When we walked out, Ariana clutched the file to her chest like it was Georgie himself. I could hear her whispering to herself, a frantic litany of plans. “I can have a two-bedroom apartmentby August… the job on campus is already locked down… I’ve got affordable childcare through that program for when I’m in school… I can graduate early…” She nodded as if checking off boxes only she could see. “I’ll be steady, I’ll be fine. I can do this. I’ll make it work.”
Her mind was racing, and my heart was breaking, because I knew exactly where those thoughts went next — to me.
She was already calculating how she’d fit my games into the schedule, how often she could fly out to see me, how many weekends I could spend in Boston before camp got underway and then I wouldn’t have a break for months. She was trying to figure out how we could do it all without disrupting Georgie’s routine. Her lips moved with the math of it.Classes, job, childcare… trial prep… Shane.
I squeezed her hand as we pushed through the reporters. There were only two now, damp notepads plastered to their jackets, cameras too fogged to be much use — but even so, the flashbulbs made her flinch. I pulled her closer, tucking her under my arm as the rain came down harder, guiding her past the curb and across the street until we were free of them.
The crowd thinned. The rain fell in sheets.
Ariana tilted her face to me, soaked hair clinging to her cheeks, her mouth curving in a trembling half-smile. “How poetic, huh? The pouring down rain.”
I smiled, though it felt stiff. I couldn’t help but reach for her, tucking her wet hair behind her ear as she leaned into my touch.
My heart was fucking shattering in my chest.
“I don’t mind the rain, you know,” she said, tilting her head up to the sky. It was like she was taking her first breath of the day, her lips spreading into a soft smile. “I like how it washes everything away.”
My throat was on fire when I tried to swallow, and I looked up at the sky with her, but not in awe. I saw that rain for exactly what it was.
A reckoning.
Ariana’s smile faltered when she looked at me again, her lashes blinking wildly against the rain. She saw it in my face, saw the way my chest locked tight, the way my jaw clenched, my nostrils flaring like I was fighting to breathe.
“Shane, don’t,” she pleaded, and the words were so rough, so broken that my knees nearly gave out.
My voice was just as pained when I replied. “You know I have to.”
Her chin wobbled. “No, you don’t. We’ll figure it out,” she begged, voice shaking, her hands clutching mine like she could hold the pieces of us together if she just gripped tight enough. “You’ll travel, I’ll stay here, but people do long distance all the time. I can still testify, I can still—”
“Ari.” My voice cracked, but I forced it firm. “You know we can’t.”
Her chin lifted, defiant even through tears. “Yes, we can. You’re leaving for camp in August, fine, but that doesn’t mean—”
“It does.” I swallowed hard, every word scraping my throat raw. “Think about it. The trial. The custody hearings. The advocate told you to keep a low profile, stay steady, stay home. If you’re with me, you’re in headlines the second a camera spots us together. You’ll be the NHL rookie’s girlfriend testifying in a murder trial. Do you know what his lawyers would do with that?”
“They’ll do whatever they want no matter what I do!” she snapped, her voice breaking. “Why should I give you up because of him?”
“Because if you don’t, you could lose your brother.”
It was my voice that broke then, softer but no less brutal.
“The court will use it against you. His lawyers will call you unstable. They’ll say you’re chasing attention. And what about your safety? You think his family won’t use me to track you down? To find you?”
She shook her head, over and over, but I could see what she wouldn’t admit out loud.
She knew it, too.
All of it had been circling in the back of her mind, but she’d tried to ignore it, to block it out, to pretend it would all be fine.
But this was bigger than two people in love. This was justice for her mother. This was retribution for all Jay had put them through.
This was her future — and her brother’s too.
I dragged a shaky breath into my lungs. “Ari… I know what Georgie needs because I was him once. When my parents died, I got thrown into my grandparents’ house with nothing but the clothes I was wearing. I was seven years old, and my whole world was gone. Hockey saved me, but before that? I was lost. I needed someone steady and safe. I needed someone who wouldn’t disappear no matter how messy it got. That’s what Georgie needs now — not a sister splashed across tabloids, not uncertainty about where he’ll sleep next week.”
She shook her head more vigorously then, tears spilling down her cheeks and mixing with the rain. “I don’t care. I just want you.”
God, I wanted to believe her. I wanted to let myself sayokay, we’ll fight it together.But the picture was too clear — her little brother torn from her arms, her testimony shredded on the stand, her face splashed across tabloids instead of tucked safely away.
