By admin Fake Dating My Ex’s Favourite Hockey Player Novel CH 103
EMILIA
It.
O
That alone is enough to knock the air out of my lungs from pure shock. “Excuse me?”
She gives me a tight, diplomatic smile. “You’re excused. Quickly, please. I need to speak to my son.”
Wow.
Meeting your boyfriend’s mother half–naked isn’t exactly the dream scenario, but the look in her eyes tells me this isn’t about my towel.
Her gaze drags over me like a lint roller: wet hair, flushed face, damp towel clutched like armour, and clenched in my fist.
–
cherry on top
–
the key still
And then it lands. That look. I know it. The one that calculates the precise number of rosaries it’ll take to spiritually fumigate this room.
She tilts her head, slow and deliberate – the kind of tilt only all satin and side–eye when she turns to Liam. “Darling,” she
–
women with Pilates abs and generational wealth can pull off. Her voice is S What, exactly, is that?”
Not who.
What.
Like I’m an infestation.
And just like that, I want to laugh. Not because it’s funny, but because it’s so absurdly on–brand for the universe. Of course the moment Liam asks me to be his girlfriend, his mother shows up to audition for Worst Pos
Possible Timing: A Tragedy in Three Acts.
My grip tightens on the key. My towel slips a little.
Liam steps forward, jaw tight. “That,” he says, voice clipped, “is Emilia.”
There’s a beat of silence.
I lift my chin. “Hi.”
Tuli blinks at me like I just barked. Then smiles. “Charming.” Then, to Liam, with a voice dipped in honey and arsenic, “I just didn’t realise your tastes had changed so drastically.”
The air stills.
Liam blinks once. Then twice. Like he’s making sure he heard her right. Like he’s giving her a second to walk it back.
She doesn’t.
Liam steps fully in front of me and exhales sharply. “Emilia,” he says, voice low and sharp, “go get dressed.”
I pause. I don’t want to leave him alone with her. But I also don’t want to stand here wrapped in a towel while this woman picks me apart.
“Okay.” I mutter, still gripping the key. I turn and walk into the bathroom. The door shuts behind me, but it doesn’t matter, it might as well be paper for how thin the walls are in this place.
“Mother,” Liam says, carefully. “What are you doing here?“.
“I came to drop off the cologne I got for you in Berlin. The one you always pretend to hate, and then take from your father anyway.” Liam doesn’t respond.
“Is she the reason you’re skipping Veronica’s recital?” Tuli asks.
“Don’t,” Liam says. Flat.
“She wasn’t even wearing clothes, Liam.”
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Chapter 103
“I was in my room. With my girlfriend. You walked in.”
“This is our house.”
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“And I don’t care. When Emilia comes out of that bathroom, you’re going to apologise to her. For every word that just came out of your mouth.”
There’s a pause. The kind that feels cold, not quiet,
“How absurd,” she says.
“Then don’t wait around for the goodbye,” Liam says. “We’re leaving in twenty minutes. I’ve had enough of watching my girlfriend be disrespected in this house. You can go back to pretending I don’t exist.”
“You will not-
“Watch me.”
I hear her heels move across the room. I press my ear against the door.
“All this over that girl?” she spits. “You refuse to come home for years, and now you’re throwing away the chance to see your family? Or Rowland? He’s been asking for you. But I guess you don’t care about that either.”
My eyebrows lift. Rowland?
“Don’t,” Liam says again, colder now.
“She’s tearing you apart from your family. Seth told me what happened. It’s obvious what she’s trying to do.”
to
“Did he tell you why it happened? Or are you just clinging the version that makes him the victim again?”
Tuli doesn’t answer.
I start pulling on clothes. Jeans. Shirt. My hands are shaking.
did it for you.”
Then her voice comes back, low and hateful. “She’s lucky tò even be here. It doesn’t matter what Seth did. Hea
Liam’s voice cuts in immediately. Hard. “Do you hear yourself? What gives you the right to speak about her
like that?”
“I’ve said nothing untrue. I’ve done nothing wrong. And I have nothing to apologise for. I want her out of my house. You didn’t want to marry Jessica? Fine. You refused responsibility for Rowland? Wonderful. But this? Letting some girl tear our family apart? That’s where I draw the line.”
Liam laughs sharp, bitter. I flinch.
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“And you still ask why I don’t come home. Have you already forgotten why Seth hates me? You were the one who kept pushing me to marry the girl he was in love with.”
“He would’ve gotten over it.”
“Oh, sure. Just look at how well that turned out.”
“If that boy wasn’t in the picture-”
“Don’t bring Rowland into this,” Liam snaps, louder now. “Say one more word about him and I swear-”
He doesn’t finish the sentence. Doesn’t need to.
The silence that follows says enough.
I can’t take it anymore. I push open the bathroom door, just as Tuli says, “Well, it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, it’s your name on his birth certificate. He’s your child. Regardless of what you might think, your father and I did our best to raise you all and we never raised a deadbeat.”
There’s so much wrong with that sentence, I don’t know where to start. The sheer nerve of pretending they ever tried. But one thing finally clicks into place and it makes my stomach drop.
—
Rowland
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Chapter 103
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It’s never good to jump into conclusions or make assumptions, but it’s hard not to when the truth is laid down in front of you.
I step out of the bathroom before I can stop myself. Liam doesn’t notice until I speak.
“Did you and Jessica have a child?”
He turns fast, a grimace crosses his face.
Tuli’s expression flickers. Something triumphant crawls across her face when she sees mine.
She’s no doubt about to say something scathing, but a knock interrupts her. The door creaks open.
Eliza peeks in, paint streaked across her cheek, her expression uneasy. “Sorry to interrupt,” she says carefully. “Li? Someone’s downstairs. She’s looking for you.”
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