Chapter 22: My Girl
Justin"s Pov
I’d seen guys break bones. I’d watched teammates get stitched up between periods because they refused to leave the ice. I’d watched my father look at me like I was the biggest disappointment of his life.
None of it came close to this.
Harper’s entire body folded into mine as another sob ripped out of her. The sound didn’t even sound human. It sounded like something inside her had shattered. My arms tightened around her automatically.
"I’ve got you."
She shook her head violently. "No... no..." Her fingers clutched the front of my shirt so tightly I could feel them trembling through the fabric. "Why?" she cried. "Why would he do this to me? Why would he post my mom?" Her voice cracked so badly the last word barely came out. "She didn’t do anything."
Around us, the parking lot had gone strangely quiet. Students had stopped walking. Some were whispering. Others were openly staring. A few had already pulled out their phones.
Anger exploded inside me. "Put your damn phones away!" A few people lowered them immediately. Others looked embarrassed enough to turn around and leave. Not all of them. People loved a public tragedy, especially when it wasn’t theirs.
Harper buried her face against my chest. "My mom..." She couldn’t even finish the sentence. Another sob shook her. "I couldn’t even protect her."
"You didn’t do anything wrong."
"I did." She looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. "I dated him."
The guilt in her voice made me sick. "This isn’t your fault."
"It is."
"It isn’t."
"It is!" Her scream echoed across the parking lot. She pushed away from me, pacing in frantic circles like she couldn’t stand still. "What did I ever do to him? What did my mom ever do?" She looked around at everyone watching. "Why would he tell everyone? I never wanted people to know." She wrapped her arms around herself. "My dad..." Her voice broke all over again. "My dad has another family." She laughed, a horrible broken sound that wasn’t funny at all. "He replaced us."
I closed my eyes for half a second. Because I knew what it felt like to have family disappoint you. To spend years trying to earn love that should have been given freely. My father and I barely spoke anymore. Every conversation turned into another lecture, another reminder that I wasn’t enough, that hockey wasn’t enough, that I wasn’t the son he’d imagined. But at least he’d stayed. Harper hadn’t even been given that. Her father had simply started over, like she and her mother had never existed.
My problems suddenly felt so damn small.
She looked completely lost, like someone had reached into her chest and ripped away every piece holding her together. I should have protected her. I should have found out what Ethan was planning. I should have gotten to her before she saw the post. I couldn’t stop thinking it, even though I knew it wasn’t true, even though I couldn’t have known. It still felt like I’d failed her.
Footsteps approached from behind us. A familiar laugh. I turned.
Ethan. Chloe walked beside him with her arms folded, wearing the same smug smile she’d worn the day Harper caught them together. My entire body stiffened.
Not now. Please. Not now.
Ethan looked from Harper to me. "See?" he said with a shrug. "This is what happens when people refuse to be reasonable."
I stared at him. I actually couldn’t believe he was smiling.
Harper slowly lifted her head, tears still streaming. "What...?"
Ethan shrugged again. "I told you not to make things difficult."
"You did this?" she whispered.
"Oh, come on. It’s not like I lied." He laughed. "If anything, I helped everyone see who you really are."
Before I could move, more voices filled the parking lot. "What the hell happened?"
I looked over. Mason. Tyler. Noah. Carter. Half the team was jogging toward us after finishing practice. They stopped the second they saw Harper crying.
Mason looked between us. "What happened?"
Noah was already holding his phone. "I just saw Ethan’s post." His face hardened. "Dude..." He looked at Ethan. "What the hell is wrong with you?"
Ethan rolled his eyes. "Oh please."
Tyler stepped forward. "You posted pictures of her sick mom?"
"So?"
"So?" Tyler repeated. "That’s your response?"
Another teammate shook his head. "That’s actually disgusting."
"You crossed the line," Carter said.
"No," Mason corrected quietly. "You sprinted past the line."
Ethan scoffed. "You guys are acting like I committed murder."
"No," Noah said. "But you publicly humiliated a girl whose mother is in the hospital." Silence. Nobody defended Ethan. Not one person. For the first time, I saw uncertainty flash across his face.
Then Harper moved.
One second she was standing beside me. The next she was running straight at him. "You bastard!" Her fist slammed into his chest. Again. Again. "You ruined my life!" She shoved him so hard he stumbled backward. "I trusted you! You posted my mother!" She was crying so hard she could barely breathe between words. "I hate you!"
I wrapped both arms around her waist and pulled her backward before she could hit him again. She fought me with everything she had. "Let me go!"
"Harper."
"Let me go!" She kicked wildly, trying to reach him. "He deserves it!"
"I know."
"He deserves worse!"
"I know."
"I hate him!"
"I know." She broke down all over again, completely limp in my arms.
Behind us, Ethan muttered, "She’s being dramatic."
That was it. Something inside me snapped. I lunged. I barely took two steps before Mason and Tyler grabbed me.
"Justin!"
"Don’t."
"Let me go." My voice didn’t even sound like mine. "I’m serious."
Tyler tightened his grip. "He’s not worth it."
"He posted her mother. He posted pictures of her father with another family."
"I know."
"Let me go."
For one terrifying second I wanted to hurt him. Not scare him. Not threaten him. Hurt him.
Ethan looked around at the team surrounding him. Nobody stood beside him. Not Chloe. Not his friends. No one. For the first time since I’d known him, he looked completely alone.
Good. Because after today, he deserved to be.
Harper buried her face against my shoulder again. She wasn’t screaming anymore. She wasn’t even crying anymore. She was just empty. I wrapped my jacket around her shaking shoulders and led her toward my truck without looking back.
I didn’t need to.
One thought repeated itself over and over in my head. You picked the wrong girl to destroy. And I was going to make absolutely sure Ethan regretted it.
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