Noah Pov:
"What idea?" Ivy asked, her eyes searching my face with a mixture of hope and wariness that made my chest ache.
I hesitated, weighing the words before I said them, already bracing for the argument I knew was coming.
"My signing bonus. The one tied to the NHL contract talks. My agent's been negotiating an advance based on projected draft positioning, something clubs sometimes front early when they're confident about where a player will land. It's not official yet, but there's money already sitting in escrow waiting on paperwork."
Ivy's face went through several expressions at once…confusion, then understanding, then sharp, immediate refusal. "No. Absolutely not."
"Ivy…"
"That money is your future, Noah. Your entire career…you can't just hand it over because my grandmother n
