Chapter 5 I found her

JACE

When my private investigator, Christian, told me he had finally found the woman I've been searching for for more than five years, I didn't believe him.

I couldn't.

The woman who took my heart with her on the night she ended our relationship for no reason.

One thousand, eight hundred and twenty-nine days... that's how long I searched for her, wanting to make things right between us. Wanting to beg her to stay.

I searched all over the city after she vanished without a trace.

I looked for her like I was searching for redemption from my ruined life.

I hired renowned private detectives from all over the country just to find her. Four and a half years passed, and nothing.

None of them could find her.

I had almost given up in the fifth year of the futile search when Christian told me he had finally found her.

"She's the physical therapist of the L.C. Blizzards, boss," he said.

So she was alive.

I didn't know what to make of that information.

Actually, I was skeptical.

I thought Christian was mistaken.

Maybe it wasn't her he found. Maybe it was someone else who resembled her. Her doppelganger, perhaps.

But he countered my doubts when he told me it was Bailey Carter—MY Bailey—that he found at the Los Casa Arena during a home game of the Blizzards.

She was tending to one of the players' injuries.

Christian had sent proof, but I still didn't believe it even after I saw the image of her.

I couldn't believe it because I couldn't understand.

Despite all these years that have passed, I was still trying to process why Bailey did what she did.

I mean, we were perfect. She was my first real girlfriend, the only one I ever committed to. Hell, I changed my old ways for her.

We were happy together until she abruptly turned against me without any warning.

I didn't see that coming. There were no signs at all. That's the reason I can't understand any of it.

I mean, how do you tell a person you love them the night before, only to cruelly destroy their heart the next day?

Bailey Carter left a hole in my heart after she vanished from my town a week after she suddenly broke up with me. She left me with no option but to accept her decision.

It was unfair, but I traveled across states for months, hoping I'd accidentally run into her and beg her to come back to me.

I didn't think I begged her enough that rainy night. The night she chose Lucas Morvain over me.

'You're nothing to me, Jace.'

Her words still haunt me to this day.

Safe to say, she destroyed me in ways I didn't think were possible.

She had literally clawed her fingers into my ribcage and ripped my heart out.

What was I thinking?

How did I possibly think I could get a happy ending with the girl I once bullied?

Maybe that's the reason she was with me all those times—pretending to love me. Maybe her ulterior motive was to get revenge—make me fall in love with her, then break my heart into irreparable pieces and disappear from my life like what we had never existed.

I tried settling for this conclusion initially, but it just didn't sit right with me.

The Bailey I know—the woman who was kind and loving towards me despite my shortcomings—she never would have done this. I mean, pretend to love me.

That's the reason this is all so confusing.

If that wasn't her motive, then what made her leave me?

When I couldn't figure it out, I just assumed she cheated on me with Lucas.

That could only explain why she went home with him that night. And to compound my miserable conclusion, shortly after Bailey disappeared, Lucas also moved out of that town.

No one heard from them since then.

I assumed the worst-case scenario—thinking something had happened to my Bailey. But up until recently, I just realized I was fooling myself.

All this time, I was so worried, concerned, devastated about her sudden disappearance, and she was out here living her best life.

My heart bled for years, and she's just moved on like I never meant shit to her. Like she never valued what we had at all.

The lingering feelings I still harbored for her turned into hatred the second I inhaled her scent when she entered the arena.

I was speaking with Coach Gavin before she interrupted us, but I sensed her presence even before I turned back to face her.

My nerves rattled when her jasmine and lavender scent diffused into my lungs, triggering my entire nervous system. It stirred old memories I wanted to keep buried.

It's crazy how her fragrance still hasn't changed even after all these years.

My jaw clenched hard when my eyes locked with her ocean-blue orbs. I noticed the shudder that ran through her, her lips parting. Those lips—

Focus, Jace.

Her face has gone white as she staggers back in horror, like she's just seen a ghost.

She obviously can't believe her eyes.

She definitely wasn't expecting me to be the new recruit because I made sure the HR manager kept that anonymous from Bailey.

Sasha was confused about my request, but she had done it anyway. That's what desperation and having no choice does to people.

The Los Casa Blizzards, among other hockey teams, have been trying to poach me for years now, ever since I became the best center in the country. I hadn't even graced their invitation for a tour before now. Not until I learned Bailey was their physical therapist.

That's the reason I'm here.

To see for myself. To see my ex-girlfriend and ask the question that has been on my mind for the last five years.

"Why did you leave me, Bailey?"

Yet, seeing her now, I'm not sure I'm ready to talk to her. Or even see her. Or be anywhere around her.

She's clearly doing just fine without me. There's no point revisiting the past.

"So, are you two going to shake hands or what?" Coach Gavin's voice breaks me from my trance.

I didn't even realize I was caught in eye contact with this witch.

I avert my gaze back to Coach Gavin, but I don't say anything. The scowl on my face delivers a message.

Coach Gavin turns to my evil ex, apologizing on my behalf like I asked him to do that.

"Bailey, sorry about that. Mr. Hartley here isn't really big on socializing. So if you could just show him around instead, assess and evaluate him after... That would be great."

"Coach, I—uhm, I..." Bailey is stuttering?

She's fucking stuttering.

That's strange, 'cause I never took her as someone who stutters while speaking.

She definitely hadn't stuttered the night she screwed me over.

Annoyance spirals through me.

How dare she?

Acting like she suddenly lost her sense of speech after seeing me.

Why?

To fool me again?

Fuck this... I'm out of here.

"There would be no need for that, Coach," I break the awkward silence hanging in the air, my voice icy as the rink surface.

Coach Gavin turns to me, looking confused.

But then I tell him,

"I'm leaving."