All Chapters of The Ice King's Secret Mate: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

•NYMERIA•I didn't remember leaving the bathroom.One moment I was standing at the sink with a damp paper towel in my hand, and the next I was in the corridor with my bag over my shoulder and my keys in my fist, moving toward the exit at a pace that was just short of running.The woman on the phone had given me the name of the street. I knew where it was.I pushed through the front door of the facility and went to the parking lot without slowing down. My heart was racing as I opened the vehicle door and hopped inside. It felt like my heart would stop the way it was beating so fast. I pulled out of the parking lot and drove.The accident was on Mercer Road, about twelve minutes from the facility. I made it in eight.I saw the vehicles before I saw the cordon. A yellow school transport van was sitting at an angle across the left lane, its front end crumpled against the side of a city bus that had stopped at an awkward diagonal in the intersection. There were two police cars, an ambul

•DECLAN•The drive home was quiet.I kept the radio off and both hands on the wheel and replayed the waiting room in my head the entire way. The look on her face when I walked in. The way her voice had stayed flat and controlled right up until it didn't. And when she hit me with her handbag. I wasn't angry about that part. I probably deserved it.What I couldn't understand was the question of whether I had actually done something wrong. The transport driver was twenty minutes late. Millie was standing at the front door in her jacket and her backpack, ready to go, and Rosa was wringing her hands about it. I was about to take her with my car when the second school transport came and left with her. And I honestly didn't see anything wrong with that. I wouldn't have known that the first transport that ran late would be involved in a car accident. But I was happy that she didn't wait for the first transport that was running late. It felt like a coincidence that saved Millie's life.

•NYMERIA•"Hurry, Millie!" I shouted as I headed to the front door. She was running late, which made me run late, but I didn't want to leave her behind anymore, so Declan would take her to school without informing me."Ugh, what now?" I groaned when I heard her scream in the kitchen. I turned around and walked back down the hallway. Rosa was standing at the counter with a lunch box in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other, and Millie was standing on the other side of the kitchen island with her arms folded. "What's happening?" I asked."She doesn't want the hot dogs," Rosa answered. "But she agreed to have them for lunch last night." I looked at Millie. "You like hot dogs, baby. So, what's wrong? Do you want them to have extra mustard?" "I don't want them.""Since when?""Since today.""Millie, we are late. You are going to take the hot dogs and eat them at lunch, and that is the end of it.""No."I looked at Rosa. "Put them in her bag."Rosa zipped the lunch box closed and re

•NYMERIA•"You want to quit?" Declan scoffed. "That's absurd. You did nothing wrong. Also, we have a game coming up that you've been working tirelessly to prepare us for. We won't stand a chance if you leave before that game.""Do I have a choice?" I sighed, turning away from him. There was no way that he could understand how I was feeling.I had been ruining things everywhere I went, and now I was on the verge of losing everything I was working hard for. Again.My chest tightened painfully when I thought about being in the same position I was in a few weeks ago. I was even ashamed to look at my daughter.I promised her a good life. A better one than mine, but I was constantly failing her and myself. All I wanted was to get my things done without asking anyone for help.I wanted to rely on myself and know that there was nothing I couldn't do for Millie. She was the only person I was working hard for."The Hollowshade Wolves is your brother's team, so you do have a choice, Nymeria," he

•NYMERIA•In the morning, I finished bathing and stared at myself in the bathroom mirror for a moment.I had only been in Hollowshade for a few weeks, but I had managed to sabotage my job in less than a month, having been working at the training groundI was still ignoring the calls from Christopher, but I had finally gathered the courage to call him after Petra sent me a text message before going to sleep last night, saying Chris wasn't mad at me.So, I called him while walking to the car in the driveway."Hey, Chris—" I cleared my throat. "I'm sorry about last night, but I was a bit busy trying to sort everything out after the incident. But it was an accident, really."At the back of my mind, I knew everything was ruined when I received that call from Leonard. He threatened to ruin my life and make sure that I could never see my daughter again.I took everything else as a joke, but when he mentioned my daughter, the entire narrative changed. It meant that I had to fight him from get