My Hockey Captain Ex is Now the Ruthless CEO

Backup Plan

Daniel’s POV

The rink was dark except for the emergency lights casting red streaks across the ice. I was sitting in the same spot as before, staring at the same patch of frozen surface where Jesse had fallen. The stain was gone now, cleaned and resurfaced like nothing ever happened. But I still saw it. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the blood pooling against the white sheet.

The door creaked open behind me. Footsteps echoed on the concrete.

"You're early," Emily said, walking down the aisle toward me.

"You're later than I wanted you to be."

She sat down next to me, close enough that her shoulder brushed mine. The cold air from the ice wrapped around us, but she didn't shiver. She looked different tonight. Less afraid. Almost hopeful. It made me nervous.

"What's the news?" I asked. "You said it was good."

She told me everything. The music room. Chloe's tears. Sienna's confession about Marcus. The gambling ring. Miller running the operation. Chloe's father signing off on the payouts. Chloe wanting to expose her own family to take down Tyler.

I listened without interrupting. When she finished, I let the silence stretch between us.

"You believe her?"

Emily turned to look at me. "I saw her cry, Daniel. I saw her hands shake. She was terrified."

"Chloe doesn't cry," I said. "Not for real. I dated her for two years. I've seen her turn it on and off like a faucet."

"This was different."

"Was it?"

Emily's jaw tightened. I could see her replaying the conversation in her head, looking for cracks. She wanted this to be true so badly. One ally. One person on our side who wasn't already in the line of fire.

"She told me her father made his choice," Emily said. "She said she wasn't responsible for his mistakes."

"That part might actually be true." I leaned back against the cold bleacher behind us. "Chloe's always been good at believing her own lies. It's what makes her convincing."

"You think it's a setup."

"I think we should be careful." I looked at her face, the first real hope she'd had in days, and I hated myself for what I was about to do. "What exactly did you tell her?"

Emily laid out the plan. She would bring the memory card. Chloe would expose the gambling ring. Sienna would record Marcus confessing. I would be there as backup. At the dinner, they would expose everything at once. The edited video. The gambling. The hit.

"Did you tell her about the memory card?"

"Yes."

"Did you tell her where you're hiding it?"

Emily shook her head. "I'm not stupid. I just told her I had it and I would bring it."

"And she didn't push for more?"

"No." Emily paused. "She actually seemed relieved."

I didn't like that. If Chloe was really on our side, she would want to know everything. She would want to see the footage. She would want proof that we could actually win. Relief meant she already knew what she needed to know.

"There's something else," I said, pulling out my phone. "My dad's lawyer has been digging into Vance's business records. The land deal. The development project. The money trail."

Emily's eyes widened. "You found something?"

I nodded. "Your uncle is broke."

"What?"

"He's in debt. Deep debt. The development project is underwater. Investors are pulling out. If he doesn't get our land and the stadium deal by the end of the month, he loses everything. His house. His job. His reputation." I turned the phone so she could see the screen. "He didn't just set me up for revenge. He's desperate. And desperate men make mistakes."

Emily stared at the screen, reading the numbers twice. Her uncle had spent ten years telling her she was a burden. Ten years making her feel like she owed him for every meal, every ride, every roof over her head. And the whole time, he was the one drowning.

"He's been holding my scholarship over my head," she whispered. "Telling me he could take it away with one phone call. But if he's broke..."

"Then he doesn't have as much power as he wants you to think."

She looked up at me, something dangerous flickering in her eyes. "If Chloe betrays us, we use this."

"Exactly. We expose his finances in front of the boosters. We prove he set me up not just to hurt my family, but to save himself. Once that comes out, everything else falls apart. The edited video. Tyler's blackmail. All of it."

"We need a backup plan," Emily said. "Something Chloe doesn't know about."

"She doesn't know about Vance's debt. She doesn't know we have this." I took her hand. "If she's lying, we let her think she's winning. We walk into that dinner like everything is fine. We play along. And at the right moment, we flip the script."

Emily nodded slowly. The hope from earlier was fading, replaced by something colder and harder. I had seen that look before. The night she grabbed my wrist in the alcove. The moment she stood on the school steps and didn't flinch.

"My whole life," she said quietly, "people have been lying to me. My uncle. Jesse. Now maybe Chloe. I'm tired of being the one who falls for it."

"You didn't fall for anything. You walked into that music room and you gave her a chance. That's not weakness."

"Then why does it feel like it?"

I cupped her face in my hands. "Because you're a good person, Emily. And good people always feel stupid when they get betrayed. It doesn't mean you were wrong to trust. It means they were wrong to break it."

She stared at me for a long moment. Then she leaned forward and kissed me.

It wasn't desperate like under the bleachers. It wasn't frantic like in the hallway. It was slow and certain, her cold fingers against my neck, my hands in her hair. Like we had all the time in the world, even though we both knew we didn't.

When we broke apart, she whispered, "What if tomorrow goes wrong?"

"Then we go down together."

She rested her forehead against mine. The red emergency lights flickered off the ice, casting long shadows across the empty arena. Somewhere in the distance, a Zamboni engine rumbled to life.

Her phone buzzed.

Emily pulled back and looked at the screen. Her face went pale.

"What is it?"

She turned the phone toward me. A text from an unknown number.

Don't trust the blonde. She's still working for Tyler. Check her phone if you don't believe me.

We stared at the screen. I read the message three times.

"Who sent it?" Emily asked.

"I don't know. Could be Sienna. Could be someone else who overheard something. Could be a trap."

"But if it's true..."

"Then Chloe played you." I stood up, my mind racing. "But she doesn't know we know. She doesn't know about the debt. She doesn't know we have a backup."

"So we let her think it's working."

"We let her think she's winning." I pulled Emily to her feet. "You walk into that dinner tomorrow and you smile at her. You thank her for her help. You let her think she has the upper hand. And when the moment comes, we don't play her game. We play ours."

Emily slipped her phone back into her pocket. Her hands were shaking, but her voice was steady.

"Promise me something," she said.

"Anything."

"If this goes wrong, if Chloe exposes the memory card before we can use it, don't wait for me. Save yourself. Your career. Your future. Don't let my uncle win just because you were trying to protect me."

"No."

"Daniel..."

"I made a promise to you under those bleachers. I said I wasn't going anywhere. That hasn't changed." I took her hand and laced my fingers through hers. "We walk in together. We walk out together. That's the deal."

She stared at me, her eyes bright with something between fear and hope. "You're stubborn."

"You're just figuring that out?"

She almost smiled. Almost.

I walked her to her car. The parking lot was empty and dark, the moon hidden behind thick clouds. Before she got in, she turned back to me.

"If Chloe really is lying," she said, "then I walked right into her trap. I sat in that music room and I believed every word. I told her our plan."

"You didn't tell her everything. She doesn't know about the debt. She doesn't know we're onto her." I squeezed her hand. "She thinks she has the upper hand. Let her. Arrogance is a weakness too."

Emily nodded. She got in her car and started the engine. Through the window, she looked up at me one last time.

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

She drove away. I stood in the cold, watching her taillights disappear into the dark. My father's voice echoed in my head. She's a Vance. That family will destroy you.

But he was wrong. Emily was not her uncle. She was not her name. She was the girl who grabbed my wrist in the alcove when the whole world wanted me gone. She was the girl who stood on those steps and didn't flinch. She was the girl who kissed me back under the bleachers like she had been holding her breath for years.

Tomorrow, everything would be decided. Chloe would make her move. Vance would make his. And we would be ready.

I walked back to my car, my phone already out, dialing my father's lawyer. There was one more thing I needed before the dinner. One more piece of insurance.

Vance thought he was the only one who could play dirty.

He was about to learn otherwise.