Page 160 of Slapshot Baby

"Why did you block me?"

"I... what?"

"I’ve been calling you for four days, Ava. Every call goes straight to voicemail. I borrowed Theo's phone yesterday. Same thing. I'm calling from the facility line right now. Why did you block my number?"

I grip the edge of the counter harder. "I didn't block you."

"What do you mean you didn’t block me? I've called thirty times."

"I never got a single one." My throat is closing. My voice comes out in pieces. "I thought you..."

I can't finish. The sentence is too humiliating to finish:

I thought you were done with me. I thought you figured out what I've been hiding and walked away, the same way everyone walks away, and I was right to be scared all along.

"Check your phone." His voice is careful now. "Go to settings, blocked contacts."

I put him on speaker and navigate to settings.

Kai Donovan.

Theo.

Every team member’s number on my phone.

Their numbers are right there. Blocked at 11:47 p.m., four days ago.

That was after Kai hung up. While I was on my bathroom floor with my knees pulled up and tears drying on my jaw. While Lucy held me.

While Lucy had access to my phone.

Shit!

"Ava? You still there?"

"I see it." My voice doesn't sound like mine. "I didn't do this, Kai."

"Then who did?"

I stare at the screen. My passcode is our birthday, mine and Lucy's. She's known it forever.

"I have to call you back."

"Ava—"

"Ten minutes. I swear."

I hang up and walk to the guest room.

Lucy is sitting on the bed with her laptop open, hair in a tight ponytail. She looks up when I get to the doorway.

"Did you block Kai's number on my phone?"

Her fingers pause on the keyboard. She closes the laptop lid. The movement is slow, controlled as if she’s building her defense.

"Yes."

No pause. No flinch or apology. Just the word, clean and sharp.