Chapter 11: "Ten Thousand a Kneel"

Aurora's POV

The moment the words were out, the other players scattered — someone blew a whistle — and then they came at me like animals.

Steel blades shrieked across the ice. The big one swung her stick and brought it down hard on the padding over my left leg, and pain burst out of a knee that still hadn't healed. I staggered back two steps, and another stick slammed straight into the back of my knee.

The pain went through me like a spike. I lost my balance and went down on the ice.

I tipped my head back and stared up at the big one, smug in every line of her face. "That's a foul!"

She raised an eyebrow and smacked her stick against the ice twice. "Everyone new at BRC learns the rules."

"The first lesson you ought to be learning is respect for Vivienne, not showing off your strength. And—" She bent down over me. "A sparring partner is someone who takes the hits."

I braced one hand on the ice to push myself up, and a skate came down hard on my ankle. The pain tore through my whole body.

"I wasn't finished talking. What do you think you're doing?"

I clenched my teeth, looked at Salary, and laughed out loud. "So you're standing up for Vivienne?"

"She said she wanted to test me. She said if I failed the test I couldn't stay. All I wanted was to stay. What did I do wrong?"

"So I let you stay," Vivienne said from somewhere off to the side. "But the first lesson you need to learn here really is about the rules."

Vivienne skated over, and the others stepped aside to clear a path for her. She looked down at me from above, that perfectly calibrated smile still in place.

"You do have real skill. But hockey is a team sport, and playing for yourself is the one thing we don't forgive. You just went out there and put on a solo show, and you put on a good one."

"If you want to be my sparring partner, you have to fit into this team. You have to learn to back down and learn to take a beating. That is what a good sparring partner does."

She was doing this on purpose. From the very beginning she had known I was Liam's wife. And she hadn't softened by a hair — she had deliberately picked a fight with me so the whole team would turn against me. She was the other woman who wrecked my marriage, and she could still bully me as if she had right on her side.

I gritted my teeth, shoved the skate off my ankle, pushed myself up on my stick, and met her eyes. "And what if I won't back down? What if I don't learn to take a beating?"

Something cold and vicious flickered across Vivienne's pretty face. "Then your mother won't be able to keep getting treated at that hospital."

"A bill that size — someone as inflexible as you will never earn it."

She even knew that I was here as a sparring partner to pay for my mother's medical bills. Liam really had kept nothing from her.

I squeezed my stick until my hand hurt. "What's between me and Liam is our business. I came here as a professional sparring partner, not as a fool for you to trample on whenever you like."

Vivienne laughed, the sound full of contempt, and stepped closer. "But what if I want you to be a fool? Are you going to refuse me?"

"I—"

I had barely opened my mouth before she cut me off. "Think carefully. Say something I don't like and your mother's medical bills disappear. Didn't Liam tell you? He can give, and he can take it back."

I gave a cold laugh. "Vivienne, who do you think you are? You're just a—"

The word "mistress" died in my throat. This was not the moment to tear everything wide open. If I really set Liam off, I would never get custody of Ethan.

"Liam is a fair enough man. If he knew how you were bullying me, then even if you're BRC's starting center, he would never take your side."

"Would he?" Vivienne's lips curved, but there wasn't half a smile in it. "Shall we test that?"

A moment later the rink doors were shoved open from outside and Liam came striding in, in a tailored suit, his steps hurried. He had barely stopped before Vivienne was at his side. "Liam, that sparring partner you hired thinks far too much of herself. She has no respect for me at all, and she beat me in front of everyone and made me lose face. I only wanted to give her a taste of BRC's rules, and she started shouting that you should come and judge between us. Liam, tell me — which of us was wrong?"

I looked up at Liam, opened my mouth to explain, and in the end said not a single word. We had been married ten years. He knew what kind of person I was. Even if Vivienne was their club's mainstay, he could not openly take her side.

And then he spoke, and I froze where I stood.

He said, "Aurora, apologize to Vivienne."

I felt my mouth pull into a hopeless line. My voice came out quiet. "I did nothing wrong. Why should I apologize?"

Liam's face darkened. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number, and the next second mine rang. It was the hospital.

I looked at him in disbelief and answered the call.

"Ms. Aurora, your mother's medical account now stands at zero. If you do not top it up in time, the hospital will stop all treatment and discharge her."

My body carried me back a few steps without my permission. The phone shook in my hand.

I raised my eyes to Liam, my voice thick with tears. "Liam, why are you doing this to me?"

His stare was all warning. "I told you to know your place and stop causing trouble."

"But—"

He didn't believe me. What was the point of explaining?

I turned to Vivienne. "If I apologize to her, will you send the money back?"

Liam was about to nod when Vivienne stepped forward and laughed in my face. "Now it might take an apology on your knees before I forgive you."

I glared at her in fury. "You—"

Vivienne turned to Liam, coaxing. "I want her on her knees apologizing to me, or I won't be able to swallow this. I've been the best at everything since I was a child — so why should I be outdone by her? And you know I don't need a sparring partner at all. If she'll kneel, I'll pay her mother's medical bills myself. Ten thousand a kneel..." She looked back at me. "A good deal, isn't it?"

Slander me first, and then demand I kneel? Not in her wildest dreams.

I turned to Liam. "Apologizing is my bottom line. I will not kneel."

Liam put his hand on Vivienne's shoulder. "Do as Vivienne says, or you can start waiting to collect your mother's body."

I laughed, softly. It felt as though a hand had closed around my heart and stopped my breathing. He was actually making me kneel for Vivienne. Ten years of marriage, and in his eyes it counted for nothing.

I fought to steady my breathing, forced the ache back down my throat. I pushed back two steps on my skates, bent my knees, and knelt in front of Vivienne with everyone watching. Tears fell onto the ice, traitor that they were. "Is this enough?"