Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 114951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
I thought nothing could be worse than BC losing the championship yet again in the final game against Michigan, but even that had the silver lining of knowing I’d be starting my career in the NHL soon. There were still games to play, still titles to chase.
But the day we got the call that Ariana’s mother had died, there was no silver lining in sight.
Everything happened like a car crash in a dream — painful and horrifying, yet blurry and hard to grasp. There were funeral arrangements and legal counsel, a girl in college who should have been thinking about her future forced instead to grieve the death of a mother she’d never quite known how to love.
And worse, it wasn’t that her mother had been sick.
The police used careful language with us at first, choosing words like incident and investigation, as if they were afraid of saying too much. But it didn’t take long for the truth to sharpen.
Ariana’s stepfather told them he’d found her deceased. He said they’d argued, that he’d left to cool his temper while she stayed home.
He said she’d hung herself.
And the coroner confirmed asphyxiation — but there was more to it.
Bruising to the neck. Signs of a struggle.
Everywhere around us, there were two whispered words.
Suspicious circumstances.
There was no time to process it. One day, we received the call, and the next, I was watching the way Ariana’s hands shook as she signed forms, collected her brother’s backpack, and walked out of that courthouse as his temporary guardian.
I sat beside her through it all, but it felt like standing in the middle of a hurricane, holding onto someone who was already being pulled away.
I couldn’t imagine what she was feeling. I couldn’t even begin to try. All I knew was that the girl who had once leaned into me, who had filled our tiny apartment with laughter and light, was retreating into herself. She still let me hold her at night, but it was different now. Her eyes weren’t on the future anymore. They were on survival.
The more I heard, the less sense it made. Her stepfather was under investigation for the death of her mother, possibly facing trial. Ariana would have to testify — to relive everything she’d spent her life trying to escape.
At the same time, she had to prove she was stable enough to raise Georgie.
And that was where the real nightmare came in.
Because Jay was Georgie’s biological father.
Even locked up in county jail awaiting trial, his lawyers were already circling, filing motions, angling to argue that Ariana was too young, too unstable, too unfit to keep custody. Emergency guardianship was only a stopgap — proof of stability would determine whether it stuck. One misstep, one hint of chaos, and Georgie could end up living with Jay — or with another member of Jay’s family, which Ariana made clear was no better.
We had an apartment, and we immediately made room for Georgie, but it was more complicated than just having a place for him to rest his head at night. Courts demanded roots, not chaos. Predictability, not press coverage. They wanted boring, steady, safe.
And I was anything but.
It was my coach who talked to me first, his brows pinched together as he looked at me with a mixture of pity and true sadness. “It would be impossible to keep this quiet, you understand?” he’d said. “You’re a rookie, a hot one everyone expects great things from. And your girlfriend’s stepfather being under investigation for murder isn’t going to be something you can hide.”
Ariana’s lawyers had cornered me next.
“She won’t listen to us, Shane,” her counsel said quietly. “So you have to get through to her. You have to make her understand that being with you — with an NHL career about to take off — could jeopardize everything she’s fighting for.”
I hated them for saying it.
I hated that they were right.
My life was about to be airports, hotels, reporters, and cameras. Hers needed to be court hearings, steady routines, and bedtime stories for a scared little boy. I couldn’t give her what she needed, and worse, staying by her side might cost her everything.
I lay awake at night, staring at the ceiling while Ariana’s soft breaths whispered against my chest, and I thought about the choice in front of me. The truth was, I only had one.
The only way I could protect her, the only way I could love her the way she needed me to… was to let her go.
And I had no idea how I’d ever find the strength to do it.
Brief Breath of Time
Ariana
Present
Nathan was in a good mood when he got home.
I knew it the second I heard him humming as he kicked off his shoes in the entryway, the sound light and unburdened in a way that made my shoulders loosen. He appeared in the kitchen moments later, sleeves already rolled up, smile easy as he crossed the space between us and pressed a kiss to my temple.