Chapter 140: The Shattered Identity

Theo's POV

The bedroom door clicked shut. The silence that followed felt permanent.

Outside, fireworks exploded across the sky. Laughter drifted up from the backyard. Someone shouted, "Happy New Year!" The music downstairs continued.

Inside my bedroom, there was only Asher and me.

He looked around once before turning back to me with a confused frown. "The fireworks?"

I didn't answer. I acted like I wasn't paying attention. I just stood with my back against the locked door, my arms crossed, watching him. The lights from the window washed over his face.

Asher took a slow step toward the side of the bed. He looked visibly uncomfortable. The silence stretched too long, turning the space between us cold and heavy.

"Theo," Asher said, his voice dropping into that deep, flat tone. "Open the door. People are waiting."

"I have been watching you for a whole semester, Asher," I said, my voice quiet and calm. "None of it fits. The way you never change with the rest of the team. The way you freak out if anyone touches you. The way you always look at Kieran before you say a single word."

Asher let out a dry, nervous laugh. "You're crazy. I have a medical condition. You're overthinking things."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small piece of metal. I let the silver chain dangle between us. "I found this half in the tunnel months ago, the night Kieran kissed someone. Yesterday, the other half fell out of your seat at the sponsor dinner. I've spent months hurting myself, wondering who he was hiding. Was it you, Asher? Were you the one he kissed?"

Asher didn't say a word. He looked away, his jaw tightening into a hard line.

The heavy silence felt like a full confirmation. Months of built-up jealousy, confusion, and raw longing completely broke my emotional walls. I had been fighting this feeling for an entire year, torturing myself in the dark. Now, looking at him under the glow of the window, the distance between us felt unbearable.

"I knew it," I whispered, my voice cracking as I stepped off the door. "I've loved you for so long, Asher. I threw this entire party just to get you away from the crowd. To get you alone in this room."

Asher stepped back, his hands lifting to keep me away. His voice returned to a soft, quiet sound. "Theo, stop. Please. I cannot return those feelings. You need to move on."

The kindness in his voice felt like a knife in my gut. I didn't want his pity. I convinced myself he was just afraid of what the team would say if they found out about him and Kieran. I stepped closer, my mind completely unravelling, driven by a desperate need to feel the heat of the person I had been chasing in my dreams.

Asher kept backing away until his spine hit the post of my bed. "Theo, stay back. I mean it."

I didn't listen. Acting completely on emotion, I lunged forward, caught his jacket, and impulsively kissed him.

For a split second, the world completely stopped. His lips were soft, but they were entirely frozen, rejecting the pressure of mine. There was no warmth, no surrender just a tight, shocking resistance that broke the illusion.

Before I could even process the coldness of the contact, a raw, desperate strength slammed against my chest. Asher shoved me back with enough force to make my boots skid across the rug.

A loud, sharp crack echoed through the bedroom.

He slapped me hard across the face.

My cheek burned with deep heat. I stood there, my head turned to the side, my breath coming in heavy gasps.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Asher shouted, his voice ringing with pure anger as his hand flew to his collar.

My control snapped completely. My jealousy exploded. "You're doing this because of him! You chose Kieran over everyone else! I have spent an entire year feeling completely invisible next to him, and you let him fight all your battles!"

"Nothing is happening between us, Theo!" Asher yelled back, his face flushing red as he tried to push past me toward the door. "Let me out right now!"

After the slap, a strange, frightening calm fell over me. The frantic anger left my body. I stepped directly into his path, my eyes locking onto his face. If he was the one in the tunnel, he would know. He had to know.

"I am going to ask you one final question," I whispered, my voice dropping into a quiet flatline. "And you better think very carefully before you speak."

Asher stayed rooted to the spot, his chest rising and falling fast.

"The night Oliver Thorne was injured," I said, my voice steady, replaying the real memory of that locker room corridor. "Right before the final whistle blew, you came out of the equipment room. You told me you saw someone arguing with Oliver near the gear cages. Who was it?" It was a memory. A deeply personal moment from that night.

The person standing in front of me froze. The silence stretched between us, growing heavier and heavier until it felt like stone. She stared at my face, her lips parting, her mind frantically racing to find a name that did not exist in her head.

"It was... Silas," she whispered, her voice trembling.

She answered incorrectly.

Asher had never come out of the room. He had never told me he saw an argument. The argument never existed. and the real Asher would have looked at me like I was insane.

"No..." I breathed, taking a step backwards. "This isn't possible..."

She realised she had failed. She spun around, lunging for the lock on the door to escape. I reacted on pure instinct, reaching out and grabbing the fabric of her jacket to yank her back toward the centre of the room.

She twisted hard against my grip, trying to rip herself away. We struggled wildly on the rug, our boots shuffling loudly against the floorboards. I pulled her shoulder back, and the top buttons of her shirt gave way under the massive strain.

The fabric tore open down the centre.

I froze. My hands dropped to my sides as my eyes locked onto her chest.

I reached into my pocket, my fingers pulling out the two necklaces, My assumption had been completely right the necklace belonged to the person in the tunnel and it was Asher's But I was entirely wrong about the person wearing it...

My eyes were fixed on the tight, torn shirt, white fabric

Banding around his chest.

A cold, terrifying stillness fell over the bedroom. My breathing changed, coming out in shallow, ragged gasps as every single detail clicked into a completely different puzzle.

I looked up from the cloth, my eyes meeting her wide, terrified gaze. The face was identical, but the truth was entirely different.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

She looked down at her torn shirt, then looked up at my face. She realised there was no escape left. The walls had completely closed in, and the game was officially over.

She straightened her shoulders, dropping the deep hockey voice completely. When she spoke, her real voice was quiet, human, and full of a sharp, biting fire.

"My name is Aveline Carter," she said flatly, her eyes locking onto mine with an intensity that stopped my heart. "I am Asher's twin sister."

My entire world collapsed into thousands of broken pieces. The room felt like it was spinning around my head. The matching necklace, the secret language with Kieran it all shattered.

I stumbled back against the locked door, my chest heaving as the final, most terrifying realisation hit my brain. If the person standing in front of me for the last months was his twin sister...

I looked at her face, my voice dropping into a hollow, ghostly whisper.

"Then... where is Asher?"

Aveline's expression changed, her eyes turning as she stared at me. Her lips parted slightly, but she didn't say a single word.