Flash Marriage To The Hockey Tycoon

AVERY POV:

"ICE PRINCE FULLER BOND FINDS HIS NEW QUEEN,ENGAGEMENT IS IMMINENT!"

My screen glowed with the homepage of BriarWhispers, our university's toxic gossip hub. The headline screamed in a bold, garish font.

Beneath the headline was a high-resolution photo. The background was The Daily Grind, the most popular coffee shop on campus.

In the photo, my secret boyfriend of three years, Fuller Bond, the star forward for the Briar University ice hockey team, was kissing a girl.

He was bent over her, his expression tender.

The girl, smiling up at him with pure adoration, was nestled in his arms. Her light blonde hair fell in perfect waves around her shoulders.

She was my stepfather's daughter.

My stepsister. Haleigh Gibbs.

My mind went completely blank, filled only with a high-pitched ringing.

My friend Kloe snatched the phone back, her thumb swiping angrily down to the comments. And read it to me.

"'Oh my god! They're perfect together!'"

"'Haleigh finally got him, I knew it!'"

"'Who's Avery Velasquez? Never heard of her.'"

Her voice cracked on my name. "Do you see this, Avery? That bastard! And that two-faced bitch Haleigh! You stayed in the shadows for him for three years, like some dirty little secret, and for what?"

A memory fragment surfaced.

Last week. Fuller, pinning me against a locker in the rink's back hallway. His lips at my ear, his voice a low promise. "Babe, just a little longer. After this season, I'll tell everyone you're my girl."

The sweet lie and the cold, hard picture on the screen collided. It wasn't a knife in my heart. It was just a dull, spreading numbness.

My own phone buzzed violently on the bedside table. The screen lit up with one word: Mom.

I answered it, my movements robotic.

My mother Elvina Romero's voice was impatient and cold as ever, with no hint of warmth. "Avery, where have you been? Why aren't you answering your phone?"

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

I looked down and my eyes rested on the thin needle on the back of my hand. Ear is the regular drip sound of the monitor in the ear. Shortly after my appendectomy, the wound in my abdomen was pressed by layers of gauze, so I didn't even dare to breathe too hard.

However, at the moment, only my best friend Kloe Copeland is with me.

Her blonde ponytail was coming undone, stray hairs framing a face tight with a fury .

My mother didn't notice. She never did. "I don't care what you're doing, you must be at the dinner tonight. I've arranged for you to meet a very promising young man. You need to pull yourself together."

Another one of her "promising young men." Another pawn in her game to curry favor with her new husband and solidify her social standing.

Then, she added a final, careless twist of the knife. "And stop thinking about Fuller. He and Haleigh are a perfect match. Don't go and embarrass yourself."

Everyone knew.

I was the only fool in the entire university.

A metallic taste filled my throat. The room started to tilt again.

Kloe ripped the phone from my hand. "Mrs. Romero, Avery is in the hospital!" she yelled into the receiver., her voice trembling with suppressed rage."She needs rest, not to be used as your social climbing tool!"

She hung up, her chest heaving.

I leaned against her shoulder, the first tear finally tracing a silent path down my cheek. Then another. I made no sound.

Kloe just held me, whispering curses against Fuller and Haleigh and the whole world.

After a long moment, I pulled away. I wiped my face, my hand surprisingly steady. I looked out the window at the bleak, gray sky.

I need a husband. Someone who can help me change my life. Someone who doesn't actually want a traditional marriage.

I picked up my phone. I dialed my mother's number.

Before she could start yelling, I spoke, my voice a calm I didn't recognize as my own.

"I'll go."

Silence on the other end.

"But," I continued, the words tasting like power on my tongue, "in exchange, the shares of the Velasquez hotel my father left me. They are to be transferred into my name. Immediately."

The silence stretched, thick with her shock.

Finally, her cold voice came back, clipped and furious.

"Fine."