sorry I brought him up. He actually isn’t coming this time.” Pops apologised, his eyes heavy with regret and something else I wasn’t willing to find out.

He always blames himself for everything, no matter how much I have tried to make him see otherwise. If only Mum was still alive...

“Really?” I whispered, hating how fragile my voice sounded.

“Yes.” One word, that was all I needed to release the tension that had built up in my body since I stepped in here. I hadn’t seen him in over six months, and I rather keep it that way.

“I am sorry I even mentioned him, but I am being serious here. There is only so much I can cover up. He is still your father, and sooner or later you would have to meet with him.”

“I thought we are here to talk about school.” The last conversation I need is one concerning that monster.

“Fine, just take a look at the folders, Rowan.” Thankfully, he was also willing to go back to the topic at hand.

I sighed slowly, reaching for the folders he had pushed my way earlier.

“The only reason the NHL still has you in mind is because of how good you are and the reputation the Mercer family has in the hockey world, but believe me when I say you are walking on thin ice, Rowan. One more strike and that’s it.”

I carefully opened the folder as he spoke, waiting to see the city he was sending me to this time.

“No other university agreed to take you. This was the last option.”

He would only explain this much for one singular reason...

And just as I thought, my eyes landed on the name of the one school I had sworn never to go to. The school where everything started...

“Frostheaven University?” I asked, wanting to hear the words from his mouth.

“I had to pull some strings. Thankfully, I still have some good connections there from when I went there.” Pops nodded.

“I am not doing it.” There has to be another option... There is no way I am going to play hockey in the same school my father did.

“You don't really have an option right now.”

“No, Pops, you promised I wouldn’t have to go there. Going there would mean living his f****d up dream for me, and there is no way on earth I am going to ever do anything that will please that man.” I spat, my hands now shaking with anger and an emotion I have always kept locked up.

“Well, unfortunately, you don’t have that luxury anymore. My promise was made when you also promised not to f**k things up a third time, but yet look where we are. So since you already broke your promise, I might as well do the same.”

“Please.” I begged as it dawned on me that anger and being stubborn was not going to get me anywhere.

“The Whitmore family have already continued their legacy there, with both their daughters doing very well in ice skating. The Mercer family’s legacy can’t end with your father.”

Violeta is at Frostheaven?

I hadn’t checked her socials in over a year... It was the only way I could stop myself from going crazy.

I slowly glanced back at the folder, my eyes reading the name. Once again, like it was just registering in my mind for the first time.

My heart stopped, but this time not because of my father, not because of hockey, but because of her.

Violeta Whitmore...the girl who had used just a smile to take my heart away, the only girl who has remained in my dreams for five f*****g years.

The girl who had always gone against her parents just to make sure I was okay... she was the only person who kept me sane even when she didn’t realise it.

She has been right under my nose all this while... I had been too stubborn to see it. I had stopped stalking her socials, stopped taking screenshots of any picture of hers I had. All I have left is the picture we took the week before I was taken away... a picture I would forever cherish.

After five years of telling myself the distance was for the best, the mere mention of her name and my heart was already beating twice its normal rate.

I am so f****d.

Who has she become now? Is she still the girl who would take care of anyone but herself? Is she still the girl who always loved to see the very best in everyone, or has she changed like I have? Would she still remember the boy I'd been... or would she judge this version of me now?

Either way, I don’t care... I have spent the past months telling myself that maybe the distance was for the best, and now I am being sent straight to her. If this isn’t fate, then I don’t know what is.

And for one selfish, impossible second, I wanted to say yes.

I wanted to take the folder, pack my bags, and leave that very second.

I wanted to see her, wanted to hold her...to apologize to her for leaving the way I did. To feel her touch once again, to see her smile at me the same way she always did when we were together.

Even if it was just once.

My hand unconsciously moved to the bracelet around my wrist, a very familiar feeling of longing tugging at my chest.

It had been such a silly afternoon when she decided she wanted us to make friendship bracelets... I would make hers, and she would make mine.

In my lifetime, I would never have believed I would have agreed to do something so girly, but that day I think I was even more excited than she was. She smiled throughout, and that was all I needed to keep putting the pink and purple beads on a tiny thread I could barely hold in place. She kept laughing at how clumsy I was being and how I kept losing grip of the little thread, causing me to start all over, but I didn’t care. As long as it kept her grinning from ear to ear, I would do it a million times.

A small smile tugged on my lips, but then it was gone before it could even fully make its way through.

The boy Violeta Whitmore had loved was gone and now replaced with a boy she may never recognize.

I had made sure of that. He'd disappeared somewhere between the night I left her and the first time I put my fist through someone's face. Not sure which...

The boy she remembered was warm, he was stupidly hopeful and believed in forever. He had such a free and open spirit.

I am none of those things anymore... I am anything but warm, hopeful, or free-spirited.

And the last thing I want to do is to walk back into Violeta's perfect life and drag my darkness into it.

She deserves better than that, she deserves better than someone who would make her wonder every night whether he was going to disappear into the darkness in his heart. She deserves better than someone who carries a pain he may never heal from... she doesn’t need my baggage.

She doesn’t need someone who would bring bruised knuckles and angry silences into her sunshine.

Someone who isn’t me.

“You are sending me there to continue the family legacy?” I finally spoke up, my voice coming out stronger than I expected.

“No, Rowan, I am sending you there because that is the only school that was willing to take you on such short notice with your reputation. The legacy is only an added gain.”

“Either this or you forget everything... the inheritance, no more support from me, and I am sure you know exactly what that means.”

That was in every way a threat, but now a threat I couldn't care any less about.

If Violeta is really in Frostheaven... then I don’t care going there a million times if it would mean seeing her face once again after five torturous years.

I may not be in her life the way I want to be, but I would trade anything to get to see her face over and over again, even if it is from afar.