48. Dalton
FORTY-EIGHT
DALTON
THIS IS WHY YOU CUT OUT TOXIC PEOPLE.
The world came into focus slowly, like the static clearing on a broken TV screen.
My head pounded, and the soft hum of machines mixed with the muffled sound of someone talking nearby. Blinking against the harsh fluorescent lights, I tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in my side forced me to stay down.
“Dalton,” came a familiar voice, smooth but cold. My father.
I turned my head, my eyes meeting his. He sat in a chair beside the hospital bed, his hands clasped in his lap, his suit impeccable, as always.
“You’re awake,” he said, offering a thin smile. “Good. The doctors have been monitoring you closely. They’re pleased with your progress.”
“What happened?” My voice was rough, barely above a whisper. I tried to piece together the fragments of memory. The game. The hit. The sharp pain in my chest. Surgery.
“You’re back in Dallas,” he said, as if that explained everything. “I had you flown here privately. I thought it best for you to recover somewhere familiar, where you’ll have the best care.”
Dallas. My mind raced. The last thing I remembered was being in San Jose. And Ari…
Ari.
“Where’s Ari?” I croaked, my throat dry. “She was there…”
My father sighed, leaning forward, his expression calculated, sympathetic. “Dalton, about Ariella. She’s not here. She left.”
His words felt like a punch to the gut.
Something wasn’t right.
“What do you mean she left? When will she be back?” How could she not be here when I woke up? I reached for my phone. There were a bunch of missed calls and texts from numbers I had saved, some texts from one I didn’t, but nothing from her.
“She had plans, Dalton,” my father said in a careful tone, as if he were breaking bad news to a child. “Plans to take a position with the San Jose Stars. She accepted the offer before you were even out of surgery. I suspect that was her plan all along.”
“No,” I said immediately, shaking my head. “She wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t just leave.”
“I know this is difficult to hear,” he continued. “But it’s for the best. You need to focus on your recovery, your career. You don’t need distractions.”
“She wouldn’t?—”
Doubt crept in despite my protest. Would she? The way she looked at me, the way she cared. It wasn’t fake. It couldn’t be.
But then why wasn’t she here?
“Son, I know you cared for her, but relationships like that are fleeting.” His words hit like a punch in the gut, they were not nearly as hard of a hit as when he handed over a white sheet of paper with Ari’s signature. “She’s ambitious, and I don’t blame her for that. But you can’t let someone else's priorities get in the way of your future.”
I turned my face away, staring at the sterile ceiling. My chest ached, but not from the injury. It was a deeper, raw pain. Ari wasn’t just anyone—she was everything.
“I thought she loved me,” I whispered, the admission slipping out before I could stop it.
“You have a bright future ahead of you. The doctors say you’ll be back on the ice in time for playoffs. Focus on that. On what’s important.”
My father spoke like my heart hadn’t been ripped out of my chest and stomped on. I glanced over at the door, ready for Ari to burst in and prove that everything he was saying was a lie, but nothing happened.
He caught my stare. “Son, she’s not coming. She’s not even in the state.”
His words dug into me, each one scraping against the hope I’d been clinging to. Maybe I hadn’t done enough. Maybe I hadn’t earned her love.
My dad stood, smoothing the front of his jacket. “This is for the best, Dalton. You’ll see that in time.” He placed a hand on my shoulder briefly before turning and leaving the room.
The door clicked shut behind him, and the silence in the room was deafening.
I stared at the ceiling, trying to piece everything together.
She left. She fucking left.
The words echoed in my mind, each repetition heavier than the last.
What had I expected? She’d told me she would from the beginning. She’d put up those barriers the night I met her, and I’d been fighting to get through them ever since. I let out a bitter laugh, angry tears spilling over, and I wiped them away with the back of my hand.
I was an idiot. So fucking in love with her that I was seeing shit that wasn’t really there. I’d thought she loved me too, that we meant something to each other—that I meant something to her.
The door opened again, pulling me from my thoughts. Monroe stepped inside, his expression a mix of concern and frustration.
“Hey,” he said, closing the door behind him. “How you holding up?”
I shrugged, the motion sending a twinge of pain through my ribs. “Been better.”
He pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “I ran into your dad on my way in. I take it he’s been filling your head with shit.”
My jaw tightened. “He said Ari took a job with San Jose. That she left me.”
Monroe snorted, his expression darkening. “You really believe that? ”
“Well, she’s not fucking here, Josh. I wake up days later from surgery, and she’s not even in the same damn state anymore.” Another bitter laugh fell out. “Only note she left was her signature on a contract. She didn’t even text or call.”
“Check your, phone you idiot.”
“You don’t think I did?” I yelled it so loud, I thought nurses would come running. His eyes softened and he nudged the device toward me.
“They wouldn’t be coming from her number, Dalton. She’s trying to make sure your asshole father thinks she’s playing by the rules. Check the unsaved one. Probably the one that’s been blowing up your phone.”
Unknown Number:
I know you probably won’t see this for a while. I hope you’re resting. You need it. Please don’t push yourself too hard.
Unknown Number:
Monroe’s going to explain everything. I know it’s a mess, but...you deserve to know the truth and I can’t explain it all through text. Please, just listen to him. Trust him. Trust me.
Unknown Number:
I’m sorry for not being there when you woke up. I wanted to be. More than anything. I don’t cry much, Thatcher, but I’m pretty sure I’ve used up all the tears in my body.
Unknown Number:
You’re going to get through this, Thatcher. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.
It’s okay if you don’t believe him. I promise. I just want to know you’re doing what makes you happy.
Unknown Number:
I miss you. I thought you might have seen these by now. But maybe not. Monroe said your dad’s not letting anyone but him see you. So, chances are you hate me.
Maybe you have seen these…
Unknown Number:
I’ll never stop cheering for you, even if I have to do it from afar.
Unknown Number:
Stupid prepaid phone is out of money or whatever after this. That’s probably my sign to let you go anyway.
I love you.
I sat there dumbfounded. Nowhere in any of the messages did she say it was her, but I knew it was. “Why…I don’t understand.”
“She’s not here, and she’s not texting you from her phone, because your dad cornered her in the hospital when you were in surgery. Traded her and told her to leave—no contact. She told him to shove it up his ass, so he threatened to trade me and Jimenez if she didn’t take the trade,” Monroe said, sounding more pissed off than I’d ever heard before.
My head snapped toward him, my pulse racing. “What?”
“Gracie told me.” Monroe shook his head. “Fucking flew back here just to get me the truth before your dad talked to me. She heard the whole thing, and that girl’s got a fucking impeccable talent for remembering every detail of a conversation.” He let out what was as close to a chuckle as he got. “According to her, your dad manipulated Ari. Same fucking way he’s done to you since he slithered into your life like the snake he is.” He turned away, shaking his head. “I warned her, too, warned her he’d punish her for turning him down back at your apartment. He used her love for you to back her into a corner.”
I stared at him, the weight of his words sinking in. “What the hell are you talking about? What happened outside my apartment?” My mind was running a million miles an hour, trying to piece together what he was saying.
He pulled out his phone, slapping it on the hospital tray and pressed play. My father’s voice sounded through the speaker.
“We don’t have to have the same arrangement as Emma and me. Though I’m not opposed. I know you’re ambitious, Ariella. I have connections my son doesn’t have. I can make all of your dreams come true. You don’t even have to work hard to reach those milestones. I can just place you there, so long as you help keep Dalton where I want.”
I was so in shock with what I was hearing, learning how he’d made arrangements with my ex and hearing him proposition Ari, that I almost missed when it changed to her voice.
“Dalton is a grown man, Mr. Langley. He doesn’t need anyone else’s approval to make his decisions. Not mine and definitely not yours. He deserves to have people around him who care about what he wants, who do things with his best interests in mind. Clearly, you’re not one of them, but I am.”
“She chose you. And not just the night of your accident, Dalton. She’s been choosing you from the start, giving you the same love and support that, according to her cousin, she never thought she could have. And she offered it to you because you gave it to her first,” Monroe said, his tone softening. “You’ve been so busy trying to keep a toxic man in your life, you can’t see the people who actually love you.”
I looked away, his words cutting deeper than I wanted to admit. “He’s done a lot for me. Brought you both on when I asked.”
Monroe shook his head, his voice steady. “You think giving me a job, or Jimenez a chance, makes him a good person? We could’ve done all of that without him. And so could you.”
Swallowing hard, the truth in his words settled like a stone in my chest, along with the rage at fully wrapping my head about what he’d done, and what he’d tried to do, to Ari. I looked up at Josh. “What do I do?”
“You fight for her,” he said simply. “You stop living for what your dad wants and start living for what you want.”
I closed my eyes, exhaling shakily. He was right. I’d spent the last few years trying to gain my father’s approval, but I was never enough. And I never would be, not for him.
I’d let my father manipulate me for too long, and I wasn’t going to let him take her away from me too. Ari was worth more than that .
She was worth everything.
“I’m done,” I said quietly, but with resolve. “I’m done with him.”
Josh clapped a hand on my shoulder, and I winced. “About damn time.”
My chest ached, but this time it wasn’t from the injury. It was from the hope surging through me. I wasn’t letting Ari go—not without a fight.