Chapter 113: The Fake Girlfriend Alibi

Kieran’s POV

I didn't sleep.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Aveline standing beneath the dim lights of the empty rink. Tears were streaming down her face as she begged me to do the one thing I swore I never would.

Date Katty.

I had told her no. I told her I would rather watch my NHL dream burn to ashes than let another woman stand where she belonged. But by sunrise, every road led to the same ending. If the league board kept digging, or if my mother's legal team launched their investigation, they would find Aveline's secrets. Everything her brother died for would be destroyed because of me.

So I swallowed every ounce of my pride, picked up my phone, and called Katty.

An hour later, Katty was sitting on the edge of my bed. She ran her fingernail along the wood of my desk, looking around my room like a queen reclaiming a throne she had abandoned without closure. She still thought I was the same boy who used to be obsessed with her the boy she could break and leave behind without a single explanation.

The smug smile on her face made my stomach churn.

"I knew you'd call eventually," Katty said, settling comfortably. "I just didn't think it'd take a viral scandal for you to admit you missed me."

I remained by the window, refusing to look at her. "Don't flatter yourself. This isn't a reunion. It's a business arrangement."

Her smile faltered slightly. "Oh? Then why am I here?"

"You'll play my girlfriend in public," I said, turning to face her. "You'll hold my hand, smile for cameras, and make sure everyone believes the tunnel rumours are complete bullshit."

"And what do I get out of this?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.

"The attention you've always wanted."

A slow smile returned to her lips. She stood up and walked closer to me trying to straighten my collar, but I caught her wrist tightly before she could touch me.

"There he is. The captain who always knows exactly what people want."

Don't," I said coldly. "This ends the second the rumours die. You get your publicity. I get my reputation back. After that, we're strangers." "Why are you actually doing this, Katty?" I asked, cutting right through her act.

Katty laughed softly. "Let's just say a campus spotlight looks a lot better on me than obscurity. Does my motive really matter if it gets the board off your back?"

My back rigid, hands fisting so hard inside my pockets that my knuckles threatened to burst through the skin. It took every ounce of my restraint not to throw her out of my house.

"Don't flatter yourself," I said, my voice dropping into a harsh, transactional growl that made her smile falter for a second. "This is a business deal. Nothing more. You play my casual girlfriend around campus. You hold my arm, smile for the cameras, and prove to the school, the scouts, and the board that I am straight as fuck.

She slowly pulled her hand free, smirking. "Fine. But you'll have to look like you actually like me. People aren't stupid. So... should we go convince your mother?"

The sitting room downstairs felt more like a courtroom. My mother sat perfectly upright on the sofa, her hands wrapped around a teacup she hadn't touched. The moment Katty slipped her arm through mine, Amelia's expression froze into pure ice.

"What is she doing here, Kieran?" Her voice carried no warmth.

She glared at Katty with deep-seated hatred. "Have you lost your mind? After how she left you? After what she put you through?"

Katty answered before I could, lowering her eyes with practised guilt. "Mrs Hampton, I know I hurt Kieran before. But when I saw what people were saying online, I couldn't stay away. I love him too much to let the school board destroy his future

"I am not speaking to you, Katty," Amelia snapped, her sharp gaze cutting straight through Katty’s act before locking entirely onto me. "Is this a joke, Kieran? You expect me to believe she just walked back into your life the exact same weekend a video drops? Right when your career is bleeding out?"

I forced my muscles to relax, wrapping a fake arm around Katty's waist. "It's real, Mom. The video in the tunnel was just a stupid, tasteless joke. Some freshmen were messing around in the dark, and things got reckless. Katty and I have been working things out privately for weeks. I was just too stubborn to tell you because I knew you'd react like this."."

Amelia stared at us for a long, agonising moment, searching my face for the lie. The tension in the room was tense. Finally, she let out a long sigh, the anger in her face visibly deflating. But it sickened me to my core.

"Thank God..." Amelia whispered, her voice cracking slightly. "The league board was preparing to sanction you for misconduct. If Katty is back, the scouts will realise it's just campus gossip. I'll call off the legal team. The gates are unlocked, Kieran. Don't make me regret this."

The true execution of the nightmare began the next morning. It was my first day back at school since the brutal injury in the rink.

The moment Katty and I walked through the main doors, the crowded hallway fell into a stunned, dead silence. Whispers rippled through the crowd, and phones were whipped out instantly to record us.

"You owe me a dinner date tonight, babe," Katty laughed loudly, her voice echoing so everyone could hear. She leaned her head heavily against my shoulder.

I kept my eyes locked straight ahead, forcing my feet to move forward, wearing the mask of a devoted boyfriend while my chest felt like it was physically collapsing.

And then, I passed her in the crowd.

Standing by the row of lockers, Aveline. Because of this video, she was forced to stand completely on the sidelines and watch.

She had to listen to the whispers of the student body celebrating Katty as my new girl. As Katty linked her arm through mine, faking a public romance, I watched Aveline holding her notes tightly.

Our eyes locked for a second. I saw the brutal emotional crash down between us in real-time. Her chest heaved with a silent, real jealousy that she had no right to voice because she was the one who had begged me to do this.

She was sacrificing her own heart to protect her secret.

"Keep your eyes on me, captain," Katty whispered sharply against my ear, noticing my brief distraction. "The cameras are watching."

I didn't look back. If I looked back at Aveline, I would have ripped my arm away from Katty and exposed everything right there in the dirt.

To push the misdirection even further and make the school gossip page look entirely unreliable, I knew the fake relationship wasn't enough. We needed to attack the source of the video itself, and I needed Milo to do it.

I pulled Milo Hayes into the locker room between periods. He was sitting on the bench, tossing a ball carelessly into the air.

"I need a favor, Milo," I said, my voice dropping into a serious register.

Milo caught the ball, looking up at me with a smirk.

"What's up, captain? I saw you walking in with Katty today. So the rumors were total bullshit? You guys are back together?"

"Yeah, we're back together," I lied smoothly, leaning closer. "But the campus forum is still treating that tunnel video like a massive scandal. I need you to use your reputation to kill it completely."

Milo’s lips twisted into a curious grin. "And how am I supposed to do that?"

"Tell the campus group chats that the video was your idea," I said, guiding him indirectly. "Claim it was a scripted joke. A mock Titan rookie hazing ritual that we filmed to scare the freshmen. Since nobody can see who the shadow is in the clip, tell them it was just a random rookie getting pranked."

Milo chuckled, shaking his head as he pulled out his phone. "Man, the gossip page is going to look completely braindead if everyone thinks it was just a Titan prank. Consider it done, brother."

Within five minutes, Milo was typing rapidly, blasting the main campus forum. 'You idiots really thought the captain was caught in the tunnel? It was a scripted hazing prank. Milo Hayes strikes again. Gossip page looks stupid.'

The reaction was instantaneous. Across the quad, phones began chiming. The dark, scandalous narrative surrounding the video dissolved into a wave of laughter. The campus began to laugh the video off as a prank, giving Aveline and me a temporary pocket of safety. But as the echoes of the campus laughing bounced off, all I could feel was the weight of the barrier I had just built between myself and the only girl I loved.