A Hockey Player's Guide To Deception

Chapter Forty-Two

Louis stared at the door, unmoving, as if his body had betrayed him and decided on its own. He had followed them all the way here, every step taken on instinct alone, every chance to turn back ignored. Now that he stood outside their home, the truth felt unavoidable. He had to know. Not knowing would drive him mad.

His heart slammed violently against his ribs, each beat loud, frantic, impossible to ignore. He paced the length of the street, then back again, hands trembling, breath shallow. Anyone watching would think he'd lost his mind, like a lunatic loose from a mental asylum. Maybe he had.

Should he leave now, before it was too late? Or should he confront them and tear the answers from the silence? Were they together? Just friends? How had they met, and why did the thought of them sharing something he didn't understand make his chest ache so sharply?

The questions clawed at him, relentless, suffocating, spinning faster and faster until he could barely think. His jaw tightened, fists clenching so hard his nails dug into his palms. He gritted his teeth, forcing the chaos down.

He would stop thinking. He had to.

Without a second thought, he knocked. His fist slammed against the door, the impact rough and unforgiving, harsher than he'd meant it to be.

The light chatter inside stopped abruptly.

Louis's heart dropped straight into his stomach. His breath caught, lodged painfully in his throat, as faint footsteps moved closer to the door. Each step felt deafening. Before he could blink, before he could reconsider, the door swung open.

Nolan.

Up close, he looked... solid. Robust. His skin was tan and healthy, almost glowing under the porch light. The heavy eye bags that usually marked his face were nowhere to be seen. He looked rested. Whole.

Louis froze.

Nolan froze.

Louis's mouth opened, then closed, useless, like a fish out of water. Every word he had practiced, every sentence he had rehearsed over and over, vanished instantly, wiped clean the moment their eyes met.

The silence stretched, thick and suffocating, and Louis could only stand there, exposed, staring. Louis cleared his throat awkwardly.

"What's going o--"

Kayla stepped into view beside Nolan.

The moment her eyes met Louis's, her expression shattered. The color drained from her face so fast it was terrifying, as though she'd just come face to face with a monster. She went rigid, frozen in place.

Louis's heart broke all over again.

The horror in her eyes was unmistakable. Raw. Unfiltered. You would have thought he'd murdered her entire family by the way she stared at him, like his very presence was something dangerous, something that should not exist.

The silence that followed was unbearable.

"I-" He started but Kayla silenced him by pushing Nolan back and slamming the door in his face. He blinked, the shock sending shock waves through him. The hostility of it left him speechless. Anger overpowered whatever other information he was feeling. He was so blinded by it he started banging against the door firstly.

"Kayla, open this damn door."

His voice cracked, drenched in raw desperation. He couldn't accept this. This was not how it was supposed to end. Not like this. Not after everything. This was not how he had imagined their reunion, their union.

He had spent all year drowning in sorrow, her disappearance gnawing at him day and night, her whereabouts driving him to the edge of madness. And he would be damned if this was how it all ended, with a closed door and unanswered silence.