All Chapters of The Hockey Captain’s Fake Girlfriend : Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

IsabellaThe athletics office had a wall of photographs decades of championship teams, all teeth and trophies and Isabella stood in front of it for a full minute before her name was called, trying to memorize the exits.“Miss Rossi.” Marlene Suarez appeared in a doorway like she’d been assembled specifically to intimidate literature majors. “Thank you for coming. Right this way.”The conference room had a long table, a tray of coffee no one had touched, and a man Isabella recognized instantly from the video bigger in person, which she hadn’t thought was possible, with the kind of easy, athletic posture that made even sitting look like a performance. He didn’t stand when she walked in. He just looked up, and something in his expression flickered recognition, maybe, or surprise before it smoothed back into practiced charm.“You’re the girl from my Intro to Lit section,” he said. “Sophomore year. You told the TA my paper on The Odyssey read like ‘a Wikipedia summary with more confidence

IsabellaSofia Marchetti smelled like expensive perfume and old history, and she settled into the booth like she owned it, which, Isabella suspected, was probably true in every way that mattered on this campus.“I’m sorry, I’m being so rude,” Sofia said, not sounding sorry at all, extending a manicured hand across the table. “Sofia. Luca and I dated freshman year. You must be the famous girlfriend everyone’s been talking about.”“Isabella.” She shook the hand because refusing would look worse on camera than accepting, and camera optics, apparently, were the only currency that mattered tonight. “I didn’t realize we had fans yet.”“Oh, sweetheart, you have fans the second Luca De Santis holds your hand in public. Trust me.” Sofia’s eyes flicked toward the boom mic hovering above them, toward Trent, who had abandoned all pretense of professional distance and was now standing directly beside the camera operator, grinning like Christmas had come early. “I just think it’s so brave of the at

IsabellaShe watched Luca’s face change before she saw the screen the color draining out of it, his jaw going tight in a way she was starting to recognize meant something serious.“Who is it?”He turned the phone toward her without a word. Dominic Hale. We should talk. Before your girlfriend finds out the truth from somebody else.Isabella read it twice. “He knows about the show.”“Everyone knows about the show.” Luca’s thumb hovered over the screen, not typing, just staring. “He’s never texted me. Not once, not after the game, not after any of it. Why now?”“Because he wants you scared.” Isabella kept her voice steady, though something cold had settled low in her stomach at the phrase your girlfriend like she was already a piece on someone else’s board, a lever to pull. “He’s trying to get to you through me before you’ve even had a chance to explain anything.”“There’s nothing to explain if I don’t answer him.”“Luca.” She reached across the table, not touching his hand this time, ju

IsabellaNobody moved. The branch snap hung in the cold air like a held breath, and Isabella felt her pulse thudding hard enough to hear over the lap of water against the dock.“Show yourself,” Luca called, voice low and steady in a way that didn’t match the tension coiled through his whole body.For a moment, nothing. Then a light swung up from behind the boathouse’s corner not a flashlight. A phone camera, screen glowing, already recording.Trent Coleman stepped into view with the easy, unbothered grin of a man who’d just found exactly what he was looking for.“Please,” Trent said, “don’t stop on my account. This is the best footage I’ve gotten all semester.”“You’ve been filming us?” Isabella’s voice came out sharper than she meant it to, disbelief curdling fast into fury. “This isn’t a scheduled shoot. There’s no release for this.”“There doesn’t need to be. Public land, no expectation of privacy, and technically” Trent tapped the side of his phone “I’m not the network. I’m just a