Cole’s POV

“Jesus Christ, Cole. First night in town and you are already making headlines. Do you still care about your career at all?”

Ethan’s words hit me like a puck to the ribs as he stood in the middle of my large living room, arms crossed, jaw tight with disappointment.

I leaned back flat into the leather couch with a glass of whiskey in hand. Ethan, my manager and best friend who was six years older, never minced words, but tonight was different.

“Things are bad,” he went on pacing the length of the room. “Don’t you dare give me that calm act. This isn’t just on gossip blogs, it is everywhere. Headlines. Talk shows.”

“Of course it would be everywhere. We are talking about Cole fucking Mathew,” I said quietly with a weak smile bending my lips.

“The people are beginning to ask if you’re a sexual predator, Cole. A. Goddamn. Predator. They’re dragging the old scandal with your teammate’s fiancée back into the spotlight and tying it to this. And now,” he let out a deep breath, “they’re questioning if you are even fit to be a professor here. Do you know how damaging that is?”

I let his words hang in the air for a few minutes before going on to say, “The thing with my teammate fiancée was a set up, you know. I didn’t do what they’re accusing me of. You know I’m not a predator.”

“Of course I know,” Ethan snapped, stopping to glare at me. “But the public doesn’t know. And you had one job, just one job to prove to them wrong but what did you do with the clean slate you were given? Humiliate some girl in front of the entire academy.”

“It was a mistake. I wasn’t thinking straight,” I said, rubbing my temple in a frustrated manner.

“A mistake?” Ethan barked, “Did you just say a mistake?”

I leaned forward, setting my glass down on the coffee stool by my side roughly. “Tell me, what would you do if you wake up to a stranger in your bed after what happened last year? Tell me you wouldn’t have thought it was another setup?”

“I would have thought with my brain, Cole. Unlike you, I wouldn’t have been dumb to hand the press more ammunition. Especially not when I’d just crawled out of one sexual scandal less than a year ago.”

“Easier said than done,” I scoffed, shaking my head.

Dragging a hand down his face, “God, you don’t get it, Do you? You don’t have the luxury of making mistakes, not with who you are. People are watching, Cole, wanting for the slightest slip to use in cracking you open,” he continued.

I sucked my teeth, my eyes falling to the floor. “You think I don’t know that?”

Ethan’s voice dropped lower, in an almost pleading manner. “I know you’ve been through hell this past year. I know her death…”

“Don’t,” I cut in, much more sharper than was intended. “You don’t have to bring that up now.”

He sighed. “You’re spiraling, Cole. You keep shoving it down, wanting to pretend none of it ever happened. But until you face it, you’re just going to keep crashing into walls like this.”

Shooting him a glare, “I screwed up, fine. I let my emotions get the better of me. But you can’t blame me for panicking. I woke up to a stranger in my bed. After last time, what was I supposed to think? A Coincidence?”

“So when you finally ran into her again, why didn’t you demand the explanation you seek? Why pull her hair and assault her in front of half the academy? A place where you are supposed to be focused on making a good impression?”

His words cut deeper than I wanted to admit, leaving me speechless.

“You can’t keep making emotional decisions,” he said after a pause. “Not when you are…” his voice trailed off as though the words had become too heavy for him to let out.

“You’ve got to fix this. The team will not continue letting you bring reckless without a strike this time,” Ethan said quietly.

Before I could respond, the front door burst open with a force that made the glass walls rattle. The heavy sound of footsteps kissing the marble floor filling the room instantly.

“Mr. Richard,” Ethan called, halting on his track,

“Dad?” my voice cracked in disbelief as he marched further into the living room towards me. “I didn’t know you were in town. When did you…”

My voice trailed off as Richard struck a slap across my face, the slap reverberating around the room without saying a word to any of us.

I staggered back, shocked by the force of his hardened, rough palm hitting my face like a freight train.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” His voice thundered, every syllable of it dripping with rage. “How could you let something this careless, this thoughtless, happen again?”

I straightened slowly, rubbing my cheek that had probably reddened by now. My father was never the one to hold back, not even at the smallest mishaps. But to travel all the way from New York to Northbrook just to hit and yell at me? That was a new low.

“You think I gave you everything for this?” He lashed on. “I gave you every opportunity—coaches, facilities, everything a child could dream of. And you repay me with scandal after scandal, dragging our name through the dirt? Huh?”

“I didn’t…”

“Shut up!” He roared. “There is always an excuse, always weaknesses, never owning up. Do you think the world cares about your explanations? No. They see the filth just as it is and they see how much of a fool you have made yourself.”

My stomach dropped at how much I had let not just myself, but the people around me down and my eyes darted to Ethan, who stood mute behind, wisely staying out of it.

Taking a step forward with his eyes roaming me, “Do you even realize why you are standing here as a professor at Northbrook instead of sticking to the sidelines like you team wanted till the scandal wears off completely? It’s because of me,” he stated.

Here we go again, always talking about his connections like I make no effort.

“Because of me, your team didn’t caught you loose line a mangy dog,” he continued, poking his index finger into my chest. “Because of me, they agreed to give you a second chance, to stage this ridiculous redemption act. Sending you down here wasn’t some honor, Cole, it was the only way to breath life into a career that was already dangling over the bridge.”

His finger jabbed hard into my chest once more, “This was supposed to be your lifeline,” he said quietly, “A carefully crafted narrative to make the public forget you ever tried laying a finger on your teammate’s fiancée but you chose to ruin it in less than forty eight hours of your arrival here.”

“I never tried laying a hand on her, she came at me herself, for goodness sake!” I exclaimed, pushing my hair back.

Ignoring me, “You have twenty-four hours,” my father spat, his glare pinning me in place. “Twenty-four hours to fix this mess. If you don’t, I’ll pull every plug keeping you afloat-the sponsorships, the contracts, even your place at Northbrook. And trust me, Cole, when I say I can have you blacklisted from the league for life without lifting a finger.”

With this final threat of his hanging in the air, Richard turned on his heels and stormed out of the office, leaving a tense silence behind.

Ethan looked up at me, a concerned looked etched across his face. “How are you going to fix this, Cole? You’ve got twenty four hours.”

Still reeling from his words, I sluggishly straightened up myself. “You will see for yourself.”