Chapter 185 The Truth

Chapter 185 The Truth
The sounds of laughter became distant. Only the gentle splash of water and the occasional creak of the Ferris wheel reached them.

Nathan rested his forearms on his knees. "I met Connor in high school."

Amelia listened quietly.

"We were never best friends." He thought for a moment before correcting himself. "At least, I believed we were friends."

"He was competitive?"

Nathan smiled without amusement. "That is one way to describe him." He rubbed his palms together slowly. "Connor hated being second."

Amelia frowned. "In everything?"

Nathan nodded. "If I bought something, he wanted something better.If teachers praised me, he wanted them to praise him instead. If I joined a club..."

"He joined too?"

Nathan looked at her. "Exactly." He leaned back.
"When I started playing hockey seriously, Connor suddenly discovered he loved hockey."

Amelia listened without interrupting.

"We both got into university. We were both recruited into the university team."

"For a while..." Nathan shrugged. "Things seemed normal." He smiled faintly. "But we became known for completely different reasons."

Amelia tilted her head.

"The senior players trusted me. They made me train with them. They gave me responsibilities. They started preparing me for leadership without telling me."

"And Connor?"

Nathan laughed quietly. "Connor became famous with an entirely different crowd." He looked toward the lights reflecting across the water. "He loved attention. The more girls around him, the happier he became. He enjoyed people talking about him. He enjoyed walking into a room and everyone recognized him."

Amelia remained silent.

"Then everything changed during freshman year."
Nathan's voice became quieter. "There was a girl."

Amelia looked at him carefully.

"They met at a club." Nathan stared at the ground.
"What happened afterward.” He paused. "Was enough to get him expelled from the team if the truth came out."

Amelia's heartbeat quickened.

Nathan continued before she could ask. "The senior players already disliked him. They thought he was irresponsible. They had warned him several times. So when everything happened…” He smiled bitterly. "I made the stupidest decision of my life."

Amelia's eyes widened. "You?"

Nathan nodded slowly. "I took the blame."

She stared at him. "You what?"

"I told everyone it was me."

Amelia could barely believe what she had heard.

Nathan gave a small shrug. "I thought I was protecting a friend. Since the senior players trusted me, they spoke on my behalf. They convinced management not to remove me from the team. I received warnings and a little punishment. But I stayed."

Amelia whispered, "And Connor..."

Nathan laughed quietly. "He thanked me."

For a brief second.

Then his expression darkened. "A week later, he started telling people I was a playboy."

Amelia blinked.

Nathan nodded. "It spread faster than I expected. Girls started approaching me because of the rumors. People assumed I enjoyed the attention. I stopped correcting them."

Amelia looked confused. "Why?"

Nathan smiled sadly. "Because after a while, it became exhausting. The rumor had already become bigger than me. No matter how many times I denied it, people believed the exciting version. So I gave up."

Amelia stared at him.

"The playboy image." Nathan smiled. "Was never real. I spent years carrying somebody else's mistake."

He laughed softly. "Funny, isn't it? I tried saving a friend. And I ended up destroying my own reputation."

Amelia covered her mouth with one hand. "So..." She looked at him in disbelief. "This whole time, you were never actually a playboy?"

Nathan shook his head. "No.The attention came because of the rumor.And the rumor stayed because Connor kept feeding it."

Amelia sat speechless.

Pieces finally began falling into place.

"The secret." she whispered. "The one you told me about at the lake."

Nathan nodded. "That was it. I was terrified that if people discovered the truth. They would think I lied to protect myself." He smiled faintly. "And Connor never corrected anyone, not once."

Amelia slowly turned toward him. "When you became captain..."

Nathan chuckled. "Connor was the first person who objected. He argued I wasn't leadership material. He complained about every decision I made. He tried convincing teammates to vote against me. But..." Nathan smiled. "It never really worked."

"Why?"

Nathan looked genuinely surprised by the question.
"The team knows him." He shrugged. "They have always known.They told me years ago that Connor tries too hard to become whoever people want him to be.He changes depending on who he's talking to. They never trusted him."

Amelia lowered her eyes. "So all those stories, they came from him."

Nathan nodded. "Most of them."

Silence settled between them.

After nearly a minute, Amelia reached out. She cupped his face gently with both hands.

Nathan looked into her eyes.

"You carried that alone?"

Nathan smiled. "I thought I deserved it."

Amelia shook her head immediately. "No." Her voice cracked. "You were nineteen. You tried to protect someone you cared about. That was not stupidity. That was kindness."

Nathan swallowed. "Kindness that cost me a lot."

Amelia smiled through damp eyes. "It also brought you here."

Nathan looked at her.

She squeezed his hands. "If you had not made that mistake." She laughed softly. "You probably would never have agreed to fake-date the strange journalism student who was meant to clean up your mess."

Nathan laughed. "I suppose not."

"So..." Amelia smiled. "Maybe your biggest mistake accidentally became your greatest blessing."

Nathan stared at her for several long seconds. "I have thought about that."

"And?"

He intertwined his fingers with hers. "I still regret trusting Connor." His smile softened as he looked at her. "But meeting you..." He shook his head gently. "I would live through every rumor all over again if it meant ending up here with you."

Amelia's eyes shimmered. She leaned forward slowly until her forehead rested against his.

"You really are nothing like the person everyone says you are."

Nathan smiled. "I was hoping the only opinion that mattered had finally figured that out."

This time, Amelia did not pull away. She closed the remaining distance between them and kissed him softly beneath the glow of the amusement park lights, while somewhere behind them, the Ferris wheel completed another slow turn.

The kiss lingered for a few quiet seconds before Amelia slowly pulled away.

She did not step back. Instead, she rested her forehead lightly against Nathan's, her fingers still curled around the front of his jacket.

Around them, the amusement park carried on as though nothing extraordinary had happened. Children laughed somewhere near the carousel. A roller coaster thundered past in the distance, followed by excited screams that faded into the night. The Ferris wheel continued its slow rotation above them, its lights reflecting in Amelia's eyes.

Nathan smiled. "So..." he said softly, "does that answer your question?"

Amelia laughed through the tears that had gathered in her eyes. "I suppose it does."

Nathan brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Does that mean I finally have an answer too?"

She looked at him for a long moment before nodding almost shyly. "You do."

Nathan blinked. "Was that a yes?"

She rolled her eyes playfully. "You are supposed to be smart."

"I play hockey."

"That is not the same thing."

"So?"

She let him wait another second just to watch him grow impatient. Then she smiled. "Yes, Nathan."

His eyes widened. "Yes?"

She nodded again, unable to stop smiling. "Yes."

He stared at her for another heartbeat before breaking into the widest grin she had ever seen on his face.

"You have absolutely no idea how long I've wanted to hear that."

"I can guess."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "You really cannot."

Before she could respond, he wrapped both arms around her and lifted her clean off the ground.

"Nathan!"