Chapter 50: Bleeding edge

Kieran’s POV

The Hampton estate felt too quiet in a suffocating way. Everything inside it was too perfect, which always made it feel like no one was really allowed to breathe properly.

I stood in front of my bedroom mirror, pulling a stiff black tie around my neck. My hands were steady, but everything inside me wasn’t.

In less than two hours, we were flying to Paris. A full week with my father. A full week of pretending we were a normal family. A full week of smiling for cameras while everything behind closed doors was falling apart.

I tightened the knot of the tie sharply, like I was trying to choke the frustration out of myself.

Then I heard it. Muffled voices down the hallway. I stopped what I was doing and moved. Each step echoed through the hallway until I reached my mother’s sitting lounge.

The door was slightly open. I pushed it wider My mother was sitting on the silk chair near the window. She looked… tired. Not just physically tired but emotionally drained, like she had been carrying something too heavy for too long.

Her hands were shaking slightly as she adjusted a diamond necklace around her neck. A gift from my father. My chest tightened.

I already knew what I had seen days ago. I had walked into his office and seen him with another woman. And now I was looking at my mother, still sitting here, preparing to go on this trip with him, as if nothing had happened.

“Mom,” I said quietly at first.

She turned and gave me a small smile. “You look very handsome, Kieran,” she said softly. “Make sure your father’s luggage goes down first. He doesn’t like delays.”

Something in me snapped a little. I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. “No,” I said.

She blinked. “What?”

“Stop it,” I said, voice rising. “Stop acting like everything is fine. I saw him. I know what he did.”

The smile slowly disappeared from her face. For a second, she looked like she might break. But she didn’t Instead, she stood up straighter.

“Your father’s business event is important,” she said carefully. “We cannot afford distractions right now.”

I laughed once, but there was no humour in it. “He cheated on you,” I said. “And you’re talking about business events?”

“You don’t understand how things work,” she said.

“I understand enough!” I snapped. “He treats you like you’re replaceable. Like you’re just part of his image. And you’re still going with him? Still smiling for him?”

Silence.

Then her voice changed." Because I cannot leave him, Kieran.”

I froze.

She stepped closer, her voice shaking now, “A divorce would destroy everything. It would ruin your hockey future. It would destroy funding for Crestwood. It would destroy this family in the media.”

Her hands clenched. “I am doing this to protect you.”

That hit harder than anything else she could’ve said.

I stared at her, completely still. This was what my life cost her. “My future?” I said quietly. “At what cost, Mom?”

She didn’t answer. Because she didn’t need to.

I looked away first. My chest felt too tight. Like everything was pressing in, I couldn't stay there any second longer

I grabbed my car keys and walked out without another word.

The park. It was empty when I got there. I sat down and leaned forward, elbows on my knees.

For a moment, I just stayed like that, trying to breathe then I looked up Aveline was walking toward me.

She stopped a few steps away. “Kieran?” she said softly. “What happened?”

That was all it took. Something in me cracked open.

“My mother won’t leave him,” I said immediately, voice rough. “I tried to stop her. I told her everything. I begged her to leave him.”

My hands tightened into fists. “She’s still going,” I continued. “She’s packing her bags. She’s acting like nothing happened. Like he didn’t destroy her.”

Aveline didn’t interrupt.

“I don’t care about the name,” I said. “I don’t care about Crestwood, or scouts, or hockey. I told her I’d give it all up if she just stopped.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “But she won’t.” My voice dropped. “She says she’s doing it for my future.”

I shook my head slowly. “She’s letting him break her just so I can play a sport.”

“I hate him,” I whispered. “I hate what he’s doing to her. And I hate that I have to sit next to him in Paris and smile like I don’t want to punch him in the face.”

I looked away. “I’m not going,” I said suddenly. “Let him take everything. I don’t care anymore.”

That was when Aveline moved.

She stepped closer. Both hands came up to my face

Her thumbs brushed my jaw lightly, grounding me without even trying.

“Look at me,” she said softly.

I hesitated. Her eyes were calm. Too calm for everything I was feeling. “You’re going,” she said.

I frowned. “Aveline...”

“No,” she cut in gently. “Listen.”

Her hands stayed on my face. “You’re not going for him,” she said. “You’re going for her.”

“If your mother is choosing to suffer in silence to protect you,” she said, “then the least you can do is stand beside her so she doesn’t face him alone.”

Something in my chest tightened. “You think staying here makes it better?” she asked softly. “It doesn’t. It just leaves her alone with him.”

“If you walk away,” she said, “then he wins. Not just over her. Over you too.”

Her voice softened. “So go,” she said. “Hold your head up. Be there. Protect her in every way you can.”

A pause.

Then she added quietly, “I’ll be here when you get back.”

That did something to me. Something I couldn’t explain. The anger in me didn’t disappear. I let out a slow breath. “You make everything sound simple,” I said quietly.

A small smile touched her lips. “It’s not simple,” she said. “It’s just right.”

I gave a short laugh. “You’re dangerous, you know that?”

That made me look at her properly. And for a second, everything else disappeared. I leaned forward until my forehead touched hers. “Thank you,” I whispered.

Her eyes softened. “You don’t need to thank me.”

Then she added, “That’s what you do when you care about someone.”

That word hit differently. My hands moved before I thought. I held her neck and gave her deepened possessive kiss. She held onto me like she’d been waiting for that moment longer than she wanted to admit.

When we broke apart, I rested my forehead against hers again. “I have to leave tonight,” I said quietly.

“I know,” she whispered.

My grip tightened slightly. “But I’m coming back soon". I said.

Her smile was small but real. “I know that too.”

We stayed like that for a moment longer. Like the world had paused just long enough for us to breathe.

Then I finally stood up. And even though I was walking into a storm I didn’t want, it didn’t feel like I was doing it alone.