Affection, she went on, had become conditional. Nathan gave it to her when she complied, withheld it when she didn’t, and sharpened it when she resisted. He made her feel smaller without ever raising his voice, made her doubt instincts she’d once trusted without question.
I listened as it all came together, each piece slotting into place until there was no denying the shape of it. Nathan had worked his way into every corner of her life so subtly thatshe hadn’t realized she was losing ground until there was nowhere left to stand. He’d charmed her first, then slowly eroded everything that made her glow, leaving behind a subdued version of the woman he’d met. Every choice she made, every movement she allowed herself, had been orchestrated until he held the strings, and she was left believing it was her fault.
“He’s never hit me,” she admitted softly, like that somehow acquitted him, like because he wasn’t the same kind of piece of shit as her stepdad, he somehow still had merit. “But… before the dinner party, he grabbed me. My wrist. Hard. He was angry, and I tried to pull away, and he—” Her breath hitched. “He wanted to hurt me. Just enough to make a point.”
By the time she admitted she was terrified to leave, her voice was barely there. It trembled as she told me how she was scared of what he’d do, worried of what she’d lose, and ashamed that she’d let it happen, that it’d grown to this point.
My grip tightened around her hand. I hoped it anchored her and I needed it to anchor me, because now that I could see it clearly, I understood just how deep it went.
And there was no universe in which I was letting her face it alone.
“I don’t know who I am anymore, Shane,” she whispered, her eyes welling, lips rolling together as she shook her head. “I… I can’t believe I’ve let it get here. I watched this happen to my own mother.” She finally looked at me. “How did I not see it happening to myself?”
I swallowed, pulling her into me even as she shook her head like she didn’t deserve the embrace. That only made me wrap her up tighter, and I sighed, kissing her hair before I rested my chin on the crown of her head and closed my eyes.
I needed a moment to steady myself. Everything inside me wanted to be desperately idiotic. I imagined myself flying to wherever the fuck he was right now and ending him. I’d do itwith my bare hands. I’d watch the light leak out of his eyes and enjoy every fucking second of it.
I let that ravenous side of me exist for a moment, let myself feel that rage, and then I tucked it away. Rationality took over and I reminded myself that I had a better way to end him — one that wouldn’t cost me Ariana in the process.
“You are not to blame for this. Okay?” I tilted her chin with my knuckle, eyes fixed on hers. “I know you hate hearing this word, but you are a victim. He hurt you, but that’s going to stop. You’re going to take back power.”
“How?”
“I’m going to help.” I swallowed, realizing it was now or never. What I was about to say would either make sense or it wouldn’t. I either knew what I was talking about, or I was grossly misunderstanding and didn’t have a single leg to stand on. “I think Nathan is involved in something illegal,” I dared to utter. “Something involving gambling and manipulating the integrity of the game.”
The words sat between us for a beat, heavy and dangerous. Even as I’d said them aloud, doubt crept in at the edges of my certainty, whispering that I might be reaching, that I’d let my feelings cloud my judgment.
“I don’t want to scare you,” I went on carefully, my thumb still tracing slow, grounding circles against her skin. “And I don’t want to sound paranoid. Hell, there have been moments where I’ve wondered if that’s exactly what I am.” I let out a quiet breath. “But too many things don’t add up.”
Her brow furrowed, confusion flickering there, but she didn’t pull away. She leaned in instead, like she was bracing herself.
“I started noticing it with the guys,” I said. “Players acting off in ways that didn’t track with injuries or fatigue. Daddy P hasn’t been himself this season, as I know you know. He got sick unexpectedly that one game and I thought — okay, thathappens. But then to have his injury flaring up so badly when it hasn’t been an issue, to have Ben as his backup being incredibly inconsistent… It just raised some red flags for me.
“And then I started paying attention. Fabian Lorenz was one of our most dependable defensemen, and suddenly, he’s unpredictable. He’d shut down advances one week and miss easy clears the next. James Hart, a rookie winger, shows up to a game wearing a fucking Rolex Iknowhe can’t afford — not even if he spent every penny of his signing bonus.
“I watched how other staff members interacted with Nathan, how many off-script meetings were happening, how the conversation would stop whenever I entered the room.” I shook my head. “There were games where medical decisions felt… influenced. Guys cleared too quickly. Others held out when they shouldn’t have been.”
I hesitated, the words thick in my throat now. “And then there were the betting lines. They’d move in ways that didn’t reflect public money or analytics. It was like someone already knew how things were going to play out.”
Her breathing had changed, shallow and quick, and I could feel it where she was pressed against me.
“I heard things, too,” I admitted. “When I caught the end of those conversations that stopped when I walked into a room. There was a bookie’s name that came up more than once when it shouldn’t have. And every time I tried to tell myself it was coincidence, something else happened. Another roster decision that felt engineered. Another game where the integrity just didn’t sit right.”
I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, frustration curling tight in my chest.
“I know how insane this sounds,” I said, noting how Ariana was staring at me like I had more than a few screws loose. “Accusing a GM of manipulating outcomes is not something youdo lightly, and I kept telling myself I needed more than instincts. That I needed proof.”
“It’s not crazy,” she interrupted, shaking her head. “I’ve seen things, too.”
Hope prickled at the back of my neck like the touch of a ghost, and we both sat up straighter, her hands holding fast to mine as I clung to the words tumbling from her now. “Shane, I didn’t understand the signs before, but—” She swallowed. “He has a second phone, too. A burner just like how you set me up with one tonight. I found it in his bag once and he brushed it off like it was nothing. He said he liked to keep some business separate so he wasn’t bothered with unimportant things when he was off the clock.”
My pulse spiked.
“As I already told you, I don’t have access to our money. But sometimes I’m sitting next to him when he’s on his phone, and I’ve caught glimpses of him in his banking app.” She swallowed. “Recently, I noted that it wasn’t the same bank we use for everything else. I thought maybe he’d changed banks without telling me or… I don’t know, that he had opened an account with someone’s bank because he wanted them to donate to the team or something.”
My chest went tight.
“I also saw deposits there. Big ones. Numbers that made my stomach drop. I asked him about it once, and he brushed it off like it was nothing, like I’d misunderstood what I was seeing. He told me it was bonuses, or money moving between accounts that didn’t really belong to us.” Her eyes lifted to mine, wide now. “I stopped asking because every time I did, he made me feel stupid for noticing. But it didn’t feel right. It never felt right.”
