Chapter 3
My heart dropped like a lead weight. Julian had conned me once, now he was pulling this crap again–rubbing salt in the wound.
I was blind, for fuck’s sake, and he still wouldn’t let up.
Those homeless goons? He’d sent them, just to get Ophelia into our house.
I flashed back to college.
Julian was Mr. Popular–all smiles and varsity charm, the kind of guy who had every sorority girl doodling his name in their notebooks. But he had a first love: Ophelia, head cheerleader and prom queen.
She was the whole package–until graduation, when she ditched Julian for a Swiss dude. Went full Romeo and Juliet, moved to Switzerland, then her marriage tanked.
She came back single, kid in tow, no place to crash except… our city, New York. Julian, the sap, had been hiding her this whole time–probably would’ve kept it under wraps forever if I hadn’t caught him.
But hiding her wasn’t enough. He wanted her under our roof. When I nixed that, he cooked up this sick scheme–using our own daughter as bait.
I squeezed my eyes shut, tears trickling down. After Lily left the bathroom, I fished out my phone and dialed a number I knew by
heart.
“Hey–would you marry a blind girl?”
The line picked up quick. “Hell yeah. I’m a cripple, you’re blind–we’re a match made in dumpster fire heaven.”
“Good. Come get me.”
That was Brendan Walker, my college senior who’d hit on me a dozen times. Hockey captain, my bestie’s brother.
I’d shot him down back then; I was into soft boys like Julian, not tough guys. Then Brendan busted his leg in a game, ended up in a wheelchair. Now look at us–mismatched puzzle pieces, but maybe that’s exactly what I needed.
Next day, Julian, Lily, cops, and hospital suits swarmed my room about the attack. After the statement, Julian put on his Oscar face:
Detective, you gotta find who did this! A hospital should be safe–how’d they slip past security?”
The chief nodded like a bobblehead: “We’ll get to the bottom of this, sir.”
Even the hospital director showed up, apologizing like he’d dropped a tray of Jell–O: “This is a security breach. I’ll review the footage, discipline the guards–you’ll get compensation.”
Nurses muttered in the hall:
This is nuts. If creeps can break into rooms, we need better locks. The union’s gonna hear about this.”
Once the circus cleared, Julian and Lily sidled up.
“Chloe, baby, you okay? This is messed up.” Julian cooed.
Lily grabbed my hand, voice quivering: “Mom, it’s my fault. If you weren’t blind, you could’ve run. I wish it was me who was
04:05
Marrying Hockey God: Watching My Ex & Daughter Lose Their Minds
Chapter 3
blind–take my eyes, please!”
I turned toward her voice. “Really?”
“Sure, Mom. Just…”
“Then lean in and let me gouge ‘em out.”
01.05
