<b>Book </b><b>3 </b><b>Injury </b>Timeout
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Emma woke to the sound of hushed voices in Jack’s kitchen. For a moment, she forgot where she was and why everything hurt. Then reality crashed back – the miscarriage, the hospital, the terrible fight with Alek.
“She’s been sleeping for about two hours,” Jack was saying quietly.
“Thank you for taking care of her.” Alek’s voice was rough with exhaustion and emotion.
Emma sat up slowly, her body aching in ways that had nothing to do with flying. Through the doorway, she could see Alek and Jack standing awkwardly in the kitchen, two men who shared aplicated history with the same woman.
“Emma?” Alek noticed her movement immediately. “I’m here.”
He crossed the room in three quick steps, dropping to his knees beside the couch. His hair was messy, his clothes wrinkled from the flight, and his eyes were red–rimmed with worry.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, pulling her into his arms. “About the baby, about our fight, about everything.”
Emma melted into his embrace, feeling safe for the first time in hours. “You came.”
“Of course I came. I should have been here from the beginning.”
“You couldn’t have known-”
“I should have been on that ne with you.” Alek’s voice cracked. “You shouldn’t have gone through this alone.”
Emma pulled back to look at his face. “I wasn’tpletely alone. Jack was with me at the hospital.”
Alek nced toward the kitchen, where Jack was busying himself with coffee. “I owe him a debt I can never repay.”
“He understands what it’s like to lose things,” Emma said softly.
They sat in silence for a moment, Alek’s arms around her, both processing the magnitude of their loss.
“How are you feeling?” Alek asked finally. “Physically, I mean.”
“Tired. Sore. Empty.” Emma touched her stomach, still not quite believing the baby was gone. “The doctor said it’s normal. My body <i>needs </i>time to heal.”
< Book 3 Injury Timeout
“And emotionally?”
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Emma considered the question. “I didn’t know I wanted the baby until I lost it. Does that
make sense?”
“Perfect sense.” Alek’s hand covered hers on her stomach. “I felt the same way.”
“You did?”
“The moment Jack told me what happened, I realized how excited I’d been getting about another child. I just hadn’t let myself acknowledge it because of all the stress.”
Emma felt tears starting again. “I keep thinking about Charlotte and Frankie, how they’ll never meet this sibling.”
“They’ll have other siblings,” Alek said firmly. “When we’re ready. When the timing is better.”
“What if this happens again?”
“Then we’ll handle it together. Like we should have handled this together.”
Jack appeared with three cups of coffee, setting them on the table with careful neutrality.
“I should go check on my son,” he said. “Give you two some privacy.”
“Jack.” Emma reached for his hand. “Thank you. For everything.”
“Thank you
foring when I needed you.” Jack squeezed her hand gently. “Even though you were dealing with your own crisis.” <fncd87> This update is avable on find?novel</fncd87>
After Jack left, Emma and Alek sat curled together on the couch, drinking coffee and processing thest twenty–four hours.
“We need to talk about our fight,” Emma said finally.
Alek tensed slightly. “Do we have to do this now? You just-”
“Yes, we do. Because losing the baby doesn’t fix what’s wrong between us.”
Alek was quiet for a long moment. “You’re right. What I said about you destroying my dreams… that was cruel and unfair.”
“But you meant it in that moment.”
“I meant that I was scared and looking for someone to me.” Alek set down his coffee cup. “Emma, that board has been looking for reasons to push me out since day one. Your call didn’t create that problem – it just forced it into the open.”
< Book 3 Injury Timeout
“But I made it worse-”
“Maybe. Or maybe you gave me the excuse I needed to stand up to them properly.”
Emma looked at him skeptically. “What do you mean?”
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“I called them back after you left. Told them that if they couldn’t work with someone who has a family, they needed a different Commissioner.”
“Alek, no. Your career-”
“Will survive. But my marriage won’t if I keep letting fear drive my decisions.”
Emma felt a flicker of hope. “What did they say?”
“That they’d consider a modified relocation timeline. Six months instead of two weeks.”
“That’s… actually reasonable.”
“It’s what you asked for in the first ce.” Alek’s smile was rueful. “Turns out you were right, and I was too scared to see it.”
Emma leaned against his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have spoken without discussing it with you
first.”
“And I shouldn’t have med you for trying to protect our family.”
They sat quietly, both thinking about theplexities of partnership and support.
“What about Netflix?” Alek asked.
“I missed the deadline while I was in the hospital. They probably moved on.”
“Maybe that’s for the best. Thest thing we need is cameras documenting our marriage problems.”
Emmaughed weakly. “Though they might have gotten somepelling drama.”
“Toopelling.” Alek pulled her closer. “Emma, I want to ask you something, and I need you to be honest.”
“Okay.”
“Do you resent me for the Toronto requirement? For asking you to give up what you’ve built in New York?”
Emma considered the question carefully. “Not resent, exactly. But it scares me.”
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“Why?”
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“Because I’ve spent my whole life building my own identity, separate from being someone’s wife or granddaughter. Moving to Toronto feels like bing just ‘the Commissioner’s wife.”
Alek nodded slowly. “And that’s not who you are.”
“It’s not who I want to be.”
“Then we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen.” Alek’s voice was determined. “Toronto has a growing women’s hockey scene. You could build something there, something even bigger than what you’ve started in New York.”
“You really think so?”
“I know so. Because you’re not just Emma Mitchell the hockey heiress, or Emma Volkov the Commissioner’s wife. You’re Emma, who builds things from nothing and makes them extraordinary.”
Emma felt tears threatening again, but this time from relief rather than grief.
“I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too. And I’m sorry it took losing our baby for me to remember that we’re on the same team.”
Emma thought about their lost child, about the future they’d never have. But she also thought about Charlotte and Frankie, asleep in Katie’s care back in New York, and about the possibility of rebuilding something stronger from the pieces of their broken ns.
“We’re going to be okay,” she said, not entirely sure if she was trying to convince him or herself.
“We’re going to be better than okay,” Alek replied. “Because now we know we can survive the worst and still choose each other.”
Outside Jack’s apartment window, Seattle hummed with life – people going about their daily routines, unaware that in one small corner of the city, a marriage was quietly healing itself back together.
It wouldn’t be easy. There would be more challenges, more decisions, more moments when fear threatened to pull them apart.
But they would face those challenges together, with honesty instead of secrets, and trust instead of me.
Book 3 by Timeout
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