Connecting the Dots

CLARA's POV -

My forehead slammed against the hard surface of my office desk. The impact rattled my dual monitors and sent a jar of highlighters tumbling onto the carpet.

"I am not going to the Seattle game. What was I thinking?" I mumbled into the synthetic wood grain.

Making a frantic, impulsive decision to fly across the country just because of a magazine photo was a pathetic new low. My anxiety began to spiral out of control. I pressed my palms against my eyes.

"What if the long distance was just too hard for him? What if I was not there enough? Maybe if I had visited more often, he would not have looked for someone else."

Stella did not even glance up from her keyboard. The rapid clacking of her typing echoed in our shared cubicle space.

"You cannot back out now. You already agreed to go."

"I got motivated to buy a plane ticket because I saw some hot guy in a magazine layout. That is unhinged behavior."

"I find that a perfectly reasonable reaction." Stella kept her eyes locked on her screen. "It is not every day someone finds their rebound material within seconds of a devastating breakup."

"I am not trying to find a rebound."

Stella finally stopped typing. She stood up, leaned her weight over the partition of my desk, and pointed a sharp acrylic nail right at my face.

"I am going to say this once. Stop being a little bitch crying over mediocre dick."

My mouth snapped shut.

"I am serious, Clara. Rhys Kincaid is mediocre at playing hockey. He is mediocre in bed, which you admitted to me after three glasses of Pinot Grigio, so do not even try to deny it. And he is clearly mediocre at being a faithful partner. You spent two years standing in the freezing rain at his practices. You drove three hours every weekend just to watch him warm the benches for the minor leagues. This is how he repays that loyalty? Screw him."

She stared me down until I offered a tiny nod.

"You are going to Seattle." Stella commanded in a fierce tone. "You promised Declan months ago that you would be there for his first NHL game. That promise has nothing to do with your cheating ex and everything to do with your stepbrother. Declan has always had your back."

She was right. Declan had been begging me to come to his games since the day he signed his first developmental contract. Back then, the idea of him actually making it to the NHL seemed like a wild fantasy. Now it was a reality.

"Okay, I get it." I sat up, rubbing my bruised forehead. A small smile finally broke through my miserable expression.

My stomach suddenly dropped to the floor.

Stella stopped mid-breath. Her eyes widened as she stared at something just over my shoulder.

"Oh, shit."

I spun around in my rolling chair to follow her gaze.

The large television mounted on the office wall was tuned to a sports entertainment network. Rhys's face filled the entire flat screen. He looked incredible. His blond hair was styled to perfection, and his gray eyes caught the harsh glare of the camera flashes.

That was not what made the air vanish from my lungs.

Rhys was standing on the deck of a private cruise ship. He was holding a stunning blonde woman tightly against his side. Her hair cascaded down her back in flawless golden waves. She wore a skin-tight red dress that left nothing to the imagination. She threw her head back in a bright laugh, resting her hand flat against his chest with her fingers spread wide. She looked like she owned him.

It was the exact same girl from the horrific video call.

"Minor league player Rhys Kincaid was spotted last night with his alleged new girlfriend, Livia Voss." The entertainment reporter's chipper voice echoed through the office.

A sleek graphic flashed at the bottom of the screen. Livia Voss, 23.

"She is related to Kaelen." I whispered the realization into the silent room.

Stella dropped back into her chair. Her fingers flew across her keyboard in a furious blur.

"Let me check. Oh, hell. Clara, look at this."

Stella shoved her monitor toward my side of the desk. The search engine results were stark and undeniable. Kaelen Voss. Top NHL player for the Seattle Wolves. Family: One sister, Livia Voss.

An action shot of Kaelen dominated the search page. He was on the ice with his helmet off. Sweat darkened his thick hair. His sharp jaw was clenched tight, and his piercing blue eyes shone with raw fury. He radiated a dark, dangerous energy.

A sickening wave of déjà vu slammed into my chest. I stared at the digital image, my pulse pounding in my ears. I knew this photo. I knew those eyes.

"Clara?" Stella asked, her voice sounding muffled through the rushing in my ears. "Are you okay?"

"I have seen this picture before."

I closed my eyes and let the memory wash over me. It was a year and a half ago. Rhys and I had only been dating for six months. I had been digging through his foul-smelling practice bag looking for a spare pen. Instead, I found a printed photograph tucked carefully inside a leather-bound notepad. It was this exact picture of Kaelen Voss.

"Who is this?" I had asked, holding the glossy paper up to the light.

Rhys had lunged across the bedroom and snatched the photo out of my hands. His neck flushed a dark, angry red. The veins in his forehead bulged.

"Do not touch that. Do not ever go through my stuff again, Clara." He had snapped at me with a vicious edge I had never heard before.

He smoothed the situation over later with a kiss to my forehead and a lame excuse about stress, but he never explained the photograph. He just buried it back in the depths of his hockey bag. I had brushed the bizarre reaction off. Until this exact second.

"Rhys had this picture hidden in his bag." I gripped the edge of Stella's desk. "I found it by accident. He lost his mind when I asked about it. He got incredibly defensive."

Stella stared at me in horror. "Are you telling me Rhys has been obsessing over Kaelen for your entire two-year relationship?"

Bile rose in the back of my throat. The puzzle pieces snapped together in a horrifying picture.

"Do you think he is using Livia just to gain access to the hockey elite?"

"That makes perfect sense." Stella clicked open a new tab and pulled up Livia's Instagram account. "Look at her feed."

She scrolled through dozens of pictures. Livia posing in VIP boxes. Livia standing rink-side during warmups. Livia surrounded by famous players. In almost every single group shot, Kaelen stood slightly out of focus in the background.

"Rhys saw an opportunity." Stella muttered in disgust. "He is using her to get close to her brother."

"I was never going to be enough for him because I do not have connections to the right people."

"Do not dare say that." Stella grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her. "Rhys is a manipulative, social-climbing piece of trash. You were always too good for him."

My cell phone vibrated against the desk mat. The screen lit up with a new email notification. The sender name made my blood run cold.

Rhys Kincaid.

I did not want to open the message. My hands shook as I swiped the screen and tapped the mail icon. The words burned themselves into my retinas.

'I am sorry, Clara. I never meant for things to end this way. But I have reached a new level in my career, and I need someone who can match that. Someone capable of helping me grow. You were great for where I used to be, but I need more now. I hope you understand.'

The breath vanished from my lungs. The phone slipped out of my numb fingers and clattered against the desk.

Someone capable. He had just called me incapable of matching his nonexistent greatness. After two years of unwavering support. After driving through snowstorms to watch him fail.

Stella reached over and snatched the phone. She read the email, her expression morphing from concern to lethal fury.

"He sends you a cold-blooded corporate breakup email? He calls you incapable after you caught him cheating on video?"

I could not formulate a response. The insult carved a hollow, caving sensation straight through my chest.

"Hold on. There is more." Stella grabbed her own phone and tapped the screen with a vengeance. "I started digging into his social media last night. I looked through his untagged photos. The ones he tried to hide from his main feed. Look at this."

She shoved her screen into my hands. It was a picture of Rhys at a beach house. He had his arms wrapped tightly around a woman with bright red hair. Their mouths were locked in a passionate kiss. The timestamp marked it as nine months ago.

"Nine months." I choked on the words.

"Swipe right. There is another one." Stella's voice shook with anger. "Two months ago. A brunette at a dive bar. I found at least five different women spanning the last year, Clara. He is a serial cheater."

I stared down at the undeniable proof of his betrayal. The hollow, caving sensation in my chest suddenly stopped. The crushing weight of depression and self-doubt burned away in a flash. In its place, a white-hot, unrelenting anger ignited in my veins. It spread through my limbs like a roaring fire.

I pushed the phone away and stood up straight. My spine locked into steel.

"I am still going to Seattle." My voice hardened into something unrecognizable.

"You are going to walk into that arena looking devastating. You are going to keep your head held high." Stella pumped her fist in the air.

"This is not about revenge. This is about supporting Declan." I grabbed my purse from the back of my chair. "I am going to cheer for my stepbrother. And I am going to look so incredibly good that when Rhys inevitably spots me, he will choke on his own bullshit."

Stella broke into a massive grin. "That is my girl."

I took a deep, steadying breath. I felt powerful. I felt furious.

My eyes drifted back to Stella's computer monitor. Kaelen's picture was still splashed across the screen. I studied his sharp features, his cold blue eyes, and that dangerous, predatory energy. He was the man Rhys worshipped. He was the man my stepfather despised. He was tangled in the very center of this mess, and he did not even know I existed.

"And Kaelen?" I asked in a quiet, calculating tone.

Stella raised a single eyebrow. She tapped the screen right over Kaelen's striking face.

"I think Kaelen is exactly who you should be focusing on."