Chapter 87 - 1 New Voicemail

KNOX’S POV

The rain pounded non-stop against the metal roof of my truck like thousands of tiny drumsticks. I sat behind the steering wheel in the empty gravel lot behind Briar Ice Arena, my engine idling with a low, rumbling vibration.

I gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. My jaw was locked so tight that my teeth throbbed.

I looked into the rearview mirror; my eyes were dark, bloodshot, and hollow.

Brushing past Nora in that freezing hallway was supposed to make me feel untouchable. It was supposed to put up the shield, protect my pride, and prove to the world that Knox Sheridan couldn’t be broken by anyone.

Instead, it felt like I had taken a blade to my own chest.

Every time I blinked, I saw her face standing in that narrow tunnel... her chestnut curls dripping with rainwater, her pale skin trembling from the cold, and her hazel eyes filled with hurt.

She had been carrying her duffel bag, meaning she hadn’t even gone to her dorm to drop off her clothes.

"Yo, Knox," Bear’s deep voice broke the suffocating silence from the passenger seat.

I didn’t turn my head. "What?"

"Nora looked like she ran twenty miles through a freezing downpour just to catch you before we left," his tone was unusually quiet and cautious. "I don’t know what happened between you two in Oakhaven, but that girl wasn’t faking that look on her face."

"Drop it, Bear," I rasped.

"I’m just saying, Cap..."

"I said drop it!" I snapped, slamming my fist slamming down against the center console.

Bear and Jake exchanged uncomfortable glances in the backseat, but neither of them said another word. I shifted into drive, pulled out of the arena lot, and drove through the wet streets of Briar toward the SinBin.

I parked the truck in the gravel driveway behind the large off-campus hockey house, killed the engine, and grabbed my duffel. Bear and Jake followed me through the mud onto the back porch.

While the guys headed into the kitchen, I ignored them completely, taking the wooden stairs two at a time straight up to my room on the 2nd floor.

I pushed into my room and kicked the door shut with a loud thud, turning the deadbolt.

My room was pitch-black and freezing cold.

I tossed my keys onto the desk, threw my sports duffel into the corner, and kicked off my sneakers.

The silence inside the room was suffocating.

I paced across the hardwood floor like a caged animal, running both hands through my damp curls.

I tried to turn on my laptop to watch game film of Boston’s power play, but the glowing screen was pure, meaningless noise. The white ice, the moving jerseys, the tactical setups... none of it registered in my brain.

All I could see was the wooden dock in Oakhaven.

Drew Miller’s hands on her shoulders.

Drew leaning down.

Nora closing her eyes.

A wave of bitter nausea rose in my throat, burning like battery acid.

’No one stays unless there’s a price tag attached, Knox,’ my father’s sneering voice echoed in the back of my mind. ’The second they get what they want from a Sheridan, they walk away.’

"Shut up," I growled into the empty room, slamming my palm flat against the desk.

My phone vibrated on the wooden surface. I looked down.

On the lock screen sat three unread text messages from Nora Bennett:

Nora: Knox, please just answer the phone.

Nora: I’m not with Drew. I told him it was completely over.

Nora: Please let me explain.

And right below them was the notification from six-thirty this morning:

1 New Voicemail — Nora Bennett (0:18)

My chest tightened until I couldn’t breathe.

I stared at the glowing glass screen for nearly two minutes, my heart slamming against my ribs.

’Don’t listen to it,’ the voice warned. ’It’s just more excuses.’

My trembling thumb tapped the screen anyway.

I held the phone to my ear.

The automated carrier tone beeped. Then, her voice filled the silence of my dark room.

"Knox, please call me back," Nora’s voice shook. "Mom just told me you were in Oakhaven yesterday. I don’t know what you see or heard, but it wasn’t what it looked like on the dock, Knox! I pushed him away! Please don’t shut me out. I’m getting on the next bus back to Briar right now. Please call me."

Click.

The recording ended.

The room fell into dead silence.

I stood frozen in the dark, the phone still pressed against my ear as my lungs seized.

I pushed him away!

Her voice didn’t sound defensive or rehearsed. It just sounded terrified, broken, and desperate.

I hit Replay.

"I pushed him away! Please don’t shut me out. I’m getting on the next bus back to Briar right now..."

I listened to it a third time. Then a fourth.

The fog that had blinded my mind for the last twenty-four hours slowly began to fracture, peeling away like brittle ice under a hot torch.

The timeline started crashing together in my head with clarity.

Nora had called me at six-thirty in the morning.

The first regional bus from Oakhaven to Briar left at eight o’clock.

She had packed her bags in fifteen minutes, abandoned her four-day holiday with her mother, and boarded an eighty-mile bus in the middle of a storm.

She had arrived at the Briar transit plaza at ten-fifteen, hauled a thirty-pound bag through a freezing downpour across campus, and sprinted straight to the arena just to stand in front of me in a narrow hallway.

If she wanted Drew Miller... why the fuck wasn’t she in Oakhaven with him right now?

Why did she look at me like her entire world was collapsing when I mentioned the contract?

A horrifying realization punched through my gut, knocking the wind straight out of my chest.

She hadn’t stayed on that dock with Drew.

She had pushed him away.

And instead of confronting her yesterday... instead of walking down that dock like a man and asking her what the hell was going on... I had turned around and fled into the trees like a wounded, terrified coward.

I had let the poison of my father’s voice convince me that I was unlovable, that anyone who got close to me would inevitably betray me.

And in return, I had looked into the eyes of the only girl who had ever truly seen me, and I had handed her a blade to gut her.

"Fuck," I choked out.

I dropped the phone on the desk, grabbed my leather jacket from the back of the chair, and shoved my truck keys into my pocket.

I didn’t bother grabbing an umbrella.

I threw open my bedroom door, sprinted down the SinBin stairs past Bear in the kitchen, and burst out into the pouring rain.

I jumped into my truck, turned the key, and slammed the accelerator to the floor.

Ten minutes later, I slammed the truck into park outside North Residence Hall. The rain was coming down in thick, freezing sheets, washing over the windshield.

I shut the engine off, kicked open the door, and ran through the downpour toward the brick entryway of the dormitory.

I pushed through the heavy glass double doors, shaking the rain from my hair as water dripped from the shoulders of my leather jacket.

The freshman working the front security desk looked up, her eyes going wide as saucers as she recognized my six-foot-three frame and dark, dripping jacket.

"Knox Sheridan?" she stammered. "You... you can’t go up without..."

I didn’t stop.

"I’m visiting Room 304," I said as I took the stairs three at a time.

I reached the third floor, my boots thudding against the carpeted hallway. The corridor smelled of laundry detergent and old floor polish.

I walked straight to the end of the hall, stopping directly in front of the door with the brass numbers: 304.

My heart was slamming against my ribs like a sledgehammer, my hands trembling slightly in the cool hallway air.

I raised my right hand.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

The sound echoed through the quiet hall.

Ten agonizing seconds passed.

From inside the room, I heard the soft shuffle of footsteps across the floor, followed by the metallic click of the deadbolt sliding back.

The wooden door slowly swung open.

Nora stood in the doorway.

She was wearing an oversized charcoal knit sweater with the sleeves pulled over her small hands, dark leggings, and woolen socks. Her chestnut curls were still slightly damp from the morning rain, falling loosely around her shoulders.

Her hazel eyes were red-rimmed, swollen with fresh tears, and her face was completely drained of color.

The moment her gaze locked onto mine, her breath hitched in her throat.

Her lips parted in stunned disbelief.

"Knox...?" she whispered, her voice trembling so hard it barely carried across the threshold.

I looked down at her, the last shred of my pride burning to ash in my chest.

My voice was low and ragged as I spoke: "Tell me the truth, Bennett. Look me in the eye... and tell me what happened on that dock."