Off the Record

Before she became a journalist who could break a story with a single question, Maya Kapoor was just a twelve-year-old girl sitting in an empty arena, waiting for her father to stop talking hockey. She thought love looked like attention. Like being chosen over the game, even for a minute. But her father always had "one more conversation," one more strategy, one more player to guide. And her mother-quiet beside her-smiled through it all, even when her eyes didn't. Maya didn't understand it then. She just learned how to wait. Three years later, the divorce papers arrived. No fights. No loud endings. No dramatic collapse. Just silence so steady it felt like it had always been there. That was the first story she ever lived through without being able to report it. Years passed. Maya grew up. Turned silence into questions. Questions into a career. Now she's the journalist people don't want at press conferences-the one who notices what others miss, who listens to what isn't being said. And then there is Noah Hayes. A hockey star built for headlines... and controversy. A man who answers questions like he's always one step ahead of them. The first time Maya meets him, she doesn't see a hero or a villain. She sees something worse. Familiar silence... dressed in fame. And Noah, for the first time in a long time, meets someone who doesn't flinch at his answers. Just watches. And waits. Just like she used to. 🏒 Off the Record