Knotted By My Hockey Stepbrother My Ex Left Me For

Chapter 2

CADY

Rumors had already begun to spread through the Academy. Cadets watched us now, eyes glowing with gossip. The entire academy seemed eager to watch the golden couple.

Everything exploded during lunch in the grand dining hall.

The room was alive with the usual sounds: silverware clinking against fine china, low laughter rolling across marble tables, the faint hum of privileged voices discussing upcoming matches and their family's wealth and the rich kids’ stuff. I sat across from Aiden, pushing food around my plate, stomach twisted into knots.

He was laughing at something one of his teammates said, but his gaze kept sliding toward the far end of the room where Blake sat with the rest of the hockey team. Their eyes met across the crowded space. Blake lifted his glass in a small, private toast. Aiden's mouth curved into a radiant smile.

Something inside me snapped.

"You are sleeping with him, aren't you?" My voice came out louder than I intended, sharp enough to cut through the noise of the hall.

Everyone dropped dead silent, staring in horror.

Aiden's fork stopped halfway to his mouth. His eyes locked on mine, dark and dangerous. "What the hell did you just say?"

I stood up so fast the chair scraped loudly against the floor. Heads turned. "I saw the way you look at him. The way you toasted. Do not sit there and lie to my face."

He rose too, face flushing with anger. "You are out of your mind."

I grabbed the front of his shirt, yanking him close until our faces were inches apart. Then the sweet, seductive scent of his perf hit me. For one stupid second I wanted to kiss him, to beg him to tell me I was wrong, to make everything go back to how it was.

Instead I hissed, "I am not blind, Aiden."

He shoved me.

My hip slammed into the edge of the table. Plates clattered. A glass tipped over, spilling water across the wood.

I slapped him.

The crack echoed through the hall like a gunshot.

Then everything dissolved into chaos.

He lunged at me. I swung back. Fists flew in a blind, furious blur. I raked my nails down his forearm, leaving angry red lines that beaded with blood.

He grabbed my wrist, twisted until I cried out, then drove his fist into my ribs, once, twice. The air rushed out of me in a painful whoosh. Stars burst behind my eyes. Pain flared hot and vicious across my side.

Around us, cadets scrambled away. Tables overturned. Food and trays crashed to the floor in a messy symphony of porcelain and shouts.

"Enough!"

Blake's voice cut, loud and hoarse.

He pushed his way through the crowd, heading directly to us. He reached Aiden first, wrapping one arm around his shoulders and pulling him back with a shocking gentleness. Aiden sagged against him, chest heaving, blood dripping from his split lip onto the collar of his shirt.

Then Blake turned to me.

His hand closed around my wrist, really hard. I stiffened at his deadly eyes.

"What the f**k is going on here?" he barked.

Aiden wiped blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. "She started it."

When Blake's eyes flicked to Aiden, softness glowed but the moment they turned back to me, that fury bounced back.

"Fighting on academy premises is strictly forbidden," he said, hinting at a sinister verdict next. "Especially for scholarship students who should know better than to cause a scene."

The cadets roared in laughter. My shoulders dropped low.

"But he hit me too," I forced myself to protest, voice shaking.

Blake did not blink. "Shhhhh. You’re gonna be punished severely."

He released Aiden with a small nod. "Go cool off. I have got this."

Aiden hesitated, eyes flicking between us, then turned and walked away without another word. His shoulders relaxed the moment Blake spoke. He did not look back at me once.

I stood there, chest heaving, ribs throbbing, watching the man I loved walk away with the man he actually wanted.

Blake's grip on my wrist tightened briefly, almost like a warning, before he let go. "Move."

The rest of the evening passed in numb silence. I spent hours in an empty classroom, on my knees scrubbing desks under the bored gaze of a proctor who barely looked up from his phone.

My knees ached against the cold concrete floor. Every time I reached up to wipe a higher surface, pain lanced through my bruised ribs. Purple marks were already spreading across my side like spilled ink.

But the physical pain was nothing compared to the humiliation burning in my chest.

Blake had protected Aiden.

He had let Aiden walk away untouched while I was punished.

The favoritism was so obvious it felt like a slap all over again. A slap which had pounced on me years back, now the same thing was happening.

Once again Blake was bending the rules for the one he truly loved.

And I, the scholarship girl with no one to speak for me was left on my hands and knees, getting the punishment.

When the proctor finally dismissed me, I limped back to the apartment alone, the halls were quiet. When I arrived in my room, there was no one.

I stripped out of my uniform slowly, piece by piece, until I stood naked in front of the full-length mirror.

The damage stared back at me.

Faint purple fingerprints wrapped around my wrist from Blake's grip. A large, hand-shaped bruise bloomed dark across my ribs. Angry red scratches on my arm where Aiden's nails had caught me.

I traced each mark with trembling fingers, feeling the heat beneath the skin.

Tomorrow, we had a hockey match.

I will go.

Not to cheer for Aiden as before.

But to gather the final ounce of evidence I'll use as revenge. I wasn't planning on letting them go scotfree. I'd take pictures and videos. I was going to capture those unexpected moments.

Then I'll use them to burn every detail into my memory so I could finally decide to walk away completely. What I'll only do after getting my revenge.

Our love had all been an illusion.