Part 3The Blade Betrayal

The moment he realized I was serious, his face twisted into a terrifying mask of rage. His hands closed around my neck.

I couldn’t breathe. Black spots danced in my vision. Just as I was about to pass out, his bodyguards pulled him off. Damaging me was one thing; murder was a line even the powerful Sterling family wouldn’t cross.

I collapsed to the ground, listening to him rant about how ungrateful I was, how I didn’t appreciate him.

We had met on the ice, late one night. Hailey, consumed with jealousy, had made my training a living hell, constantly trying to sabotage me. The other skaters, intimidated by Barry’s family, looked the other way.

One night, she stole the key to the rink. The arena was kept at freezing temperatures, even when closed. I always stayed late to practice. She had planned to lock me in overnight.

But my grandmother had taken a turn for the worse that day, and I left early to be with her at the hospital. Hailey didn't know. She ended up locking Barry inside instead, who had come looking for her. When I realized my key was missing, I went back to the rink and found him, shivering and on the verge of hypothermia.

After that, he pursued me relentlessly. Flowers, romantic dinners, declarations of love. With him by my side, the bullying stopped. Eventually, I gave in.

For the first two years, we were inseparable. The way he looked at me… it was like I was the only person in the world. But that was before Hailey and I moved up to the senior division.

On my birthday, he took Hailey to see the Northern Lights. When I was injured, he spent his days shopping with her, carrying her bags.

I tried to break up with him. He fell to his knees, begging me. “Babe, her mother died saving my life. I have to be good to her. But it’s just a debt. I see her as a sister. You’re the one I want to spend my life with.”

Perhaps because I had also lost my mother, or perhaps because he threatened to kill himself, I gave him another chance.

He betrayed me again.

For the national team qualifiers, he tricked me and locked me in a bathroom. When I confronted him, he was dismissive. “You’re a prodigy. So what if you have to wait a year? Even if you don’t make it, I can support you.”

Because I was absent, Hailey snagged the last spot on the team. I was so exceptional that year, however, that the committee made a special exception and recruited me anyway.

But that didn’t change what he had done. I tried to end it for good. But then my grandmother’s heart condition worsened.

He used her to blackmail me.

“Babe, where are you going to get the money for her treatment on your own? The best cardiac surgeons in the country all work for my family’s hospitals. If you break up with me, do you think they’ll still treat her?”

So I stayed. And it all led to this.

Lying on the rooftop, the wind biting at my skin, I felt a coldness that reminded me of that first night at the rink. A bitter smile twisted my lips. My voice was flat, devoid of all emotion.

“Barry, I should have let you freeze to death.”

He roared with rage. “What did you just say?”

But the pain and exhaustion were a relentless assault. My vision blurred. The world went black.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a hospital room. Barry was by my side. He saw I was awake and immediately dropped his phone, grabbing my hand.

I looked at him, but his gaze darted away. He couldn't meet my eyes. He wouldn’t look like this just because he’d broken my leg.

A terrible, sickening suspicion began to form in my mind.

“Where is my grandmother?”