Marcus's POV
I hear my father’s voice before I see him.
That measured, deliberate tone—the one he uses when he wants control without raising it. It cuts through the air sharper than any whistle on the ice.
“Even if that means losing what family he has left?”
My feet stop moving.
I’m at the edge of the quad, having just come out of a meeting with my coach and the coach for the Hawks, my mind already half on Anna and the way she’d sounded in her text earlier—tight, like she was bracing for something. I’d meant to find her. To check in.
Instead, I find this.
Anna stands facing my father and Bella, her shoulders squared, chin lifted. She looks small compared to him—not physically, but in the way the world has always bent to his will and never bothered to make room for hers.
Except she’
