Artemis leans back in his chair, ankles crossed, expression unreadable.
She swallows. “Before we begin, I need to say this on record. I was hired by your father, Alonso de la Peña to follow your activities. To report back to him. To…” Her voice falters. “To shape a narrative that hurt you.”
Artemis doesn’t interrupt.
“I told myself it was just access journalism.” She fidgets with the hem of her skirt as she continues. “But it crossed lines. I crossed lines. And when I realized how deep it went—how much damage it was doing—I should have walked away sooner. I didn’t.”
Silence stretches. It’s awkward as fuck, but Artemis doesn’t give in, he doesn’t fill it. He just lets it simmer.
“I’m sorry.” She looks at him with sad eyes. “To all of you, your siblings… the team.” Her voice cracks, but it doesn’t seem like it’s for pity, but because she knows exactly how deep the knife went.
Finally, Artemis nods once, it’s basically his signature move. “Apology noted.” It’s the verbal equivalent of a handshake with a glove on—it’s formal, cool, deliberate. Definitely not forgiveness, it’s not dismissed, simply acknowledged.
Claudia exhales shakily and taps her recorder. “Then let’s begin. You’ve just completed a hostile takeover of your father’s aeronautics company. Most analysts expected triumph. Instead, you’ve been described as… detached.”
“That’s generous.” Artemis picks at invisible lint on his dress pants. Man, he’s so damn handsome it’s disarming. I don’t even blame Claudia for the love hearts dancing in her eyes.
A flicker of something—wry, almost amused—crosses my man’s face. “I spent my life thinking control of the company would feel like victory. Turns out, it just feels like responsibility.”He says it without bitterness, and that’s what guts me. Artemis has finally stopped fighting ghosts.
“Do you consider it worth it?”
He considers the question carefully. “It was necessary. That’s not the same thing. The company was going in the wrong direction. My father wouldn’t listen to reason, and I wasn’t going to stand idly by and watch him destroy our family’s legacy.”
She nods, scribbling notes. “But I understand that’s not entirely why you wanted to talk to me today.” She unfolds her legs under her notebook, then recrosses them.
Artemis swallows, then nods, then sucks in a deep breath that lifts his whole torso for a moment before he speaks. “The time has come for me to leave UCR.”
Claudia’s mouth falls open at the same time as my own. “Y-you’re… leaving? Like… now? So close to the end of term?”
He nods. “After careful consideration, I’ve decided it’s the right decision.”
“Are you announcing that you’re stepping back from pursuing professional hockey like Apollo? Permanently? Or are you transferring somewhere new? I…” She huffs out a half-laugh. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to… I didn’t expect this. I wasn’t prepared.”
“Yes, I’m stepping back. I’m leaving the university, my team—who I’ve already spoken to—and I’ll be moving out of state.”
An ember of hope flickers to life in the deepest part of my heart.Out of state.To where? His eyes are hot on my face as I watch the interview, but I can’t assume even if I want to, and I can’t stop watching to look at him to see what’s painted on his godlike features.
“I’m sure that surprised many people.”
“Only the ones who thought hockey was my entire identity. Just like my newly acquired aeronautics company, hockeywas a job. I am very good at it, but I’ve recently learned I don’t need to keep winning hollow contests to prove my worth.”
The words are precise and deliberate and land somewhere deep inside me.
Claudia looks up. “Including your college degree?”
The air shifts. This is the question his father wanted answered, the question Artemis has avoided answering for so long. He’s tied his success, at work, at school, at hockey to his father’s approval, to his own self-approval so this... I can’t even fathom how much of a huge move this is for my guy.
Artemis doesn’t flinch. “Yes.” His voice is even. “Including that.” He swallows, taking a moment, probably to gather his thoughts enough to keep going. “I’ve already proven I can succeed in systems that weren’t built for me. I don’t need a piece of paper to tell me who I am. And more importantly—I don’t want to bust my ass for another achievement that feels empty.”
My boyfriend isn’t rejecting academia—he’s rejecting the cage it represented. There’s still no bitterness in his words. Just clarity. Artemis has finally realized that with or without his college degree he can—and already has—succeeded. Pride blooms in my chest so big, so tight, it hurts to breathe around it.
Claudia hesitates, pointing a pen at him as though she’s connected dots somewhere along the line. “You’re relocating to Wisconsin I’m guessing?”
“I am.”
“Do you want to share why?”
This time, Artemis smiles. It’s knowing, real, and the one he gives to me late at night when we’re in bed together alone. “My partner is finishing out his degree there. That path matters to him. He’s working hard for it. He’s earned it. I’m not asking him to give that up for me. And I’m not prepared to do long distance for a moment longer than I have to. It’ssimply not working for me.” He swallows. “My brothers say I have zero chill.”
