“Beatrice,” Coach says bluntly. “She saw you two in the hallway on Tuesday. She saw the way he looked at you at the gala. The Reids have eyes everywhere, Talia. You know that.”
Talia pales.
“Talia—” I start.
She doesn’t look at me. She’s staring at her father, horror dawning.
Coach lifts a hand. “There’s more. TheChroniclephoto. The one they planned to run after the gala? Declan had it pulled.”
Talia’s head snaps toward me.
Her eyes cut straight through me.
I hold her stare, drowning in the weight of her confusion. Her hurt. And the quiet, fragile hope she’s trying to bury.
She whispers, “You did what?”
“I killed it,” I say, my voice low. “I called the desk at 2 A.M. and told them not to run it.”
Her lips part. She’s realizing it.
I didn’t just stand there. I didn’t just take it. While she was walking home alone, thinking I belonged to them, I was burning down the evidence.
“Why?” she asks, voice shaking.
“Because I didn’t want to see it,” I say. “And I didn’t want you to see it.”
The server appears, bright smile, pad in hand, oblivious to the wreckage at table four.
“Coffee for everyone?”
No one speaks.
The silence is suffocating.
“Yes,” Coach finally says. “Black.”
I don’t look away from Talia.
Not once.
Brunch is awkward. Painful. Heavy with unsaid things.
Coach does most of the talking—once the food comes, once Talia stops staring at her omelet like it’s a moral dilemma.
He keeps his tone steady, professional, but there’s strain under it.
“I’m not going to be bullied,” he says. “Not by your father, Declan. Not by anyone. But the man has influence. On donors. On university committees. On people who don’t understand hockey but understand money.”
Talia sets her fork down carefully. Her hands are trembling.
“You have nothing to do with this,” she says to him, her voice fierce. “I won’t let you become a pawn in anything between Declan and Alistair Reid.”
“Talia—”
“No,” she says. “You worked too hard for this program. I’m not letting… whatever this is… cost you your job.”
Her voice breaks, just a little. Enough to tell me she’s trying not to fall apart in public.
