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I grab Maddison’s phone from the nightstand. Her passcode is the easiest thing for me to remember, Olive’s birthday, so I quickly type it in and unlock the phone. Everything seems to be color-coded, so I quickly find the pink “emails” folder and open it.
Before I can even log out to input my information to log into my email account, what I see stops me in my tracks.
Stops my heart in my fucking chest.
Dozens… no, maybehundredsof emails addressed toThe Puck Bunny.
What thefuck?
Surely, I’m reading this wrong. There is no fucking way that Maddison is….The Puck Bunny.
My mind immediately flits to the last time I read something fromThe Puck Bunny, and I realize it’s been months. With Olive and everything going on with Maddison, I honestly hadn’t really thought about the fact that she’s gone silent. I assumed it was because I wasn’t giving her things to report about and because it was the off-season but...Is it because it’sMaddison?
The timing... No.
There’s no fucking way; Irefuseto believe that.
Now that I’ve seen this, though, my mind continues to race, playing all scenarios out in my head, connecting things that may not even be there.
Maddison is studying journalism. That’s what she wants to do as her career. Is it really that far fucking fetched to think that she couldn’t beThe Puck Bunny?
That would mean that she lied and that from the very first day that she met me, she knew who I was. She had written about me for… years.What. The. Fuck?
I open one of the emails with the subject line “TIP.” It’s an email from someone sending an anonymous tip about a center from the Bears.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I swallow, trying to process everything I’m reading, but with my heart pounding against my ribs, my pulse sounding in my ears, I can’t focus.
“Briggs?” Maddison’s voice startles me. She’s standing in front of me, her hair still dripping from the shower, wrapped in a white towel, looking at me with wide eyes.
“Tell me this is some sick fucking joke, Maddison.”
She rushes over, and I stand abruptly, putting my hand up, halting her.
I can’t.
Not after reading this. Not after what I think I just discovered.
“Tell me, Maddison. Fucking tell me right now that you aren’t…The Puck Bunny.Say it.”
I need to hear it from her mouth…that what I’m seeing is bullshit.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she wipes away a tear. “I can’t tell you that. I won’t tell you that because I won’t lie to you, Briggs.”
The floor seems to open up beneath me, preparing to swallow me whole. I thought I knew pain, I thought I knew what real, true heartbreak was. I thought I knew how deeply betrayal scarred your flesh. Until now.
Now I realize how utterly fucking wrong I was.
My fingers bite into the flesh of my palms as I fist them. I shake my head, trying to clear it, but fail, anger seeping its way into my flesh.
“That’s rich considering you’ve been lying to me the entire time I’ve known you. After everything…how? How could you do this, Maddison? Fuck, how could you lie next to me at night and keep this shit from me? Is this the real you? The girl who tries to fucking ruin everyone just for her benefit.” My heart feels split wide open in my chest. I scoff. “Was this even fucking real? Us? Or was I just a way to get information, the inside scoop on the NHL? Fuck, you almost broke up Liam and Juliet’s marriage. You made rock bottom even lower for me.”
My chest feels tight, my head swimming with emotions I never thought I’d endure again. Heartache. Betrayal.
Taking a step forward, she reaches for me, but I take a step back, maintaining the space between us.
That seems to trigger her realization, that I am fucking done. She covers her mouth as tears begin to stream down her face.
