My Hockey Captain Ex is Now the Ruthless CEO

The Other Side

Chloe’s POV

The morning light through my curtains felt like a headache. I hadn't slept. The phone Tyler gave me was still hidden under my pillow, heavy as a brick. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw my father's signature at the bottom of that document. Illegal sports pool payoffs. His name. His pen. His ruin.

Downstairs, I heard him laughing at something on the radio. Coffee brewing. The clink of a spoon against a mug. Normal sounds. Like the world wasn't about to collapse on top of him.

I pulled the phone out and stared at the screen. The file was still there. I hadn't imagined it. My father, the head of the athletic board, the man who lectured me about integrity every Sunday at dinner, had signed off on gambling payments. And Tyler Vance had the proof.

I wanted to believe it was fake. Tyler was a liar. Everyone knew that. But deep down, I knew the truth. The late night calls my father took in his study. The hushed conversations with Coach Miller that stopped the second I walked into the room. The brand new golf clubs he couldn't explain last month. All the signs were there. I just refused to see them.

My bedroom door flew open.

"Are you still in bed?" Sienna dropped her bag on my floor and flopped onto the mattress beside me. "It's almost eleven. Get up."

"I'm not feeling well."

"You're never feeling well anymore." Sienna propped herself up on her elbows and grinned. "But I have news that will cheer you up."

I didn't want news. I wanted to rewind the last forty eight hours and never take that phone from Tyler. But Sienna was already talking.

"Marcus took me to that little diner last night. The one by the old warehouse. He was so sweet, Chloe. He held my hand across the table and told me I was the only good thing in his life right now."

My stomach turned. "Marcus Cole?"

"Yes, Marcus Cole. Keep up." She pulled out her phone and showed me a photo. Marcus with his arm around her, his varsity jacket draped over her shoulders. The same Marcus I saw on the loading dock. The same Marcus who handed Coach Miller that bulging envelope. The same Marcus who threatened to expose someone's father over a ledger.

"He's been so stressed lately," Sienna said, scrolling through more photos. "He keeps saying everything will be fine after Thursday. I don't know what Thursday is, but apparently it's a big deal."

The regional dinner. Tyler's deadline. The day everything was supposed to explode.

"Sienna, has Marcus ever talked to you about Coach Miller?"

She looked up, confused. "Why would he talk about Miller?"

"No reason."

"Chloe." She dropped her phone. "What's going on? You've been weird for days."

"Nothing."

"Liar."

I stared at the ceiling. Sienna was shallow and self absorbed. She cared more about lip gloss than loyalty. But she had known me since middle school. She was the only person who visited me in the hospital when I broke my arm in ninth grade. The only person who held my hair back when I cried over Daniel for the third night in a row. She was annoying and vain and completely clueless. But she was my friend.

"Whatever it is, you can tell me," she said quietly. "I'm not just here for the fun stuff, Chloe."

Something cracked inside me.

"It's my dad," I whispered. "He's in trouble."

I told her everything. Tyler. The phone. The document. My father's signature authorizing illegal payoffs. The plan to play the file at the regional dinner and destroy Daniel Carter while accidentally destroying my family in the process.

Then I told her about Marcus. The loading dock. Coach Miller's panic. The envelope. The ledger. The threat.

Sienna went completely still.

"Marcus is part of it," she said flatly. "My boyfriend is running gambling payments for the hockey team."

"Yes."

"And your dad is the one signing off."

"Yes."

"And Tyler has proof of everything."

"Yes."

She was silent for a long moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was ice.

"Then we have to stop him."

"How? If I destroy the phone, Tyler finds another way. If I tell my dad, he panics and makes things worse. If I do nothing, everyone goes down."

"Then maybe the answer isn't protecting everyone." Sienna sat up straight and looked at me. "Maybe it's picking a side."

"Whose side?"

"Emily's."

I almost laughed. Emily Vance. The charity case. The scholarship girl. The nobody who wore shoes from three seasons ago and stole my ex-boyfriend out from under me. The girl I had humiliated in front of the entire school three days ago.

"You're joking."

"I'm not." Sienna's face was dead serious. "Think about it. Emily has the raw footage of the hit. She has proof Daniel was pushed. She's been fighting this thing since the first night while you've been sitting in your car feeling sorry for yourself."

"She's a Vance."

"She's the only person in this town who has nothing to lose and everything to gain by taking down Tyler and her uncle. If Emily wins, Vance goes down. If Vance goes down, Tyler goes down. And if Tyler goes down, that file on your dad never sees the light of day."

The logic was brutal and clean. The only way to protect my father was to help the girl I had been trying to destroy.

"She's never going to believe me," I said. "I called her a traitor in front of the whole school. I told her she sold out her ex-boyfriend for a guy who didn't even like her. I made her cry."

"Then you better apologize really well."

"And Daniel will probably kill me on sight."

"Let me handle Marcus. If I can get him to trust me, I can find out exactly how deep this thing goes. Maybe I can even get proof that Miller is the one running the gambling, not your dad."

I stared at her. "You would do that? Spy on your own boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend anymore." Sienna's voice cracked, but she held it together. "He lied to me. He's been using me. And if he's willing to destroy people to cover up his mess, then he's not the guy I thought he was."

For the first time in two days, I felt something other than fear. I felt angry. Tyler thought I was a bitter ex-girlfriend he could use and discard. He thought my vanity and jealousy would blind me. He thought I was weak.

He was wrong.

I pulled out the phone he gave me and stared at the file one more time. My father's signature. Jesse's signature. The notary seal. I didn't delete it. I needed it as leverage. But I wouldn't play it at the dinner.

"Two days until Thursday," I said. "We need to find Emily and Daniel before then. We need to warn them. We need to share what we know."

Sienna nodded. "And we need a plan."

She pulled out her phone and began typing a message to Marcus. Sweet. Casual. The doting girlfriend asking about his day. He would never suspect a thing.

I hid Tyler's phone under my mattress and stood up. Chloe Sterling, queen of Oakridge Prep, was about to beg forgiveness from the two people she had publicly destroyed.

The irony was not lost on me.

But if swallowing my pride meant saving my father from his own mistakes, I would do it. If helping Emily Vance win meant Tyler lost everything, I would do it with a smile.

Two days. We had two days.