Faking It With The Hockey Star

Justin’s POV

Grandma didn’t speak immediately.

She stood up from her chair and walked over to the mahogany bookshelf lining the far wall of Grandpa’s study. She poured two glasses of ice water from a glass carafe, walked back over, and handed one to me. Her hands were completely steady. Mine were trembling so hard the ice clinked against the glass.

She sat back down across from me and let out a long, slow breath.

"Justin..." She paused, her voice heavy with emotion. "I’m about to tell you something your mother wanted to tell you herself one day."

A sharp knot tightened in my throat. "My mom?"

Grandma nodded quietly. "Let’s start from the very beginning."

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees and setting the water glass on the edge of the desk.

"Before your mother ever met your father..." Grandma began, "...she already owned a company."

I frowned, staring at her in disbelief. "What?"

A soft, sad smile touched Grandma’s lips. "That’s the part your father never tells anyone. People think your father built Farwell Enterprises from the ground up. He didn’t. He inherited a company that was already thriving."

I stared at her, my mind spinning. "My mom built it?"

"She did," Grandma said, her eyes softening with unmistakable pride. "She started it during her final years at Yale. Your grandfather and I offered her a comfortable position in the family business. A corner office, a solid salary, a guaranteed future. But your mother refused us flat out. She wanted to build something that belonged entirely to her."

Grandma shook her head fondly. "So she rented a tiny, run-down office space in town. It barely fit three desks, and the roof leaked every time it rained."

A small, automatic smile tugged at my mouth. "That sounds just like Mom."

Grandma let out a soft laugh. "Oh, she was stubborn as a mule. Just like someone else sitting in front of me right now."

I looked down, a quiet warmth blooming in my chest.

"She worked straight through the day," Grandma continued, "and met with potential investors late into the night. Sometimes she would just sleep on that lumpy office couch because she couldn’t afford to waste an hour driving home. By the time she graduated, she had already secured several major rounds of private investment. The company was growing faster than anyone in the industry expected. She didn’t need our money. She had built a powerhouse all on her own."

A strange, unfamiliar feeling settled deep in my chest. Pride. Pure, unadulterated pride.

I had spent my entire life hearing people praise my mother’s elegance and kindness, but this... this felt entirely different. For the first time, I could actually picture her. Young, fierce, brilliant, and absolutely refusing to quit.

Grandma’s soft smile slowly faded, the warmth in her eyes giving way to a shadow. "Then... she met your father."

I nodded, keeping quiet.

"He wasn’t a bad man back then," Grandma said softly.

That statement caught me off guard. Grandma noticed the surprise on my face right away.

"I’m telling you the absolute truth, Justin. I won’t rewrite history just because of what he turned into later on. Back then, he was intelligent, confident, and very charming. He had a way of making people believe in him. He had big ideas and grand dreams, but..." She sighed. "...he always wanted success immediately. He wanted the shortcut."

She leaned back in her chair. "He started one business, and it failed. He blamed his business partners. He started another, and that failed too. He blamed the national economy. He started a third venture, and it went under just like the rest. He was constantly convinced that the next gamble would finally make him rich."

I kept my jaw set, listening to every word.

"Your mother believed in him," Grandma said quietly. "So she helped him. She invested in his ideas. Again, and again, and again. Every single time he failed, she picked him right back up."

My hands clenched into tight fists. "Because she loved him."

Grandma nodded sadly. "Very much. And for a while, they were genuinely happy together. When you were born, Justin, I truly thought the two of them would grow old together in that house." She turned her head, looking out the window at the sunny backyard. "I was wrong."

A heavy silence settled over the quiet study. When Grandma finally spoke again, her voice dropped to a near whisper.

"Your mother became sick."

I swallowed hard over the lump in my throat. "The doctors thought it was exhaustion at first."

"They did," Grandma agreed, her voice trembling slightly. "Then they thought it was an autoimmune disease. Then they thought it was something else entirely. But no matter what treatments or specialists they tried, she only grew weaker by the day."

I frowned, the old confusion twisting in my gut. "They never figured out what was actually wrong with her?"

Grandma slowly shook her head. "No. And that still haunts me to this day." She looked down at her hands folded on the desk. "Because while your mother was fighting for her life in that bed... she made one single decision that changed the trajectory of everything."

I leaned in closer. "What decision?"

"She handed the keys of the company over to your father."

My eyes widened in shock. "What?"

"Temporarily," Grandma stressed, emphasizing the word. "She genuinely believed she was going to recover. She told him to run things until she was healthy enough to step back in. She trusted her husband. She believed he would simply keep her seat warm until she returned."

Her eyes darkened. "Instead, he never gave it back."

The ambient temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

"That was also around the exact time..." Grandma said carefully, "...that your father hired Diane."

I snapped my gaze back up to hers. "My stepmother?"

Grandma nodded. "She was hired as his personal secretary. She was remarkably attentive, always around the house. She brought your mother her meals, handled her medication schedules, brought fresh flowers for her bedside. She rarely left her room."

I frowned, a sick feeling taking root in my stomach. "What are you saying, Grandma?"

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!