Falling for my Brother’s Rival

The Confrontation

Sophia’s Pov

Mason arrived at my apartment less than an hour after I finally answered his call, and even through the intercom I could hear the barely contained fury vibrating beneath his voice as he demanded to be let inside, a fury I had heard directed at referees, at opposing players, at anyone who dared cross him on the ice, but never once directed at me, not like this.

Noah tensed the moment the buzzer sounded, his hand tightening slightly where it rested against my back. “Do you want me to leave before he gets up here?”

“No.” I pulled away just enough to look at him. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it together. I’m done letting him make decisions about my life without me in the room.”

He nodded once, though I could see the wariness settling across his features as he braced himself for whatever was about to walk through that door.

I pressed the button to let Mason inside, and the wait that followed felt endless, every second stretching until finally heavy footsteps sounded in the hallway, followed by a knock so forceful it rattled the frame.

I opened the door to find my brother standing there, still dressed in his practice gear, his jaw clenched so tightly I could see the muscle working beneath his skin, and the moment his eyes landed on Noah standing behind me in my living room, whatever restraint he had been holding onto during the drive over completely shattered.

“You have got to be kidding me.” His voice dropped low, dangerous in a way I rarely heard from him. “Tell me those photographs are fake. Tell me this is some kind of misunderstanding.”

“Mason—”

“Tell me!” The words exploded out of him, and I flinched despite myself, watching years of controlled composure c***k apart right in front of me.

“They’re not fake,” I said quietly, forcing myself to hold his gaze even as everything inside me wanted to look away. “I’ve been seeing Noah since the storm. Since the lodge.”

Mason’s eyes flicked between us, disbelief and betrayal warring across his face in a way that made my chest ache with guilt I knew I shouldn’t fully feel, not when I had done nothing wrong beyond falling for someone my brother despised.

“Of all the people,” he said, his voice shaking now, “of every single person in this city, you chose him.”

“I didn’t choose him because of who he is to you. I fell for him because of who he is to me.”

“He’s the reason—” Mason stopped himself abruptly, his hands curling into fists at his sides, and I watched him fight some internal battle I couldn’t fully understand, one that clearly went deeper than simple rivalry.

Noah stepped forward then, his voice steady despite the tension crackling through the room. “Mason, I know you have every reason to hate me. I’m not asking you to forgive years of history in a single conversation. But there’s something you need to know, and it changes everything.”

“I don’t want to hear anything from you.”

“You need to.” I moved to stand beside Noah, my hand finding his without thinking about how the gesture might look to my brother. “Mason, please. Just listen.”

Something in my tone must have reached him, because his shoulders dropped slightly, though his expression remained guarded, wary, waiting for whatever blow was coming next.

I took a breath, steadying myself before I spoke the words that would change everything between the three of us forever. “I’m pregnant.”

The silence that followed felt like it lasted an eternity.

Mason’s face drained of color entirely, his mouth opening and closing without any sound emerging, and for the first time in my entire life, I watched my brother, the man who always had an answer, who always knew exactly what to say and do in any crisis, look completely and utterly lost.

“You’re—” He couldn’t even finish the sentence.

“Pregnant. With Noah’s baby.”

His gaze shifted to Noah with an intensity that made the air in the room feel thinner, and for a moment I genuinely feared he might lunge across the space between them, years of controlled aggression finally finding an outlet.

“You got my sister pregnant.”

“I did,” Noah said, refusing to look away despite the venom in Mason’s voice. “And I intend to be there for her, and for our child, whether you approve or not.”

“You think I’m going to just accept this? Accept you, standing in her apartment, acting like you have any right to be part of her life after everything?”

“I’m not asking for your acceptance, Mason. I’m telling you what’s true, because Sophia deserves honesty, and so do you, even if it’s not what you want to hear.”

Mason turned back to me, his expression somewhere between heartbreak and fury, an expression I had never once seen him wear, not even in the darkest days after our parents died. “How could you keep this from me?”

“Because I knew exactly how you’d react, and I needed time to figure out how to tell you without losing you completely.” My voice cracked despite my best efforts to keep it steady. “I’m not sorry for loving him, Mason. I’m sorry that loving him hurts you. Those are two different things.”

He sank slowly onto the arm of my couch, running both hands through his hair as though trying to physically process everything crashing down around him at once, and for a long moment none of us spoke, the weight of everything unsaid pressing heavily against the walls of my small living room.

Finally, Mason looked up, his eyes glistening in a way that made my heart ache. “I need time.”

“I understand.”

“I can’t promise I’ll be okay with this anytime soon.”

“I’m not asking you to be okay with it right now. I’m just asking you not to shut me out.”

He stood slowly, moving toward the door without looking at Noah again, though he paused just before stepping into the hallway, his hand resting against the frame. “This baby,” he said quietly, without turning around, “is still my family. Whatever else happens between the three of us, I won’t forget that.”

Then he was gone, leaving Noah and me standing in the sudden stillness of my apartment, both of us exhaling breaths we hadn’t realized we’d been holding.