Chapter 170 The confession

Chapter 170 The confession

Kieran's POV

The door to the boardroom opened, and the athletic director pointed inside without looking at me.

Aveline was already sitting in the center of the room on a single chair. She looked devastated in her sweatshirt, her arms crossed tightly over her chest.

Six board members were seated behind a long, curved desk illuminated by overhead lights. The principal, a bulky manila folder open before him, sat at the center. No one looked up as I entered.

"Why is she here?" I asked, stopping near the entrance. "The fight at the rink had nothing to do with her."

The board chair, a tall man in a dark suit, finally lifted his eyes. "Take a seat, Mr. Hampton. We are not discussing the fight yet."

I walked over and sat in the empty chair beside Aveline. I tried to catch her eye, but she kept her gaze fixed on the table. The room's air had the scent of aged paper and stale coffee.

The principal tapped the folder. "We have reviewed the registration data, the medical logs from the league office, and the footage from the rink. The details are clear. For the past months, you have been entering the boys' locker room, using a false name, and actively deceiving this administration."

Aveline didn't flinch. She leaned forward, her voice dropping into her natural tone. "You knew why I was doing it."

The principal frowned. "Miss Carter, your family's situation"

"You still chose to punish me instead of asking why I had to become Asher in the first place," she cut him off, her voice rising.

The athletic director slammed his pen onto the desk. "You violated the privacy of twenty other athletes daily, Miss Carter. You falsified legal school documents."

"You want to talk about privacy now?" Aveline turned her head, looking straight at him. "Where was that concern when my brother was being bullied on your ice? Where were the proper channels when nobody would look into student welfare ?"

"That is enough," the chair said, his voice cold. "Being wronged by another student does not give you permission to break state athletic codes and compromise this institution on national television.

This meeting is about policy violations."

"She had no choice," I said.

"Everyone has a choice."

"Not when the administration refuses to listen."

"Mr. Hampton."

"You knew what happened to Asher."

"This isn't about Asher."

"Then what is it about?"

"It's about what she did."

"Exactly. That's all you care about."

The chair turned his eyes to me, cutting me off. "We will get to your part in this, Mr. Hampton. Let's establish the timeline first. When did you discover she was Aveline Carter?"

The room went completely quiet. The principal leaned forward, waiting.

"It doesn't matter when I found out," I said.

"It matters to your enrollment," the disciplinary member said, checking a sheet. "How long have you known?"

I kept my jaw tight and didn't answer.

"Months," Reed's father, who sat at the end of the board, answered for me. "He knew for months. And you chose not to tell us?"

"I was protecting a teammate," I said.

"You keep calling her a liability," I added, looking at the principal. "Where was this concern when Silas was hurting Asher?"

"We are not discussing Silas."

"That's the problem. You never wanted to discuss him."

"Silas is already facing a separate tribunal," the principal said flatly. "But his actions do not excuse what happened in our locker room. You knew the rules, Kieran. You knew the legal liability this school was facing every time the team traveled."

The chair gathered the top stack of papers and looked at Aveline. "The board has reached its decision regarding the administrative violations. Effective immediately, Aveline Carter is removed from the Crestwood hockey program."

Aveline didn't move. She just stared at him.

"Your academic status still stands," the principal added. "You are welcome to write your final exams remotely, but you will not return to our hockey team, and you are suspended from the campus for the remainder of the semester. You will not attend senior milestone events."

Aveline slowly closed her eyes, her shoulders dropping a fraction of an inch. She didn't argue.

The chair turned to a second folder. "Now, Mr. Hampton. Your actions carried a direct responsibility to the safety and integrity of that line. You used your authority as captain to block other players from discovering the truth."

"I did what was best for the line," I said. "Are you removing my captaincy?" I asked before he could read the text.

"Effective immediately," the chair said.

"What about the team?"

"They've been informed."

I stared at him. "You already told them?"

"We had no choice," the principal said. "The league required an immediate statement before the media coverage grew. Leadership is judged by what happens under your watch, not by what you intended."

The principal reached into his drawer and pulled out a single sheet of paper, sliding it across the table toward me. "Do you recognize this?"

I looked down. It was an official email header from the University of Michigan's athletic department.

"They are not asking whether you are a good hockey player, Hampton," the principal said quietly. "They are asking whether they can trust you.

They saw the brawl at the lake, and they saw the scoreboard footage from the match. They don't want a captain who couldn't control what happened inside his own locker room.

Your draft prospects are under emergency review, and your scholarship track is heavily damaged."

I looked at the Michigan logo again.

"So that's it?" I asked.

The principal didn't answer. I folded the paper and stood.

"This session is adjourned," the chair said, standing up.

The board members followed him out through the side door, their shoes clicking against the floor until the room went dead silent again. Aveline stood up slowly. She didn't look at me, and she didn't wait. She grabbed her bag from the floor, turned around, and walked out the back doors toward the exit gate where the administrative escort was waiting.

I didn't follow her.

I walked down the narrow corridor toward the varsity locker room. The hallway was completely empty. The rest of the guys were already in class, and the lights over the ice rink were shut off.

I walked into the captain's office. My jersey was still hanging on the wall.

I stopped when I saw it. The blue C was gone.

I reached for the jersey and ran my thumb over the loose threads where it had been. Someone had already taken it off. I let the jersey fall back against the wall.

Then I walked out.