My Hockey Captain Ex is Now the Ruthless CEO

With or without your blessing

Daniel’s POV

The rain had stopped by the time I pulled into the driveway, but the cold had settled deep into my bones. I sat in the car for a long moment, gripping the steering wheel, staring at the single light burning in my father's study. He never waited up. Not unless something was wrong.

I killed the engine and walked inside.

The house was too quiet. The kind of quiet that settles in before bad news lands. I found my father standing by the window, his back to me, his phone clutched tight in his hand.

"Dad."

He spun around so fast I barely saw it coming. His face was red, his eyes wild, his jaw locked so tight the veins in his neck stood out.

"You want to tell me what the hell this is?"

He threw his phone at me. I caught it against my chest and looked down at the screen. The photo. Emily and me under the bleachers, her fingers in my hair, my lips on hers. My stomach dropped straight through the floor.

"Dad, I can explain."

"Explain?" His voice boomed off the walls. "Explain what exactly, Daniel? Explain why my son, who is suspended from school, who is facing criminal charges, who has college scouts pulling out left and right, was caught under the bleachers kissing Director Vance's niece?"

"She is not like him."

"Not like him?" My father laughed, but there was no humor in it. It was sharp and bitter and full of rage. "She is a Vance! She has lived under his roof since she was eight years old! She carries his name! She eats his food! And you think she is just conveniently on your side?"

"You don't know her."

"And you do?" He stepped toward me, his finger pointing at my chest. "You have known her for what, a week? Two weeks? While I have known that family for twenty years! Twenty years, Daniel! Her uncle destroyed my business! He stole my company! He left me with nothing but this house and thirty acres he has been trying to take ever since!"

"I know what he did!"

"Do you? Do you really?" My father's voice cracked with fury. "Because if you knew, you would not be running around town with his niece like some lovesick i***t! You would not be hiding under bleachers! You would not be giving him more ammunition to destroy us!"

I gripped the phone tighter. "She has footage that proves I was pushed. Jesse dropped his stick on purpose. Vance edited the clip to make me look guilty. Without her, I have nothing."

"Without her, you would not be in this mess!" He slammed his hand on the desk. The sound cracked through the room like a gunshot. "Vance called me tonight with an offer. He said if I sign over the thirty acres and drop the legal threats, he will make this photo disappear and reduce your suspension. And if I refuse, he leaks the photo to every scout on the east coast and goes after the girl's scholarship too."

My chest tightened. "You can't sign that deal."

"Of course I can't sign the deal! I have been fighting that snake for ten years! I am not going to roll over now just because my son cannot keep his hands off his niece!" He stepped closer, his voice dropping into something colder than anger. "But you know what the worst part is, Daniel? The part that really gets me?"

I stayed silent.

"He used her," my father said. "Don't you see that? Vance used his own niece as bait. He dangled her in front of you, and you walked right into the trap. And now I have to clean up your mess while you run around playing hero with a girl whose family has tried to bury us for a decade."

"She is not bait." My voice came out harder than I meant it. "She is risking her scholarship for me. She lied to Coach Miller. She stood on the school steps holding my hand while the whole school screamed at her. She kissed me back under those bleachers knowing it could destroy her. That does not sound like bait to me."

My father stared at me, his chest heaving, his fists clenched at his sides. For a long moment, the only sound in the room was his ragged breathing.

"You think love makes her innocent?" he said finally. "You think because she kissed you, she is not still a Vance? Her uncle raised her. He fed her. He put a roof over her head. You don't think she owes him something? You don't think when it comes down to you or him, she might choose family?"

"She already chose."

He shook his head, his face twisted with disgust. "You are a fool."

"Maybe." I stepped forward, meeting his eyes. "But I am not walking away from her."

"Then you walk away from this family!" he roared, his voice echoing off the walls. "You want to throw your future away for a Vance girl? Fine! But don't expect me to stand here and watch it happen!"

The words hit me like a slap. I felt the heat rise up my neck, my own anger finally breaking through.

"I am not throwing anything away," I said, my voice low and shaking. "I am fighting to get it back. Emily has proof that Vance set me up. We have a plan to expose him on Thursday at the regional dinner. I am asking you to trust me."

"Trust you?" My father laughed bitterly. "You have been suspended for a week. You have been caught on camera kissing the enemy's niece. College scouts are running the other way. And you want me to trust you?"

"Yes."

The room went dead silent.

My father turned away from me. He walked to the window and stood there, his back rigid, his hands braced against the frame. When he spoke again, his voice was quieter, but no less sharp.

"I built everything I have from nothing. That man took it from me once. I spent ten years rebuilding. And now I am watching my only son hand him the match to burn it all down."

"I am not handing him anything."

"You are handing him her." My father turned his head slightly. "The second you fell for that girl, you gave Vance the only weapon he needed."

"She is not a weapon."

"We will see." He turned back to the window. "Get out of my study before I lose it."

I walked to the door, my chest burning. At the threshold, I paused.

"Dad."

He did not answer.

"I am going to fix this. With or without your blessing. But I would rather have it."

Silence.

I walked upstairs to my room and closed the door behind me. I stood there in the dark, my heart pounding, my hands shaking. My father's words echoed in my skull. Fool. Bait. Vance. Betrayal.

I pulled out my phone and stared at the screen.

I typed a message to Emily. Just two words.

"You okay?"

Three dots appeared. My heart thudded while I waited. Then her reply came.

"No. But I will be."

I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at those four words. My father's warning was still ringing in my ears. But all I could see was Emily grabbing my wrist in the alcove. Emily standing on the steps, her hand locked in mine. Emily under the bleachers, kissing me back like she meant it.

Somewhere between the alcove and the bleachers, the fake dating stopped being fake. It became the realest thing in my life.

I typed again.

"Thursday. We end this."

Her reply came fast.

"Promise?"

I typed the last word and set my phone on the nightstand. Moonlight cut through the window, pale and cold.

My father hated her. The whole town hated me. The odds were stacked so high I could not see over them. But I knew what I saw when she looked at me. And I was not letting her go.

I closed my eyes. Tomorrow we planned. Thursday we fought.

But tonight, just for a few hours, I let myself believe we could actually win.